Thursday, February 08, 2007

evening

Idiots of the Day - The Breast Cancer Society of Canada

Idiots. If exotic dancers want to help prevent breast cancer (their breasts...and lives are kind of important to them), what right does the Breast Cancer Society of Canada have to refuse the money? As someone who has previously donated to them (they’ll be on last year’s tax deductions, if we’re allowed to take a foreign deduction), I find it offensive that they would turn down any money, from anyone. I don’t care if Kiddie Porn Priests 4 Baby Sex are donating money to a good charity, I want the charity to accept the money.

Exotic dancers’ ‘stigma’ too much for charity
Last Updated: Thursday, February 8, 2007 | 11:22 AM PT
CBC News

The Breast Cancer Society of Canada has rejected the offer of thousands of dollars from a fundraising group of exotic dancers in Vancouver.

Exotic Dancers for Cancer holds an annual charity event in memory of a former dancer who lost her life to the disease.

Last year, the event raised $6,000.

However, former dancer Trina Ricketts said the society sent her an e-mail declining the money this year, because its major donors did not support a connection to exotic dancers.

She says the society has taken the group’s contributions in the past.

“I really feel that it’s a strong indication of the degree of the stigma that exotic dancers experience when an organization doesn’t even want to be associated with them for fear of experiencing the same stigma.”

Ricketts said her group is still looking for a cancer charity that will accept a donation.

The annual event will be held next month at a downtown hotel.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

late at night

She said, “What?” I said, “Ooh-ooh-ooh, whee.”

This is what happens to you when you listen to the 70’s station on Rhapsody, you get Alan O’Day’s “Undercover Angel” stuck in your head for days.  It’s terrible.  I dare you not to hear, “She said, “What?” I said, “Ooh-ooh-ooh, whee” for days.  I dare you.

In the latest Tie & Leanne Domi news, it looks like I befriended the best Domi...the fake one.  Geez, this family is a mess.  Folks, all that money you have, you need to use it for therapy, for everyone.  And hey, Belinda, since you’re at least 50% responsible, perhaps you should pitch in and pay for some of the therapy too.  These kids are part of Canada’s future too.  Don’t let their parents’ acrimonious breakup ruin them.  Oh, as an aside, both books I sent to Leanne, thinking she was “Leanne”, were returned to the bookstores from whence they came, four months after they were delivered, giving me refunds for them.  Chapters.ca gave me a refund of the shipping fees too - we’ll see what Amazon does, especially since that shipping was extra pricey.  Maybe I’ll send the football book to Steve - he’s the one I thought I was sending it to anyway.

I haven’t posted anything in a long time in my Why Hets Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Marry and/or Procreate category.  This story certainly fits.  I never thought I’d be writing this about my beloved hockey player boyfriend.  But alas, it appears that he might very well be an asshole.

The Tie that binds

By SAM PAZZANO, SUN MEDIA

TORONTO—The estranged wife of ex-Maple Leaf enforcer Tie Domi is hauling him back into court Thursday, threatening to shut him out of their children’s lives until he and the family undergo an assessment.

“Tie Domi’s relationship to the children is disastrous: he has induced our son Max (11) to become seriously violent and uncontrollable,” stated Leanne Domi in court documents filed in court and obtained by Sun Media.

“He is trying to recreate Max in his own image—as a bully and an abuser, and this has now caught the attention of Max’s school and hockey coaches.”

Domi last month told his daughter Carlin, 13, that she “is making his life a living hell,” Leanne alleged.

“He has reduced our daughter Avery (8) to hiding from him to prevent being with him; and he has unleashed upon our eldest daughter Carlin a series of furious, vicious verbal attacks that have left her in tears and asking for psychological help for both him and her.”

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

According to the documents, Leanne Domi’s lawyer is seeking an order “suspending (Domi’s) access to the children” pending delivery of recommendations by the psychologists.”

The order also extends the prior restraining order of last September that barred Tie from coming within 100 metres of Leanne Domi, their matrimonial home on Oxbow Road and from communicating with either Leanne or her lawyer.

Leanne Domi stated Carlin is “suffering the most, because she was drawn into the separation not by me, but rather by the indiscretions of Tie and Belinda Stronach.

“In August 2006 . . . one of Carlin’s riding acquaintances had seen Tie and Belinda expressing their affection for each other in Belinda’s kitchen,” Leanne stated in the documents. “I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that I had to stem the damage of Carlin being in the middle of a gossip campaign amongst her peers from her riding stable.”

