February 2008 - Page 14 of 15 - Common Sense Evaluation

Britney Spears Hospitalization Result Of Meth Binge

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Feb 042008

Now this makes more sense than anything else that has been reported. It appears that Britney Spears’ problems may have less to do with a bipolar disorder, and more to do with drug abuse. This is from The National Enquirer:

METH BINGE LED TO BRITNEY HOSPITALIZATION

Britney Spears had been on a 24-hour meth binge before she was rushed to the hospital, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

Ironically, she was desperately trying to stay awake — because she was terrified that if she fell asleep, her family would “drag her off to a mental institution,” according to a close source.

The drama began at 2 a.m. Wednesday when Britney and Sam Lutfi checked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and she began doing meth.

In addition to her mental problems the ENQUIRER has learned that Britney is addicted to crystal meth, and details her addiction in a front page story this week.

Meanwhile, her meth habit played a key role in her recent hospitalization and friends told her mother, Lynne, that she hadn’t slept since last Saturday.

Her drug-taking went on all day, interrupted only by brief dashes to her home.

Secret arrangements for her hospitalization had been made — but no-one wanted it to happen at the hotel.

Finally, at 8 pm, photographer boyfriend Adnan Ghalib persuaded her to go home.

“The doctor came over but Britney was very spacey,” says a source.

“She was eerily quiet — when they called her name she wouldn’t even look at them. It was like she was deaf.

“A psychiatrist who came to examine her put the hospital plan into operation.”

Kirkland Beer: Costco To Sell Its Own Beer

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Feb 032008

I hope it comes in a 250 pack!

Costco looking at selling own line of beer

Costco Wholesale Corp. has applied to sell its own brand of beer, according to Bloomberg News.

The Kirkland Signature label applications for pale ale, amber ale, hefeweizen and a lager were approved last week by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Bloomberg reported Costco already offers Kirkland Signature wines and is one of the top sellers of wine in the U.S.

Costco to Become a New Name in Battle of the Brews

The big brewers have fretted that decades of copycat, chucklehead advertising has reduced their biggest-selling brands to indistinguishable commodities in the eyes of many consumers. Now they may be reaping what they’ve sown: Costco, one of the nation’s largest warehouse retailers, is readying its first line of private-label beers.

One analyst said said the rollout of Kirkland Signature Hefeweizen is most likely to hurt sub-premium brands.

The retailer has filed label applications with the federal Tax and Trade Bureau for a Kirkland Signature Hefeweizen, amber ale and pale ale. The beers will be brewed by San Francisco-area craft brewer Gordon Biersch, which also brews private-label beers for the Trader Joe’s supermarket chain.

Big-box stores such as Costco have been a lucrative source of case sales for brewers and any additional competition in the channel will not be appreciated at a time when those brewers are struggling to increase sales.

Who will suffer more?
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Mark Swartzberg said the rollout’s impact is most likely to hurt sub-premium brands such as Anheuser-Busch’s Busch and Natural Light, Miller Brewing’s Milwaukee’s Best Light and Coors’ Keystone. That category of beers is underperforming overall as of late, he said. “It’s a very cluttered space, and price and promotions tend to matter more there.”

Still, while private-label brands generally tend to compete with the low end of their categories, sub-premium brands don’t have much of a presence at Costco, which tends to sell higher-end items at bulk prices. Craft-beer styles such as Hefeweizen might appeal more to drinkers who would otherwise be buying Michelob or Sam Adams than they would to the typical purchaser of a Busch Light 30 pack.

That suggests that it’s premium brands that might hurt more from the Costco entry. “If you ask the brand guys if they’d rather the private labels didn’t exist, they’d say yes,” said Mr. Swartzberg.

Could grow the market
Then there’s the possibility that the new entry could simply grow the market. The presence of a private label might actually cause shoppers to buy more beer than they would have otherwise, he said.

A call to Costco’s corporate office was not returned, but the retailer has been offering private-label wines — including a Champagne and a New Zealand sauvignon blanc from the heralded Marlborough region — and spirits for some time.

The Kirkland label application — first reported by Miller Brewing Co’s corporate blog, BrewBlog — coincides with a court ruling against Costco yesterday in a long-running dispute between the retailer and Washington state beer wholesalers. A federal appeals court rejected a lower court’s ruling that Washington statutes banning certain volume discounts and preventing retailers from taking beer directly from a warehouse. The decision strengthened the position of beer distributors, who have been in the somewhat awkward role of warring in court with their biggest customers.

Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich In An Epic Drum Battle

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Feb 032008

This weekend’s entertainment is from a 1966 episode of The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. The clip features two of the world’s greatest drum virtuosos, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. If you are a fan of Neil Peart, you’ll be interested to know that he was influenced by both of these drumming legends.

U.S. Intelligence Agents Find Letters From Osama bin Laden

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Feb 022008

This is being reported from the Northeast Intelligence Network webpage.

