I won't pretend to know a thing about addictions.

What Hollywood has taught me over the years, though, is you have to truly want to quit to be successful. Before that happens, you'll do some incredibly stupid things before either rebounding or falling further into a Nicolas Cage-level of despair (whether it be Leaving Las Vegas or his actual life nowadays).

I mention all this because Faron Hall — the homeless man who last year did the impossible and, on separate occasions, saved two people from drowning in the fast-moving river — appears to be at the Nic Cage crossroads right now.

Much effort has been made by well-intentioned people since Hall's heroic feats to help him with his ongoing battle with the bottle, such as setting him up with an apartment and getting him enrolled in alcohol rehab. They should be commended for this.

But for whatever reason, Hall continues to drink, which no doubt fueled a severe beating our homeless hero was a victim of over the weekend. Not good.

The beating and Hall's ongoing alcoholism has caused some of these same well-intentioned peeps to publicly excuse this behaviour by suggesting somehow that Winnipeggers have failed the guy.

We can debate the merits of whether more post-treatment centres are needed for people who abuse the bottle and/or drugs. And we can talk about whether the media crush that surrounded Hall following his heroic deeds last year did more harm than good. Those are certainly valid debates worth having.

But to suggest Winnipeggers haven't done enough for Hall is a bit of a stretch.

By all means, we should all wish the guy a speedy recovery from his injuries and that he makes the most of his next opportunity to sober up for good. But if he doesn't, here's hoping people stop publicly wringing their hands about whether society did all it could to help him, because it has.

The next step is Hall's — and Hall's alone — to make. All the rest of us can do is hope he chooses correctly.

Ryan Sparrow has been making quite a living out of putting his foot in his mouth.

The federal Tory spokesman stepped in it again here when he ripped into a 291-page Senate anti-poverty report which proposes to, amongst other things, develop a national housing and homelessness strategy, as well as co-ordinate a nationwide federal-provincial initiative on early childhood education.

Sparrow, who nowadays is working as Human Resources Minister Diane Finley's flak, e-mailed Sun reporter Paul Turenne on Wednesday to say the report is "yet another example of an irresponsible Liberal proposal that would cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars. The Liberals must tell Canadian families how they will pay for these policies."

This type of spin would be all well and good, except for one little thing — the report was signed off and supported by Conservative Senator Hugh Segal, the deputy chair of the Senate subcommittee on cities.

One word: d'oh.

Segal wouldn't bite much on receiving criticism from a fellow Tory, saying only he doubted Sparrow had actually read the report and would disagree with something previously praised by his boss. That's probably an understatement, senator.

Of course, this latest misstep pales in comparison to Sparrow's previous gaffes. During the 2008 federal election, Sparrow was the guy responsible for placing a juvenile computer animation on a Tory website of a puffin pooping on now-former Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

Later in the campaign, he was forced to resign after trying to discredit the father of a dead soldier upset with the PM's promise to get Canadian troops out of Afghanistan in 2011. Sparrow had e-mailed a CTV reporter to say the grieving dad was a Liberal supporter. Classy, this was not.

Bob Rae was in town the other day as part of his apparent cross-country Bash-The-Prime-Minister tour.

The Liberal MP even sang a song with wannabe MP Terry Duguid and other Grits to the tune of The Beatles' Let it Be, replacing the words as he went along to criticize Stephen Harper for proroguing Parliament last month, presumably to avoid being grilled on the Afghan detainee issue.

It's a fairly clever way to bring attention to an otherwise boring issue, although it should be noted that as a singer, Rae is better off sticking to shaking hands and kissing babies.

Old friend Vic Toews — who undeniably is playing his own angle to dismiss criticism of the whole proroguing thing — sent an e-mail out the other day pointing his supporters to a recent Toronto Sun column that noted Rae is no stranger to acting just as undemocratic as the prime minister, if not worse.

"As premier, Rae prorogued this Legislature not once, not twice — but three times. And for much longer than Harper has prorogued the federal Parliament," Christina Blizzard wrote on Jan. 24.

"Rae's NDP won power Sept. 6, 1990. On Dec. 19, 1991, Rae prorogued the House. They didn't come back until April 6, 1992. He then prorogued again, Dec. 10, 1992 — and didn't come back until April 13, 1993.

