With the ongoing Kavanaugh confirmation process, people are not directly attacking him for being Irish.
Instead, he is being indirectly attacked as a "black out" drunk, which is a definitely a slur on the Irish.

Note: not all Irish suffer from alcoholic black outs, but some Irish might suffer from barley amnesia.

Let me kid you not, barley amnesia is just as deadly as Quaaludes or date rape drugs.

I have written this post to help others who might be suffering from temporary bouts of amnesia, but who have no idea that they are.

This thread is in ANONYMOUS to enable those with alcoholic or addiction problems to share their own stories, so we can help each other.

I admit that I am a recovering barley addict and that barley causes me to black out or experience amnesia for several hours. Whenever I experience amnesia, I have no recollection of it, neither do I realize that I am experiencing amnesia. Time just vanishes like a warm day at the beach.

I discovered this amnesia inadvertently when I was in college. As the weekend approached, I had quickly grabbed a Tiger Milk bar from the university snack bar. Then I got in my car and drove home, or so I thought. Then the fun began. When I got home, I remembered that I had had a doctor's appointment at 3 PM, but it was now 4:55  PM. Therefore, I called the doctor and apologized for not keeping my appointment. The nurse told me that I had been to their office, and to open my purse where I would find the prescription they had given me. I opened my purse, and everything was intact, including the prescription, but I had no recollection at all of ever visiting the doctor. Since it was Friday, and I was exhausted, I went to bed early that night.

The next day was Saturday, so I cleaned up my apartment, washed some clothes, went to confession at the local church, and did my homework.

The following day Sunday, I walked to church for Sunday Mass at 10 AM and sang in the choir, had some coffee and donuts with my friends, and then left for home. At home, I completed some more homework, made my dinner and went to sleep early.

Before I knew it, it was Monday. Time had passed so quickly. I got dressed, decided to leave early for school, so I prepared a lunch to eat at the university. When I went outside to the carport, I could not find my car. I looked everywhere, but it was not in sight. Shaken, I called the police and reported my car as missing or stolen. Within an hour, I received a car from the detective on duty. My car was found, but it was going to be towed away in a couple of hours, so I quickly walked to the copy shop where I found my car undamaged and in sound condition. I was so grateful to God, but I was also puzzled as I had no recollection of ever parking my car and going to the copy shop that Friday afternoon after I had visited the doctor.

To this day, I still have no recollection of going to the copy shop, but I found my car and some of my school books. Thankfully, I had taken my important books into the copy shop, and had brought them home with me, so I was able to complete my homework that weekend.

After I drove home, I got my things together and drove to the university where I arrived on time for my classes that afternoon.

From that time forward, I resolved never to eat anything with barley, but I found that I had a horrible addiction to barley. Almost all junk foods and foods served at the university had barley in it: energy bars, chocolate malt balls, cookies, donuts, cakes, and even bread, including whole wheat bread. I could not enjoy my favorite sandwich bar at the university, nor could I eat bagels or subways.

My barley addiction was so bad that I finally called Alcoholics Anonymous and sought their advice because of my addiction to donuts. I found that I could not attend AAA meetings either due to the coffee and donuts they served after the meetings, so I turned to God, and He saved me, but it was a three year struggle. In sharing my experience, I opened their eyes because the counselors at AAA had not realized that people can be addicted to barley malt and sugar. Thus, several years later I found that alcoholic recovery programs were instructing recovering alcoholics to avoid all flour (wheat, rye, oat, corn, and barley) and all sugars. Yes, there was often a connection between these foods and alcoholism.

Thankfully, I cannot drink beer as I have a strong aversion to it. Beer is made with barley malt and hops. Barley is also found in energy bars,Tiger Milk bars, and Nestle's Crunch bars. All purpose white flour is used to make donuts, cookies, and cakes, but it has barley added to it. Therefore, donuts are forbidden in my diet. Interestingly, while my allergy to barley malt is very addictive, my allergy to beer manifests itself with a strong aversion. But my worst experience is driving past the beer manufacturing companies that are everywhere present in Los Angeles and are very close to the freeways. The odor of the fermenting beer also gives me amnesia and headaches. Thus, I must take precautions to avoid them by taking alternative routes.

Once I overcame my addiction (must avoid barley forever), I started to lose weight, which was a huge bonus!

Christine Ford is the one with black outs.