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.

I should start doing environmental news more regularly… but when ever I commit a day to something specific I always forget and then I never want to do it on that day anyway and it just becomes a whole personal guilt thing and that is no fun and I don’t want my blog to be not fun… So I’m not going to do a regular environmental news segment. heh. I’ll just try to do it more often…

So here…some environmental news… a huge chunk of land was saved in South America! Cool.

Also - check out this adorable these species are that are being protected! That little guy on the right hand side is just too adorable for words. Do you think they would let me have one for a pet? …Not likely eh…

I already posted about it, but I think I need to remind everyone that Obama is all about the climate change. I won’t get into… how good or bad their bill is, because really, I’m just happy to see something going on.

And last bit of enviro shizzle, asian leaders are agreeing to promote biofules. That makes me tres happy. Considering asia is going to be RIGHT up there with the states in the very near future in the economy its good to see some initiatives early on - i just hope it doesn’t stop there.

Non environmental news, real quick time because I want to go to sleep, kids could be dying because of religious beliefs… suprised? I think not. Oh wait - one more envirnomental… Dion is a tool. … this “clean coal” business is such a scam.

Vandalism at a muslim school isn’t being deemed a hate crime. That’s just pathetic. People need buck up. Seriously. I’m going to start crackin’ skulls. Yes. Personally. …Same with the neo-nazi jerks. Head crackin’.

Update: Children ARE dying because of religious beliefs. sigh.

I’m about to leave to go see my mom (yay!) so I don’t have tons-o-time to do the education post that I want to put together. I’ll work on it tomorrow or the next day. …It should be good. But for now, here is a news round up that pisses me off.

Radio stations are always being urged to play more Can-Con, now they’re being ordered to fund them and increase the percentage that needs to be played. As a Canadian I understand why it’s important to have Canadian content. However, as a DJ at a radio station I also know how irritating it is to get in shit every week for not playing 35% Canadian content on every show. It’s nearly impossible to find a Canadian artist that will fit the theme/feel of the show every single week. It just doesn’t always work out that way. And radio stations like mine can’t afford to be paying for Canadian artists. And the other thing that always pissed me off is that we don’t have a percentage of women’s music that we have to play… Grr.

There may not actually be a decrease in breast cancer - just less of it being reported. I hate how hard it can be to collect statistics for some things - and how people are so quick to write things off because of statistics. I was talking to an old teacher of mine about gays, and he insisted that it is because being gay is "cooler" now than it was before and that’s why the numbers are increasing - when really it is completely logical to think that its just easier for them to come out now.

I’m starting to think that teachers should just be able to sleep with students whenever they want (as long as its you know.. not rape.) But this story isn’t really… um, I dont know. I dont agree with it or anything. It just reminded me of how sick I am of hearing people complain about students sleeping with teachers. If two people actually like each other, and they’re both of the proper ages - then why the hell not? And this guy was right in the middle of the sexual revolution, what the fuck else was he supposed to do? …Any two consenting adults should be able to have as much sex as they want when ever they want.

I used to date a guy who loved the Olive Garden. I hated it. Mostly because olives make me puke all over when I eat them … I know that the Olive Garden doesn’t only serve olives, I’m not an idiot, but just the name is gross. Anyway, don’t eat at the olive garden.

I hate that global warming is hitting the most environmentally contious and sound place in Canada. …The third huge ass storm of the year has hit my little area in BC, ripping houses apart and all that snazzy stuff. …We all need to start bike riding everywhere. I think the lack of fumes would benefit the environment, and the slowing down would help all of our emotional problems. …horse and buggy anyone?

Since I’ve been here in New York, Alon has gotten me addicted to these Hershey’s milk chocolate nugget things. (Minus the salomnella.) The only reason I want to go home is so that I can become readdicted to pickles. I miss my pickles. But thats not a good enough reason to head home so I called up the travel agent and was like "yo, book me longer" so he did, and I will remain in New York until Monday. …"But all you do is bitch about him!?" …THat’s the only time I get to write about him - is when Im pissed! haha, if I’m not mad at him, I’m concentrating on HIM, not my blog. heh. But really, I’m starting to get used to the whole "not-exisiting-for-three-hours-while-alon-blogs" thing. That doesn’t mean I get any less bored, it just means I’ve learned to just leave and go shopping.

Another reason I’m not all that excited or willing to head back home - the weather here is much better than the weather there.

Speaking of shopping - the H&M that I’ve found here in New York sort of sucks. I don’t know if its because Euro-fashion caters differently to New Yorkers, or if that H&M just blows. But this has prevented me from going twice in the past 2 days, and I plan on going again in an hour. (But with direct intentions of a needed purchase… no browsing, that gives me a headache.)

Apparently the slut-shaming has gotten to hot for skatje, so she’s just going on the defensive, mean and run-away side, which even further validates my sneaking suspicion that she has no real argument towards the matter at hand. She’s taking the good ‘ol "I’m more hurt than you right now, so you can’t possibly understand what I’m going through, so you’re the horrible person in all of this" route.

…That’s fine

…but WHY is it a bad thing to sleep with people you don’t love? I don’t care about her emo problems, I care about the matter at hand. I could understand if her and this fellow were together at the time of the conversation - but as Alon points out, not only does she already have a new boyfriend, she broke up with this one over a month ago. *shrugs* again, I don’t care about her emo problems, I was looking for an actual conversation about sex and love - but instead I got trolly slander that wasn’t even GOOD trolly slander.

