The man known as Bill W. took a liking to drinking as a young artillery officer in the Vermont National Guard. Finally, a cure for his crippling shyness. “I had found the elixir of life,” he later wrote.
His initial delight soon became an ungovernable obsession, even as he married, served in World War I, and attended law school (too drunk to pick up his diploma, he failed to graduate). Modest success as a stockbroker followed, interrupted by regular hospitalizations for alcohol addiction. Eventually, the threat of professional ruin and imminent death motivated him to become sober for short periods of time, always ending in relapse.
During one such period in 1935, a failed business trip to Akron left Bill with the overwhelming urge to head directly to the hotel bar. Desperate to keep his sobriety, Bill decided his only hope was to speak to another alcoholic. He called a local church and was eventually put in touch with a surgeon and fellow drunk today remembered as Dr. Bob. The two met, and soon formed a friendship that led them both to lasting sobriety.
This simple process of helping oneself by helping another became the template for Alcoholics Anonymous, a grassroots, free-of-charge, decentralized fellowship that declined to demonize alcohol and maintained only one requirement for membership: the sincere desire to stop drinking.
Almost 90 years later, millions of alcoholics around the world have found in AA's clear, unyielding principles the key to recovery and the source of deep, unwavering serenity. As Bill W. himself put it:
"Nowadays my brain no longer races compulsively in either elation, grandiosity, or depression. I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine."
In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the world's richest nations. After six major military coups and decades of reckless spending, the nation was reduced to a shambles such that when libertarian economist Javier Milei replaced outgoing leftist President Alberto Fernandez on Dec. 10, 2023, inflation was set to reach 211%; 45% of the population was impoverished; and Argentina owed $44 billion to the International Monetary Fund.
The South American country's problems have not gone away — inflation, for instance, reportedly reached a 12-month rate of 254.2% in January and poverty now affects nearly 60% of the populace — but investors have begun expressing newfound optimism about Argentina's future.
"It seems the market is starting to believe," financial analyst Mariano Sardans of FDI Argentina told Reuters.
This belief is fueled in part by the apparent efficacy of Milei's shock measures and his committment to seeing them through.
Within hours of taking power, the self-proclaimed "anarcho-capitalist" took his metaphoric "chainsaw" to half of Argentina's government ministries; his government allowed for its peso currency to devalue by 50%; and his economy minister Luis Caputo revealed Argentina would be cutting spending by 3% of GDP.
Extra to cutting government spending and making strides toward dollarizing the currency, Milei's government has purchased over $5 billion in dollars to build up their reserves and issued "Bopreal" bonds to tackle import debts. In discussions with the IMF over Argentina's debt, the Milei government has also advocated pursuing even tougher fiscal measures than those deemed reasonable by the international body.
"The market is becoming very optimistic about Javier Milei's conviction," Javier Casabal, a fixed income strategist at Adcap Grup Financiero in Buenos Aires, told Reuters. "It's a real shift worth celebrating, given that most investors did not have confidence in his ability to reduce the deficit just a few weeks ago. If anything, perhaps he's going overboard in some ways."
Milei's follow-through on his austerity scheme has pushed Argentina's risk index to a two-year low and driven some bonds to four-year highs. However, to succeed in his turnaround of the Argentine economy, Milei will likely have to overcome street opposition, provincial protests, and legislative setbacks.
Milei's economic reform bill was, for instance, thwarted in the nation's Congress earlier this month, preventing Milei from privatizing various state entities, reworking myriad regulations, and reducing state subsidies outright.
Reuters reported that the oil-rich province Chubut recently threatened to cut off the nation's energy supply because the Milei government withheld roughly $16 million to pay down some of Chubut's outstanding federal debt.
Extra to the caltrops laid before his austerity agenda by lawmakers and provincial leaders, leftist groups have worked to further paralyze the country. Late last month, the General Confederation of Labor, Argentina's largest trade union, organized a 12-hour general strike to voice anger at the country's rescue from oblivion.
