I went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting the other night, a meeting I have gone to sporadically over the years. It’s in a big church and tends to average around 200 people every Saturday night.I was immediately surprised at the sparse attendance. This is something I have been seeing a lot lately. I was just at a meeting the week before that was half its normal size.The idea of a person having a 'drinking problem' feels almost quaint now that most major American cities are full of drug-addicted zombies wandering the streets.It’s not unusual for attendance at AA meetings to ebb and flow. One meeting will get hot for a while. Then it will die down and another meeting will become popular.Also, COVID has had a lingering affect on AA meetings. People got comfortable doing Zoom meetings, and now they don’t want to leave their homes.*******I got a coffee and took a seat. The first of the night’s three speakers went to the podium.He was from Texas. It was very entertaining to hear his accent and his crazy drinking stories. The next woman bottomed out in Los Angeles while working in the film business. The third person was a local guy and told his story of basically being in the grip of alcohol from age 13 onward.That sober lifeI’ve been sober for a long time. So I know how AA stories go. They’re all different, but at their heart, they are all the same. Also, there’s a certain AA language people use to describe their experiences. There’s a rhythm to the stories.It’s all very familiar and routine for me. It’s a nice feeling to settle in and listen to your fellow drunks describe their experiences.But sitting there this time, a dark thought came over me. I wondered if AA was getting old in some way. If I’m in my 60s, and this meeting felt like the perfect way to spend a Saturday night, what would it feel like to a younger person? Probably very old-fashioned.AA’s glory daysAA began in the 1930s. It caught on immediately. Over the decades, it literally saved millions of lives and vastly improved millions of others.In theological circles, many consider Alcoholics Anonymous to be the most profound and important spiritual movement of the 20th century.But what now? Can it continue indefinitely?I considered who founded AA in the first place: white Christian men, most of them professionals. Of course, AA evolved and adapted as it grew, quickly including women, younger people, and other ethnicities and social classes.But it still bears the marks of its beginnings. And institutions with those kinds of roots tend to get targeted and harassed by leftist activists — even the most benevolent ones.RELATED: When ‘live, laugh, love’ means 'pour me another' Matt Cardy/Tatyana Larina/Getty ImagesFirst they came for ...So far, no one has accused AA of being sexist or racist or “white supremacist.” But it seems possible the left could find something wrong with it.Not to mention that AA is a lot like church. There are prayers and talk of God, and many meetings actually take place in church basements.And we all know how socialist/communist countries dealt with churches in the past. They shut them down.I doubt that will happen, but the left could certainly try to discredit AA. Or file lawsuits against it, as with the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts were just minding their own business, until they were obliterated by lawsuits brought by the radical left.To drink or not to drinkAnother consideration: Is alcoholism still a major problem in our society? I mean, it obviously can be. But is it as bad as fentanyl? Or meth?It usually takes years of drinking to seriously damage your body. Our new super-addictive street drugs can kill you in a week.The idea of a person having a “drinking problem” feels almost quaint now that most major American cities are full of drug-addicted zombies wandering the streets.In recent years, alcohol seems to have faded as the recreational intoxicant of choice. Think of how popular alcohol was in the 1940s and 1950s. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s ever-intoxicated “Rat Pack” became the symbol of suave masculinity. The idea of a man not drinking was unthinkable. That’s what men did. They drank.But not any more. Oh, men still drink. They drink Evian water out of their $30 water bottles.Teenagers under the influenceAnd what about teenagers? Do they still drink? I’m sure they do. But not like the generations before them.When I was in high school, everything we did was combined with alcohol from freshman year onward. That was what we did at social gatherings. That was how we talked to girls.When you picture contemporary teenagers' social lives and leisure activities, you see them online. On their phones. Gaming. Posting. Texting.I don’t remember “reading” as being something I was good at when I was drunk. Or typing on a tiny keyboard.Maybe that’s why Adderall is so popular now. It sharpens your mental skills instead of blurring them.Into the futureI am not suggesting I want Alcoholics Anonymous to age out or become irrelevant. I love AA. It saved my life. It gave me a life. The friends I made there will be in my heart until the day I die.But the world is experiencing rapid change. And it seems inevitable that this will affect AA. I hope it can adapt and survive and continue into the future.Because I, for one, still need a place to go when I’m feeling unsettled and overwhelmed. Where I can drink some bad coffee, lean back in my seat, and enjoy the company of my fellow alcoholics.

