because if there is anyone the kids respect and admire, it’s Burt Reynolds

I haven’t personally encountered anyone else in my community who has actually seen this guy, but he’s been on CNN for a long time and I can’t help but wonder if CNN knows what it’s doing? I understand that they are attempting to “balance” the news, but I really think they go overboard with a “nut case” like this (no offense to anyone else). This guy has the most illogical, irresponsible, inconceivable answers for current events imaginable–and I can’t help but believe that he is mentally unbalanced.(Again, no offense to anyone else….it’s just that I can’t believe this is a person that would be tolerated by a national network for mass broadcast). I do realize that his alcoholism and his late-in-life conversion to Mormonism no doubt taint his view of lots of things, but he has consistently taken outrageous (and wrong) positions on everything from global warming to Bible interpretation. He talks about common sense but has none. Why does CNN continue to give this loose cannon a platform?
Nancy Grace is an entire other matter for another time, but the comments from Seedna below are so exactly RIGHT ON that it makes one wonder–again–WHAT IS CNN THINKING???? No one wants to listen to Nancy Grace convict someone before their trial, and no one wants to see pictures of her twins EVERY DAY (Most of us didn’t even want to see them ONCE!)

I am 15 years old and my dad has been an alcoholic ever sinse his father died and that was a year before I was born so I have had to put up with the excessive drinking all my life. My mum finally got the money to move out 2 years ago but his behavior still haunts me. I wish I had more information about the effects on the body because of alcohol and excessive smoking because I am so afraid that he might die. The psycological aspects of growing up with an alcoholic man has really taken it’s tole on me and my family. It has always felt like a big family secret all my life so much that my grandad didn’t know until we actually moved out, even now I feel so upset and so angry every time I think about him. I can’t bring myself to tell my bestfriends. My brothers and sisters don’t understand how I feel as I am the youngest and witnessed alot more than them at a younger age and as they abandoned us in the end. I find myself terrified of him when we go visit and he causes a new argument but it is not only with him it’s also when other men raise their voice I just don’t know what to do because I just don’t want to stay like tis forever. Can anyone give me any useful advice please? It is very much apreciated.

My boyfriend’s ex wife gets 28% for two kids, plus he pays half of daycare, extracurricular, half of school expenses, half of medical expenses and he is the sole person paying for their medical and dental insurance.

The mother has a live in boyfriend that is a felon (4 dui’s) has no job, no car and we all know she is supporting him on her income and with the child support.

She wants more money for school clothes etc,,, over and above SCHOOL SUPPLIES that he pays half of. The argument isn’t just about giving her extra at this time of year for clothes, but she doesn’t buy them clothes throughout the year claiming she doesn’t get enough money for clothes.

It is also this: Will a judge look at how many adults live in the household with the kids and how many are actually contributing to the household expenses. Can my boyfriend, bring up the fact that his child support is obviously going to support this lazy bum also?

I have heard in most cases that it doesn’t matter who she has living there. I am just asking, should the father have to pay more just because she feels she is drowning in her debt because she doesn’t have help from others living in the house. Is it the father’s responsibility?

fyi: my bf and i broke up on christmas night, the reason is he has a drug problem and thinks he can quit all on his own. i know better and i know he needs to work a program which he is not interested in. sooo i just went back to school last fall to get my aa and then go to nursing school i still have along road ahead of me in regards to school. my dad is ALL about school right now, i asked to move back in and he said yes but he doesnt know im prego. how should i tell him?? what should i expect??
thanks for your answers!
but i have been supporting him for over almost 2 yrs and its the same ol story i know from experience that a program is what he needs.

i actually do not have a mom or i would have definately told her first!! lol he has a gf but im not that close with her and dont want to put her in an bad situation.

I have been in AA, NA and have lived that life for a couple years. Wasn’t life to me and I wasn’t happy. One of the sayings is “Don’t forget where you came from” After I lost my ex-fiance and our baby I was borderline suicidal on a daily basis. I usually drink till I feel good, take pills and I was smoking dope trying to OD, and my mind wanted to do something and wandering in traffic wasn’t it

I have tried to let go and not live in the past but I cannot get over that my life today is because of the past. Sober or not I really dont want to live. But it isn’t so bad when I’m drunk or high. I have 2 children and I cant see them. I didnt really have a father growing up and it hurt me bad. It’s just devastating to feel like this. Wishing to die before you open your eyes. I know people in my family who are dependent on all sorts of head pills. Ive seen them go through worse times when they dont have their meds! I dont want to be dependent on medication. I for sure dont want to be a damn science experiment testing out head pills for years to find out what i need. I haven’t been happy for a while now.

I live in Minnesota and would be willing so see an expert possibly.

One of my lil’ sis’ is 3. My father was alcoholic but was away from home most of the time. Between me and my brother we made sure she never saw our dad, or knew anything of our dad. She still hasn’t. She was at my cousins house today and when I was saying goodnight she wanted to know why our cousin had a daddy but not us.

It was pretty late so she fell asleep while I was thinking of a response. How do I respond- I know she’ll ask tomorrow, she has a good memory for stuff like that? I don’t want, and I never want her to know about my dad being a alcoholic. Neither of my parents will tell her anything so that doesn’t matter.

