Explosive Device confirmed found in Canadian High School

N.B HIGH SCHOOL EVACUATED AFTER DISCOVERY OF EXPLOSIVE DEVICE

Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton got shut down today because the cops are saying they found an “explosive device” that has apparently been taken out of the school by the bomb squad and sent to Moncton to be detonated. There is also talk that the school has been shut down recently because somebody brought a handgun to school. This is a big deal in Fredericton, New Brunswick’s capital, because it is not a particularly sketchy town. Yeah, you’ve got a few bikers here and there and some minor drug smuggling in that area, but it’s pretty much a town of university students, hospital workers, and provincial government employees. It’s a sleepy place reminiscent of a smaller, 20%-less-nice Victoria, BC.

While I’m probably wrong, I have a theory that the bomb and the gun are connected. A handgun is pretty damn hard to get in Canada, especially if you’re 15 and live in Fredericton New Brunswick. The only other thing that may have something to do with it is the fact that CFB Gagetown is nearby and I would bet money that there’s a few guns kicking around that place. Questions: could this kid who brought the gun to school have a father or mother in the military? Is he in cadets? Was one of his parents in Afghanistan? It is difficult to get a handgun there (there’s only a handful of gun shops in all of New Brunswick) and there simply can’t be that many people that want to shoot up or blow up a high school in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I think the two are connected, it’s not that big of a high school, and seriously how many people honestly want to shoot up or blow up their high school to the point where they will actually do it (or at least bring it to school)? Preliminary reports make it sound like the police are investigating two different people. But I have a hunch those two knew each other pretty well.

This type of thing will be a big deal in that city for a long time to come. Especially since it comes so late in the year when everybody is kind of winding things down at school. I remember my high school in nearby Moncton had countless bomb threats but they always involved everybody going outside, standing there for 20 minutes and then going right back in. Sometimes firetrucks or police didn’t even seem to show up. I’m glad the administration at the school actually took this one seriously.

Unfortunately, the school doesn’t sound like they are doing much to help parents, but they are probably very overwhelmed by the situation. They are extremely lucky that nothing happened because there doesn’t seem to be much of a plan to notify parents of what to do. Luckily, it was not an active shooter walking into the school and blazing the place up. More questions: How would they have reacted to that? Did they even have a plan? How will the school notify parents in case of an emergency like this? Does the police officer stationed at the school carry a firearm?

I’m glad that nothing has actually happened, I’m a jaded guy and I know that bad shit happens everywhere, but holy crap- it sure as hell shouldn’t be going down in Fredericton.

BTW, They’re lucky they’re re-done the highway between Fredericton and Moncton, because if they took the old way, that device would probably detonate somewhere around Cambridge Narrows. You will only understand that if you are from New Brunswick.

Times & Transcript online just keeps improving

So, Moncton’s Times & Transcript is improving their website. There’s been a lot of changes recently and you can tell everybody over there is really excited about it.

 Unfortunately, they don’t have any clue what they’re doing and this picture is my case in point. Dig it.

Notice the shitty HTML coding with the “A” with the accent circonflex on top and then a trademark? Nice one guys, did you get 10 year olds to code your HTML for you or what, because 12 year olds can do it…

Seriously, only the Times & Transcript would have a big banner boasting of “improving your site” and then there’s cruddy coding in the headline link. How rough is that?

Well, the only thing rougher than that is this one headline the Transcript botched last summer. Keep in mind that this is the main headline on the editorial page, it’s supposed to say “GUN OWNERS BEING VICTIMIZED” but they printed it “GUN BEING OWNERS VICTIMIZED” Pretty friggin’ rough.

 The only thing worse is Here Magazine. Don’t even get me started.

Purdue pharma admits white lies. Lines up $600 million fine.

IN GUILTY PLEA, OXYCONTIN MAKER TO PAY $600 MILLION

The makers of Oxycontin, a mainstay of cancer patients and fratboys alike, have pled guilty to knowingly promoting the drug as less dangerous and less powerful than it actually is. They argued that since it contained a time release coating, it was safer and less likely for abuse than Vicodin. Obviously nobody did any real research (or any research they did must have been covered up) because people will hork this shit up their noses until their body gets so friggin’ down that their heart is too lazy to breathe. That’s how you die from Oxycontin. That would fuckin’ suck.

