by Peter Boyles | Jan 19, 2023 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
Bill Wilson, in the world of recovery founded Alcoholics Anonymous, now known as AA, and one of the codes to know a fellow alcoholic was to ask them; “Are you a friend of Bill’s?” Bill Wilson set the stage for so many of us afflicted by the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction, always remembering that alcohol is a drug.
I had my first drink when I was 13 years old. I’ve written about it off and on over the last 37 years. I was playing baseball with some older guys and when the game was over, we went to this girl’s house. I had my first drink and first-time sexual experience. I personally believe I was born alcoholic, cultural alcoholic, and genetically predisposed to alcoholism.
I had my last drink following the murder of my best friend Alan Berg, who by the way, was the first real in-recovery alcoholic I’d ever known. I was in a Chinese restaurant on Hampden Avenue three weeks after that and that’s where I met the followers of Bill.
I literally turned myself in to a pair of great physicians who helped me. I went to my first AA meeting at the Air Force Academy Officer’s Club. To illustrate how bad I’d become, until recently I believed there were four people in the car, one a woman who was a very dear friend. But she took me aside later and said, “Peter, I wasn’t in the car.”
Alcoholism is a disease and that’s why cities like Denver and others around the country can’t come to terms with the alcoholics and addicts who have now become the unhoused. They treat them like they have the plague and you’ve seen some of the results.
Having set that stage, recently on talk radio and Denver television news, is what I would dub the smearing of an Aurora police officer. His name is Nate Meier. He was found drunk on duty in March 2019, armed, as officers are. I have developed great sources in the Aurora Police Department. They tell me stories about what happened with their brilliant previous chiefs, the amount of true support they feel from a ridiculous City Council, and how they’ve generally been screwed over by their own government.
Now I know this factually. The officer has been sober, went into alcohol treatment and has nearly three and a half years of sobriety. He speaks at the police academy, shares his story with employee groups, and went on to say something I find myself saying, he saved his own life. A life he could have lost.
He took the test to be promoted and he scored high on the Career Service test, and that I believe is very competitive. Now he is being attacked principally in talk radio and alternative press. And one of the charges that was made by the uneducated self-righteous is that he should be fired, he should not be promoted, and that being in recovery is untrustworthy.
That’s quite an alarming accusation for all of us in recovery, including federal judges, district attorneys, airline pilots, doctors, nurses, people in positions of responsibility, people who carry guns and badges and make decisions on other peoples lives. I’ve met people from these professions in recovery, and that is why Bill decided there would be no last names.
I chose to break my own anonymity to talk about my disease, alcoholism. But now it shows you exactly why we don’t use last names, because of people like the media and elected officials.
My hope for them is they never have a family member or anyone they love and care about go through the darkness of alcoholism into the light of recovery. This is 2023 for heavens sake, finally learn something.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Dec 16, 2022 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
This is not the end of 2022 and not the beginning of 2023. I see this as a very sad era ending with no clean solutions for the time period ahead.
Denver has fallen into such disarray under the Hancock administration; the rise of drugs, crime, homelessness, violence, the lack of people wanting to go to a downtown which was once a warm and vibrant place to visit. Denver Police have been set back on their heels. Politicians are so unworthy of anyone’s respect, but this is a product of this last time period.
People will have to judge the time period for itself. I see it pretty much as the last decade. In 2023 we will select a new mayor for the City of Denver. Have you looked at this circus of people who want this job? The state of Colorado is now pretty much a one-party state. The country appears to me to be rudderless. It appears there is no captain on the bridge. So, as Lenin asked, “What is to be done?”
Denver media, talk radio, television news, and much of newspapering (with the exception of this fine publication) is lost on me. It seems to be background noise, meaningless babble. Political correctness has permeated and put fear into the hearts of people who, in the past, would have taken many of these issues on a hell of a lot harder than is being done today. So, what is to be done? Frankly I really don’t see a Ronald Reagan character. I don’t see an FDR, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela.
Baby New Year, you’re supposed to be bringing us hope, a bright shining future and a brave new world. Ask yourself honestly, do you think COVID’s over, the insanity in Ukraine, big tech censorship far more powerful than Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst combined?
Most of the people I know are most upset about the Denver Broncos. And maybe it’s far more easy and simple to spend your time talking about Russell Wilson and the head coach, and your Colorado Rockies and their inability to hit the ball on the road, than trying to understand the depth of our malaise. Historians repeatedly say all empires fail. Are we an empire in failure? All the signs are there.
So, what will 2023 bring? Is it the start of something new, or look over your shoulder? This is a crap shoot. But can you honestly see any potential leader, Republican or Democrat, that can bring us home? My pessimistic answer is no.