WHat should I tell her?

Well first, he started hangng around the guys at the store, then, he just stopped liking women all together… idk what to do, i want him to be a good father but he can’t do that if all he wants to bang is other sexes that are of his own!!!

WHAT SHOULD I DO???

My parents have been going through a divorce for exactly a year now. Me and my mom moved out and gave him the house. There were a bunch of reasons for doing this. My Dad is medically a compulsive liar. Quoting him, “It’s easier to lie than tell the truth” when my mom asked why he lies so much. And he opened up a secret bank account, storing away money he could use on strippers. Lets say, 1,000 dollars a month? Yep. I am convinced he’s a sex addict on top of the alcoholism he denies. But what hit me the hardest is him taking my Mom to court to lower child support & maintenance. Yesterday a letter came saying that my 1,021 dollar child support dropped to 600 dollars because “he’s income has drastically changed”.

This guy is the top producing mortgage originator in our area – in a recovering economy and is income is DROPPING? I don’t think so.

I feel like he has always put what he wants over my wants & needs. When I needed a father at night to protect our house from being broken into, he was out drinking with his buddies (and for all I know getting a lap dance). When I had surgery he visited me once and then stayed home. He told me he can’t give me things because he’s not making a constant salary each month, when the truth is an extra hundred dollars goes towards a stripper.

Does this sound even close to how a father should treat his daughter?

Is the real reason people overlook the horrific personal life of Ted Kennedy- the selfishness, the arrogance, the elitism, the alcoholism, the drug usage, the adultery, the felony’s, the rehabs, the limousine liberal hypocrisy, the gangster father Joe who was Irish mafia & the whole family has lived off of a fortune built from crime, secretly funding IRA terrorists, the list goes on and on and on….

If the “change” liberals desperately want becomes full blown socialism, our constitution is changed and we lose our freedom, will liberals revere Teddy as the father of socialism?

This is not my child, I am trying to find some answers to help a single father. His daughter is 16 years old, she is sexually active with a least one partner maybe more, may have previously terminated a pregnancy, has been experimenting with hard drugs (cocaine) and has always performed fair to poor in school. She has never been aggressive or violent, just very sneaky. The state that we live in does not have a lot of resources for this kind of thing. I don’t know what advice to give.

Okay. So my parents got divorced last summer simply because of the fact that my dad is a crazy alcoholic who centers his life around beer. Me still being a minor (I’m 17), I am being forced against my will to stay with my dad every other weekend. I hate him so much and I do not want to spend my time with him at all. His house is simply a horrendous place to be and I can’t stand it. It is dirty and disgusting because he NEVER EVER cleans it. There are bugs everywhere. His dog is not house trained, so she goes to the bathroom everywhere and he doesn’t clean it up, so the floor is SO NASTY. The toilets are always gross no matter how many times I clean it up because he always pukes in them. And the food…there is never and food in the house, and I mean literally never. Sometimes I have to go all weekend with only one meal, and thats when I go out with a friend or something cause he doesn’t take the responsibility of feeding me. And I dont even understand why I have to go anyway cause he doesn’t even do anything. He just spends all his time either sleeping, out drinking with friends, or on the computer, so I’m left to sit around with nothing to do. My dad moved into his house last September and there is still no furniture in the house. It’s just a big empty house. I’m way too afraid to tell him that I dont want to come anymore because he’ll just scream at me and force me to stay anyway. And my brother has to come too, and I feel like I need to come so I can protect my little brother. And we cant take it to court, because legal fees are expensive and all that, and my mom doesn’t want to pay the money. What should I do????

