Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tito Ortiz: celebrity justice or a sign that the USA is growing up?

I am not writing about this situation because I have an advantage, but I can say that I have been there. Tito Ortiz was taken to jail, and then weeks later, the police decided they didn’t have enough evidence to make a case against him.

If you haven’t heard about his situation yet, let me get you up to speed.

The Huntington Beach Police Department was sent to the home that Tito Ortiz (the former UFC 205lb champ) and Jenna Jameson share in southern California for what was called a “disturbance.”

When police arrived at their residence, Jameson reportedly emerged with “visible injuries” and Ortiz was immediately taken into custody.

Jenna said, “Tito is a wife beater. He threw me in the bathtub. I tore two ligaments in my shoulder.” She went to buy an elbow brace immediately after the “disturbance.”

Tito said, “Jenna’s been a druggie for over a year and has threatened to commit suicide before.”

I am not here to decide who is right and who isn’t. I am here to tell you my story and maybe give you some perspective on how all this works and why I say Tito didn’t get any celebrity favors.

I lived with a gal who was and exotic dancer. She had a six year old daughter and we were spending so much time together we decided we should move in together; after all, we lived in the same apartment complex just different buildings.

We had just finished moving all the stuff from one apartment to the new one and had one apartment left to move. We were good on time, it was just now lunch time and we were almost halfway there.

We decided to take time out for a cold adult beverage and some lunch. We went to a local bar that had cheap lunch and cold drinks. While we were sitting there waiting for our food to come an old boyfriend of hers came in. She yelled, jumped up, screamed and gave him a big hug. It was not the type of reaction you want the girl you’re moving in with to have with another man but I kept my mouth shut.

When she returned to the table I was still speechless when she asked what was wrong. I of course said nothing was wrong. However, by my tone she knew I was lying. She then asked me if I was jealous. I had to admit that I was, and that I didn’t recall her ever being that happy to see me. Still not happy with my tone of voice she said.”Well if you’re going to be like that then I am walking home.” She stomps out the door just as the food hits the table.

After I finished my lunch I went back to moving boxes from one apartment to the other. Three hours later she showed up high as a kite. She was on the crystal Meth. I can’t prove that she shot it up but her actions told me she hadn’t been snorting.
We had a deal from the word go. The only way we’d stay together would be if she’d stay off the Meth.

I could have been more understanding. I could have seen that she was going through a huge change in her life.

Never again being that bad girl who knew all the answers.

Scared and happy, proud and afraid, wanting a better life than she has had up until now, before her daughter gets old enough to understand.

She later told me “I had to screw it up somehow, because I just don’t deserve a good life.”

She came in to our new apartment tweaking like she had just bumped up once more for the road.

I said you’re high and she denied it. I told her she had to leave and she refused.

We went on for 30 or so minutes before she went off. Right after she threw the stereo at me I punched her.

The second dumbest thing I have ever done in my life. The first dumbest thing was to smoke my first cigarette.

The cops showed up and I went to jail. They took her to the hospital to have her checked out.

While at the hospital she had to be restrained by a security guard. While trying to get her under control, the security guard broke her wrist. She was treated and released.

The next morning the police let me go on my own recognizance. The story in the paper the next morning said “Man strips and beats girlfriend! She was released from the hospital after being treated for a broken wrist.”

I was charged and pled no contest. I was sentenced to a certain number of weeks of counseling after which I put the whole thing behind me.

That dancer and I tried to get back together once. I couldn’t take it and moved out after three weeks.

She called me one late winter night at the beginning of the next year and told me that if I wouldn’t help her then no else would either. “I had to screw it up somehow, because I just don’t deserve a good life.”

At the end of that call she overdosed on Chrystal Meth and died, but trust me it wasn’t before her daughter was able to understand.

I can’t help but think that if the laws weren’t set up so the man goes to jail whenever there is a domestic abuse situation those police officers would have listened and she would have gotten the help she truly needed. That dancer would be alive and getting ready to see her daughter graduate high school.

If what Tito Ortiz is saying is correct, then Jena Jamison needs some help.
The more people get all excited about how the former champ hit his woman, and that he must be some wife beater, the more they do a disservice to humanity in general. Someone is crying out for help and the person standing next to her was getting all the attention. Now that Tito doesn’t have to fight the court room battle he will have time to make sure Jena get’s the help she needs.

That’s my take on it,
Jeffrey

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Barbara Kay: Quebec offers a taste of Greek-style spending

Barbara Kay: Quebec offers a taste of Greek-style spending Posted: May 07, 2010, 10:43 AM by NP Editor Barbara Kay, quebec, social services Quebec's debt according to the OECD standard method represents 94% of gross domestic product, lower only than Greece, Japan, Italy and (gulp) Iceland amongst developed nations (Canada's is 69.7%). Nevertheless, Quebec's March budget blithely incorporated raises in taxes and spending on social programs, already the most lavishly funded in Canada. The words "social programs" are general and vague. Let me give you a concrete example of what the government of Quebec considers one of its most sacrosanct social programs, and a glimpse at the fecklessness with which taxpayers' money is flung at it. The minstère de la Santé et des Services sociaux - Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) - oversees three types of social programs: shelters for women victims of domestic violence; centres for at-risk youth; and rehabilitation centres for substance-dependents. Amongst these three, the women's shelters are by far the best financed. The 106 shelters (all for women: none for male victims of domestic violence, or for fathers seeking to shelter their children from mothers' violence) are allotted $60 million, as compared to $26 million for 392 homes for at-risk youth, and $14 million for 95 dependency centres. Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/05/07/barbara-kay-come-to-quebec-and-get-a-taste-of-greek-style-spending.aspx#ixzz0nRj5nAJV