Imagine you drop your daughter off at school, and you have yet to leave the parking lot, because something has distracted you. You’re about to leave and you see her and her ex-boyfriend outside of the school talking, when all of the sudden he pulls a gun out and starts to shoot her. 4 times. And then kills himself.

Jessica Forsyth, 17, was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where she was in serious but stable condition, hospital spokeswoman Christie White said Wednesday afternoon.

Midland Police Chief James St. Louis said the gunman died in the parking lot.

First of all, something has got to be done about American gun laws, but that’s besides the point… It’s a really sad thing that happened. And a few things piss me off about it, too.

Where does a boy learn that the life of a woman is in his hands? That killing a woman is completely okay if she has broken your heart. So many of these gun cases are men shooting or hurting women. Like the girl from Mississauga who was gang raped by 4 boys.

 Four teens have been charged after a 16-year-old Mississauga girl was sexually assaulted while she was unconscious – attacks that were videotaped and photographed with students’ cellphones, police say.

Where did these boys get the idea that it is in their power to take advantage of a woman? To kill a woman? To destroy her integrity?  What’s really sad about the Mississauga case is that the boys likely did it “joking around” and thought it would be “hilarious” to get some action from a drunk girl who didn’t know what was going on. So I’m extremely glad that they’re getting so many charges and that the school is making a big deal out of it. Because it is a big deal.

On a much smaller piss off and almost unrelated, but not really - something needs to be done about this whole teenage love struck business. Teenagers in high school date for 2 months and all of the sudden they’re so in love that they’re saying things like “I could never live without you” and meaning it. Everyone who is out of high school knows that it’s very rare for a high school relationship to last - sure, they do sometimes, but generally speaking… they don’t last.

The first year of university completely transforms people, and clinging on to significant others from high school just doesn’t happen. But these kids in high school think that they’ve found their life partner. They’re completely convinced that they’ll never find anyone better for them - when most of them don’t even know who they themselves are. But they got so consumed in them, and turn all emo. …Cutting their wrists, wallowing away for weeks if he hasn’t said “I love you” and just getting way to connected.

But then again - how do you stop it? Well, I don’t know. I guess part of it would be the parent’s responsibility to explain how important it is to focus on education and figuring out who you are before getting involved with someone else… But if my mom told me in grade 11 that I was going to be a completely different person in 2nd year university I’d have told her to screw off because she clearly knew nothing about my life! (I love you mom. I know now that you know everything.) But really, now I’m seeing that almost every relationship I’ve had in the past was a complete train wreck and should never have happened because until 3 months ago I didn’t even have a personal style of music to label myself with.

People say labels are dangerous - but they’re sometimes pretty necessary for yourself. Finding personal niches is important. We all know high school students don’t do that - they conform to whatever niche looks cool and eerie enough to fit their mood that month.

Anyway, I’ve gotten way off topic. My point is  a) I’m glad the school is sending out the message that that sort of behavior isn’t funny or cool in the least bit and really snapping down b) I will spend the next 4 years of my life (if I dont get it by then, i’ll give up) trying to figure out how we can stop teenagers from thinking their in love and really getting into self exploration c) whatever is sending the message to young boys that they can demean a woman when ever they feel like it, really needs to feck off.

Heh. Wicked. *sniffle*. Not wicked.

A while ago I mentioned that I was doing a piece at work on the Pickton trial/case. Well I’m still working on it, actually. It’s so incredibly hard to put together an appropriate memorial for something so tragic and disgusting. To this day the trial still rages one, growing ever more disturbing by the day.

Some looked away, then looked at the photograph again. It was not a pretty picture.

A
green garbage pail. At the bottom were several misshapen objects, lying
in a pool of murky, reddish-brown liquid. The objects "appear to be
decaying, decomposing human remains," observed Mr. Petrie. Const.
Hetherington agreed.

