… peeps think it is somehow cool to vandalize someone else’s property. I did a lot of crazy stuff in my youth but never once did I intentionally wreck or deface something that didn’t belong to me. I just didn’t.

And it is quite costly, as reported in this article.

…the city said they responded to 368 requests to repair bus shelters in 2011. There are about 1,400 bus shelters in the city.The City of Ottawa responded to more than 200 reports of shattered glass at bus shelters in 2011. (CBC)

Of those requests, 207 were to fix or clean up shattered glass. It costs $350 to replace one pane of glass.

In 2011 the city spent $225,000 for all bus shelters repairs and another $135,000 to clean up graffiti at the stops.

Crazy. I just don’t get it.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… of the freak who has been sexually assaulting women in the Alta Vista area.

Please feel free to copy and paste into any media where we can get some broad coverage. SOMEONE has to know this freak! Call the cops if you do!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

…for convicted child molester / sex offender / pedophile Graham James????

Seriously???????????????

WTF?

I hope the Crown appeals this RIDICULOUSLY short sentence!

And why the Hell is this guy permitted to hide his face?????

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… why did this happen?

A St. Paddy’s Day low-key celebration turns into a riot so vicious that cops in riot gear had to beat a hasty retreat… what brought this on?

Sure, you can blame the booze, the large numbers, the testosterone (going out on a limb in assuming that most of the rioters were young men), but is there more to this than meets the eye?

Look, I was no angel at the age of these college kids. I did some crazy shit… but I NEVER thought about turning a party into something violent! And we had parties! Big ones! Some of them were hosted by yours truly when I was a teen on Whitefish Lake. We sometimes had 100+ on our beach, in our house and elsewhere on the sprawling 2 1/2 acre property.

And there was much imbibing! We sure as hell weren’t teetotalers! These were good times! Floyd, Zep and Neil Young booming from cassette decks and 8-tracks.  Sweet scents in the air…

Yet, not once was there any real damage. Not once.

OK, there was that one minor incident where a certain friend decided that doing a donut in his Rambler (if any old high school buds can correctly identify the culprit, I’ll buy them a beer in July!) on a far corner of the lot was a good idea…

Those too polluted to drive stayed in tents or crashed on our basement floor. And in the morning – hungover as hell – everyone pitched in to clean up the mess. Some party-goers even came back the next day to help with the clean-up.

I’m not saying that this was the case everywhere and all of the time. Cops were called at some parties (not my own) due to noise complaints. And yeah, the odd vase was broken or toilet backed up…

So what’s up with these kids? Why would they commit such violence even in the face of social media where EVERYONE has a camera and EVERYONE is on Facebook or Twitter and it is almost CERTAIN that your mug will be out in cyberspace, caught red-handed throwing a beer bottle, wrecking a cruiser or stoking a bonfire with 2×4′s ripped from a fence?

Did they not learn from the Vancouver riots?

Is it a sense of entitlement? Is it a lack of discipline? Is (and now I’ll sound like an old guy) this generation somehow distanced from social responsibility?

I truly don’t have an answer to this. But, in the intervening 30 years or so since I was the same age as these hooligans, something has clearly shifted.

Oh, and happy first day of Spring!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… in trying to track down some scumbags who defiled Pleasant Park School (OCDSB: JK -> 6… yeah, little kids) with some truly disgusting graffiti at some point over the past few days.

As in TRULY disgusting. Swastikas. Racist crap. The works.

The police are not likely to be able do anything other than log it as a report and look for similar incidents in the area. This kind of  crap is fairly rare. We have been pretty lucky in our community until now.

So, please re-post, and re-Tweet.  Maybe someone can come forward to the police with any info that may lead to identifying the worthless pieces of sewage who did this.

Thanks.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I commented on Twitter yesterday that some were taking the Oslo tragedy as an opportunity to push forward certain right-wing agendas.

