Dude, unless you were lying about your age on your application to the Mighty P, you went through the same stuff during your 20’s!

Ahh the ramblings of a failed goth. I was foo fat for lace. The chick I was trying to impress wasn’t that hot, so good thing I went back to my bat heads.

What I find disturbing about the whole Montreal incident is that the inane pratter of the media is the same white noise to me before after this incident as it was before. Nothing has changed, and I don’t think people are even trying to see the message that something should.

I sincerely hope that we new parents attempt to make a better dent in the lives of our children than the self-centred Starbucks drinking SUV driving previous generation did. I think Erik and I were spoiled by having parents that so actively gave a shit about our lives that they even had kids when it wasn’t cool. 80’s children are brats.

Smoochies to my wife, born in ‘81. It late and I’m feeling sarcastic.

And Brooks? He has put way, way, way, way, way, way, way too much thought into this.

I understand the parental angle, lord knows in just a few short years I may get to see things from the other side of the fence.

When I was a teenager I had my fair share of angst, depression, sense of isolation and despair. It’s a natural thing in teenagers. My parents dealt with it as best they could, they gave support when it was (rarely) asked for, and allowed me to find my own way reinforcing that they were around to help should I need it.

I considered suicide in those seemingly dark days, I entertained revenge fantasies briefly, but I suppose the key difference was those that I thought of were those that had done me wrong, not a generalization of “them”. As it turned out the key was that I never sought to actualize those feelings, those fantasies, and they too disappeared in the fullness of time.

Funny how life has it’s own brand of justice to met out to bullies and their ilk. Time demonstrates that more qualitative vengeance adequately.

As a parent I don’t look forward to dealing with Jillys teenage years, but I hope that approach it with the same common sense and support that my parents demonstrated back then. Free reign for her rebellion (if and when it occurs) is not an option.

A lack of recourse is still no excuse for willfull ignorance.

Brenda: Ah yes, something is always to blame. Dungeons and Dragons was going to turn us all into satan worshipers, heavy metal music was going to have us biting heads off live animals.

Simple answers for simple people.

No worries on the link, I leave the comments fairly open as my spam filter catches most inappropriate comments, and I keep a close eye on the rest.

I am appalled that they are blaming it on goth culture. Most of the “goths” I have known are sensitive poetry writing people. Also it is the only way guys are allowed to wear lace and pretty jewelery. Goth is a fashion statement more than anything else. And I played vampire role playing games and I never killed anybody.

Next they’ll be blaming murder on music… oh wait they did that already.

(Oh and thanks for fixing my link Erik. I forgot your blog takes href tags. Most don’t. Should have at least tiny url-ed it, but you know. Mommy brain. Shhhhhhh of course I was not forgetful *before* the baby )

How long do the “teen years” last?
The guy was 25.
But obviously allowed to stay a teen well past the time he should have.
As I commented on T.O. Crime

“heard a report today saying that we should pay more attention to what our children are doing online.
It’s true…to me this is elementary.
Our kids only used the computer in the basement and we had a password on it…no computer in your room, sorry.

But, this guy was 25.
Hardly a kid.
The Mister suggested out that he probably was online unmonitored for years…and maybe it’s so. It’s just speculation.
How long does the descent into a parallel world take?
Probably not that long if it’s coupled with mental illness.

I feel for this guys parents. What I should have done, what I could have done swimming through their heads.

When your child starts exhibiting strange behaviour, how much help does a parent really have?
Not much. Once someone is 18, in this country, you can’t really interfer with what they’re doing too much as a parent.
You can call the cops, you can call an ambulance, you can call who you want.
They’re adults, and if you can’t prove theat they’re not “right” when the agency shows up, you’re stuck with them in your basement looking at vampire sites and cleaning their guns until they open fire on a group of students in a College cafeteria.

I’ll bet cash money that his parents expressed concern, and had no one to turn to.

The problem is this country’s insistence on ignoring issues regarding mental health.
We’ll go on walks for breast cancer and alzheimers, and MS…but I’ll bet my mortgage (and you can have that btw) that we have 10 times the problem with mental health.
It’s the secret disease that no one wants to confront or talk about.

That person in the cubicle next to you is probably bi-polar on meds, but will they tell you about it? I bet not…because of the stigma.
We’re so afraid of facing mental health issues that we pretend that they don’t exist until something like this happens, and then we shake our heads and marvel.”

Also: The Storm is by no means a “rifle”, nor is it an assault rifle. This is not semantics; it’s just another sign that no media group can ever seem to get facts about firearms correct - though the Globe and Mail came closest in today’s (Friday) paper.

Finally: Layton is one of the key reasons not to vote NDP…

One last point: Kudos to all the people who wrote to the Toronto Star asking why the government bureacrats will not grant us ATC’s, even though they are taking the law into their own hands (illegally) by denying ATC’s to those who should qualify.