Carlin is angry because Tie “takes pains to tell her that he is not involved with Belinda. She thinks her dad thinks she is stupid and she wants him to stop lying to her,” Leanne Domi stated.

Max, who is the captain of his Triple A hockey team and was highly regarded as “emotionally mature, caring and polite,” is changing for the worse since the couple split in September, the documents stated.

“Tie has bonded with Max in a way that is destructive: he has become fixated on Max’s hockey career. Tie has embarked on a campaign against Max’s hockey coach. Max told me Tie has told Max not to listen to his coach and Max has been disrespectful of the coach.

“Max has punched a boy so badly that his face was bleeding and he did so for no other reason, than he felt like it,” Leanne Domi alleged. “All in all, it is clear to the children that Tie does not regard the children as a priority . . . There cannot be any other situation that cries out for intervention by professionals.”

Tie Domi’s lawyer hasn’t filed a response to this motion or the allegations. He didn’t return a phone call to Sun Media yesterday.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

late at night

Idiots of the Day - Mario Lemiuex & the NHL

Canadian billionaire, Jim Balsillie of BlackBerry, backed out of wanting to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.  At first you might fault him for backing out at the last minute, until you read about what the NHL tried to pull.  He put up his offer for the Penguins in October, and the NHL basically told him that the deal would be rubberstamped.  Like, “Oh, no problem, Jim, we’ll get you that NHL team to do with as you please, asap.” However, on December 8th, the NHL came up with 24 last minute conditions on buying the team.  And lovely Mario wouldn’t give Jim a 30-day extension to examine these conditions.  You know, I’m no billionaire businessperson, but I wouldn’t even have to consult a lawyer before *I* backed out of the deal.  What a crock.  “According to sources close to the negotiations, Mr. Balsillie balked at a “side deal” that would have required him to agree, among other things, to allow the NHL to take over the hockey team if it was unhappy with arena negotiations, or if it became disenchanted with his ownership. The league also wanted to restrict the new owner from contemplating a move out of Pittsburgh under any circumstances until 2013 at the earliest.” If the NHL became “disenchanted” with his ownership?  What does that even mean?  Basically, it sounds like the NHL wants the right to take the team from him for any half-baked reason they pull outta their butts. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough, “However, Mr. Lemieux said on Monday that the Penguins’ current owners were “shocked and offended that Mr. Balsillie would back out of such an important deal at the last minute.”’ So, you give a guy some crappy conditions at the last minute and HE’S the bad guy for not just accepting them?  Yeah, whatever, Mario.  What a jerk.  And to add more jerkiness to Super Mario’s dumb statement, he adds this prize - For one, Mr. Lemieux has not spoken with Mr. Balsillie since the deal fell apart on Dec. 15. And yesterday, he said his ownership partners intend to keep Mr. Balsillie’s down payment—estimated at US$10-million and held in escrow—because “we believe him to be in breach of our agreement.” Hello, you offered him a crappy deal and instead of telling you to stuff it, he asked for a 30-day extension.  It sounds like he was being pretty darned generous.  If I’m on that jury, I’m telling you to give him his $10-million back AND I’m making you pay him a couple mil for your stupidity.  If you read the article that I linked to in the first paragraph, you’ll see how crappy Mario Lemieux and the NHL are treating Jim Balsillie.  Frankly, not only does it ruin this deal for them, but who would want to buy the team now?  Hey, want to buy this team?  We’ll let you hang for months, and then when it’s almost time for the deal to be done, we’ll throw in some super crappy conditions that no one in their right mind would agree to, and we’ll also keep your down payment.  Sound good? 

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

terribly early in the morning

Idiot of the Day - Woman from my Doctor’s Office

This morning we got a message on the machine.  The woman was calling from my back surgeon’s office because the surgeon referred me to a urologist because the bladder issues don’t seem to be related to my herniated disc.  Or, at least they weren’t particularly helped by the surgery for it.  So, when I was there two weeks ago, he told me to go to the most renowned urologist in the city.  It’s a doctor I’ve seen before, but not in more than five years, and his office has moved since then.  Anyway, the woman from the doctor’s office was leaving a message for me to call her back with this doctor’s phone number.  Uh hello, they don’t have a phone book where they are?  Because that’s what I’m going to have to do to find his phone number.  It’s not like I have it tattooed on my inner forearm.  Not to mention, my doctor called him “Shelly”, and his full name is “Sheldon”, so I would imagine that they know each other.  If they know each other, wouldn’t it just be possible that his phone number was somewhere in their office???  I can’t even decide if it’s worth calling back.  Surely she’s smart enough to look the number up if I don’t call, right?  Right??? 

