- What are you doing, Albania? Everyone wants to be the cool
country, the one where people go to get baked on quality dank and do bong rips
on the good stuff even though it’s totally illegal there, bro. Albania is
zeroing in on that spot, what with the plumes of ganja smoke wafting about the
small but prosperous southern Albanian village of Lazarat, where a war is
a-brewin’. On one side is The Man, i.e. the Albanian government, vowing to rid Lazarat
of drug gangs that have turned the village into Europe's largest illegal
marijuana producer. On the other side are the gangs who have turned Lazarat
from a small farming community to a thriving drug town that rakes in billions
of euros every year from the plants openly cultivated in fields and house
gardens. A village of 5,000 that is believed to produce about 900 metric tons
of cannabis a year, worth some $6.1 billion could double Albania’s total gross
domestic product – ya know, if the small Balkan nation would follow Uruguay’s
example of legalizing the hippie lettuce. Clearly, the government does not
appreciate the flashy cars and expensive homes that have upped Lazarat’s game
of late. None of that happens without the drugs and the corresponding strong
demand in neighboring Greece and Italy, along with Albania’s burgeoning status
as a major transit point for other drugs coming in to Europe from Asia and
Latin America. In the past, the powers that be largely left Lazarat alone and
its rare police visits were met with gunfire. Sadly, the country’s new
Socialist regime came to power last year on a platform of combating the drug
trade. Oh, and this is all with the sellout goal of membership in the European
Union, which has rejected Albania three times due to its (alleged) organized
crime and corruption always cited as a stumbling block. Now, Albania has
deployed 500 police officers to impose law and order in Lazarat as part of a
nationwide anti-drug operation. Thankfully, the local drug lords are fighting
back with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar shells and heavy machine gun fire,
so this battle is far from over……….
- It was the only logical place for one of HBO’s
biggest hit series to go and so it is that “True Blood” will forge its way onto
the stage as a musical. Clearly, the tale of waitress and part-faerie Sookie Stackhouse
(Anna Paquin), who can hear people's thoughts, and her pals/vampires Bill
Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) is the sort of
story that theater goers eat up, so composer Nathan Barr got to work on the
idea. "This was something that I pitched to HBO and (show creator) Alan
Ball," Barr said. "I think we're really going to try to return to the
roots of the show.” Barr dropped his big news at this week’s “True Blood”
premiere screening in Hollywood, where the famous people in attendance got to
see the first episode of the seventh and final season of the series. Barr has
written the instrumental scores for every season of the show and he explained
that the musical will center on Stackhouse. "There are no
guarantees," Barr added, "but I think the direction we're heading in
is really exciting." Turning a show into a musical is no simple task and
while Barr is already hard at work on the project, he doesn’t expect to have a
workshop version of the musical ready until 2015. Moyer, who last year starred
in NBC's live broadcast of “The Sound of Music” opposite Carrie Underwood, is
lending his expertise to the effort and recently revealed that he helped Barr put
together some samples of the “True Blood” musical presented to HBO. The pair
are hoping that the show’s special blend of romance, suspense, mystery and
humor and its world where vampires and humans co-exist after vampires have come
out of the coffin thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood that
means they no longer need humans as a nutritional source translate well to
Broadway and beyond………
- Scud dodged, California. Your legislature stepped up and
did what needed done this week when it killed a a bill that would have made
yours the first state in the nation to
require warning labels on sodas and other sugary drinks. Sen. Bill Monning's
SB1000 failed by a narrow 8-7 vote because Democratic lawmakers doubted whether
a label would change consumer behavior. The bill needed a two-third majority to
pass and if it had, certain sodas, energy drinks and fruit drinks would have
included a label reading, "STATE OF CALIFORNIA SAFETY WARNING: Drinking
beverages with added sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth
decay." Similar warnings on cigarettes have clearly snuffed out tobacco
use around the United States, so it’s wonderful news for Mountain Dew, Monster
and their ilk that these warnings will not go on their packaging in California.