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A 61-year-old Navy veteran stumbled into a massive grizzly bear last month while hunting deer in Montana. Although Rudy Noorlander landed the first punch, the fight did not ultimately go his way. Rather, he left Custer Gallatin National Forest shredded and missing part of his face.
Although Noorlander parted ways with his lower jaw, he kept his faith and a strong sense of humor.
Discussing his recovery with reporters Friday and showcasing a new jaw, the veteran noted on his whiteboard, "Only by the hands of God am I here," adding, "I will win Round 2."
TheBlaze previously reported that on Sept. 8, Noorlander ventured into the Montana wild to assist a pair of hunters in tracking down a deer they had shot and killed.
KateLynn Davis said her father, "being the Good Samaritan that he is, decided to help them search for it."
While proceeding down Yellow Mule Trail in search of the fallen deer, Noorlander came across a small bear. He raised his rifle, hoping to scare away the cub, but was ambushed by its apparent behemothic guardian.
According to his daughter, "Rudy armed his gun at the bear, but his firearm misfired, making his best choice of defense his fists, as he did not have any time to get his bear spray from his backpack."
The average grizzly bear would have been well out of Noorlander's weight class, yet this particular specimen was anything but average, reportedly standing some 10 feet tall.
"As the bear lunged, the only thing Rudy could do was punch the bear in hopes of slowing it down. Unfortunately, it did not, and after the first punch the grizzly was on top of Rudy," wrote KateLynn Noorlander.
The bear swatted trenches down the veteran's chest, bit his arms and legs, and then, "to top it all off, [the bear] gave him as what Rudy describes as the most disgusting French kiss of his life before biting down and tearing off his lower jaw," his daughter wrote on the GoFundMe page for her father.
KSL-TV reported that Noorlander also suffered a collapsed lung as a result of the attack.
According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' guide on how to handle bear encounters, Noorlander appears to have gone by the book.
"Never run away. You cannot outrun a bear," says the guidance. "If a bear follows you, or slowly, purposefully or methodically approaches you ... [s]tand your ground. Get aggressive: wave your arms and shout vigorously. Get spray out and ready. Fight back if it makes contact."
Following the attack, the two hunters whom Noorlander accompanied were able to scare off the bear and summon help.
Noorlander was airlifted to Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center in Montana for emergency treatment, then taken to the University of Utah Hospital for jaw reconstruction.
Noorlander evidenced his stunning recovery Friday, taking part in a press conference along with his two adult daughters and the surgeon responsible for his new jaw.
Although he can speak, he indicated it hurts "a little." For now, he instead communicates using script on a whiteboard.
Dr. Hilary McCrary, a surgeon at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital specializing in head and neck surgery, performed the veteran's jaw surgery. She told reporters, "The first thing that was so incredible to watch is just how enthusiastic Rudy was, even after being just attacked by a grizzly bear. He was very adamant that he was going to fight this thing and get through it and, at that point, he was still on a ventilator and had a chest tube and lots of lines everywhere," reported KSL.
"For someone to be so enthusiastic about his prognosis and outcome that early is very heartwarming as a physician," added McCrary.
The surgeon reportedly put two plates in the 61-year-old's neck for stabilization, then a placeholder where his lower jaw once was. Her team reportedly developed a model jaw using Noorlander's fibula, a bone in the lower leg. After fashioning him a new jaw bone, they used grafted skin from elsewhere on Noorlander's body on the jaw as well as to create new bottom lip.
According to McCrary, the surgery took place on Sept. 28 and lasted 10 hours, reported the Associated Press.
There remains a small wound under his chin that will need to heal, but soon he'll be able to eat without fear of infection, suggested McCrary.
His family expressed optimism that he would soon be able to go home.