Sharon is a 25-year-old woman brought to the emergency room by her boyfriend, who has become progressively more alarmed at her complaints, demands, and erratic behaviors. Her chief complaint to the staff is “I keep thinking about wanting to kill myself.” Sharon is a competent secretary, has her own apartment, and is self-supporting. She is also attending university classes in the evening because she wants to advance her education and does not “want to stay a secretary all her life.”
The current crisis began when her boyfriend, John, refused to consider her demands for marriage after a 2-year exclusive relationship. Sharon began to call him at work demanding more and more time, finally threatening to kill herself if he didn’t spend every evening with her. John reported that her demands, phone calls, and escalating threats were becoming intolerable and were making him want to break off the relationship entirely. On the evening John brought Sharon to the emergency room, he had told her that he had to go on a business trip and would be away for several days. Sharon insisted that he was doing this just to get away from her. She became severely agitated and began to talk wildly about killing herself. In the emergency room, Sharon angrily belittles her boyfriend in front of the staff and accuses him of using and then rejecting her. After physically separating the arguing couple, the staff is able to obtain a history of the progressive development of Sharon’s symptoms.
In response to the stress of the past several months, Sharon had developed fluctuating depressive moods, a tendency to oversleep (especially sleeping in the evenings and on weekends), and a tendency to binge eat that has resulted in a 20-pound weight gain. Sharon says she is constantly anxious and has been having increasing difficulty concentrating on her studies. She has continued to work throughout this stressful period, seeking support from those in her office. Attention from John or her co-workers produces a brightening of her mood that she is able to sustain while they are with her.
Sharon experiences her most severe symptoms when she is alone. These include prolonged fantasies about killing her boyfriend and a desire to hurt herself. She says that on several occasions she has cut her thighs with razor blades and describes watching herself do this as if from a distance, numb and dead inside and feeling little pain. Sharon says that at these times she feels fat and unattractive as well as completely unlovable and worthless. At such moments, she calls John on the phone and threatens to commit suicide unless he comes and keeps her company. John reports that she has also begun to lost control of her temper. For example, shortly before he brought her to the emergency room, she attacked him with her fists in the midst of an argument.
Sharon was the youngest of four children and one of two girls. Her parents separated and divorced when she was 3 years old because her father’s alcoholism and physical abuse of his wife and children. A family secret was that Sharon was sexually abused when she was 10 years old by a brother 5 years her senior.
In adolescence, Sharon associated with a rebellious group and became involved in drug abuse and early sexual behaviors to fit in. Sharon said that her mother attributed Sharon’s teenage rebellion to a need to “find a father” and that she thought Sharon had gotten “her sexual urges confused with wanting to be loved and cared for.” By age 16, Sharon had already embarked on the pattern of chaotic unstable involvements with men that continue to characterize her adult life.
Her first drug overdose occurred at age 17 in response to a perceived rejection by her boyfriend. A series of intense relationships followed this incident, each of which followed a similar pattern: Sharon would become progressively more clinging until she gradually alienated her partners. Each rejection was marked by a period of anger and self-abuse, followed quickly by a new and identical relationship. Sharon’s current boyfriend is only the latest in a long series of disappointing partners.

I can’t speak to my husband about this because although he, too, has had enough, he is not a “take charge” kind of man. I have to exclude him from my thought process….

Here is the thing… I’m tempted to go over my mother-in-law’s and even my husband’s head to get my mother-in-law help. I know legally I cannot do anything because we are not blood relatives, but I’m desperate and thinking of informing her parents of her instability…

We’ve all had a pretty rough year. My mother-in-law’s current husband went to inpatient rehab for alcoholism and since we wanted to get back on our feet financially anyway, my husband and I moved in with her to help her and to save us all some money. Well, her husband was a horrible person to begin with and now that he is sober and found a new chance at life, he doesn’t want to spend it with her and told her so last week after we have gone broke getting him help. Well, she was already pretty unstable as it was but when she heard that news, I think she has gone off the deep end for the worse. She is driving up there to see him this weekend and beg for him back (which we all know won’t work, drunk or not everyone knew he would leave her) and she is making our life a living hell with her emotions. She constantly snaps at my husband for no reason, she is demanding money so she can skip work because she is “depressed” and she won’t eat or sleep. I’m fairly close to her parents and would have no problem going to them if I knew that was the best thing… but should I? Her parents are fairly in the dark about any of her behavior half the time because she refuses to tell them anything personal about herself. This would no doubt shock them, but could it be a good solution?

Please help…

I’m kind of addicted to it but I don’t think its healthy for me.

I had to do a PSA for my boces class. I decided to use my friends and shoot at my friends house. There were obviously fun times and retarded times so i decided to put together a bloopers real.

Anti-Drug PSA I did for MediaArts. I thought it was okay so i posted it here.

I’ve tried everything. My whole family has tried everything. He’s been in AA and all of those programs, we’ve talked to him, I even attacked him as I was flipping out in a rage trying to scare some sense into him, and show him that I’d do anything to stop him. That last one might not have been the best idea. He was drunk when I got in my car accident at age 16 and almost died. He found out about it almost 2 days later. He missed my college graduation after telling me for years I was the first one from both sides of my family to graduate college ever….because he was drunk. Running out of options here. This coming week he will be taking my car to work. I want to set it up with a song that will get to him in the cd player. I’m not talking about a song saying things like “stop drinking dad”. He can’t know I did it on purpose. He has to almost draw his own conclusions from the song if that makes any sense. It would also help if the song was of the rock genre. Power ballads, classics, grunge, rock, hard rock, anything that a 22 year old who likes rock would be expected to have in his cd player. I found a couple 3 doors down songs that might apply but I’m asking if anyone knows of a better song to get the point across subtlety.
Like I said in the OP, other things have been tried, including professional help. I’m not expecting a song to fix everything, but why not? Get him thinking a little and maybe it will combine with all the other things we have tried and get him somewhere.
Thanks for the respones. But again, I’m looking for a very subtle song that he will have to think about, not something that will spoon feed it to him. Otherwise he will most likely just turn it off and/or start a fight about it.

My dad has been drinking since he was 14 he is now 49 he went to the doctor and he said his liver is… fine? and his kidneys, only hes a bit over wieght.after having a problem with a ocer he quit for a about a year when he was 46 then my mom started argueing with him so he began drinking again at 48. im just wondering does this make him an alchaholic… keep in mind he does not get drunk when he drinks just a little buzzed but not drunk.he only drinks one tall can of a 12%alc/vol drink.
oh and i forgot to mention he sends me to go get the beer. im 17