World of Suck

Superior Court Judge Ernest Murphy got pissed when the Boston Herald misquoted him as telling a rape victim to "get over it". He then acted within the rules when he sued and won a libel suit against the paper. Apparently that wasn't enough so he started sending the paper letters, the content of which have landed him at the pointy end of ethical charges. One letter demanded that the publisher deliver a check for $3.26 million - ostensibly to speed the case to closure rather than dealing with the appeals process.

Ok, poor judgement on the part of the Judge but the really big flub came when he told the news how the whole event affected his family.

Murphy choked up as he described how the libel case took a severe toll on him and his family.

After Herald columnist Howie Carr criticized him, a posting in a Herald chat room suggested "maybe my daughters ought to be raped," Murphy recalled. The judge said after that, his 14-year-old daughter began wetting the bed and both of his daughters required therapy.

It's not like his family wasn't stressed enough but he's now told the entire world that his 14-year-old is wetting the bed. Brilliant. Even if her friends and classmates didn't know, they sure know now.

Based on that alone I think this guy needs to take a leave of absence based on an obvious lack of judgement.

I recently had surgery. Outpatient type deal. No big deal.

But the billing is cracking me up. Fortunately for me, my insurance is covering most of the bill, which allows me to laugh. If it didn't, this wouldn't be funny.

The first bill I get is my anesthesiologist. Before anyone else, his bill is front and center. It's pretty simple. $1200 for his services. Simple.

A few weeks pass and I get my surgeons bill. Another simple bill. $1100 for her services. I'm on board with all of this.

Then I get the hospital bill. And this thing is fucking priceless. it's 15 entries. Not that bad. 1 of them is listed as 'Outpatient Anesthesia'. The other 14 are all 'Hospital Incidentals'. They range from $2.21 to $3,764.00 I mean, seriously... this is just fucking lazy. I mean, I think there should be SOME separation of this bill. A little more clarity. I don't think an aspirin should fall under the same category as the cost of the operating room. $3,761.79 is a pretty wide range for the same cost code, right?

Seriously. How can they expect someone to just blindly pay for shit and assume it's ok? Maybe there are people out there that just pay the bill and make it go away, but I'm really not one of them. I like to make sure they're not billing me for a drug they didn't actually give me.

Maybe I'm just silly that way?