Letters

Letters CDXXVII

Letters, We Get Mail, CDXXVII

[ Link here = http://www.orange-papers.info/orange-letters427.html#Terence ]

Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2015 20:41:18 -0400 (Answered 2015.10.20)
From: Terence M.
To: <orange@orange-papers.info>
Subject: Orange Papers website — will you be coming back?

Hi, Terrance:

I'm just writing as a long-time fan of your website. I noticed you stopped posting new content early this year (e.g. letters and your detailed responses). I know you were in transition and seeking a new place to live.

I hope you are OK and doing well.

Regardless, I'm just checking in as frequent lurker on your site. So often I'd hoped to drop you a line and join the dialogue that you so skillfully administered for these many years.

Best of wishes from another recovered person who shares many of your ideas as well as your first name.

Kindest regards,

Terence M.
Alexandria, Virginia

Hello Terence,

Thanks for the compliments and good wishes, and yes, I'm resuming answering letters and starting to get caught up again. Just starting.

Normally, I like to take the letters in the order that I receive them, but I can see already that the order is going to be a little mixed up — some current, mixed with some from January or February. But I'll try to find and answer them all.

Have a good day now.

== Orange

*             orange@orange-papers.info        *
*         AA and Recovery Cult Debunking      *
*          http://www.Orange-Papers.org/      *
**   "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
**       ==  Mahatma Gandhi

BLOG NOTE: 2015.10.20:

Well, here we are again. October 20. Now it's been 15 years without alcohol or drugs, and in 3 weeks it will be 15 years without a cigarette. I know that it is the official policy of SMART to not count sober time, but I do. I draw some satisfaction from seeing that I seem to be outliving those Steppers who predicted that

"anybody with as many resentments as you have is bound to go back out again."

"You won't stay sober, it's only a matter of time."

"My friend, I wish you luck, because you're going to need it. Alcohol is so much more powerful than you realize. ... But, remember, John Barleycorn has plenty of time, years and years worth of time."

"Unless you work a strong program, your fate is jails, institutions, or death."

Ha! It ain't necessarily so.

[ Link here = http://www.orange-papers.info/orange-letters427.html#Page124 ]

Here is something to NOT support:

Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 13:35:57 -0400 (EDT) (Answered 2015.10.20)
From: Page 124 Productions
To: orange@orange-papers.info
Subject: Help Get Bill W. on PBS!
Reply-To: billwpbs@page124.com

Page 124 Productions

Hi,
We have some exciting news — we have an opportunity to get Bill W. on PBS! This would mean:

* About 25 minutes of brand new material in the film
* Far greater exposure for the documentary than it's ever had
* Bill W.'s story reaching many more people who may need to hear it, in their own homes.

But, this takes money. So on October 22nd, we'll be launching a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, and we hope you can join in to help make this possible!

Any amount donated, no matter how small, will be extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. And by donating at certain pledge levels, you can even earn some great bonuses.

As a thank you for your continued support and interest, we've included a downloadable poster of Bill W. and Dr. Bob — a great addition to any clubhouse, meeting room or private home.

Follow this link to download the poster: Free Poster
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001k9MknrL6NUAb6F6YEzAhK1yOjiIxKQOC70nsEBAc36hGR9TXl FysD4VJgJkzRIMYGGtextTLBrErVFXimdNDXSyF7fL2bkrpUbcWf33a5oualRCSInlBW8si_EI727lgd OvG4qJ97XSctwZT6UerQ35rglPMx_5B8Woa07YtQv-RV9ZIp6wllR27NRvu1cofCl8IpH-UjYyaeji9r _2yThB0R_zXxz12fqUKF3sTy4c=&c=9aUNp_6IAD62sME7j1YOtO73WOH_5Gv0rB1HC8uaBBmaur TGayIW3g==&ch=Q3X1uPkfHVHynV6kovelr-3fxnBJgMvp3IvYtROLBtMm0pJCE0CXkg==]

After downloading the poster, you can save it and have it printed on a site such as vistaprint or keep it as a digital file.

Enjoy the poster! And please help spread the word!
Dan Carracino & Kevin Hanlon
Producer and Director, Bill W.

Only 9 more days until our Kickstarter launch!

For more information about why we're raising money, download the following:
PBS Kickstarter Campaign
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001k9MknrL6NUAb6F6YEzAhK1yOjiIxKQOC70nsEBAc36h GR9TXlFysD4VJgJkzRIMYTigWWblPohcteYqEVGRAZ29YUNDK1rCvQuA4uo6-jt-TOZj2XSZsend8BQHkkJ0Tmu8KjIHiLsj1amR OhJ71JmFXSEqTzRy2q9G9H6uFLKNgKVVcWkVFaUpnbLSFJ4nXiUoZvSHCwrBqID_FI9TEifTYtSRAGOGG1pL7QGXjhv9JYD7qJ3T bhKrh9WQEVNIgUZuXEjbP3kA5ddpz2k35Yw==&c=9aUNp_6IAD62sME7j1YOtO73WOH_5Gv0rB1HC8uaBBmaurTGayIW3g== &ch=Q3X1uPkfHVHynV6kovelr-3fxnBJgMvp3IvYtROLBtMm0pJCE0CXkg==]

This email was sent to orange@orange-papers.info by billwpbs@page124.com.