And please don’t tell me that open carry and anti Gun Registry proponents are not unique to the right. There may be a few exceptions – but damned few.

Over at wmtc, they took it one step further and tore down the straw-man that the anti Registry and pro open carry advocates were making. Please go over and take a look.

And, just because of how I tick, I dd a bit of research and yeah, the figures cited are correct. At 10.9 gun deaths / 100,000, Texas is in the middle of the pack in the U.S. on this count.

And here’s a country by country table (again, / 100,000 of the pop.). Some of the sources are quite dated, but I don’t believe any are too far out of whack.

Country	Total firearm-related death rate	Homicides	Suicides	Unintentional deaths	Year	Sources and notes
South Africa	74.57	74.57	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Colombia	51.77	51.77	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Thailand	33	33	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Guatemala	18.05	18.05	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
United States	15.22	7.07	7.35	0.59	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Brazil	14.15	10.58	0.73	0.28	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Estonia	12.74	8.07	3.13	0.93	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Mexico	12.07	9.88	0.91	1.27	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Philippines	9.46	9.46	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Argentina	9.19	2.11	3.05	0.32	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Paraguay	7.35	7.35	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Finland	6.86	0.86	5.78	0.12	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Northern Ireland	6.82	5.24	1.34	0.12	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Switzerland	6.4	0.58	5.61	0.13	1994	Krug 1998[3]
France	6.35	0.44	5.14	0.11	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Canada	4.78	0.76	3.72	0.22	1992	Krug 1998[3]
Zimbabwe	4.75	4.75	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Austria	4.56	0.42	4.06	0.05	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Norway	4.39	0.3	3.95	0.12	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Portugal	3.72	1.28	1.28	0.21	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Belgium	3.48	0.6	2.56	0.06	1990	Krug 1998[3]
Costa Rica	3.32	3.32	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Uruguay	3.24	3.24	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Slovenia	3.07	0.35	2.51	0.2	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Barbados	3	3	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Israel	3	0.72	1.84	0.13	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Italy	2.95	1.66	1.11	0.11	1992	Krug 1998[3]
Australia	2.94	0.44	2.35	0.11	1994	Krug 1998[3]
New Zealand	2.66	0.17	2.14	0.09	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Denmark	2.6	0.23	2.25	0.04	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Sweden	2.36	0.18	2.09	0.03	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Slovakia	2.17	2.17	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Czech Republic	1.77	1.77	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Germany	1.57	0.22	1.17	0.04	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Greece	1.5	0.59	0.84	0.04	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Azerbaijan	1.47	1.47	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Republic of Macedonia	1.28	1.28	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Kuwait	1.25	0.36	0.06	0	1995	Krug 1998[3]
Hungary	1.21	0.23	0.88	0.09	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Ireland	1.21	0.03	0.94	0.11	1991	Krug 1998[3]
Latvia	1.2	1.2	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
India	100	100	NA	NA	2011	UNODC 2000[1]
Spain	0.9	0.21	0.43	0.25	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Bulgaria	0.77	0.77	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Netherlands	0.7	0.36	0.31	0.01	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Scotland	0.58	0.19	0.33	0.02	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Moldova	0.47	0.47	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Lithuania	0.46	0.46	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Taiwan	0.42	0.15	0.12	0.11	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Belarus	0.38	0.38	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
Ukraine	0.35	0.35	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
Poland	0.29	0.29	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]
England/ Wales	0.46[3] 0.38	0.07[3] 0.15	0.03[3] 0.2	0.01[3] 0.03
Singapore	0.24	0.07	0.17	0	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Hong Kong	0.19	0.12	0.07	0	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Mauritius	0.19	0	0.09	0.09	1993	Krug 1998[3]
Qatar	0.18	0.18	NA	NA	2000	UNODC 2000[1]
South Korea	0.13	0.04	0.02	0.05	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Japan	0.07	0.02	0.04	0	1994	Krug 1998[3]
Chile	0.06	0.06	NA	NA	2002	UNODC 2002[2]

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

I might have more to say about this later, but for now I just want to highlight the idiocy of some on the right of the spectrum here in Canada.

