Penn & Teller on A.A.

I've been hooked on this show Penn & Teller : Bullshit.

We got 3 months of free Showtime and when I got the chance, I checked in to see if there was a new Nurse Jackie or Penn and Teller. I've not seen this Penn and Teller before and liked the show so well, I found myself renting back issues from Seasons 2 and 3. Season 1 was unavailable, so I haven't seen it yet.

Let's go to the 2nd Season disk 3. Guess what the topic was? That's right; 12 Step Programs.

So Penn and Teller took the advocates of 12 Step Programs- Bullshit! Well of course they would. Penn had Gary Busey represent the Pro-A.A. stance. Then this black guy (Skip Davis) represented the 12 Step Program from San Francisco, so gray-haired lady was the secular representative... this Shirley MacClaine looking lady..., the guy who founded "Back to Basics" (or so he claims... this Wally Patton fellow) was on the show, we heard representation from RR and SOS.

Penn and Teller went to New York to the supposed A.A. building and it was called Interchurch Center. Inside there is much mention of the word "GOD" so... A.A. MUST be a religion... according to Penn & Teller and some dude named Steve Mack... legal researcher. He was "forced" into 12 Step treatment when his employer gave him the ....

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are you ready for this?


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hang on...


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it's coming up...


... given the CHOICE...

to try A.A. or have his fat faced ass fired!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooooh, forced into A.A. huh? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wambulance for Steve Mack!

Any way... pan back to this black dude from San Francisco... Pro 12 Step btw... but what's the first claim he makes?

Alcoholism is a disease... Disease disease disease.

Then guess where P&T go with this? That's right! If it's a disease then you're a victim! No repsonsibility!

Sound familiar folks? That's right! Orange, Mike at Blame Denial, Stinkin' Thinkin', etc. I was born this way or I caught it on a toilet seat!

Dr Jeffry A. Shaler? Addiction is a choice. Fine. Alcoholism is NOT an addiction according to A.A.'s cofounders. No. That term came when Big Insurance took on alcoholism for co-pay in about 1991. Then all of a sudden, alcoholism is an addiction.

No, it's not. Alcoholics are NOT addicts. Addicts are addicts. I am an alcoholic, but I ain't an addict. I don't give a fuck what Dr. A says.

DD Strouse substance abuse professional... from San Francisco... That Shirley MacClaine looking lass... she was your A.A. basher.

Then we get a Harvard Psychologist, Lance Stotis? He says alcoholism is purely psychological... there's no gene linked to alcoholism. US Supreme Court said alcoholism is NOT a disease.

Gary Busey says addiction is a disease.

Penn and Teller point out that the A.A. movement started 2 years after Prohibition, where one boozer helps another boozer to go to God... and get sober. Penn says, "Evidently, God was too busy to give it to mankind before then."

Gee, where have I heard that lately? You guys like Penn and Teller too.

Hey. If you don't like A.A., fine. Don't go. Do something else.

Penn claims that leaning on another boozer when the urge strikes seems like a good idea but... "It turned into a cult".

Penn & Teller's one step program; Just stop fucking drinking.

I didn't like the representation for A.A. here. It became a spiritual vs personal choice battle.

Penn says A.A. wants it both ways... a god or a rock or a tree... can be your higher power. So... A.A. doesn't serve Godly people nor does it serve atheists.

There again, not the representation of A.A. that I found in that A.A. book. But what about the meetings? What about them? Have you been to my meeting lately? Come to Southern Colorado and if you're a real alcoholic, you're welcome to check out our meeting... and find out for yourself what you think.

I'm not going to your S.O.S. meeting or your RR meeting or your LR meeting or whatever. I don't need it. You may. But I've decided into my path and I'm glad I did.

If you did check out my meeting, I doubt you could leave there and say that we do not take responsibility or treat alcoholism as a disease or follow a religious dogma of any sort. We don't even worship the book. We don't talk about what the book or the steps say. We talk about our personal recent experience on those principles.

The recently deceased Paul Martin... of Chicago...God rest his soul... would be proud of our little group. He knew what A.A. was about.

He said this, "The alcoholic ego is like a baby... it has tremendous appetite on one end and no responsibility on the other"

Paul Martin of Chicago came to an A.A. convention in Pueblo Colorado several years ago... he laid down the word... that "A.A. is sufficient. If we real alcoholics work the A.A. program by doing and redoing those steps, the obsession of alcohol will be dispelled from our minds, we will become useful and whole and we will be getting what we need which we find is what we truly wanted all along."