Most obvious was the severed head, sawn
neatly in two, from the base to the top of the skull. There were two
detached hands, two detached feet, some pieces of tissue, and several
loose teeth.

The remains were later "strained" from the green
garbage pail, court heard, and delivered to a police "crypt" for
storage before autopsy and forensic identification.

I’m finding it hard to see the reasoning behind the fact that this guy isn’t sitting in jail right this very second. I still find it so hard to grasp the concepts behind the reasoning as to why a man can hate women so very much. Honestly.

I’m sort of sick right now, just a bit of an infection thing with some puking on the side, no big deal really … But I obviously went to the doctor since I know it’s an infection and got some antibiotics. In Canada, health care is free, so I was pretty surprised to read this studying informing the reader that the income level of Canadians in fact does correlate with health care visitations. However, I’m having some trouble believing that in this case correlation means causation.

A report published by Statistics Canada on Wednesday found that
adults aged 18 to 64 and seniors in higher household income groups were
more likely than those in the middle income group to have consulted a
general practitioner in the year before the study was conducted. Those
in the lowest income group were less likely to have done so.

The
study, which used data from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey,
also found that Canadians in the higher income groups were more likely
to have seen a specialist.

Honestly, my first thought was "yeah, well rich crackers are more anal so they want to get check ups more often." It’s not as if the health care isn’t available to everyone. …Now, medications are a different story. Obviously people with either a) a lot of money or b) a good health care plan are going to have access to all the medications that can be subscribed. But everyone has equal opportunities to go.

My next thought was that perhaps immigration has something to do with it - but no, immigrants have access to Canada’s health care, except in some provinces they have to wait 90 days to be eligible.

I was looking at google earth today, (i was on a bit of a map fit today) and it made me miss Toronto. Toronto is great, and they’re considering banning the old energy intensive light bulbs

"There are a lot of great ideas out there and that’s one of them," Broten said. "Everything is on the table."

No one in Ontario should underestimate the importance of replacing
standard bulbs with more energy-efficient ones, Broten added. By
Premier Dalton McGuinty’s estimate, replacing every old-fashioned bulb
with an energy-efficient one would allow the province to shut down one
coal-fired power plant.

You know what I miss most about Ontario? Dalton McGuinty… oh Dalty, how I love thee. It’s sort of surprising that BC hasn’t considered doing this yet. Ashley the midget and I were talking about how hardcore hippy BC is, especially in comparison to Toronto. In Toronto you have friends who bike everywhere and don’t eat meat. Here you have people who don’t shower and eat out of dumpsters.

Fewer teen ladies are having babies!

The rate of teen mothers who have a second or third child before they
turn 20 has halved in the past decade, a study by Statistics Canada
said Wednesday.

From 1993 to 2003, the rate of second or subsequent births to Canadian
teenagers dropped to 2.4 from 4.8 births for every thousand 15- to
19-year-old girls.

That partly reflects an overall decline in teenage pregnancy, and as a
proportion of all teen births, those that were not first-births fell to
15.2 per cent, from 18.5 per cent in 1993.

I strongly believe that this is one of the most important issues pressing Canada… Too many of those little crap towns (Bothwell, Thamesville, Wardsville, Glencoe, Ridgetown…) are overwhelmed with the problem of teen pregnancy. Why? Because there isn’t proper sex education and there aren’t enough alternate opportunities being presented to the young girls. Same with the overwhelmingly high percentage of Native teen agers having babies. People need to know there is more being offered in life. Flipping around facebook I’m always so shocked to see how many of my friends have kids now - and not surprising, they’re all the ones that never got out of the small town.

Finally - how many times are we going to demand that Harper apologizes before we smarten up and realize that Dalty should be ruling as our new authoritarian ruler? I love you Dalton!

This is from when Dalton and I were married. …But then I had to move across the country, but we’ll get back together if I go back.