Online Marketing by
Constant Contact(R)
www.constantcontact.com

Page 124 Productions | 80 Fifth Ave | New York | NY | 10011

This movie should not be on PBS. I can already see from the trailers that it is grossly untrue, a real fairy tale. The advertisement on Youtube says:

William G. Wilson is co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, a man included in TIME Magazine's "100 Persons of the 20th Century." Interviews, recreations, and rare archival material reveal how Bill Wilson, a hopeless drunk near death from his alcoholism, found a way out of his own addiction and then forged a path for countless others to follow. With Bill as its driving force, A.A. grew from a handful of men to a worldwide fellowship of over 2 million men and women - a success that made him an icon within A.A., but also an alcoholic unable to be a member of the very society he had created. A reluctant hero, Bill Wilson lived a life of sacrifice and service, and left a legacy that continues every day, all around the world. A FilmBuff

By the way, here is the trailer link:
http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=%2Fmovie%3Fv%3Ds1ETlm29pyU

What they didn't mention is that when TIME Magazine included Bill W. in the TIME 100 list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century, he went in with Adolf Hitler. The list was not a list of good people; it was only a list of influential people. And yes, cult leaders can be very influential.

Bill Wilson did not live a life of service, he stole all of the Big Book publishing fund and the Big Book copyright, and then blackmailed the Alcoholic Foundation into giving him royalties for life, to which he was not entitled, and then Bill used the A.A. headquarters to provide employment for his stable of mistresses. He was also a sexual predator who used A.A. meetings as meat markets.

And A.A. has under 2 million members worldwide, and it is shrinking because it does not work. Only 1 in a hundred newcomers gets 10 years of sobriety in A.A., and only 1 in a thousand gets 20 years.

If this new movie is anything like the previous Bill W. "documentary", "My Name is Bill W.", then it has little connection to the truth. The previous Bill W. movie, script by William Borchert, was grossly inaccurate and rewrote history in many ways:

For example, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith did not form A.A. in Akron in 1935, going around Akron hospitals and finding out what worked to sober up alcoholics.
The truth is that Bill and Bob went recruiting in Akron hospitals to get new members for the pro-Nazi Oxford Group cult religion, and Bill declared that the Oxford Group was the only sure-fire cure for "alcoholism". Bill loved to quote, "The only radical remedy for dipsomania is religiomania." In other words, the cure for drinking is to become a religious maniac.
While Bill and Bob continued recruiting for the Oxford Group in Akron and New York, the cult leader Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman went to the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies and Sieg-Heil-ed Adolf Hitler with the straight-arm salute, and then had lunch with Heinrich Himmler, the vicious head of the Gestapo and SS, who would later conduct the Holocaust that exterminated 6 million Jews, and about 6 million other political dissidents, Leftists, priests, ministers, gays, sick people and mental defectives, Poles, and on and on.
Borchert's script ignores the immense A.A. failure rate and implies that A.A. works great, it's the best thing in the world.
The script hides the immense A.A. dropout rate.
The script hides the fact that A.A. is just the Oxford Group cult religion dressed up in another suit of clothes.
"My Name is Bill W." told none of that.

This new movie is apparently just a retelling of the A.A. fairy tales — a fabrication, a pastiche of legends and misinformation. The appropriate thing to do is write to PBS and tell them why this program should not be aired as if it was true information. A better movie to run would be Monica Richardson's "The 13th Step". The least that PBS should do is run another movie with it, one that tells the truth about A.A., so that the audience will be better informed.

Have a good day now.

== Orange

P.S.: Do download the poster. It's gross, and very revealing. Good for Holloween.

*             orange@orange-papers.info        *
*         AA and Recovery Cult Debunking      *
*          http://www.Orange-Papers.org/      *
**     "A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth
**     is not worth many regrets."
**       ==  Arthur C. Clarke

October 07, 2015, Monday, Downtown Portland Oregon, in my room:

Once again, a young inexperienced hummingbird came into my room, and then panicked when it couldn't find its way back out. The way out is simple: I always keep the lower-left-hand window open, both for ventilation and so that they can come and go as they please. So it's simply "Down and to the left, and you are out." But the young hummingbirds are attracted to the brightest light, which is up and to the right. And no way can they get out there, because that window will not open.