According to information circulating in intelligence circles and being reported by some Arab media sources, U.S. intelligence officials recovered at least five letters bearing the signature and official seal of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

The letters, each handwritten in Arabic, were reportedly found mixed with other documents, including bomb-making instructional materials, during a raid on an Islamic compound located in a remote border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. All of the correspondence was dated last December and each appeared to be addressed to bin Laden followers operating in that area.

One of the letters was reportedly addressed to Mansoor Dadallah, an Islamic terrorist in Helmand, a southern province of Afghanistan. In the letter, Bin Laden reportedly offers condolences to Dadallah for the death of his brother, Mullah Dadallah, a Taliban leader who was killed last year in a US air strike. Following his brother’s death, Mansoor Dadullah appeared on Al-Jazeera television and claimed that he had received a letter from Bin Laden. The letter addressed to Dadullah also urges the Taliban to increase their attacks against NATO troops deployed in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Gisele Bundchen Says She’ll Run Naked Through Mid-Town Manhattan If The Patriots Lose

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Feb 022008

If you’re not sure to route for in the Sunday’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, this news might just help you make up your mind.

Bundchen: ‘If the Pats Lose, I’ll Run Naked Through Mid-Town Manhattan’

Winning isn’t everything, particularly if losing means you get to glimpse Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen striding naked down the Great White Way. A trip to the Super Bowl has suddenly presented the Patriots with an unexpected dilemma: a choice between a perfect record and beholding the perfect body, unclad and in motion.

In the aftermath of their 21-12 victory over the San Diego Chargers, Tom Brady’s celebrated girlfriend startled onlookers by promising to run naked down Broadway in the unlikely event the Patriots lose to the Arizona-bound N.Y. Giants — unlikely until the very moment she parted her full lips and made the surprise announcement.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d have a problem motivating a team heading into the Super Bowl,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “Gisele opens her big mouth and look at ’em — half the guys are staring into space, the others are leering like they’ve just stumbled onto their uncle’s private porn stash. And who can blame them — that’s one fine specimen. But this is a completely new wrinkle … though wrinkle is probably the wrong word, as I’ve seen Gisele in a thong, and trust me, that butt’s tighter than a fine-tuned snare drum.”

Most of the players interviewed refuse to let the indelible image of Gisele Bundchen gamboling gazelle-like though the streets — if a gazelle were 5-11 with perfect breasts and generated enough heat to thaw 30 square miles of permafrost — to become a distraction.

“To be perfectly honest, she’s been a distraction the moment we saw pics of her on the beach with T.B. in the offseason,” said linebacker Mike Vrabel. “Those legs, that butt, those lips. Thankfully we’ve got football to release the sexual tension. Bringing an erection onto the field is never a good idea, particularly for a linebacker who relies on lateral pursuit to be effective.”

When she learned of the players’ reaction to her provocative remark, Bundchen immediately tried walking it back.

“It was a mistake and I’m sorry I said it. I don’t know what I could have been thinking — Midtown Manhattan is a parking lot any time of day or night. It’d take 30 minutes just to make it from the Theater District to 34th Street. And what if I ran into the Naked Cowboy and had to pose for pictures with every out-of-town Tom, Dick and Harry? Tack on another 30 minutes, easily. How ’bout I simply flashed my breasts from a billboard in Times Square and call it a day … will that work?”

Not for Tedy Bruschi it won’t.

“To me, a perfect season is winning the Superbowl AND getting to see Gisele naked. So no matter how you slice it, a perfect season is no longer possible. We win, we have to live with the thought of Gisele’s legs wrapped around Tom’s neck, rolling around on some beach somewhere. And if we lose, everything we’ve accomplished is out the window. I wonder if Gisele has a sister*. What’s the temperature in Rio this time of year?”

Giants coach Tom Coughlin suspects there’s more to Bundchen’s announcement than meets the eye and detects a whiff of classic Belichick gamesmanship.

“Belichick is behind this, I can smell it. He wants us going into the game thinking his team is distracted and conflicted. First off, I’m not going to have the girlfriend of an opposing quarterback run naked on our home turf. Second, if Bill wants to play that game, fine. If the Patriots win, our offensive line will run buck naked through the streets of Foxborough. That’s over 1,000 pounds of highly repulsive man-meat. Your move, Belichick.”

Rich Peltz, a Giants fan from Weehauken, N.J., captured the sentiment shared by football fans around the country who’ve been waiting and hoping for the insufferably smug Patriots to stumble.

“I haven’t been to a Broadway show in over 20 years. But Gisele Bundchen naked, with Tom Brady watching helplessly on the sidelines, now that’s one show I’d pay Broadway prices to see.”

* Gisele has five sisters, one for each of the Patriots’ starting linebacker corps, with two to divide up among the team’s secondary: Raquel, Graziela, Gabriela, Rafaela and her fraternal twin Patrícia.

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