Last semester, mondays were alright. This semester they are my least favorite day.
2:30 - 3:30 = The worst class… Ever. aka Cultural geography
3:30 - 6:30 = Intro to religion II
7:00 - 8:30 = Gym (which I like)
9:00 - 10:30 = the radio show that I absolutely despise doing
Then I don’t get home till 11 pm, and have class the next morning at 8:30.

It also seems like mr. I-listen-to-crappy-music-too-loudly doesn’t go to class FOREVER on Mondays, so there is no escape from the shitty base. Also, doing my little round of blog checking I came across posts that didn’t fill me with love at all.

Assault cases not being taken seriously, gay teens trying to cope with the world but couldn’t, a feminist "survival guide" but should it really be that hard for us to be feminists? and jackasses attacking Amanda.

Its sad that feminists need to create "survival guides" when really - everyone should just be a feminist - and I mean the equality kind of feminist. But still, its a good post by Sage. As for the jackasses attacking Amanda - seriously, the one that called her ugly should have about 10 feet kicked up his ass for being such a cowardly asshole. And his post on global warming is literally a joke… and he’s just craving for attention - which I am giving to him now, oh shit. Okay, I’ll stop.

But I guess I shouldn’t leave Monday love with a completely horrible tone, there is some good news… I probably won’t die this week. So that’s nice.

*Update - and my blog isn’t working for me. So if you’re reading this, congrads, your internet hates you less than mine hates me.

Buble isn’t going despite his nomination - because he’s all like "im a jerk and besides, the nucks play that night".

I’d pick hockey over an awards night too Michael.

But in even funnier news Michael Keren says that all us bloggers… are really just lonely loser.

Many bloggers, Keren says, are isolated, lonely and withdrawn, choosing to form virtual relationships instead of the real thing.

"Bloggers
think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that
rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as
melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills," Keren
says in a statement.

In Blogosphere: The New Political Arena, he
asks whether the blogosphere is a new political arena or simply a
gathering place for powerless citizens.

Yeah… Michelle Malkins replied with the very intelligent reply "Pshaw!" Way to go Malkins, way to go - but wait… why is she speaking for all bloggers? No one WANTS to talk to her. But really… There are a few things that bother me about that. I use blogging as a way to stay in contact with a lot of people… The only way my family ever knows what I’m doing is because of updates on my blog.

We may be writing blogs that only 20 people read, or 300, or 3000… but the point is - people are reading them. By posting, linking, and reading other people’s blog we’re expanding our minds and our social circle. Keren should come to Yearly Kos and then try and tell us that bloggers have absolutely no power.

Southern Ontario (home sweet home!) experienced a power blip recently.

It initially knocked out almost all of Toronto’s traffic lights as
morning rush hour got under way. After the blip, the city’s monitoring
system showed that 95 per cent of the more than 2,000 traffic signals
had switched to "flash" mode, blinking red in all directions to alert
drivers to treat the intersections like a four-way stop, said Bruce
Zvaniga, Toronto’s director of urban traffic control.

Within 45 minutes, most of the city’s newer traffic lights had reset
themselves. However, problems remained at about 160 intersections with
older traffic signals that required electricians to investigate and
reset them manually. "I would expect it caused a lot of drivers some
frustration," Mr. Zvaniga said.

Now… I wonder if this has anything at all to do with the amount of energy that was being used at the time. … and not just a raccoon. You’d think that after the power outage of 2003 Ontario would have gotten a clue that they consume energy like a kid consumes ice cream on a hot day.
… Seriously though, one day… Southern Ontario is just going to shut down and not start back up…and I’ll be sitting over here in nice little Victoria laughing. (Until the sea levels start to rising, then I’ll be laughing underwater as my little island drowns.)

I just got really tired all of the sudden so here we go quick time:

Quebecers are being assholes. Here are their town rules for income immigrants:

- It is forbidden to stone women, burn them alive, throw acid on them or circumcise girls.

