Punishment for a terrible person/bride

Remember this beyotch? The one who faked cancer to get cool stuff for her wedding?

Jessica Vega – scammer, bad person

We can all bask in our schadenfreude because she has been sentenced to repay everything she scammed – all $13,000 of it, and she looks miserable in her mugshot.

To which I say:

Though, really, how is she ever going to pay that off? Those people will never get their money back.

Woman fakes cancer to get lavish wedding

25-year-old Jessica Vega faked terminal leukemia so that she could have a luxurious wedding ceremony, reception, and Aruba honeymoon. She has just been indicted by a New York Grand Jury.

In 2010, Vega claimed that she was dying of cancer and that her dying wish was to marry the father of her child. The story caught on with her community, and there was an outpouring of donations to make this cancer-stricken woman’s dream come true.

FOR FREE the couple received wedding rings, flowers, a $1,200 gown, and the aforementioned Aruba vacation.

The husband, Michael O’Connell, filed for divorce four months after the wedding, when he found out about the scam. He is now accepting her back because she’s the mother of his two children.

The maximum prison sentence is 4 years. Her husband says his ex-wife should have to repay donors and apologize, not face jail time. (Wonder where that money will come from? Maybe she’ll steal it from a children’s charity?)

This story makes my blood boil. Every smug look I see of this horrible woman makes me want to do terrible things to her

If you don’t believe me, just look at her:

“Promise you’ll help again I really do get cancer!”

Sucks for her because she’s ugly on the inside.

-KB

p.s. heyyyy, I’m back!

Seattle woman marries a building

I totally love out-there hippies, so I find this story really interesting.

My main objection is the singing of Jack Johnson during the ceremony

Babylonia Aivaz (awesome name, yes?) married a warehouse in Seattle at 10th Avenue and Union Street on Sunday, January 29, 2012.

She claims to be part of the Occupy Seattle protest, and she wants the building to be reclaimed as community space. Roughly 30 people attended the event, which was (my assumption:) organized to stop the demolition of the 107-year-old building. The building will be demolished to make way for new apartments.

The building is forced to say “I Do”

Aivaz claims the wedding is a gay union, because the building is a woman. Protesters were present because they are upset that she’s hurting the same-sex wedding cause…because buildings aren’t people, and this sounds like fodder for one of those  “What if people tried to marry snakes!!?” arguments.

Protesters, doin’ what they do.

So, what’s the point to all of this? I don’t know, Man. Seattle’s a funny place. Maybe it makes sense there.

I 100% support the right to protest things that seem unfair, but marrying a building is pointless, and protecting this grubby building from a timely demise is weird. It’s too bad they didn’t spend the same effort into figuring out actual plans for a community-positive function for the building. Maybe they could have gotten the neighborhood to rally behind them. It smells like fame-whoring to me.

Shark fin soup seen at fewer Hong Kong weddings

Shark fin soup is a customary wedding dish in China - serving it honors the wedding guests, and it is seen as a symbol of wealth and prestige.

The problem with shark fin soup is that the shark catches are not tracked, so there's the possibility that the fins come from an endangered species. In addition, shark finning is a brutal practice; sharks are caught, their fins are cut from their bodies, and then they are thrown, live, back into the ocean. Obviously, sharks cannot survive without their fins.

Shark fin stew

Currently, there's a lot of pressure to remove shark fin soup from restaurant and wedding menus, and it might be effective. Several social campaigns are running against the soup tradition:

-Several hotels offer discounts, cheaper room rates, and other incentives for couples that choose not to serve shark fin at their wedding celebrations.

-One online campaign calls on wedding guests to reduce cash gifts by about a third for couples who select the dish.

-Last year campaigners persuaded Citibank Hong Kong to withdraw a promotion offering new credit card holders discount on a shark fin dinner.

- On the mainland Yao Ming, the Chinese NBA star, has appeared in a well-received campaign to end finning, the practice of removing a shark's highly valued fins and dumping what is left into the sea.

Yao Ming and his bride. Keep reading for Mingossip.

Finally, the soup is dropping in popularity.

The manager of one Sheung Wan wholesaler, who asked not to be named, said traders were beginning to feel the impact of the environmental campaign. "Sales are dropping and I think that is down to the campaign," he said. The manager's firm sells between three and four tonnes of shark fin a month.

But there are pockets of resistance, particularly among older people, who still regard eating shark fin as a means of expressing their Chinese identity.

"At weddings you have different people sitting around the same table," says Shea. "Young people understand the problem and want to do something about it, but at some point their parents stop them."

"The Chinese tradition of eating shark fin will be maintained, but will increasingly come from sustainable fisheries," says Lim, a prominent member of Hong Kong's marine products association. Chinese people and traditions do make an easy and readily identifiable target for largely western campaigners. But many western campaigners who are seriously interested in promoting the sustainable use of sharks should look more closely at their home fisheries and the 'boneless' fish products that their children may be eating from the supermarket."

Shark finning seems brutal, and lawless, so I understand the cries to regulate it. I also agree with the sentiment that Westerners/Americans should get their own practices right before criticizing another culture. Everyone's a hypocrite - maybe even Yao Ming. Reports from his wedding state that shark fin was served at his own wedding in 2007 - after he spoke out against shark finning.

It's impossible to expect an immediate change in cultural practices. Hopefully they'll figure out a sustainable way to show status before they wipe out any tasty, tasty shark species, because I doubt this deeply-rooted culture will disappear in time to save any species from extinction.

Hobo-themed wedding: assholes or awwww?

Is this a cute, vintage theme wedding with a can-do attitude, or assholery that mocks the impoverished?

Regretsy and Etsy both tell the tale of a couple who had a hobo-themed wedding. The bride's write-up says that her limited budget and personal interest in depression-era culture put the pieces together for a hobo wedding. Regretsy says they're dickheads who mercilessly mock the poor unfortunate souls who struggled through the real depression.


the hobo couple



hobo campfire


hobo...invitations?

I'm not sure why the couple insisted on calling it a HOBO wedding. It seems to me that it's a pretty flippant attitude toward the actual poverty that exists in the world. A depression-themed wedding could still have this same "come together" feel without mocking the thousands of people who survived (and didn't survive) a terrible time in American history. Starvation, illness, and homelessness are not romantic.

It is a cute wedding, but the hobo theme definitely leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

-KB