"By 1994, his government had run out of steam. They were running double-digit deficits and he'd doubled the debt. Some of his experimental policies proved laughable at best and disastrous at worst.

"Limping badly, he prorogued for the third time on Dec. 9, 1994. The House did not sit again until the legislature was dissolved April 28, 1995. Rae didn't even bring in a budget that year.

"For four-and-a-half months, Ontario had no sitting Legislature."

Score one for Vic on pointing out Rae's hypocrisy on the issue, although it should be noted that resorting to the argument of "You guys are even worse than us" shouldn't exactly make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about what's going on in Ottawa these days.

Stock Watch is the weekly tracker on who has had a good week and those who have had a week to forget.

Rising

Jacqueline Chaput. Winnipeg police had a weekend to forget — at least as far as the media is concerned (see below) — but I have to give a tip of the cap to the police spokeswoman for delivering the best local cop quote in ages with the cookie robber story.

“He was found in possession of the cookies,” Chaput said following the arrest. “They were macadamia nut.”

One word: awesome.

Falling

Winnipeg Police Service. Winnipeg Sun reporter Dean Pritchard tipped the city off to the story and video of police laying a flurry of fists and knees to an auto theft suspect on Friday. Then today, the other paper reported about a cop who is still on active duty despite a recent drunk driving conviction. And the response from police? Duck and cover.

Chief Keith McCaskill isn't saying anything, citing the fact his nephew is involved in the videotaped beating (and does a week get worse than having professional problems involving a family member?). But considering the black eye the force has received from these two very negative stories, shouldn't somebody — anybody — be standing up to comment on this? I'd suggest Mayor Sam Katz, but apparently he wants no part of this story, either, declining comment through his spokeswoman today. Weak.

Canadian Football League. In case you missed it, the league released its 2010 schedule. In it, Winnipeg plays Hamilton four times — in the first seven weeks. Plus a preseason game. Now I'm not a schedule-making expert, but having these two teams play this many times in such a short period of time seems like it will do little to promote interest amongst fans in those two cities. Plus, it makes the league look pretty Mickey Mouse.

Stock Watch is the weekly tracker on who has had a good week and those who have had a week to forget. Since I've been lazy and haven't gotten to this yet, this edition of the Stock Watch will actually review the last 10 days, not seven.

Rising

Theresa (Dawn to Dusk) Oswald. I haven't forgotten about that whole Brian Sinclair coverup from a year ago, but there's no denying the health minister had a good week trash-talking UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar. The champ, who will never be confused with being a member of MENSA, attempted to play politics by saying his less-than-perfect stay at Brandon Regional Hospital is proof Americans don't need Barack Obama's "socialized health care." Oswald rightly dismissed Lesnar's comments, then took a shot at the champ by saying the threshold of fame must be pretty low if he's considered a celebrity. Good zinger, Theresa.

Joe Mack. Joe Who? That's probably what most Bomber fans were thinking when the team announced he was the guy to replace Lyle Bauer. The guy definitely has some credentials, although they were from at least a decade ago (and closer to a quarter-century in the CFL). Time will tell whether this hire works out better than the whole Mike Kelly Experiment, although it'd be extremely hard to be worse.

Falling

Sam Katz. At the state of the city address on Tuesday, the mayor repeated a claim he's made of late that the NDP are organizing to take control of city hall via this fall's municipal election. Katz said this would be a horrible thing and that he will fight to protect our city hall from partisan politics. My question: considering most of the city councillors are already aligned with various political parties, is it really a big deal if that were to be formalized this time around? I don't think so.

Somehow I get the feeling Katz's concern has more to do with the fact the NDP are organizing against him than it is about protecting city hall from partisan politics.

Jenny Gerbasi. I'm told the city councillor predicted she'd be named my Jerk of the Week this Sunday, which marks the first time someone has actually lobbied for the prestigious title. I haven't made a decision yet on that front, but she is worthy of consideration after voting against the police helicopter plan seven years after voicing support for it. Gerbasi can use any sort of excuse she wants for not supporting it, but the perception is she only did it because she hates the current mayor and loved the previous one. And that, Jenny, is kinda weak.