-
Consumption of alcohol is common in Herouxville, as is dancing. "At the
end of every year, we decorate a tree with balls and tinsel and some
lights. This is normally called ‘Christmas decorations’ or also
‘Christmas tree.’ "

- Boys and girls swim together in public pools.

- Veils are not welcome. "The only time you may mask or cover your face is during Halloween."

My favorite passtime is throwing acid on girls aged 3 - 7… the shriek they let out is amazing! …And about this face covering thing - what if you want to pretend to be a ninja on pirate day just to piss off the people who think pirates are better than ninjas?… Seriously, that needs to be considered too.

The tories are getting neeervous, and we’ll be seeing some aaattack ads during the super bowl - but the funniest thing about that article is when The Bears are called "da bears" …Is that a common thing? to actually call them "da bears" in actual articles? …Or is that just hilarious tidbit that slipped on that article? Because really I know nothing about football, but I know "da bears" skit … and that made me laugh.

Aaand finally and interesting Pickton update.

A post on Just Dreadful had me thinking quite a bit today. I personally really liked smoking. I loved sitting down and having a cigarette while waiting for a bus or late at just night just before going to bed. …But I always felt guilty when kids would get too close because I’d feel like I was a) being a bad influence b) killing them.

I personally don’t see what’s wrong with smoking rooms/areas in bars. If all the smokers want to get together to inhale the sweet sweet toxins of death then let them - I think that’s fine. …But when there are children to think of and babies asleep in the back seat I get a little torn up.

Honestly - here’s the thing - anyone who is stupid enough to smoke in a car with kids in it shouldn’t have the kids in the first place. I don’t think people should be smoking in a car that had kids in it - or anyone who doesn’t want to be inhaling 2nd hand smoke for that matter. …That’s what I’ve decided on the matter. At first I thought "fuck, ban it all!" but you know, if people want to smoke that’s their right. Just don’t do it around kids. We’re screwing them up enough as it is.

My best friend from grades… ooo um, 4 - 8 has an older brother who I used to think was the cat’s meow. Absolutely adorable. I haven’t seen him in about 5 or 6 years now… I think he’d be about 24… he added me on facebook the other day and I was checking out his website, turns out he does some really great photography! Check it out.

This post at Liberal Avenger made me "lol" …Apparently Gordo isn’t the only hilarious one that posts there. I’m liking that blog more and more each day, however, Gordo has been off in portland for the weekend and I miss him and his blogging. (hey gordo)

Speaking of hilarious, check out this shiat over at DiPietro’s blog. (Maybe it’s just me, but his blog seems to be a more interesting recreation of alon’s blog.) Also hilarity at it’s finest can be found in this post at Pandagon - note the clever spin on Hillary’s name. …Its times like this I’m really glad I’m not American. American politics piss me off so much. Personally, I heart Obama - it’s a shame he won’t win… And it’s a shame that come next year our Prime Minister will lose his besty westy friendy wendy Bushie-poo. Who will Harper play with!?

Speaking of playing, now that I have my new spiffy and pretty video card I plan on spending the next 4 hours playing Knights of the old Republic, it seems like a little bit of a waste to be using such a pretty and good video card on an older game, but right now, it’s all I have. …I was trying to install the Sims, but it won’t install past 14%… I plan on going upstairs and raiding my landlord’s geeky son’s room for games. Exciting. Then all I’ll do is yap on the radio, come home… and play video games. Screw school and blogging. Radio and gaming! w00t!

If you’re going to follow any link from me at all please follow this one. Lindsay posts about Jennifer Strange’s water intoxication death. …Scary and sad. I knew a guy in highschool that died from water intoxication, but he had taken a lot of E.

Mom, you should read this. Via slant truth. I appreciate it, that’s for sure. Not even because teh title of the post has a Sex and the City "important" quote in it. I would do a post about how great the word fuck is - but I’m terrfied about what the comment from my mother would look like. From the same site - these 6 word stories are really cool. I’d attempt to write one, but… … … no.