- Do flash mobs look quite as cool and fun now, now that someone has been shot and hospitalized because of these insipid mass gatherings wherein a bunch of losers with nothing better to do organize, rehearse and agree to meet at a predetermined place and time for an organized song-and-dance routine to a song that inevitably sucks in any form, no matter who sings it? Didn’t think so and if you disagree, then you’re probably one of the losers who takes part in flash mobs. Maybe that will change after Saturday’s scene on the Venice boardwalk, where an online effort to pull together a flash mob at the shoreline basketball courts along Ocean Front Walk ended in tragedy, with one man in critical condition with a gunshot wound. "Venice beach bball ct going up tomorrow," read the Twitter alert, which was retweeted and embellished throughout the day. A member of a neighborhood watch group notified police of the planned assembly and the crowd around the basketball courts grew steadily throughout the afternoon. Police called in reinforcements, but even they had no idea of what was about to happen. At approximately 6:30 p.m., six to eight shots rang out at 17th Avenue and Ocean Front Walk and the lone victim was struck in the side of the head and in his side before running half a block to an alley where he collapsed. He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and listed in critical condition. As the shots rang out, the flash mob quickly turned into straight-up mob, fleeing the scene in all directions. “It looked like a human tidal wave," said Spencer L. Sirlin, who witnessed the attack. Some people hid in nearby shops and others packed into bus stops, desperate for the first thing on wheels to take them as far away as possible from the scene. Sadly, some members of the flash mob lingered or ran backwards as they fled the scene so they could see the action. It was not the first flash mob incident in the area, but it was the first to end in violence, police said. Local merchants worry the incident will impugn Venice’s growing popularity with tourists, although scaring away people who come to gawk at the perpetual freak show that is Venice Beach will probably take more than one shooting. No arrests have been made in the case, but police say they are still investigating………….
- Never, ever did anyone see this coming. On the list of things you need to be sitting down when you hear them, this story is at the peak. Lindsay Lohan has……wait for it……been removed from consideration from a movie role. Lohan, the picture of reliability, consistency and laying low, was reportedly a shoo-in for the role of Victoria Gotti in the upcoming film Gotti: Three Generations. She appeared to be a mortal lock to star alongside John Travolta - playing John Gotti Sr. - and even appeared at the movie's Apr. 12 press conference looking eerily like Victoria Gotti. Travolta himself praised her at the time and spoke as if she had already signed on for the project. "I always thought she was gorgeous and talented," Travolta remarked. Yet somewhere in between that press conference and Apr. 19, Lohan went from sure thing to persona non grata. Producer Marc Fiore made it official Tuesday, saying Lohan is no longer under consideration for the role. "We are not talking any further about Lindsay playing Victoria," Fiore declared. "She is no longer being considered. The talks have stopped. We are going to meet with other people [for the role]." The obvious question is why Fiore changed his mind on Lohan. After all, it’s not like she has a known drug habit that could pop up at any……never mind. But it’s not like she’s a raging alcoholic and clubber who could go off the deep end at the drop of……oops. Yeah, but she doesn’t have a history of flaking on films she’s committed to or going into rehab at the worst possible time and sabotaging an entire……damn. Okay, so there are about a thousand reasons Lohan is a bad fit for any film, to the point that last year, an indie film wanted nothing to do with her because she was too radioactive. All of her personal and legal troubles would make her incredibly expensive for any studio to insure and when the choice is between paying a substantial price for that insurance and hoping for the best or finding a more reliable, possibly less talented actress who will definitely show up and stay out of trouble, most studios will elect for the latter. Fiore refused to elaborate and said the requisite kind things about the woman he had just, in essence, fired. "She a wonderful person," he raved. "Her legal case has nothing to do with it. We just couldn't reach terms." Uh-huh, sure. Also out is director Nick Cassavetes, who allegedly pulled out due to scheduling conflicts. Suffice it to say that Gotti: Three Generations does not seem like the most stable production at the moment. Perhaps it was actually the perfect fit for Lohan in that respect……….