It was a special medical day of idiots.  Valley Hospital called me AGAIN about my bill.  I set up payment arrangements in AUGUST.  Since then, I’ve had a variety of phone calls and threatening letters regarding this bill.  When I set up the payment arrangements, my bill was at $960.01.  I immediately paid $160.01, and then they were supposed to debit my bank account $100 a month until the bill was paid.  The threatening letter I received came on the same day as a semi-threatening letter.  One letter said I owed $700, the other said I owed $600.  Any person with a half a brain in their head would figure out that a payment was made between those two letters, even though they came on the same day.  Today, I was told that I owed $500, and could I pay it today? I finally got tired of being nice.  I told them that I was sick of the calls and the letters, and that I set up payment arrangements in August for them to debit my bank account for $100/month.  If the payment wasn’t made today, it had NOTHING to do with ME.  They kept saying that they don’t normally make those arrangements.  I told them to check the damned account.  If payment arrangements hadn’t been made, how was the account being paid off that wacky sum of $100 at a time?  Geez.  ‘effin ridiculous.  So, Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, if you search for what people say about you, I want you to know this - your billing department SUCKS!  They are completely incompetent and if I get one more call or one more threatening letter, I’m going to refuse to pay any more of the bill.  In fact, I’m going to ask that you pay ME for the inconvenience of having to call you and tell your employees how to do their jobs.  The last woman I spoke to said that she’d take care of it, no problem, and that it wouldn’t happen again.  I asked if she was sure.  She said that she was.  Clearly, SHE WAS NOT.  I could tell that the woman today wanted to call me a liar, but considering that the bill was being paid off $100/month, just like I’d said, she had a little trouble doing so.  I’m sure my credit report is going to be a mess at the end of this whole sordid herniated disc situation, but it appears that I can’t do a thing about it, since no one ever believes me, even when I pay the damned bills.

I have a non-idiot-of-the-day comment about my back surgeon’s office.  I was getting a weird bill from them, which I wanted to take care of at my next appointment (which was two weeks ago), so I didn’t call them about it.  When I was paying for that visit, I asked them about the amount due.  The girl said that there wasn’t anything due, because if it was due, she’d have another piece of paper with my checkout stuff.  She asked what it was that I’d gotten in the mail, then she went back to check with the financial person.  She came back and said that it had been written off, because after my co-pays are gone, each time I have to pay them cash, the amount gets lowered.  So, she said to forget about that letter, I didn’t owe anything from my past visits.  And you know what, I haven’t gotten any threatening letters, nor have I gotten a single phone call.  In general, I love them.  Their office has been one of the most cooperative doctors’ offices I’ve been to in Las Vegas.  I’m happy with my surgery.  I was happy with my surgeon’s bill.  I’m happy with their office staff.  If I had any money right now, I’d send a gift to their office for being fabulous.  I might also send a specific person there a phone book though.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

the wee hours

A Letter To Harry Reid (or…Dennis Prager, Idiot of the Day)

Dear Senator Reid:

After reading Dennis Prager’s idiotic column about Keith Ellison’s choice to use the Koran for his congressional swearing in, I wanted to write to you in hopes of being one more voice in support of Mr. Ellison.  I’m not sure why the right-wing religious nuts are so up in arms about the use of the Koran in a swearing in ceremony.  (or, rather the posing in a picture with it, since it’s not used for the swearing in ceremony) It’s not as though using the Bible for the same purpose has made the many criminally charged senators and congressmen (I don’t recall any women being indicted, but I could be wrong) act in honorable and law-abiding ways.

The Koran is Mr. Ellison’s version of the Bible, just as Allah is a Muslim’s version of God.  Frankly, I don’t believe in either and I wish that all representatives would leave religious texts out of the whole picture.  Neither the Koran nor the Bible have managed to make this world a better or more honest place.  Honest law-abiding people will be good no matter what book is in their hands; the Bible, the Koran, or “Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats: A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners.”

Please make sure that religion doesn’t overtake common sense.  I understand that you’re a religious man, but I appreciate that you are also able to think for yourself, not bowing to pressure from the church regarding your votes and opinions.  Thank you.