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In this case, the groom-to-be does not deserve the ring back, when he broke up the engagement by text message, and told her to keep the $50,000 rock “parting ring.”

On July 1, 2012, only three months before their wedding, [Christa] Clark, a nail technician from upstate New York, received a shocking text message from Billittier, co-owner of Chef’s Restaurant and her fiancé of three years, according to a story published by the Buffalo News. He informed her that their relationship was over. “You’re doing this through a text message?” she replied. Billittier promised to reimburse Clark for money she had spent on wedding preparations. He then added, “Plus you get a $50,000 parting ring. Enough for a down payment on a house.”

A few weeks later, angry that Clark was still in contact with his family, Billittier texted, “Keep it up, and I will take back the ring as well.” His final message: “You by law have to give it back. You’re nowhere near the person I thought you were. You don’t deserve it.”

Those text messages sealed Billittier’s fate. Judge Russell P. Buscaglia ruled that because Billittier referred to the ring as a “parting gift,” it no longer was associated with the promise of marriage. “I was being sarcastic, like a game show host – you get a parting gift,”  Billittier claimed, in his own defense. That excuse didn’t hold up for the judge, who called it a classic case of “giver’s remorse.”

H/T PropertyProf

Blog Emperor Paul Caron has released the latest edition of the Blog Rankings. From 1/1/13 to 12/31/13, my blog was ranked #33 with 274,219 page views, with an increase of 155.5%.

Here are my previous rankings:

• From Oct. 1, 2012 – Sept. 30, 2013, my blog was ranked #32 with 261,239 page views.
• From July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013, my blog was ranked #28 with 279,253 page views.
• From April 1, 2012 – March 31, 2013, my blog was ranked #31 with 210,601 page views.

So my traffic, in any given one year period, has steadied between 260,00 and 280,000 page views.

While I’m on the topic of milestones, I should note that I forgot to note post number 7,000 on January 21, 2014. I also forgot to note the 6,00th post, but I hit 5,000 posts on 12/19/2012. So roughly in one year I wrote 2,000 posts. I launched this blog on September 27, 2009. I hit 1,500 posts on 1/19/2011 and 2,000 posts on 5/10/2011. During my hiatus from August 2011 to August 2012, I hit 3,000 posts on 11/14/2011, 3,500 posts on 2/1/2012, 4,000 posts on 4/13/2012, and 4,500 posts on 7/27/2012.

I should hit post 7,500 in the next few weeks or so (I’m at 7,427).

During a soft-hitting interview on Meet the Press, Kathleen Sebelius discusses her “low point” of the Obamacare rollout.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

Along the way, what was your low point?

 SEC. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS:

Well, I would say that the eight weeks where the site was not functioning well for the vast majority of people was a pretty dismal time. And I was frankly hoping and watching and measuring the benchmarks. But having failed once — at the front of October– the first of December became a critical juncture of other– It was going to meet the expectations the second time around. I knew we didn’t have a third time around. So, it was– that was a pretty– a pretty scary date. And– and watching a lotta people come in and be able to be enrolled in December was very gratifying.

 

The Times has some inside scoops about Kathleen Sebelius’s 6-month long resignation from Secretary of HHS. Here are some highlights:

Everyone knew it was a disaster. After Kathleen Sebelius appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” last October, she and her staff at the Department of Health and Human Services felt she had been sandbagged by Mr. Stewart. At the White House, President Obama’s top aides were aghast at her wooden performance.

The White House frustration with Ms. Sebelius crystallized by Thanksgiving, as it became clear in Washington that she would eventually have to go. Republicans were brutalizing her at congressional hearings. The health care website’s problems were consuming the White House. Under mounting pressure from congressional Democrats panicking about the fallout from the health care debacle on their fall campaigns, Mr. Obama had already brought in Jeffrey D. Zients, a management guru, to take control of the crisis from Ms. Sebelius. …

But three things put off Ms. Sebelius’s departure: Mr. Obama’s fear that letting people go in the middle of a crisis would delay fixing the website; his belief that ceremonial firings are public concessions to his enemies; and the admiration and personal loyalty that Mr. Obama still felt for Ms. Sebelius and her advocacy for his chief domestic legacy.

Over the next four months, Ms. Sebelius engaged in a kind of slow-motion resignation, largely staying out of the national limelight but crisscrossing the country in a furious effort to enroll people in health insurance and taking comfort from strangers who recognized — and offered thanks — for her efforts.

I noted yesterday that after the nuclear option, Kathleen Sebelius’s replacement cannot be filibustered. And the WSJ knows this. But they still call for a “full-scale vetting,” whatever that is.

Senators should insist as part of confirmation on HHS’s release of the hard data and internal documents that would permit the independent corroboration and analysis that is especially relevant as insurers prepare plans and rates for the 2015 enrollment cycle.

Ms. Burwell should also be pressed to assess ObamaCare’s implementation so far and say what she would do differently. Amid multiple delays and executive rewrites that usually lack a legal basis, the enrollment deadline has been extended indefinitely. Large parts of the federal exchanges remain unbuilt, including small business services and the back-end operations that pass on subsidies to insurers. Major rules are unwritten, including the final employer mandate regulation.

How does Ms. Burwell intend to repair the wreckage of her predecessor’s tenure? Or will the constant improvisation continue?

The Senate has an obligation to scrutinize Ms. Burwell’s agenda and how she plans to govern the—ahem—28.5% of the federal budget that flows to health care. This is especially true for the vulnerable Democrats up for re-election who claim to favor a sheaf of ObamaCare “fixes.” If they mean it, they also should condition their votes on Ms. Burwell declaring herself on these proposals.

The Affordable Care Act invests HHS with vast new powers and employs the phrase “the Secretary shall” hundreds of times, even as Medicare regulations already bleed into all of American medicine. Republicans may lack the votes to defeat Ms. Burwell’s confirmation, but Kathleen Sebelius’s replacement should get a full-scale vetting before she assumes control.

Harry Reid is already calling for a “swift confirmation” of Burwell.

“Director Burwell deserves timely confirmation, and I hope my Republican colleagues will work with us to ensure we fill this important position without unnecessary obstruction and delay,” Reid said.