But remember, all Dorothy had to do was click her heels and bring herself home. We have the power to save ourselves. Or do we? I don’t think so.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Nov 17, 2022 | Blasting with Boyles
In this past election the only thing that came to the surface about your children in school was the Furries. The allegations of litter boxes in classrooms and children who spoke to one another in snarls and barks. It actually sounded like the neighborhood I grew up in.
But in a recent headline in the city of Denver, the Archdiocese of Denver issued guidance to Catholic schools. Don’t enroll transgender children. The guidance on handling LBGTQ issues, including telling administrators not to enroll or re-enroll transgender or gender non-conforming students, and that gay parents should be treated differently than heterosexual couples. The document was titled “Guidance for Issues Concerning the Human Person and Sexual Identity” was obtained by The Denver Post. The spread of gender ideology presents a danger to the faith of Christians. Now which of us is going to be the first to laugh. The Catholic Church?
How many cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, nuns, cardinals, popes, and members of the religious life? Beginning in the 1990s the Catholic hierarchy has covered up sex abuse allegations by moving abusive priests to other parishes where their abuse continued. Kind of sounds like the Boy Scouts, doesn’t it? Remember the coverage of the Catholic Church scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston exposed by the Boston Globe in 2002? The abuse was in Europe, Australia, Chile, and certainly here in Denver, Colorado.
We saw how many times Roman Catholic priests were moved on to another diocese to do it again. Isn’t it a little hypocritical to now do this to people who are open about their sexuality, want to bring their children or grandchildren for a private education in Holy Mother Church?
If you do a bit of background work, in the French church 216,000 children, mostly boys, were sexually abused by the clergy of the French Catholic Church. 216,000. That study is 2,500 pages long. Start to tie into Jehovah’s Witnesses the number of cases of sex abuse. Pulling the same rabbit out of the same hat as the Catholic Church by covering it up.
The Boy Scouts also knew about Scout Masters who were molesting boys. And also moved them from state to state. Some horrible stories that you can read about where these one-time Boys Scouts, now grown men, talk about what the Scout Masters did to them. The manner of abuse and grooming the boys seems to follow suit with exactly how the Catholic priests did the same.
So now how does Jesus, who wants to speak and show compassion have these people turned away at the door? Is that unconditional love? Faithful to church teachings? In Michigan the Catholic Diocese says gay and trans people cannot be baptized or receive communion. They instruct priests on how to develop pastoral relationships with persons who have same sex attraction and lead them closer to Jesus Christ by being consistent with Church teachings on being gay.
I’m always told by my fanatical religious friends that being gay is a choice. So, I ask all of you reading this, when was your choice day? I didn’t have it. The first girl I ever kissed came to a ball game where I was playing baseball with some older guys and she was one of the girls when the sun went down you could kiss her. I didn’t want to kiss the shortstop, or the kid on second base, and I certainly didn’t want to kiss the kid who played catcher. But boy did the lights go on the first time I got to kiss (her name will be not be used to protect the innocent). But that was my magic moment. Sure, I loved the Pittsburgh Pirates and Bruno Sammartino, but I’ll be dammed if I had a choice in the matter.
I’d like to thank the Catholic Church for once again airing the hypocrisy in their sex abuse cases across the country. And why is it the deeper you go into your reading, the more you go into these horrific crimes, the more times it appears it’s religious organizations and institutions, and outfits like the Boy Scouts who are involved?
Peace on Earth good will toward men.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Oct 21, 2022 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
By the time you read this I’m sure you’ve already voted or are about to head to the polls and vote in person. Have you gone through this listening to or reading how outfits like The Denver Post, Colorado Sun, or any hot air pro Republican talk show host in Denver putting on their editorial page or website who they think you should vote for.
Doesn’t it sound like they think you’re too stupid to do the work yourself? You’re too dumb to know who to vote for or, better yet, who the hell are these people to tell you how to vote. It’s really a free political ad for the group of people that have screwed this state up so badly in the last 30 years that they think you’ve become stupid enough that you want them to continue.
The late Alan Berg, a real political sage once said on his show, “I don’t vote. Because it only encourages them.”
I think there’s tremendous truth in what Alan said. I had a conversation about Soviet voting. If you read Soviet history, Khrushchev and others always bragged about how the Soviets could vote. And when you do some reading you discover they voted by not voting. Example, Ivan the Agricultural Commissar in the Ukraine is doing a lousy job so none of the factory workers or farmers would go vote and hence the Communist Party would know that people were unhappy or displeased with his performance and unless he was a really entrenched upper Russki they would get rid of him and you would get a new Commissar. Can you see where I’m going with this?