Not only is she taking that road - she’s taking it and not letting me respond anymore - she has locked this comment thread where she basically threw a knife then ran. I really don’t understand this hit and run tactic.

1. Gee, skatje, no one was trying to tell you to stop your asshatty ways; they were just -expressing their disapproval.-

   That said, I’ve only just encountered you, and yet, based on what i’ve seen thus far:

   don’t let the door hit you, really.

   I’m sure it’s for valid real life reasons anyway, right?  I mean
   clearly you’re not hypersensitive like all those other people wittering
   on about their -feelings,- right?

   Posted by belledame222   on  11/16  at  10:29 AM
2. 

   :’( :’( :’( Don’t call me an asshat! That’s like calling a black person a nigger! omggoggg!

   But in seriousness, the drama stuff with that is irrelevant. Don’t speak unless you actually have a clue what this is about.

   Posted by Skatje   on  11/16  at  10:46 AM

3. she does have a clue. i brought her up to speed as she has one
   of the best feminist opinions on sex and relationships and I wanted her
   take on the that has happened.

   Posted by Kian   on  11/16  at  01:10 PM
4. 

   YOU don’t have a clue either. I don’t care that you threw a fit.
   There’s a lot more stuff going on in my life than your little boo-hoo
   about being called a mean name.

   Posted by Skatje   on  11/16  at  01:31 PM

I *tried* to say:

I threw a fit? …Hmm. Other way around, me thinkith. I remained level headed while you went bananas on all of us. But, okiedokie. Silly me - I thought we were discussing an issue on sex and love - not your personal emo life. I dont know how many times i have to say it - I don’t care that you called me a slut, I really don’t. I’ve been called worse. I’ve just been looking for a logical reason as to why.

Only to find that it had been locked so that Skatje doesn’t have to take les heat anymore.

I understand that girls obviously got some emotional problems - but its not like she’s the only person in the world with them, or like hers are any worse than what everyone else on the fucking planet goes through. Whaaateves. I’m done with this - thanks to Belledame222 for the back up and info on the word slut.

Moving along…

Since taking Pat’s advice and just increasing violence against men instead of lowering that which is against women probably won’t have a very good outcome, I thought I should point everyone towards Faith’s blog which has an exremely extensive collection of thoughts on abuse towards all kinds of women. From abuse of older women - to genital mutilation.

I meant to link to this Pandagon post yesterday, but didn’t get around to it. Hardy har. this is why I’ll never got on exchange. With my luck I’d get a host family that wanted me home every night by 9 and would check my breath to see if I’d be smoking or drinking and check my vag to see if I had been turned on by something. When my ex - Reid when to Turkey for his exchange he got a reallly great host family… that almost made me reconsider it, but only for a few moment.

This is the THIRD TIME i’ve attempted to do this post. it just dissapeared the other 2 times. I SWEAR! just POOF! gone. Weird. Okay.
So I went to this grad party thing tonight wtih a few friends. My plan was not to drink at all because I wanted to have some intelligent conversation. HOWEVER i ended up getting the best of both worlds. I got sloshed up, AND got called "the most intelligent and interguing person" they had ever met, "a talking encycolpedia" and I even had 4 people believing that I am a graduate student from princeton just here in BC visiting my girlfriend. (I blew that about an hour later when I said "Yeah! I have a class in cornett this semester and its totally a maze!" oops)
So this is for sam. She likes stories with pictures…so I have pictures. None of the actual event, because Jessica said "Katie, you can’t bring that. you’ll break and or lose it."…so I wasn’t allowed.

The pre-drink! Woo!! I love wine!

"KATIE! I SWEAR! It’ll look EXACTLY like you’re drinking IN NEW YORK CITY!!!! Get up there!!"
Jess, you were so very very wrong.

Pre drinking that much, that quickly is a bad idea. Especially while ill.

"No! before we go I need to check some blogssss!!" The other 3 were not impressed, and laughed at me for being such a loser. (Yes, Gordo that is YOUR blog! I read it drunk! Appreciate that I don’t comment drunk! bwa ha ha.)

Katie is tipsy and ready to go!! Sooo we went.
It was fun. Lots of fun. Met lots of people, and I remember most of my conversations. …I talked to this guy Jon about Iraq for a solid hour. …He was a die hard conservative, so it was interesting.
And I talked to another guy, the guy that invited me for a long time about geomorphology… and rocks… and… things. THAT was interesting.
And I went on and on and on about leviathan to a group of people… who listened very intently, and then asked a million questions. It was like a seminar. It was cool. I like graduate kids, they’re much more interesting than undergraduates.

I would like to say thank you, very VERY much to jessica for taking this picture. bitch.

I am not impressed that photos are STILL being taken.

Annnnnd then i fell asleep. BUT not for long because Jess started playing Lonestar really loud and jumping on the bed singing into a hair brush… I’d post the picture that I got of her doing it, but she said "post that and I will sabatoge your radio show on wednesday" and since she is going to be in the on air booth with me, and she’s a total bitch, I TOTALLY believe her.

Anyway, good times. I need to go to bed. Spinny head!