Natasha Marie Harris, 30, died on February 25, 2010 in Invercargill on New Zealand’s south island.

Her partner Christopher Hodgkinson claimed it was a result of drinking too much Coca-Cola.

On Thursday he told the inquest Natasha had been unwell leading up to her death and had no energy, but the idea Coca-Cola caused the problem had never crossed their minds.
Mr Hodgkinson told the court that she had been unwell up to a year before her death, including vomiting six times a week, but they believed it was caused by the stress of looking after her eight children and gynaecological problems.

“She drank at least 10 litres a day,” he said. “The first thing she would do in the morning was have a drink of Coke and the last thing she would do in the day was have a drink of Coke by her bed.’’

Most know Andrew Breitbart as the outspoken political activist and most news media are saying as much as well, but he was a true new-media pioneer and innovator. He ran the Drudge Report as the only other editor besides founder Matt Drudge for years. He created the Huffington Post for Arianna Huffington. Finally, after those major successes he built his own empire with his own name with the Breitbart network of websites.

I’m seeing a lot of “glad he’s finally gone” posts on forums, blogs, twitter and tumblr and they don’t speak well for their authors. Not because it’s always in bad taste to speak ill of the dead or even be glad someone is dead. Take taste out of the picture. I’m not Miss Manners. I’m Mr Logic. and this hate-emoting has no basis beyond childish small mindedness. If you just disagreed with Andrews politics and thus are glad that there is one less vocal rabble rouser for them, then fine. But the dozens of posts out there claiming what a hater he was are foolish smears. I don’t have close connections that knew him but I have friends of friends who knew and interacted with him personally and they all match exactly what I’m hearing everyone else who knew him personally say about him: He was a happy warrior. He didn’t hate liberals. The only thing he “hated” was hate and intolerance. I don’t care who hates whom, but to lie to yourself and others in order to justify your hate for someone is unacceptable.

(Greg Gutfeld and The Five eulogize Breitbart)

The other trope floating around is that the bashing is free range because Breitbart said unkind things about Ted Kennedy after his death. I have no idea what Breitbarts policy of speaking ill of the dead was but I suspect he didn’t much care, so it seems to me that there are probably accurate parallel examples to make and this stupid one is an unnecessary way to embarrass oneself. HINT: Try coming up with an example where Breitbart said something negative after the death of someone who DIDN’T kill a woman and successfully get away with it.

Andrew Breitbart had fun with passionate activism and investigative reporting but in his core he was a Social media entrepreneur. theres so much more to him than “the guy with the crazy hair that liked to annoy hippies” and the world is less well off without him in it.

UPDATE: I just remembered that this documentary just finished filming several weeks ago… will obviously have special significance now.

Here is a recent appearance Breitbart had with Adam Carolla:

Living in a van down by the river in heaven since 1997.

Everyone is of course saying it was cuz of drugs and of course other people get mad at that, just like they did with Amy Winehouse. Evidently it’s insulting to think “drug overdose” is the most likely cause of death when you hear a noted drug abuser has died. Plus, they’re not releasing the reasons, which suggests drugs.

Not releasing the cause of death of a celebrity always means drugs cuz they dont wanna get sued by broadcasting what the initial diagnosis is in the event that its wrong. you can verify a chainsaw to the face right away and dont have to worry about broadcasting “heart attack” even if the real answer is later “stroke” but if the first answer is drugs, they keep it hushed until theres medical proof (and sometimes not even then).

So far, only one person deleted me for posting this on Facebook:

andWhitney Houston just became all of our bodyguards…
cuz… she’s dead… and like…angels n’ stuff.. -Sorry, not to be disrespectful – but idk how fast the news of her death is traveling and I really wanted to make that joke but it doesn’t make sense unless you know, so… Whitney Houston is dead at 48. but try not to let that news distract you from my cultural reference joke, k? In times like these it’s important to remember what things really matter in life. and that thing is almost always me. ?

and then the follow up:

Whitney Houston is finally re-united with her career, which passed away over a decade ago. R.I.P. them both.

I was about to say the following in my own words, but someone on facebook already beat me to it: On the subject of dark humor – in this case, the use of humor surrounding the death of a famous person:

either everything can be funny, or nothing can. black humor works with the understanding that it’s not what people really think. if you start saying you can’t joke about this, can’t joke about that, you very soon end up with a very short list of stuff that’s cool to joke with. as soon as a line is drawn, someone will protest it’s too far, and someone will protest it’s not far enough.

I think it’s poor taste to go and harrass people that are sad about something with jokes about it, people should be free to grieve whatever, but I really don’t want to consider an internet where it’s uncool to say something as a joke, as unfunny as some or a majority may find it.

Inarguable logic, right there.

Sorry she’s not alive though. She probably had more greatness to give in her.

These pictures at the Daily Mail are the last photographs of her.

Happening right now:

YES you are a frigging terrible person for posting this. whomever made this image should be ASHAMED of themselves. the insensitivity of switching princes is outrageous. YES, prince Phillip and Prince Unnamed [from snow white] are both princes who awaken a “dead” princess with a kiss but to just swap them out like they’re nothing? to just show one and then with no warning replace him with a completely different prince is just… i just. i cant… fa;klsdfhjl;aksdghj;lkahs. im so fkking mad i could spit. GOOD DAY

The death reports say he died from being “overworked”. Uh ya. just like “everyone in North Korea has enough to eat”.

He should have taken a note from Diabetes (some comedian has in his standup: “why don’t they call it LIVE-abetes?”):

Via EW: Kim Jong-il was a secretive man but his good friend General Aladeen (the character played by Sacha Baron Cohen in the new movie The Dictator) gave us all a rare glimpse into the North Korean dictator’s private life today with a personal statement on the passing of his beloved badminton partner, released today via Huffington Post.

“I am saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend Kim Jong-Il. Our thoughts go out to his wife and 813 children. “K-Jo” was a great leader, good friend and average double’s badminton partner. He died as he lived, in 3-inch lifts. An extraordinary man, he did so much to spread compassion, wisdom and uranium throughout the world.”

Aladeen concluded by welcoming Kim’s successor, Kim Jong-un, into the “Axis of Evil.” But I thought you had to pledge first?

UPDATE: Here’s the Trailer for The Dictator:

even better?:

An Arkansas woman who stars on the TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting” has suffered a miscarriage after announcing she was expecting her 20th child.

Jim Bob Duggar said in a statement that he and his wife, Michelle, were told at a doctor’s appointment Thursday morning that she had miscarried. He says she is resting comfortably at home and asked for privacy.

Stfu. Of course you do. We all do. That part is normal and natural and fine. What isn’t fine is that we have the ability to. wtf, government? This isn’t Freedom of Information Act material. it should have never been released. but it was. so i’m posting it. not under some lame principal of “because I can” but because the dude was a very public figure and these things satisfy morbid curiosities in us.

So here he is. and now we know: if you don’t want the world to see pictures of your dead body, produce the murder of 3 thousand innocent civilians, NOT catchy music.

Seen above, the image of Jackson was placed into evidence during the testimony of Christopher Rogers, an official with the L.A. medical examiner’s office. Rogers was testifying as a prosecution witness in the manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.

The photo, government exhibit 206, was “taken at the time of autopsy,” according to prosecutor David Walgren. Jackson’s genitalia is obscured by a black box added to the photo by investigators.