Wednesday, February 22, 2012

How to deal with prison riots, Demi Lovato resurfaces and drive-thru blessings

- Anyone who has been asking themselves what the next step on Demi Lovato’s road to recovery from eating disorders and other personal issues will be won't have to wonder much longer. Like anyone dealing with serious personal issues and crises, Lovato is going to share her struggles with the world in an hour-long special on MTV. “Demi Lovato: Stay Strong” is set to air March 6 at 10 p.m. and it will pack all of Lovato’s issues in coping with bulimia and self-injury into a nice, tight one-hour package. “I wanted to share my story but knew it had to be honest, it had to be real,” Lovato said in a statement. Who ever could have imagined that a child star who was on Disney Channel and seemed well on her way to superstardom would come off the rails later in life? Lovato attracted attention for the wrong reasons in October 2010 after dropping out of a world tour with the Jonas Brothers to enter rehab for her many issues. She said in a magazine earlier this year that during that period she was “self-medicating” to battle her issues “like drinking and using [drugs], like a lot of teens do to numb their pain.”
The difference is most teens don’t have the pressures and demands of a recording artist/actress’ career on top of everything else. The MTV special will center on Lovato’s life after rehab and how she’s preparing to go back on the road to face her fears. It will include scenes from her Thanksgiving back home in Texas and preparation for her tour, along with shots from her revisiting her in a treatment center and talking to recovering peers about her experiences. Will she ever regain the true glory of starring in Disney Channel movies and singing bad pop music? Maybe, maybe not, but here’s hoping she is able to put her life back together all the same…………..


- Have a moment for a consultation on the side, Indonesian police? You may believe you did the right thing by storming a prison on the resort island of Bali on Wednesday to regain control after inmates burned offices and seized weapons in a riot, but what did you really accomplish? Prison riots are great for one very simple reason: If guards and prison officials can get out of the way, the situation boils down to convicted criminals maiming, burning and killing one another and destroying the place they will have to live in for the next 10 years to life. Bearing that in mind, why bother to put officers’ lives on the line by bum-rushing the prison just because some convicted felons go riotous with it and shot two of their fellow prisoners? That’s exactly what happened at Kerobokan jail, where two prisoners were shot and wounded before police intervened. The prison holds 1,200 inmates and is about six miles north of Kuta beach, one of the biggest holiday destinations on an island that attracts tourists from around the world. With 60 foreign prisoners at the jail, one might assume they would be targets in the riot, but Indonesian police insist none of the foreigners were among the casualties. Among those outsiders are 12 Australian prisoners, including convicted drug traffickers Schapelle Corby and the so-called Bali Nine. The riot broke out late on Tuesday when inmates attacked a guard post near the entrance, forcing officers to flee. Police responded to the scene and shot two inmates in the legs when an angry mob wielding sticks and throwing bricks charged at them. Fifteen minutes of gunfire echoed from inside the prison at around 7 a.m. Saturday, although police insisted those sounds were merely warning shots. Even after police claimed to have regained control, several inmates could still be seen at a guard tower in a different part of the prison, shouting to anyone who would listen. Long live Kerobokan's inmates," the prisoners shouted. The response from national police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution wasn’t exactly impressive. "We are trying to make the inmates go back into their blocks," Nasution said. To quell the riot, authorities shut down electricity to reduce movement inside the prison and sealed off surrounding streets Water cannons, police trucks and Red Cross vehicles rolled onto the scene as the riot dragged on. Of course, police would have been much smarter just to get out of the way and allow the prisoners to burn themselves out…………


- To the cynic, T-Mobile might come across as a tad bitter. Following its failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile is actively seeking to ruin another tech titan’s day by filing a request urging the federal government to block Verizon from its planned purchase of spectrum from cable companies. The request seeks to stop a proposed spectrum deal with Verizon involving Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications. T-Mobile argued in its filing that Verizon’s acquisition with cable companies would place an “excessive concentration” of wireless spectrum in Verizon’s hands. Whether the Federal Communications Commission agrees with the nation’s No. 4 cellphone carrier remains to be seen, but the situation underscores just how a) bent T-Mobile is over the FCC shutting down its planned merger and b) intense the battle for spectrum is. Wireless carriers want to build and expand their networks and there is only so much bandwidth to go around. Back in December Verizon reached an agreement to buy wireless spectrum from the cable companies for $3.6 billion and also struck a separate agreement that would allow the cable companies to market Verizon services, and vice versa. Several federal legislators raised concerns about the deal and noted that Verizon and Comcast, in particular, were working as though they were partners. “These joint-marketing agreements will turn these rival companies into partners, rather than competitors,” Sen. Al Franken, (D-Minn.) wrote in a letter to the F.C.C. earlier this month. “I fear this will ultimately mean less competition, less choice, and higher prices for consumers.” Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on T-Mobile’s attempted techno-c*ck block………


- Want your holy blessing but don’t have the time to actually attend church? The Mount Healthy United Methodist Church in Mount Healthy, Ohio has the solution for your quandary. The church is offering ashes on the go for Ash Wednesday, inviting Methodists who need a blessing on the go to come on down to the 7600 block of Perry Street to be blessed and have their forehead marked with ashes without having to exit their car. "A couple of churches in the United States have tried it before and there was some pushback because people said, 'You need to come to a sanctuary and do this,' but I'm not really sure that's what Jesus would have said," said Rev. Patricia Cook. The idea may be fresh in Mount Holy, but Cook said she hadn't received any complaints or negative comments yet. While it is a new idea, one can’t help but think that maybe Mount Healthy United Methodist Church is a step behind the times, along with every other church that has not made the next logical step in the quick blessing business. How about an “Ash App” that allows a person to be blessed digitally and not have to go to church at all? Sure, you could drive through the church parking lot between 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday or the old-fashioned way by attending service at 7 p.m. You could also download an app if one existed, get blessed in between tweets and be on with your day. Done and done…………


- Life after basketball hasn’t been über-successful for future Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq retired from the NBA last offseason and moved on to the logical next step in his career as a co-host for TNT’s NBA studio show. He hasn’t exactly raised the level of quality on the show and most who comment on such things point to Shaq’s oft-indecipherable, low-pitched remarks as a drag on the show as opposed to a positive addition. Attempting to bounce off a mini-trampoline in the studio and dunk on a 10-foot basket during a recent broadcast didn’t help matters as Shaq got no elevation from the trampoline and ended up flat on the ground. But could redemption be on the horizon for the big fella? Not unless arguing through the media about whether you’re going to compete at WrestleMania 28 qualifies as redemption, it’s not. Depending on whom you believe, O’Neal will or won’t be competing at the signature event for World Wrestling Entertainment on April 1. O’Neal claimed during an appearance at the Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards, that he would be competing at WrestleMania 28 on April 1 in Miami. “Yes I’ll be there!” he exclaimed when asked on if he would be wrestling at the event. In a world where Twitter carries the news to every corner of the globe instantaneously without time for pesky details like confirming facts, speculation immediately began as to what ‘roided-up wrassler WWE would pit against Shaq. The logical choice was the ‘World’s Biggest Athlete,’ Big Show. With alleged measurements of 7’0 and 441 pounds, Big Show would be a sizeable foe for O’Neal…..if the match is actually going to happen. When asked about O’Neal’s claim, WWE officials insisted he is currently not scheduled to wrestle or appear at WrestleMania 28. That could merely be posturing and building hype for the match and using semantics to WWE’s advantage if a deal is imminent but not official, but it could also be O’Neal opening his mouth without thinking….again……….

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