The proposed warnings, coincidentally were developed by public health advocates
using cigarette and alcohol warnings as a model. The real winners here – other than
everyone who enjoys a guilt-free YooHoo every day – is the beverage industry,
whose lobbyisys argued that the bill was unfair by not applying to other foods
and drinks, including lattes and chocolate milk. Monning foolishly contended
that warning labels would be the most effective tool for educating people about
the dangers of sugary drinks. "Changing behavior is the hardest challenge
in the world of medicine," Monning told his peer before the vote.
"But you can't start to even make a commitment to make behavior change if
you don't have the information." The only dorks on his side were squares
like the California Medical Association, the California Center for Public
Health Advocacy and groups devoted to improving the health of minorities. In
all fairness, Monning and his friends should have foreseen the same fate that
befell a similar bill introduced in Vermont earlier this year. Democratic
Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez smartly pointed out that taxes and public smoking bans
were likely more responsible for a decline in smoking than the aforementioned
warning labels and his bold words wee applauded by industry groups who always
appreciate corrupt, shady legislators helping them out………
- Scumbag domestic abusers aren’t just the blue-collar,
average-guy type of person who drinks Milwaukee’s Best and sits in the cheap
seats at baseball games. If you doubt the ability of famous, successful people
to be colossal d-bags who knock their ladies around and channel their inner Ike
Turner, then look no further than the disturbing case of former New York television news anchor Rob
Morrison, who was picked up by the men in blue this week for violating a
restraining order his wife received against him on account of his violent ways.
Rob Morrison was arrested in 2013 after being accused of choking his wife in
their Darien, Ct. home and whatever supposed assistance he may have received
since then for his anger issues does not seem to have tempered the ragings of
his inner misogynist. Darien police issued an arrest warrant after Morrison
allegedly violated that restraining order and made more than 100 phone calls to
his wife at her Darien residence over the course of several days in May. One
hundred calls in a month is probably pushing the limits of stalking, so 100
calls in a few days is definitely reaching crazy psychopath territory. This
tale has a bit of an “Anchorman” quality to it, as much like Ron Burgundy and
his wife Victoria, both Rob and Ashley Morrison are news anchors. It proves
that bitchin’ hair, bleached teeth and the ability to read fluently off a
teleprompter do not mean a person won't go full-on rage-a-holic with the right
provocation. Rob Morrison was charged with criminal violation of a protective
order and second-degree harassment and was released after posting bond. Stay
classy, Bobby……..
- Stupid baseball injuries are inevitable… so why not sit
back and enjoy them? Take some amusement in the plight of Oakland
A's left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who won't be pitching any time soon. He won't be
sidelined because of anything that happened on the field, nor did he tear
anything or strain anything in the weight room. No, this future Mensa member broke
his right hand when he punched a chair Monday night after a 14-8 loss to the
Texas Rangers. With his shattered non-pitching hand, the team had no choice but
to "I just let my emotions
take over me, and I did something stupid," Pomeranz said. "It sucks.
Obviously, I didn't mean for it to happen. It sucks because I want to play, I
want to pitch. I'm trying to win games and help the team out. Obviously, I'm
not helping the team out when I do something stupid like that." Any
explanation that includes multiple repetitions of the word obviously is a sure
sign that you really f*cked up big and as always, at least there was a good
reason for a dude to go all Floyd Mayweather on an inanimate object. Pomeranz struggled
in his shortest outing since joining the A's rotation in early May, allowing eight
hits and eight runs -- seven earned -- with two walks and four strikeouts. "Hopefully,
I'll be back as soon as possible," Pomeranz added. "This is the first
time I've broken a bone, though, so I don't know. I play it over and over in my
head -- wish I hadn't done it. I was walking up to the clubhouse and was just
mad." Oh, well as long as you have such a great reason for doing it, “I
was mad” is a wonderful explanation and it fixes everything. It makes up for
the fact that a first-place team will be down a member of its rotation because
he has the personal discipline and anger control of a 5-year-old who is mad
that his parents won't buy him every toy in Aisle 14 when they make a trip to
Toys ‘R’ Us on a weekday evening……..
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