This young Annas Hummingbird is sitting on the dried flower of a Calla Lily plant that is in front of the window. This young bird has fluttered against the glass for a while, trying to get out, and now it is tired and resting.

The hummingbird is fluttering against the glass again, trying to get out.

And more futile attempts to get through the glass.

And back to sitting and resting.

That went on and on. The hummingbird almost found its way out several times, but just never tried the combination of "down and to the left." It did "over to the left and up," and "over to the right and up", and "over to the right and down", but never "over to the left and down."

I finally decided that I had to catch the little hummingbird and put it out the window. It was going to flutter against the glass until it collapsed from exhaustion and hunger, and that is not healthy for it. I caught it, very carefully, as it was fluttering against the glass. A friend looked up hummingbirds on the Internet and found a page saying that about 50% of the times that humans handle hummingbirds, they break the hummingbirds' wings or legs. The hummingbirds are that fragile. So I was extremely careful as I caught this bird. It worked out well. The bird didn't struggle once I got my hand around it. I just reached out the window and opened my hand, and it jumped into the air and was gone.

But then it came back half an hour later to get more to eat. And came back again another half hour later. So obviously it wasn't too traumatized by the experience. Now it comes for a meal several times a day. But it doesn't come inside.

Speaking of which, this happened last August 10th:

A young female Annas Hummingbird flew in my window and then couldn't find her way back out. She panicked and fluttered against the window glass until she collapsed from exhaustion. I kept telling her, "Down and to the left. That's the open window." But she didn't get it. I picked her up, and she promptly fainted. I didn't know Hummingbirds could even do that. She just went stiff and unconscious. I guess she thought I was going to kill her and eat her, and she didn't want to be there when it happened. I tried to revive her by feeding her a little sugar-water, but she wouldn't drink it because she was out cold. Fortunately, when I held her out the open window, she came to and revived and flew out of my hand. I hope she wasn't too traumatized by the experience. I don't think so, because either she or the older female (possibly her mother) came to feed at the hummingbird feeders the next day. The older female has the whole thing figured out. She will fly right in the window and come nose-to-nose with me, checking me out, and then fly around the room, looking for other tasty flowers, and then, when she wants out and runs into the window glass, she remembers, "Down and to the left, and out." So she doesn't get all panick-stricken at being trapped in the room any more.

BLOG NOTE: 2015.10.30:

Yesterday, Facebook suddenly froze and locked my account "Orange.Papers". It worked fine the day before yesterday, but yesterday they suddenly froze my account and locked me out, and demanded that I prove that it was my account. Then they demanded that I look at randomly-selected pictures of my Facebook friends and name them. That is impossible. I have almost 800 Facebook friends, and I don't know who they are. I just approve everybody, without doing a background check on them. (I don't have the time for such snooping even if I did wish to.)

Today, they are demanding that I upload a picture of my photo ID:

Upload a photo ID
To make sure this is your account, we need you to upload a color photo of your government-issued ID.
Your ID should include your name, birthday and photo.
Acceptable IDs include your:

    Passport
    Driver's license
    State-issued ID card
    Military ID card
    Immigration ID with signature

Please keep in mind that we can't accept your profile picture.
Once we receive and review a clear image of your ID, we will permanently delete your attached
identification document from our servers.

They are lying. It isn't to make sure that it's my account; it's to determine my legal identity. Uploading a picture of my ID will not prove that the Facebook account is mine. My having the password is proof of that. Also, the fact that the pictures of me and other people match what is in my web site is also evidence of who owns what.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that blackmailing people into supplying documents that could enable identity theft is illegal.

So I've about had it with Facebook. I see no reason to acquiesce to their demands.

So I guess that is the end of Facebook and me.

I'm tempted to ask Jen to shut down and delete the Orange Papers group. I haven't decided on that. But obviously I won't be participating there any more.

And I had some sensitive private conversations going on with people that are now suddenly cut off. Sorry that I can't answer your messages any more, or even read your messages to me.

Oh well, have a good day anyway.

LATER: It occurred to me that when Facebook is selling information about us, they want to be able to guarantee to the buyer that the information is really about the person whom they say it is. Supplying a copy of your government-issued identification card will prove that. Notice that Facebook said that they would delete the picture of your ID from their servers. They did not say exactly when, or whether they would give a copy to someone else.

NOTE: 2015.11.23:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mindfulness-based-relapse-prevention-interview_5645fd24e4b08cda3488638b?ir=Science§ion;=science

Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention Holds Promise For Treating Addiction

The treatment protocol targets the very roots of addictive behavior.
Headshot of Carolyn Gregoire
Carolyn Gregoire
Senior Health & Science Writer, The Huffington Post

That sounds interesting.

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Last updated 23 November 2015.
The most recent version of this file can be found at http://www.orange-papers.info/orange-letters427.html