Paid a fine.

By The Canadian Press via Yahoo

CALGARY - The driver of a school bus involved in a crash that killed a Calgary girl says her personal life was in turmoil before the accident
Louise Rogers is testifying at the fatality inquiry into the death of nine-year-old Kathelynn Occena.
Kathelynn died in October 2007 when the school bus sideswiped a parked gravel truck on a busy thoroughfare.
Rogers says she had tried to commit suicide the month before and had taken stress leave the previous spring because she was overwhelmed by the number of children on her route.
She says she had been seeing the school psychologist following the breakdown of her marriage and her supervisor was aware of her struggles.
Rogers pleaded guilty to careless driving and paid a fine.

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David Ker Thomson

What I’m mostly up for this morning by way of taxing your half-million earballs is this virgin I nearly did the nasty on a few minutes ago. Sweet thing, legal eighteen I guess but looks like my dad used to say, ‘sweet sixteen and never been kissed’.

Well, I’m no prude, but I have to say that the level of offense this advertisement (alas, an ad it is, and the girl’s putting out for the West Toronto Kia at 2445 St. Clair West) generated in me is so intense that my outrage is—and here I wish to be very precise—literally inexpressible.

I mean that in a legal sense. I’m not even allowed to hint at what I think an appropriate response would be for people who run an ad depicting a virgin, a Rio automobile, and a price in such filthy juxtaposition here in the midst of the killing fields. And I’m committed to non-violence. “You never forget YOUR FIRST,” says the ad, which is how we know that, until the deal is sealed, virginity’s for sale. “Why settle for used? Drive new for the same price. 2008 RIO5. We have a fresh one for you…just call us for a pick-up.” Turns out that we don’t have to settle for a “beater,” since the new Rio is “sweet.”

For my part, I’ve never forgotten my first. Guy swerved right and caught me between his car and a parked one. Luckily I’d been doing that proto-parkour stuff and I leapt up and over and landed on the sidewalk. My bike didn’t fare so well. The guy stopped and prostrated himself with apologies and all, but I couldn’t help thinking that without that bit of self rapture I’d have been between a rock and a hard place.

Rio, eh? I live in ’rio, a province of small rivers and big lakes, so the name kind of stands out. These Rios are one of the many eco-friendly cars friendly for the backside of cyclists in the killing fields of the city. We are the cyclists killed every year by eco-friendly cars, hybrid “electric” buses with not one but two powerplants (echo, echo: both powerplants running on energy from fossil fuel), fuckers in leanly carbureted Volvos and their all-wheel-drive brethren, and so on. All the ‘good’ drivers and their clean green killing machines. Leprechaun terrorists.

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With Glowing Hearts

As usual I’m more ambitious than prolific, and had hoped to blog more during the games but shit happens and life ensues. More video soon!

Thus ends the most expensive party ever thrown, 17 days of drunken revelry. There seemed to be some sort of sports competition going on as well.

Today it must be one huge hangover.

Yesterday was the craziest scene I ever did see here upon the streets of downtown Vancouver, or any where else for that matter. The exuberance, joy and good will was palpable, everywhere impromptu parades we’re taking place on the downtown streets, spontaneous eruptions of cheers and hugs and mitten waving. It was an incredibly fun time.

I saw more than one street hockey game being played, and in the downtown parades, all the boys with the biggest trucks had the biggest flags--correlation? hmmm...

An incredible day that could have so easily been flattened if the Americans could have got a follow-up goal. It would have left a bitter taste upon these games, and yesterday would have become ‘somber Sunday’ instead of the celebration it was. Thank you, Sidney.



Canadians have a lot to be proud of in the way we live and get along with one another. We also have many shameful acts perpetuated in our names to be accountable for. But its hard to be cynical in the afterglow of the Five Ring Circus. Once the party started, we all seemed to put on our Sunday best and were welcoming and hospitable to all, as any host should be. A good perspective here, and here.

Not 14 gold medals or hockey bragging rights, but Canadian warmth and hospitality was the real showcase of these games. With glowing hearts, indeed.