President Donald Trump's administration has offered several concessions to persuade lawmakers to restart funding for the Department of Homeland Security, but Democrats continue to refuse to compensate Transportation Security Administration personnel. The White House and Democratic lawmakers have remained in a negotiation stalemate since the DHS shut down on February 14.'If this continues, it's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports – particularly smaller ones if callout rates go up.'Border czar Tom Homan and the White House director of legislative affairs, James Braid, wrote a letter dated March 17 to Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Katie Britt of Alabama, detailing the administration's offered concessions.The letter, which was shared by the Daily Wire, explained that the "majority" of Democrats' demands "would make it impossible to fully protect American citizens from dangerous criminal aliens and expose law enforcement and their families to increasing threats of violence.""In other words, they would prioritize illegal aliens above American families," it reads. The letter detailed how Homan ended the surge operation in Minnesota, canceled Immigration and Customs Enforcement's roving patrols, updated protocols for dealing with unlawful agitators, deployed body-worn cameras, and enhanced cooperation with local law enforcement.RELATED: Spring break blues: DHS highlights outrageous airport conditions amid Democrat shutdown Tom Homan. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty ImagesHoman and Braid stated that the White House has offered to codify several improved guidelines, including expanding the use of body-worn cameras, limiting immigration enforcement activities in certain sensitive locations, increasing the oversight of detention centers, and requiring officers to visibly display their identification. Despite the administration's efforts to negotiate, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly failed to make a good-faith effort to compromise, according to Homan and Braid."The Administration has worked in good faith to again reach bipartisan agreement on full funding for the entire Department of Homeland Security and institute common-sense operational improvements to federal immigration enforcement operations that enhance the safety of American communities," the letter reads. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused the White House of not taking the negotiations seriously."The issue is, they're not getting serious," Schumer stated. "The key issues of warrants when you bust into someone's house, the key issue of identity of police and no masks, they haven't budged on those."RELATED: 'Is it even REMOTELY reasonable?' Scott Jennings demolishes liberal CNN panel on DHS funding feud Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMeanwhile, TSA agents missed their first full paycheck last week. An estimated 366 TSA agents quit last month, NBC News found. A TSA spokesperson told Fox News that the national callout rate jumped to 10.19% on March 15, compared to 2% before the shutdown."If this continues, it's not hyperbole to suggest that we may have to quite literally shut down airports — particularly smaller ones if callout rates go up," acting Deputy TSA Administrator Adam Stahl told the news outlet.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Actress Katherine Heigl was in attendance at Mar-a-Lago last weekend where she posed for photos with Lara Trump and Jeanine Pirro. And while the left is not happy with seeing the actress there, it was at an event that raised $5.5 million for Big Dog Ranch Rescue.“Liberals outraged, I told you about everything, including dogs. Dogs,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments, shocked. “They don’t like dogs. That's how you know they’re not the party for you. They are the party of hating dogs, because there was a big fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago to rescue dogs.”“Now everyone hates Katherine Heigl for going there and trying to raise money to save dogs,” she adds.One X user wrote, “F**k her and anyone attending maga-lago for any reason,” while another wrote, “Supporting Nazis. So many orgs that aren’t run by white supremacists. This is a choice.”However, Heigl wasn’t taking the attacks lying down."Animals don’t vote. The only room they don’t like is the euthanasia room at a shelter," Heigl told Page Six in a statement. "They are completely at the mercy of us, and they have no voice of their own.""This event was about animal advocacy, something that has always been deeply personal to me," she continued. "Anyone who knows me knows that protecting animals is one of my greatest passions."“The point is, animals, of course, do not knowingly vote,” Gonzales comments, adding, “They’re not involved in our politics. And the charity event raised $5.5 million for rescue dogs.”Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Thermostats have become so intelligent that they can build entire lifestyle portfolios on a homeowner simply by using the embedded technology that regulates and tracks heat and electricity.Many smart thermostats are openly asking users for this information. But studies have also revealed that other knowledge, which no homeowner would want a stranger to know, can now easily be harvested and quantified.A thermostat's built-in motion sensors determine if a homeowner is home or away.For example, an Ecobee smart thermostat, available on Amazon for $140, has been used to monitor sleep patterns over the course of a year. A 2022 study used six Ecobee sensors to track sleep time, wake-up time, sleep duration, as well as time spent at home. It also determined how those behaviors were influenced by weekends and seasonal weather.This all came from the thermostat's data, which can connect to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Google Assistant.Google Nest thermostats can come equipped with a series of cameras, sensors, and more, as well as public-facing features like Home/Away Assist and Auto-Away. These features track whether the user is home or not and can do so in multiple ways.The first option is to sync with the homeowner's phone location. It asks for user location and address, and it even helps pinpoint the home on a map.Auto-Away does not even need add-on sensors throughout the house to tell if the user is home. According to How to