Oxy’s exploded in rural America because if you live in a backwoods part of Appalachia you probably can’t get any actual illegal drugs unless you’ve got supreme hook-ups. Instead, people do what they’ve always done, get high off of what’s around them, in this case Grandma’s painkillers for that new hip she just got installed. How many people died from Oxycontin? How many people fucked up their lives because they just love mainlining pain medication? Think about it- the guys who own the company mistated its potential for addiction and then undertook a massive marketing blitz, as the NYT article says (in reference to the claim that it was less addicting than Vicodin) “That claim became the lynchpin of the most aggressive marketing campaign ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical company for such a drug. Just a few years after the drug’s introduction in 1996, annual sales reached $1 billion. Purdue Pharma heavily promoted OxyContin to doctors like general practitioners who had little training in the treatment of serious pain or in recognizing signs of drug abuse in patients.”  

They should go down hard for this. Really hard. This, in some ways, is almost more irresponsible than Enron (yeah, I know its a bold claim, but give me a second to elaborate). Essentially, they unleashed a whacko concoction of opiates that was basically synthetic heroin and told all the doctors ”No, no, fuck, it’s fine. Just give ‘er.”

Want to see what somebody who is really fucked up on oxycontin looks like? Check out this champ I found on Youtube. How dilly‘ed is this guy?

So, why is this worse, in ways, than Enron? Because Enron, at the end of the day, was about money. This is about lives in a much more direct way. Doctors are some of the last people we can trust. But why do you think a nurse is statistically trusted more than a doctor? Because of shit like this. Enron was a bunch of suits shifting a bunch of money around and fucking with de-regulated energy markets (they even tried to trade internet bandwidth WTF!), but this was Purdue Pharma (check out their shitty website here) knowingly distributing a dangerously addicting drug on the population, but still telling doctor’s it was safe. Why do you think people rob pharmacies? To steal Flintsone vitamins and fuckin’ US Magazine?

Check out this rap song called Oxy Cotton by dirty souf rapper Lil Wyte. Promoting weed and such is one thing but promoting oxycontin abuse is a tad irresponsible. He can do what he wants, I’m not saying he can’t do it. I’m just sayin’ its bad form, you know? Still, anybody who’d take advice from Lil Wyte is a bit of a tard. Anyways, here’s the video.

Speaking of tards, I apologize that its just some home made video made by some 15 year old pimply-faced puke. But didja listen to the song? How bad is that? Yeesh, “…did 11 percocets…” I mean… two or three is one thing. But 11? You’re gonna be Get Get Down by Paul Johnson.

Anyways, wow, scandal. I think so. I guess it shows what happens when you let certain types of people get involved in the healthcare industry.

Drama in my uncle’s courtroom

Just stumbled on a Times Transcript article that details a showdown in my Uncle’s courtroom when a witness tries to take off.

INTIMIDATED WITNESS BOLTS FROM STAND
Times & Transcript Staff

Published Saturday April 28th, 2007

Appeared on page A1/A13

A witness stood up during a break in a sentencing hearing yesterday and decided he’d had enough.

Despite the protests of an RCMP corporal, he walked out of the Moncton courtroom and said he wouldn’t return.

The man, who can’t be named because of a court-imposed publication ban, was both a witness and a victim in cases involving Shawn Wendell Augustine. The defendant was being sentenced in Moncton’s Court of Queen’s Bench yesterday and the victim was called to the stand to testify.

Augustine pleaded guilty in February to six criminal charges and prior to his sentencing, there was some dispute about the facts of the case. One of those charges was for obstruction of justice, for making threats against the man whose identity is protected, in an attempt to dissuade him from testifying if Augustine went to trial.

The man used to sell drugs for Augustine.

Crown prosecutor Stephen Holt called the victim to the stand to testify on the points of contention.

When the man was ushered into the courtroom, Augustine fixed his gaze on him and his eyes followed him to the stand. From the prisoners dock, with a sheriff on either side of him, Augustine glared at the witness while he answered the Crown’s questions.

Justice George Rideout called a brief recess and told the witness to remain in his seat. The way the courtroom is designed, the witness stand and prisoners dock face one another.

Augustine continued to eyeball the witness during the first part of the recess, but eventually started chatting with the sheriffs and was taken out of the courtroom for a break.

At that point, the man on the witness stand stood up and told Codiac RCMP Cpl. Denise Vautour he was done. She told him he had to stay, but the man appeared to be concerned for his safety.

“No, I’m leaving,” he responded, as he brushed past the officer. “He’s sitting there blowing kisses at me.”

Vautour grabbed his jacket, but the man told her to let go of him and kept heading towards the door. She followed him outside and he sat on a bench, adamant he wouldn’t go back in.

As the matter was discussed in the hallway, Augustine was returned to the prisoners dock and informed of what happened. He denied saying anything to the witness.

“There’s microphones everywhere, there’s a camera, I never said a damn word,” he told the sheriffs.

After a few minutes, the witness was finally convinced to return to the court and he finished his testimony without further incident.