What’s the difference between any of these people? And why is the city of Denver and state of Colorado sliding downhill rapidly?
And so, I urge you not to vote. Stay away from these people. Don’t go near them. Back in the ’60s and ’70s on college campuses and anti-war demonstrations, guys held up their draft cards and burned them. Later we found out a lot of them were just burning their social security cards. They weren’t really doing it but thought of themselves as brave antiwar demonstrators. So, let’s all get together, have a big rally, and hold up your mail-in ballot and light them puppies on fire. That’ll show them. Seeing Michael Bennet’s name turned to ash. Because if he wins, and I certainly believe he will, he’ll continue to turn you into the same thing.
When we all watch the results coming in on election day, remember I wrote this here in the Chronicle. Why is it that every two- or four-years people show up on your television screens endorsed by radio hosts and newspaper columns, and then two or four years later, you’re so pissed off after these people promised you how things are going to change. In the words of Elton John in Honky Cat, “the change is gonna do you good.”
In all seriousness, why do you celebrate an election outcome only to be terribly angry two or four years later at the results of the last one? Stay home. Stay safe.
— Peter Boyles
by Peter Boyles | Sep 28, 2022 | Blasting with Boyles
OPINION
As a reader of history there always seems to be themes running through trying to understand a nation and its people. Long ago I discovered the story of the underclass is the history of prize fighters beginning with the Irish immigrants. The great John L. O’Sullivan, and James J. Corbett were Irish immigrant fighters. The next generation in that era was Jewish fighters who often fought under Irish names. The advent of African American fighters wasn’t until the time of Jack Johnson. Italian and Sicilian fighters Rocky Marciano and Rocky Graziano. And today it’s Russian immigrants, a lot of Latinos and people coming out of the third world in general are great fighters both boxing and MMA.
Being a fight geek, the life of Jack Dempsey has always been intriguing because of a moment in Jack’s career. My uncles always talked about Dempsey and how the Irishman was accused of draft dodging in the First World War. The evidence that was presented was a famous picture of Jack Dempsey as a working man, dressed in working man’s clothes, working with a shovel. The problem was the closer you looked at Jack’s feet. As in the photo at right, Jack is wearing patent leather shoes. It turned out to be quite a problem and Jack eventually landed in a courtroom. But the term “slacker” was always applied to Jack until he redeemed himself during the Second World War.
Every picture tells a story.
Here’s our current slacker, Michael Bennet. Notice Michael fishing in a recent ad. Many of my angler friends have pointed out Michael in the Arkansas river with a fly rod is the equivalent of the Manassa Mauler in the coal yard. They say he has no idea what he’s doing with the rod in his hand as if the prop man just handed him the rod. Turns out he got a one day fishing license just to shoot the ad and to save public lands in Colorado. And if you don’t believe him just ask the guy in the water with him. That ad has been pulled along with a companion ad promoting Michael Bennet hiking in the mountains. I think of Grand County as my second home, I’ve spent a lot of time there hiking, skiing and biking. I have yet to see anyone hiking along the trails in khaki pants. Maybe that works for the Country Club or walking around Cherry Creek. But it’s hardly mountain attire. Thinking of fish, Bennet looks like a fish out of water in that picture.
Now if you go to chase this down you see a picture of Michael on the web only it’s Michael waist up. Along with a limp hand on the fly rod and Michael being pictured hiking from the waist up. It’s hardly being a slacker but it does cast some interesting thoughts on how the Democrat Party tries to tell you that Bennet is fighting for public land as he’s standing in the river with a fly rod in his hand.
Back to the Mauler, and you need a license to fight. Would Jack have a one day fight license, or better yet, a one day union card to work as a working man? You don’t think Michael Bennet is trying to pull one over on you do you? Remember the great line, how can you tell when a politician is lying? And you know how to answer that question as well. It is when their lips are moving.
Michael’s campaign spent $600,000 on the ad. According to what I read doubling to the $1.2 million that he’s spent since mid-July. Wonder if that includes the $14.46 one day fishing license. He could have spent $22 more to get the license for the year. Wow.
I think its’ interesting. Probably will have no reflection whatsoever on the outcome of this entire fiasco. Chalk one up for the slick advertising of the Democrat Party. The commercials, of course, have been yanked down. Remember the great ending of the ad, “I’m Michael Bennet. I approve this message and I caught that fish.”
The mail-in ballots will soon be in your mailbox. Have a nice day.
— Peter Boyles
