:The AA Blog

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“As we trudge the road to happy destiny we mark our time away from our last drink with a celebration and a medallion, which is inscribed with our name and sobriety date. I offer these recovery medallions at the reasonable price of $5.25, which includes medallion engraving. These AA and Alanon medallions make a great gift, either to yourself because you deserve it or another member in recovery. I appreciate you visiting this site and I hope I can help enhance your sobriety with my engraving service.
 
May your Higher Power bless you on your way!” -AARecoveryMedallionEngraving.com

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We don’t discriminate here at The AA Blog and although we consider ourselves the premier Alcoholics Anonymous blog, we’ll always feature and recommend other AA Blogs that we think you’ll find interesting and helpful. However, according to Google, the top 5 AA Blogs aren’t very helpful at all (with one exception). 
 
Here are the top ranking websites (in order) for the term “AA Blog” from Google on this day, April 30, 2009. 
 

1. DickB’s AA Blog
This is a stagnant website that hasn’t been updated since 2005. However, the site is one of the top ranking web pages for the term “AA Blog”.  
http://dickb-blog.com
 

2. SoberGreetings.com (AA Blog)
Another stagnant blog, it’s a wonder why this website ranks so high for the term “AA Blog”. The website does nothing more than bombard visitors with Google ads and really doesn’t deserve such a high ranking for the AA Blog term.
http://www.sobergreetings.com/

 
3. SoberGreetings.com/Blog
This regularly updated AA blog is undoubtedly the reason for the popularity of the number 2 AA Blog position for the website of the same name.
http://sobergreetings.com/blog/

 
4. AA Live Chat at Blog Spot
Okay, it’s redundant at this point but true. The AA live Chat is another stagnant AA website that hasn’t been updated since June of 2007. Aside from that, the AA Live Chat is not live and it doesn’t have a chat. Instead, the site is a blog on blogspot.com that ranks as 2 in Google’s page rank.
http://aalivechatdotcom.blogspot.com/

 
5. The Dry Blog
The Dry Blog is a great example of what any blog should be; a regularly updated website with compelling information and plenty of links. In fact, The Dry Blog may have one of the largest recovery blogrolls on the Web!
http://dryblog.blogspot.com/

Make sure to keep visiting us here at The AA Blog for Alcoholics Anonymous  news, information, web reviews and more.

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It’s all fun and games until somebody gets shot.

A man who tried to rob a group of people in a South Carolina AA meeting at gun point was fatally shot by an AA member with a concealed weapon earlier this month. Kayson Helms, 18, died from the gunshot wound after being hospitalized shortly after the botched robbery.

Reports say Helms entered the Downtown South Carolina AA meeting brandishing a 25-caliber handgun and demanding the possessions of everyone in the Alcoholics Anonymous Center. That’s when an AA member with a concealed weapon opened fire on the man striking him in the chest and abdomen.

Helms was pronounced dead at the hospital only 35 minutes after the shooting. The man who shot Helms is a local lawyer named Jim who has carried a concealed weapon for several years. “I don’t think I did anything anybody else in the same circumstances wouldn’t have done. If I’d left my gun in the car, or at home, I might not be sitting here talking to you,” Jim said in a recent interview.

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Going out doesn’t always have to be about getting drunk, and no one seems to understand this concept better than the people at SoberNightLife.com. This site is a community of sober individuals who like to have fun just like everyone else… minus the drinking and drug use.

“Sobernightlife.com was created and started to be a complete nightlife and social network for the sober community.  People living in sobriety or who just like to go out and have fun sober, can now find and have access to sober music artists, businesses, parties, venues, events, & nightlife activities.

Sobernightlife.com has collaborated with different lounges, coffee shops, clubs & different sober events that specifically cater to the sober community.  Our main goal is to bring you the best nightlife that you can have living life sober!

THE SOBER LIFE IS THE GOOD LIFE!” – SoberNightLife.com

Check out Sober Night Life online at www.SoberNightLife.com

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With a great guitar tuning widget, a sober arcade and up-to-date news, SoberMusicians.com is not only one of the most prominent sober sites on the web, but undoubtedly one of the most entertaining as well. The following is straight form the Sober Musicians website:

“Our aim is to help one another. Although you will see here and there references and links to many recovery programs, it is our wish that this website, Sober Musicians remain non denominational. Meaning we don’t get into stupid arguements about which way is better to get and stay sober.

There are plenty of other forums and message boards on the Web to join and argue the merits of our recovery programs, if we have one. With that said, let this be our Mission Statement, for lack of a simpler term. My friend Gooch calls it our Tablature. A place for sober artists of every stripe, or those sobering up. A Sober Studio if you will, that our music and art may thrive beyond our addiction.