Noorlander told reporters via his whiteboard, "Only by the hands of God am I here. I've had a lot of inspirations and I felt the need to share my story with others, and believe it or not, I believe that this attack was an answer to my prayers and that, potentially, it could help somebody else going through something similar."
He also said in a prewritten statement, "I just want to end this by saying most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. Even if there seems to be no hope, keep on fighting."
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University of Utah surgeons reattach man's jaw following grizzly bear attackyoutu.be
The wildfire in Maui was nothing short of tragic, and rescue and recovery efforts are still underway. While 300 names of the missing have been released to the public, there are still 1,100 people unaccounted for.
Many Americans, including Glenn Beck, have questions.
“I don’t mean to be callous on this, but it’s not that big of an island. It’s not like somebody, you know, is wandering off and is lost or whatever,” Glenn says.
To answer some of his questions, Glenn sits down to speak with one of the men on the ground in Maui: Mercury One Executive Director J.P. Decker.
Glenn asks Decker, who has been in Maui for almost five days, why officials are holding back the other 1,100 names.
“That is one thing that every single local is confused on that we’ve spoken with,” Decker says, adding, “I’ve spoken with a lot of people, and they said, ‘We don’t trust anyone. We do not trust what’s coming out of the government. We don’t trust what’s coming out of, not just the state of Hawaii, but the county and then also our federal government.’”
While the locals have been offered little solace by the government, there are some stories of hope Decker can tell.
One surfer who is famous on the island has been getting surfboards and fishing equipment for the locals, especially the kids who lost everything, including their surfboards as well as their mental health.
Decker explains these kids have seen too much. “Seeing people burning in cars and seeing their family members in their homes. This is the only thing that’s going to bring this community back to what we know and we love.”
The surfer plans to take the surfboards to the kids and the fishing supplies to the local fisherman who lost “literally everything.”
Decker tells Glenn that the people who are working to keep their community strong in the face of tragedy are “the definition of ohana, which means family. And that is community.”
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.
While U.S. employers added 943,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent indicating that the nation's economy is rebounding from the pandemic-related downturn, there is growing trepidation that the delta variant could set back the improving economic situation, according to the Associated Press.
The concern is that the resurgent virus could deter individuals from heading out and spending and could lead to new shutdowns or restrictions, according to the outlet.
"The risk is from a more cautious consumer, if they don't want to engage in outside activities. ... You're also hearing about big companies that are delaying a return to work," Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said, according to the AP. "That might be something that slows things down.''
Payroll employment rises by 943,000 in July; unemployment rate declines to 5.4% https://t.co/1Y9cSWJUIB #JobsReport #BLSdata
— BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) 1628253047.0
The AP noted that the Labor Department amassed data for the report in mid-July prior to when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance last week recommending that people who have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus should wear masks in indoor public places in areas of the U.S. with substantial or high virus transmission.
The 5.4 unemployment rate marked a drop from 5.9 percent in June.
The nation's economy took a nosedive last year, shedding more than 22 million jobs in March and April of 2020, but the country has since recouped almost 17 million jobs, the outlet reported.
"If the pace of hiring over the last three months continues, all jobs lost due to the pandemic would be regained in seven months," senior economist at TD Economics Leslie Preston wrote in a research report, according to AP. "However, the pace is likely to cool a bit and the risk of the delta variant looms."
The Associated Press reported: "The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 98,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, up from fewer than 12,000 a day in late June — though still well below the peak of 250,000 reached in January. The vast majority of new cases are among people who have not gotten vaccinated."
The outlet pointed out that if the COVID-19 surge is not contained, there could be closures and event cancellations, and schools could backpedal on plans for reopening which would make it harder for some parents to return to work.
"The next 10 to 14 days are going to be critical to try to get it under control," Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said, the AP reported. "We need to get more people vaccinated. Where there are mask mandates in place, we need to follow that."
"It's really important that we take this seriously so we don't get into a situation where we have to go into shutting down parts of our country," he noted.
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