I still think this is about using Britney Spears instead of giving the public real news. It's easier to talk a young woman into insanity instead of telling us what's really going on in the country. This is about how rotten and stale the mainstream media is. You can thank the "groundbreakers" at Fox news for this.

She is a very sick person and deserves our sympathy. But, she is no more sick or deserving of our sympathy than any servicemember of person on the street. ENOUGH!

So?!? I could not care any less.You do realize that there are innocent women and children enslaved all over the globe,don't you?You have heard about the wars in Iraq,Afghanistan,and Africa,haven't you?You do realize that there are millions of poor right here at home,don't you?

Some selfish little cebutard losing her marbles because she's stopped getting her way all the time is garbage in,garbage out.I have no sympathy for her or her family,outside of her children,that is.They're nothing more than a herd of southern-fried trailer park drama queens,and anybody who thinks they're worthy of any attention other than that given to a sideshow is an idiot.

Situation is worse than the papers/tv shows acknowledge. The Smoking Gun has a copy of document sworn by Lynne Spears when Brit was last hospitalized: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0205083spears1.html

Apparently Osama "Sam" Lufti, her ersatz manager, is making a concerted effort to drive Brit off the rails. He keeps her drugged, has paparazzi living in her house. One wonders what kind of photos they've taken that gives him such power over her. Blackmail? Of course he denies it but Lynne's sworn statement is really chilling.

Poor stupid little "star."

She has parents? I would have never guessed.

This whole situation brings to light the challenge of dealing with mentally ill "adults".

I don"t know what the answer is, but we as a society need to know that this situation (without the cameras and the money) must be happening to many other families.

So I understand "the threat to oneself and others", but isn"t there another threshold? What about helping people get better?

I know this is a loaded conversation - I have no idea how this all would be determined. But with the number of homeless people I see, I imagine that they are mentally ill, choosing - in their ill state - not to take care of themselves.

My heart goes out to her family, hopefully they are seeking help as well. I cannot imagine how painful it is to see your own child in such publicized self-destruction.

FOX News had a helicopter recording the circus that is Britney being chased by up to 20 SUVs filled with paparazzi all taking a left at Robertson Blv just because she took a left. Between them, they caused a major traffic jam. This girl obviously likes the attention she gets, Instead of laying low, she got back behind the wheel and went to meet her boyfriend. She thrives on this kind of crap, LAPD should arrest her on some trumped charge before they kill someone.

During the Reagan presidency, mental patients or drug addicted patients over 18 became legally able to sign themselves out of any treatment center at any time.

There is a definite need to protect the rights of patients in treatment, but the country threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Britney goes free.

I don't understand how the hospital could release Britney without notifying her parents, knowing what it took to get her to the hospital in the first place.

If her parents were given notice, perhaps they could have moved Brit directly to a private facility. How are they going to get Brit into treatment now?

She is mentally ill and if she doesn't get help those two little boys will end up with her fortune like Anna Nicole Smith's girl.
Get help or cash in your chips, Brit!

I am an environmental blogger. What saddens me most is the amount of attention Britney is receiving, compared to how little is devoted to such a huge issue as global warming. We are all doomed in ten years unless we start acting quick and changing our behaviors and policies, and yet the topic is a one on the popularity scale, whereas Britney is a ten at the other end.

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com

I really think the Stalkarazzi needs to back-off. I cannot believe it is legal for them to hunt her like an animal in the woods.

Yes, Britney is "at risk" but public officials and the court system should be concerned about the innocent public as she chooses to create chaos wheeling around town because she needs the unhealthy attention. Enough is enough. Someone has to take control of this disaster waiting to happen. What about the rights and safety of other citizens? The public is the victim as we are forced endure the expense, the unsafe conditions, and the ensuing chaos she CHOOSES to create. Most are sympathetic to mental illness but not when one person is allowed to put others at risk with her ridiculous behaviors.