One more crucial thing, folks… You gotta be wanting to have fun if you visit the forums!

For years, we played music in bars, or Pete’s garage on Friday Nights, or on the corner of Portage and Main, watching the dimes and quarters drop in the case… Some of us played until our fingers lost their touch… Some of us played until the notes inside our minds exhausted themselves into staccato silences…

Most of us played loaded with alcohol and drugs, believing they were the fuel to express our passion, a way to transcribe that which we felt was our link to the cosmic, the divine, the undefinable… In these pages, in no particular order or organized fashion, are our stories, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows, past and present.

We’re Treating Life Well now…” – SoberMusicians.com

Check out Sober Musicians at www.SoberMusicians.com

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Many people feel strange when going to their first A.A. meeting. Some people think they are too young to be in alcoholics anonymous. Others feel embarrassed or haven’t been drinking for very long. There are even members of Alcoholics Anonymous who never really drank “hard” liquor.

At Alcoholics Anonymous, you soon learn that it really doesn’t matter how much you drink, where you drink or what you drink. The important thing is what alcohol does to you physically and psychologically; only you can decide whether or not you have a drinking problem.

Here are just some of the Myths & Truths about Alcohol and Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.):

Myth: A.A. is only for older people who have been drinking for several years.

Truth: Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship for anyone who thinks they may have a problem with alcohol abuse; no matter how long you have been drinking.

Myth: I can’t be an alcoholic, I can drink a lot and not get sick

Truth: Even people with large capacities for alcohol can become alcoholics

Myth: Joining A.A. means complying with a bunch of rules, regulations and people telling you what to do.

Truth: Joining Alcoholics Anonymous is always free and never requires forms to sign or dues to pay. The only “requirement” for joining Alcoholics Anonymous is a desire to stop drinking. People in A.A. tell stories and give suggestions on how to stop drinking and stay sober.

For more information on Alcoholics Anonymous including news, website reviews, meetings and more, keep visiting us here at www.TheAABlog.com

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It was a late night in Beverly Hills, California for Richie Supa and the gang at InTheRooms.com as they eagerly awaited the announcement of the 2009 Prism Awards “Song of the Year”.

The annual Prism Awards recognizes excellence in music, television and movies in the realm of addiction, recovery and mental health.

Richie Supa performed “In The Rooms” live at the awards ceremony which took place Thursday, April 23rd at the Beverly Hotel. Everyone in attendance also received a free C.D. of “In The Rooms”, along with a registration card for www.InTheRooms.com.

Other 2009 PRISM Award Winners Include:

Performance in a Feature Film:
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
(Sony Pictures Classics / Clinica Estetico)

Original DVD:
Flashbacks of a Fool
(Left Turn Films / LipSynch Productions / Anchor Bay Entertainment)

TALK SHOW EPISODE:
Dr. Phil – “The Bridge”
(CBS Paramount Domestic Television / Peteski Productions)

COMIC BOOK STORYLINE:
The Alcoholic
(Vertigo / DC Comics)

For a full list of 2009 Prism Award winners and categories check out the Prism Awards online at www.PrismAwards.com. If you want to hear the Award-Winning song by Richie Supa, “In The Rooms”, check out www.InTheRooms.com. Want to get to know Richie Supa? Check out his profile at www.InTheRooms.com/RichieSupa

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The recent drinking and driving (DUI) arrests of celebrities—Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Michelle Rodriguez and Lindsay Lohan—yielded widespread news coverage, however, very little of it offered any public health context, according to a new report by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. Analyzing stories reported by the New York Times, TIME, People and the evening news broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox, researchers found that only 4 percent of the reports made any mention of injury or potential injury from the DUI events.

 In 2005, alcohol-related crashes resulted in 16,885 deaths in the U.S. The results of the study will be published in the May 2009 issue of Alcohol & Alcoholism and is available on the journal’s website in advance of the print publication.

“Media are an important source of information about the consequences of alcohol consumption, and influence how individuals define acceptable behavior,” said Katherine Smith, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. “While the celebrity DUI stories raised awareness of the issue of drinking and driving among young people, an opportunity to educate this audience on solutions to prevent DUI was missed.” Previous research has demonstrated that medical-related celebrity news, such as reports of breast cancer, can motive the public to seek cancer screening services like mammography.

