Free Republic

When presidential candidates—especially the current crop of Republican hopefuls—need to cite a text on spirituality, they usually thumb through carefully selected Bible passages or the Ten Commandments. But Newt Gingrich has always liked defy convention. A startling video of former House Speaker, who's enjoying a widening double-digit lead over Mitt Romney just three weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, shows the Roman Catholic convert speaking not of God or Jesus, but of a “greater authority,” as described in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although careful to avoid official AA language like a “higher power,” Gingrich offers plenty of clues that...

Despite all the words spilled in evaluating Glenn Beck's tent-less revival last weekend, the real meaning may have been hiding in plain sight. Beck's "Restoring Honor" gathering was right out of the Alcoholics Anonymous playbook. It was a 12-step program distilled to a few key words, all lifted from a prayer delivered from the Lincoln Memorial: healing, recovery and restoration. Saturday's Beckapalooza was yet another step in Beck's own personal journey of recovery. Beck's history of alcoholism and addiction is familiar to any who follow him. For Beck, it has been a defining part of his life, and recovery is...

A robber who walked into the Columbia downtown Alcoholics Anonymous center, pulled out a gun and demanded money was killed in a burst of gunfire from an AA visitor’s gun, police said.

Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. In fact, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the constitutional dividing line between church and state in such cases is so clear that a parole officer can be sued for damages for ordering a parolee to go through...

Howard Fugler, who has died aged 57, was a hairdresser whose client list included many of the film stars and famous recording artists of the age.After a successful career with Vidal Sassoon in London, he moved to New York and, as a freelance, earned a reputation across the United States as “one of the great Sassoon crimpers”, attending to figures such as Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Madonna. He also worked with most of the world’s leading models, photographers, make-up artists and fashion houses.Known for his flamboyant dress and snazzy hairstyles, Fugler was a...

WASHINGTON - Alcoholics Anonymous, the worldwide group that helps addicts stop drinking, may also help drive down the number of murders in a community, Canadian researchers reported Sunday. As membership in the group in Ontario, Canada, increased between 1968 and 1991, murders there dropped off, said Robert Mann from the University of Toronto and Mark Asbridge from Dalhousie University. Research has shown there is a significant relationship between drinking and homicide in Europe, the United States and Canada, they wrote in their report, published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. SNIP But they found an increase...

Rodney Littlebear was a homeless drunk who for 15 years ran up the public tab with trips to jail, homeless shelters and emergency rooms. He now has a brand-new, government-financed apartment where he can drink as much as he wants. It is part of a first-in-the-nation experiment to ease the torment of drug and alcohol addiction while saving taxpayers' money. Last year, King County created a list of 200 "chronic public inebriates" in the Seattle region who had cost the most to round up and care for. Seventy-five were offered permanent homes in a new apartment building known by its...

Judicial candidate stumps at AA meetingsWoman ripped for using recovering-alcoholics group as 'free political forum' Posted: January 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com A south Florida assistant public defender is on the defensive after reportedly delivering stump speeches at her AA meetings. Members of the half-century-old Alcoholics Anonymous, a group of recovering alcoholics who meet to gain support in their addiction battle, traditionally take the anonymity part very seriously. So when Gisele Pollack got up and told members she was running for a Broward County judgeship and talked about improving drug court and sentencing laws if elected, some members cried foul,...

U.S. Rep. Karen McCarthy admitted Friday that she had "hit bottom" with a drinking problem after she cut her forehead in an early morning incident in Washington.McCarthy, a Democrat who has represented much of Kansas City in Congress since 1995, was treated and released Friday morning from a Washington hospital. She suffered the cut after slipping on an escalator in a House office building.She missed a key vote early Friday on approval of the federal budget. The measure passed 215-212, with eight members not voting. McCarthy also was absent for a vote Friday on a resolution backing President Bush and...