- Successful athletes can differ in their makeup and personality, depending on their sport, experience and other factors, but one constant in all greats no matter what game they play is an ability to handle challenges and adversity without allowing the moment to overwhelm them. Whether it’s a tough opponent, a hostile crowd or unfavorable weather conditions, the best of the best find a way to overcome and succeed in spite of adversity. Without knowing too much about him as a baseball player, it would seem reasonable to say that Mississippi State baseball player Brent Brownlee doesn’t exactly possess this prerequisite for athletic success. Basing such a judgment off a single game is risky, but not too many players have taken mild verbal abuse from a hostile crowd and responded with an obscene gesture, so maybe it’s not as much of a risk. Brownlee let fly with the one-fingered salute to the crowd after recording the final out in a 5-3 MSU win over Arkansas Sunday afternoon. He caught a fly ball hit to him in left field and as he headed toward the infield to celebrate the win with his teammates, he hit a group of fans who had taunted him during the game with a middle-fingered salute. Mississippi State coach John Cohen suspended Brownlee for one game for the incident and tweeted out an explanation of what happened later in the day. “This was (a) unfortunate incident. No amount of verbal abuse or threats of physical violence from fans justifies Brent’s reaction,” Cohen wrote. “He’s a model citizen and he feels embarrassed. I know that if he could take back those few seconds he would in a heartbeat but he’s going to take responsibility for his actions and he’ll pay a tough price for that. I will say that Brent Brownlee’s track record up to this point has been flawless. It would take a lot to provoke Brent Brownlee,” the coach said in a subsequent statement. Wait……verbal abuse and threats of physical violence? Where was this game played, the University of Arkansas campus or the Oakland Coliseum in front of the spiked-shoulder-pad-wearing Raider fan freaks in the Black Hole? Who’s going to college baseball games other than the parents and girlfriends of players anyhow? Were they the ones threatening Brownlee or did some beered-up frat dudes get into the stadium and let loose with a few threats? Either way, I doubt the threats were severe enough to warrant an obscene gesture and if they were, then tell stadium security or the event staff and let them take care of it. Every stadium, big or small, has an announcment before the game stressing sportsmanship and reminding the crowd that verbal and physical threats against players, coaches and officials will not be tolerated. In the aftermath of his embarrassing moment, Brownlee said in an official statement released Monday: “I apologize for my actions after the game Sunday. I let my emotions get the most of me in the heat of the moment. Those actions in no way represent me, my team and my university, and I regret letting so many people down.” Don’t worry, Brent. It’s college baseball, so you didn’t let that many people down…………
- Why all the hate for people who like to pop a pain pill or five from time to time, Food and Drug Administration? Apparently, prescription drug abuse is a crisis in the United States - at least according to federal government officials - and they plan to do something about it. Tuesday’s release of a new FDA report titled “Epidemic: Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis,” is allegedly the start of a major crackdown on this epidemic. The report recommends a four-part strategy to reduce painkiller overdoses: 1) increase education, particularly among parents and children, about prescription drug abuse, 2) monitor “doctor-shoppers,” a term for abusers who get multiple prescriptions for drugs, 3) encourage safe disposal programs of unneeded or expired medications and 4) regulate or shut down “pill mills”—pain clinics known for dispensing upwards of hundreds of pills per patient. Why all of the uproar, you ask? Is it simply because a few high-profile athletes have admitted to painkiller addictions over the past several year? Not according to the hardliners at the FDA. They point to the fact that nearly 12,000 people died from an opioid overdose in 2007, up from about 3,000 people in 1999, citing the latest statistics available from the Centers for Disease Control. In other words, overdoses are trending upward and both the FDA and CDC (no word on the FBI, FDIC, CIA, NSA OR NOAA) don’t like that trend. "Unintentional drug overdose is a growing epidemic in the U.S. and is now the leading cause of injury death in 17 states," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a release. "There are effective and emerging strategies out there to address this problem." The report also identifies the means most painkiller addicts use to procure their pills, with 70 percent receiving their most recent dose from a friend or family member, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Ten percent purchased their pills, while 5 percent of users admitted to stealing them. To combat painkiller abuse, the FDA has created a simple set of guidelines that will likely be ignored but might actually be helpful if anyone paid attention to them. The first guideline instructs individuals not to flush their pills down the toilet unless the label on their container explicitly says that is acceptable. Secondly, take unfinished prescriptions to a community drug take-back program, perhaps even on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day (April 30). This option seems especially dubious, as the current economic crisis in the United States combined with the availability of unused pain medication would beg for a person to pawn off their unused pills for a few extra bucks. The last suggestion is pouring the pills into a plastic bag and if they are solid, adding water to dissolve them before filling the bag with kitty litter, dirt or coffee grinds—anything to make it look undesirable to children or pets, before sealing the bag and throwing it in the trash. Honestly, this all sounds like a giant pain in the butt and you know what’s good for that sort of pain…………
- The words riot and elections are becoming more and more synonymous these days, no? If your country is holding elections and no one is rioting, chances are you’re not doing it correctly. Before you attempt to refute that suggestion, turn your gaze toward Turkey, where protesters clashed with police in southeast Turkey for the second day Wednesday after several Kurdish parliamentary candidates were disqualified from June national-election ballots. The clashes left one demonstrator dead and dozens more injured. Thousands of demonstrators fought with police in Diyabakir, the largest city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, over the disqualification of their candidates. The unrest led Democracy Party, or BDP, co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas to cancel an emergency meeting with President Abdullah Gul in Ankara. "One person was shot in the chest with a bullet during the police intervention. We also heard that more than one person is wounded and hundreds have been arrested," a BDP spokesman said. Police refused to confirm the death, but the upheaval was enough to convince Demirtas to cancel a meeting, ironically enough, that had been called to discuss the Turkish election commission's decision Monday to disqualify 12 candidates, including seven from the BDP, due to allegations of previous terrorism-related convictions. Why anyone wouldn’t want a convicted terrorist helping to run their country, I’m not sure. No one is messing with a country run by maniacal psychopaths will to kill indiscriminately, that’s for certain. The violence in Diyabakir began just as tensions across Turkey appeared to be calming down following Tuesday’s decision. Protestors, as is their nature, had no interest in waiting for the election commission to honor its promise to consider appeals to its decision after all seven BDP candidates filed formal complaints. Other parties voiced concern over the ban and President Gul offered to meet with the BDP leadership late Wednesday. His office also released a brief statement saying: "A legal and political effort must be made to solve the problem." The initial government response was received relatively well, with Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey's main opposition party, labeling the election commission's softening its initial stance as a "positive" development. But for now, it’s riot time…………
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