Smith, along with colleagues Denise Twum and Andrea Gielen, conducted a qualitative analysis of 150 print and 16 television news stories using a coding framework to capture main elements of relevant story content, e.g., placement of any mention of the DUI incident, mention of contributing factors or consequences of DUI, as well as any public health messages. The most frequently occurring topics found in the study sample were arrest, sentencing and going to/release from jail.

Less than half of the stories focused on the legal aspects of the DUI event. Few articles included any consideration of any DUI-related policy or possible societal intervention, and discussions of the consequences of the DUI were almost entirely limited to discussions of the legal and professional repercussions for the celebrity herself, such as losing movie or television roles.

“Unfortunately, when media cover paltry legal consequences for the celebrities alongside routine use of their glamorous photos, we are likely doing a disservice to young people. We need to be getting the message to young people that drinking and driving is a serious issue with substantial legal and life-threatening consequences.”

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Assembly Bill 1019 is a proposal to impose a fee on the beer, wine, and liquor industries to mitigate the billions in costs to Californians for alcohol-related problems. The bill advances to its first hearing this legislative session today before the California State Assembly Health Committee.

Revenue from the fee would be used to establish a program to be administered by state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs that would help mitigate the $38.4 billion cost of harm that alcohol creates in accidents, deaths, illnesses, injuries, and crime – such as domestic violence.

The industry must start paying its fair share for the problems their products cause,” said Assemblyman Jim Beall, Jr., D-San Jose, author of AB 1019, the Alcohol Related Services Act. “If this fee and the program it pays for prevents another child from being born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or prevents another senseless DUI fatality it will have paid for itself and more.”

AB 1019 generates $1.4 billion in revenue to fund alcohol-related emergency medical and trauma care; hospitalization and rehabilitation services; treatment and recovery services; prevention, education, and research to prevent alcohol abuse; and criminal justice and enforcement programs.

The Regulatory Mitigation Fee levied by AB 1019 amounts to an increase of $1.07 per gallon of beer; $2.56 per gallon of wine that contains 14 percent or less in alcohol; $4.27 per gallon of wine and sparkling hard
cider that contains more than 14 percent alcohol; $8.53 per gallon of distilled spirits. The fee breaks down to about a dime per drink for a 12-ounce serving of beer; 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits; and 5 ounces of
wine. It is levied on distributors. They and the retailers have the option of whether to pass the cost onto consumers.

“Now is the time to charge Big Alcohol for the $38.4 billion dollars in harm their products cause every year in California,” said Bruce Livingston, executive director of Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog. “There is no better way to hold the industry accountable than a mitigation fee to fund the state’s critical programs of treatment, prevention and recovery.”

AB 1019 has been amended to be enacted as a fee, which can be passed by the Legislature with a majority vote. The state levy on alcohol has not changed in more than 17 years.

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Alcohol Responsibility Conference 2009 – Solutions for Promoting Responsible Alcohol Consumption (ARC 2009) will be held in Walt Disney World, Florida on September 29 – October 1, 2009.

In 2007, HCI (providers of the TIPS program) brought together people representing a variety of perspectives on alcohol issues from across the country to discuss methods and techniques to create a responsible environment around alcohol consumption. In 2008, the conference continued to build bridges and break barriers by sharing ideas and experiences aimed at preventing the misuse of alcohol. The goal of this year’s conference is to provide proven solutions that community and industry leaders can implement in their neighborhoods. ARC 2009 will allow participants to again join forces in the fight to build responsible communities.

“The conference provides a way to share ideas and experiences among others with whom we do not normally interact to make lasting, widespread change toward more responsible communities nationwide,” said Trevor Estelle, HCI’s Vice President of Sale & Marketing.

The conference brings together members from all areas of the community involved in or impacted by alcohol use, and focuses on developing strategies for preventing alcohol misuse by promoting responsible consumption. Conference attendees are drawn from all facets of the community, including alcohol responsibility trainers, law enforcement officers, insurance agents, state and local regulators, human resources professionals, risk managers, food & beverage managers, corporate executives, liquor liability attorneys, university administrators, and more.

The two-day conference will offer breakout sessions targeted toward five different areas: Responsible Alcohol Service Training; Alcohol Issues within College & University Communities; Alcohol Enforcement and Legal Information; Community Partnerships to Promote Responsibility; and, Responsible Alcohol Licensee Operations. Additionally, attendees will benefit from several general sessions on hotly debated alcohol-related issues, as well as structured networking events to facilitate new collaborative partnerships.

The conference will take place at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Early registrations are now being accepted at a discounted fee of $399 per person. For more information and/or to register, please visit http://www.alcoholresponsibility.com.

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