Geek, it uses the thermostat's built-in motion sensors to make this determination.The justification for the intimate invasion of privacy is to lower and limit heating or cooling usage when the user is not at home or to enable security features.Ecobee also has passive motion sensors that can tell when a person is home or not.RELATED: Creepy new laws will mean your car monitors you 24/7 — eyes, skin, even breath Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images Ecobee also utilizes a feature so it knows which rooms in a home are occupied. "Follow me" mode is an attempt to maximize energy efficiency by tracking the resident with sensors as he moves through rooms, and it adjusts the temperature accordingly.At the same time, it tracks the amount of time spent in each room.A 2018 study showed a 95% accuracy rating in terms of gauging home occupancy using a technology called WalkSense. The technology identified room occupancy, house vacancy, and even occupant activities.The latter is helped by what is referred to as "load monitoring," which is a fancy term for tracking what type of appliances a person uses by how much electricity he uses, another feature of smart home devices.RELATED: Storm season is here. Yes, you need a better weather app. Load monitoring works by applying a "signature" to an appliance by extracting data from its power signal. The signature is applied to the typical amount of energy usage from the appliance, which henceforth identifies the amount of power used by a dishwasher, washing machine, etc.A February 2021 study proposed such a system that identified appliances with 98% to 99% accuracy.Another study from 2017 even showed it was using load monitoring through a smart meter called Rainforest at the time.Load monitoring is typically used with energy meter trackers like Sense Energy — installed on the electrical panel — but can be paired with home monitoring systems like Google Nest or Alexa, which either pair with or operate the smart thermostat.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Several super PACs linked to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee reportedly poured over $20 million into multiple House primary races in Illinois in hopes of advancing favored candidates or at the very least kneecapping candidates critical of Israel.Some of the groups' investments paid off.'There’s no gray lines as it relates to their beliefs.'For instance, Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller — a beneficiary of nearly $4.5 million in ad spending from the AIPAC-linked group Affordable Chicago Now — defeated former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in the Democrat primary for the state's 2nd Congressional District. In the Democrat primary for the 8th Congressional District, former Rep. Melissa Bean, another beneficiary of spending by an AIPAC-aligned group, also came out on top, beating Junaid Ahmed, a leftist whom AIPAC faulted for centering "his campaign on attacking Israel."However, Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, a candidate who ran in the 7th District Democrat primary to replace retiring incumbent Rep. Danny Davis, turned out to be a bad investment.With 90% of the votes in, the Associated Press called the race for state Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat with a history of tax fraud who secured 23.9% of the total vote. Conyears-Ervin, one of only handful of candidates who said in a WBEZ-FM survey that she did not oppose sending U.S. military aid to Israel, trailed behind with 20.5% of the vote.RELATED: Jesse Jackson Jr.'s political comeback fails miserably after he served prison time John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesThe United Democracy Project, an AIPAC super PAC established in 2022, poured nearly $5 million into positive ads for Conyears-Ervin, reported Politico.Austin Weekly News reported that the AIPAC group's intervention in the race was criticized by many of the other 13 candidates, including Ford, who was backed by the retiring incumbent."I’ve also had meetings with the very people that’s spending this money," said Ford. "They want you to say 'yes' to everything that they have requests for. There’s no gray lines as it relates to their beliefs. It’s a yes or no. … 'Don’t have a conversation, that this is what we want. We want you to vote with us in Washington 100% of the time, and we want to control our member,' and that’s what this is about. And I refused that type of relationship."Ford suggested further last month that "this money dwarfs, or tries to dwarf, the voice of the voters in the 7th Congressional District, and it would tell you immediately who this candidate will be beholden to. Follow the money."Kina Collins, one of the leftist candidates defeated on Tuesday, said last month that it was "not going to help [Conyears-Ervin's] case that AIPAC is backing her."While AIPAC's support may have negatively affected Conyears-Ervin's chances, she also had plenty of baggage. For instance, she reportedly agreed in September to pay a $30,000 fine to resolve charges brought by the Chicago Board of Ethics.Conyears-Ervin, an ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), was accused of misusing city resources and retaliating against whistleblowers — allegations she denies, reported WTTW.Conyears-Ervin's race was among the Illinois primaries regarded as a test for AIPAC. The lobbying group characterized the night as a win overall, however, stating, "Illinois voters rejected half a dozen anti-Israel candidates across several heavily Democratic open-seat races. These results further demonstrate that campaigns defined largely by opposition to AIPAC, our members, and the values we represent continue to fall short on election night."The group added, "Although Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin did not advance, AIPAC congratulates State Representative La Shawn K. Ford on his win. The pro-Israel community is proud to have helped defeat Kina Collins, who has voiced anti-Israel views over multiple election cycles."Ford — who was indicted on 17 counts of bank fraud but ultimately pleaded guilty in 2014 to only a single misdemeanor charge of tax fraud — will face off in the general election with Republican nominee Chad Koppie, a farmer and retired Delta Airlines pilot whose "main goal is trying to ban abortion."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!