Yesterday, when the news broke about the tragedy in Norway, the response by many in the Twitterverse, blogosphere and in the comments sections of news articles was overwhelmingly vitriolic against Muslims.

“Send them back.” “This is what happens when you let those people into your country.” “Bomb them to hell.”

Crap. It was nasty.

And this judgement was made despite the fact that there was no evidence that an Islamic group was involved. None.

And the worst of the lot on Twitter were the usual right-wing morons who always like to spout hate. If you follow Twitter, you know who they are.

But this morning, where have all the anti-Islam Tweets gone?

Now that details are leaking out, it looks like the Oslo terror may have been the work of a Christian fundamentalist or someone on the far right.

So now I assume we’ll see lotsa anti-Christian Tweets, right?

Didn’t think so.

Bloody narrow minded hypocrites.

…this one showing the results.

And while Canada is way down on the list, it’s still sad to see that 6% of men think that it’s A-OK to beat his wife…

Sad. And tragic.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Note: The registration portion of the Firearms Act was implemented in 2001 and became mandatory in 2003.

I put this table together because of a Twitter conversation that was going back and forth about murder, suicides and firearms.

So here is a fact-based, empirical set of data on what went down between 2000 and 2007.

For me, the striking thing is the decrease of firearm related suicides. Quite remarkable.

I should mention that these data are publicly available and accessible at no cost.

What other conclusions do you draw from the data?

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

The Sun media group is all over a poll released today by Abacus Data that 2/3 of we meek and mild Canucks are in favour of killing people to show that killing people is wrong. It is is also noted, however, that less than half (41%) want it formally reinstated.

Putting aside the clear statement of ambivalence expressed by the respondents to the poll – 66% of Canadians support the death penalty “in certain circumstances,” but only 41% want it brought back it back a punishment for murder – I have a few other issues with these numbers.

First, it was a poll of randomly selected adults from an online panel of over 400,000. Web-based polls have an inherent bias that should be acknowledge in any analyses of the results.

I looked at a similar question that was asked by EKOS in March 2010 (sample size of 2,302, phone survey), and the results were more closely aligned with those 40-odd percent who indicated in the Abacus poll that they would want it brought back in legislation.

Forty-six per cent do not support the reintroduction of capital punishment while 40 per cent do. Another 14 per cent said they had no opinion.

Data from 2000 suggests that opinions on this issue have remained relatively unchanged in 10 years. In June of 2000, 43 per cent disagreed with capital punishment while 44 per cent agreed with it.

Those who support the reintroduction of capital punishment tend to be Conservative supporters (53 per cent), residents of Alberta (48 per cent), men (43 per cent), seniors (45 per cent), high school grads (48 per cent) and college grads (46 per cent).

Which begs another question…

Second, where is the regional breakdown in the Abacus poll? There isn’t one. And why is that? Because the sample size is not large enough. A sample of 1,100 will yield you good results at the national level but won’t get you anything provincially. And THAT is where the interesting results would be seen.

For example, will anyone dispute that the likelihood of someone in Alberta supporting the death penalty is greater than someone in, say, Ontario. No, of course not. And where is the CPC base?

Now, I’m not throwing the Abacus polling results out the window. All I am saying is that with polls such as these, one should be very careful about drawing conclusions. The CPC would love everyone to believe that indeed most Canadians are behind Harper after he muses on being “personally” in favour of the death penalty. While in fact, these numbers may be more a case of strong regional bias coupled with the bias inherent in a web-based panel.

Just sayin’…

Of course, a Harperite who reads this will accuse me of liberal bias or some such nonsense… go ahead… throw it at me…

And in case you haven’t noticed, I am. for the record, not in favour of the death penalty.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario