- And the other shoe finally drops. As rumors of a big U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcement (and aren’t they all big?) swirled over the past week, word on the street had the announcement centering on caffeinated alcoholic beverages. Those rumors proved true Wednesday as the FDA informed the manufacturers of seven caffeinated alcoholic beverages Wednesday that their drinks are a "public health concern" and can't stay on the market in their current form. The FDA has spent the past year analyzing the situation, but that doesn’t mean they are giving the affected companies a similar amount of time to address the problem. In fact, the agency has given the companies 15 days to either reformulate their products or face possible seizure under federal law. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the agency's principal deputy commissioner, made the announcement and based it on the fact that experts have said the caffeine used in the beverages can mask the effects of alcohol, leaving drinkers unaware of how intoxicated they are. "FDA does not find support for the claim that the addition of caffeine to these alcoholic beverages is 'generally recognized as safe,' which is the legal standard," Sharfstein explained. "To the contrary, there is evidence that the combinations of caffeine and alcohol in these products pose a public health concern." The announcement had swift and serious consequences, as one of the companies that received warning letters, Phusion Projects of Chicago, Ill., which makes Four Loko -- a drink nicknamed "blackout in a can" by some users, announced that it was dropping caffeine and two other ingredients, guarana and taurine, from Four Loko. The company cited "a difficult and politically-charged regulatory environment," which is a snotty, corporate-speak way of saying that we’ll change, but we won't like it. Also affected by the new policy are San Diego, California-based United Brands, which manufactures the Joose and Max brands; Portland, Oregon's Charge Beverages Corp., which sells Core High Gravity HG, Core High Gravity HG Orange, and Lemon Lime Core Spiked; and New Century Brewing of Boston, Massachusetts, which makes Moonshot. Not all of these companies have taken kindly to the crackdown and New Century Brewing insists that its Moonshot drinks are “not beer, they're juice, with 200 grams of sodium and artificial everything.” It is important to note that the FDA has no authority to ban the products outright, but it can regulate the products that are on the market. That makes good sense, given the fact that a 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko contains either 6 or 12 percent alcohol by volume, depending on state regulations. So simmer down, caffe-beer makers……….
- It is important to be careful when talking about a person afflicted with bipolar disorder because those dealing with it have incredibly difficult lives and so do their loved ones. Unless and until you have dealt with a bipolar person, you can't even begin to fathom how hard their life can be. Having said that……it’s at least somewhat humorous that of all television shows that could drive a bipolar disorder-sufferer to fire a shotgun at his television, of course it was Dancing With the (D-List) Stars. That show is more than enough to infuriate anyone with even the most mediocre of standards when it comes to their entertainment choices and to be honest, I’d probably want to unleash some major violence on my television if I was ever forced to watch the show. So I can very easily understand how Steven N. Cowan, bipolar-afflicted man from Vermont, Wis., became angry enough to fire a shotgun at the television in his house Monday evening while watching the performance night of Dancing With the Stars. Cowan’s wife fled their home and phoned police, saying her husband was intoxicated, armed, and threatening to commit suicide. Police arrived at the residence and after 15 tense hours of negotiations, they were able to coax Cowan out of the house. He’s been charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, but one would have to imagine that if he is indeed diagnosed with bipolar disorder, those charges will be dropped. Apparently the tipping point for Cowan’s anger was his belief that Bristol Palin is a member of the show’s cast because her mother - the vapid, nutty and frighteningly idiotic Sarah Palin - is a well-known political figure and not because of her own dancing ability. Thankfully, the only casualty in the situation is the television or wall in the Cowan home that the bullet struck, which is as happy an ending as can be hoped for in a situation like this………
- Maybe all of the jokes weren’t really jokes after all. When Greg Oden left Ohio State early to enter the NBA Draft, his bearded visage and overall personality led people to crack wise about how old he really was. Jokes about him being a grandfather and on the verge of collecting Social Security were all the rage and became so commonplace that they ceased being funny after about a day. However, Oden’s NBA career has done nothing if not back up the fact that he has, if nothing else, the body of an 85-year-old. He underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee before playing a single NBA game and missed the entire 2007-08 season as a result. He returned to play 62 games the following season and at times flashed the promise that led Portland to draft him first overall in the 2007 draft. However, the injury bug bit again in December and he fractured his left patella in a game, leading to him missing the rest of the 2009-10 season after playing in just 21 games. He hasn’t taken to the court in game action since then, but the Trail Blazers had hoped he would return some time this season to give their front court a boost. Those hopes were doused Wednesday when the team announced that will undergo microfracture surgery on his left knee Friday and will miss the remainder of the 2010-11 season. A news conference was scheduled for midnight ET in Portland to deliver the grim news. Ironically, the microfracture surgery is unrelated to the fractured patella and is necessary because an MRI showed damaged cartilage on the surface of his femur. When he’s been able to actually get on the court, Oden has posted solid career NBA averages of 9.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 1.43 blocked shots in 82 games over parts of two seasons…..ironic because 82 games is the number of games in a full season for guys who can actually stay healthy. More and more, it’s looking like Oden will never be one of those guys and at least in terms of his basketball career, could go down as one of the biggest draft busts of all-time………..
- Dammit, Iran! You can't just go around accusing every foreigner who visits your sand trap of a country of being a spy. Literally, accusations of Americans, Europeans, Asians, Australians, South Americans, being spies looking to bring down Iran’s totalitarian regime are becoming really tired, really quickly. The latest such allegations are levied at two German journalists who interviewed the son and lawyer of a woman condemned to die by stoning with espionage. "Their reports and propaganda in Tabriz proved that they are in the country for spying," Malek Ajdar Shafiee, the head of the Justice Department of East Azarbaijan. All we know about the two alleged spies at this point is that they are a reporter and photojournalist, arrested last month in the northwest city of Tabriz after they interviewed the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was convicted of adultery in 2006 and sentenced to death by stoning. The positions of each side in the case are well-known, with the Iranian government insisting that Ashtiani was involved in her husband's murder in addition to her adultery and Ashtiani and her family disputing those claims. But anyone who dares oppose the mighty regime of dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an enemy of the state these days and the two Germans probably should have known as much when they did the interview. An interview run Tuesday on Iranian state-run television quoted one of the men saying that they were "tricked" by an activist with the German-based International Committee Against Stoning, into entering the country illegally. The unidentified source told the television station that the committee's spokeswoman, Mina Ahadi, used the journalists for her own gain. "Mina Ahadi sent me to Iran because she knew she would benefit from my arrest, and I'll sue her when I get back to Germany," the man said. The only real fair treatment the two supposed spies have received thus far has come in the forms of two meetings with a German diplomat based in the embassy in Tehran. Iranian courts have said Ashtiani's case is still under review, but leave it to Ahmadinejad and his crew to take the situation and capitalize on it to extend their web of oppression, paranoia and ruling by terror………
- People of Aspen, allow me to put this simply: Pick up your dog crap. It’s not difficult and if you’re going to walk your dog in any of the beautiful, scenic parks in and around one of the country’s most picturesque cities, the least you can do is carry a plastic bag and scoop up your pooch’s waste when they drop a deuce on a sidewalk, trail or grassy knoll. I say this on behalf of Aspen and Pitkin County's open space department, which has been forced to hire a third park ranger in preparation for next summer as part of its ongoing effort to make sure people clean up after their dogs. "Dog poop is a huge issue," said Open Space Land Steward Gary Tennenbaum. "More people are picking it [dog poop] up, but leaving the bags. Now we've got to get them to remember to pick up the bag.” The department’s two current rangers have been doing their best, but they just can't handle the problem on their own. "They've been working with the community for six years with some success," said Tennenbaum. However, the department has been snatching up more and more property and building additional trails, which is good in a sense but also creates more for the two rangers to police. Thus, they will be hiring that third ranger to work May to October - peak pooping season on the trails. Rangers don’t actually clean up the messes, but they do enforce the rules and sometimes, a nice, swift kick in the butt is what dog owners truly need……….
No comments:
Post a Comment