Did Jonah lie? Does it really matter?

Yup, I'm going there. For those unfamiliar with the video/controversy, here's the original video:

Pretty fucking heartbreaking, isn't it?

A poor kid, near the end of his rope, hanging on by a thread but determined to struggle forward. It's brutal, raw, thought-provoking and heart-wrenching to watch, but ends with a hopeful message for any one else in this situation.

Later on, he did post another video, one where he appears much happier. So immediately, the Internet embraced his success story... right?

Um, no.

Instead, Jonah Mowry has become a target of harsh comments and accusations that he lied to gain attention and fame on the Internet. You can debate whether or not this is real or fake. You can doubt his pain if you want. But can you doubt his impact?

You see, his one video has become a rallying point for so many who have been bullied in the past, and are being bullied now. If his "lie" saved one life, then it's beyond worth any price. So far, Jonah defends his video, and states that it was made during a dark time in his life, and that it's 100% genuine.

For me, I don't care.

All I care about is that instead of reacting to yet another senseless suicide of a teenager due to their soul being crushed under the weight of bullying, we're talking about how a video is providing hope to others, and getting the discussion of bullying in schools to the forefront without some accompanying tragedy.

You see, we need to stop bullying, plain and simple. The old days where words could not hurt are gone. The relentlessness of today's Internet-addicted teenage culture leads them to take much more drastic steps to vent hate onto someone. And mob mentality rules at that point. Look at the comments on the video above. Really look at them. If even 1% of what he said was true, look at all the hate he now would endure for daring to speak up, even if at some point his life got better.

You know, honestly, I was never one of those people who said that TV, games, or the Internet is desensitizing people. But seeing things like this is changing my mind. Rapidly.

The suicide rate in teens is horrific globally (over 300,000 per this article). Now, keeping in mind that, as of right now, the #2 cause of death in Canada is for teens is suicide. 13 of every 100,000 teens have taken their own lives. So how much of that over 300,000 deaths globally are the problem that lives in your back yard.

Something horrible has grown in our own country. Something has been left to fester and now rots the morals and sympathies of today's youth. Be it absentee or poor parenting, a constant barrage of death and destruction on TV, the Internet or in games, or some other cause altogether, I can tell you this: Of all these things, the Internet is the one that glorifies bullying beyond any other media.

Trolling people is considered normal now. Spewing hate you would never say to someone's face is accepted in text. Websites base their entire being around harassed and attacking others, both online and in real life. Society needs to change. We need to relearn respect for one another, the value of one another's lives. This needs to end, and soon.

This is why I did all I could to stop bulling online. People seem to see it as harmless. But it teaches behavior to the young and impressionable. It rewards them for hating others, and leads them to perform bigger and grander acts of hatred. This is scarring our nation, our world. We need to put an end to it once and for all, to stand up against bullying, anywhere it happens, and punish those who think they are justified to act as though others are their personal punching bags.

Do your part, and I'll do mine. We can change the world, we just have to be willing to try.

My provincial government is full of crack heads...

The Ottawa Citizen reported that half of all crack users are tossing their city-provided crack pipes into the garbage.

There are so many things wrong with the above statement that it's hard to know where to start.

Each year, the Province of Ontario wastes $300,000 taxpayer dollars on an estimated 5,000 crack users in the Ottawa area to provide them with glass tubes in order for them to smoke crack without the risk of catching HIV/Hepatitis C. In what universe is this justifiable? Why are we, as a province wasting money on supporting the habit of these users instead of, say, helping break their addiction?!?

Yes, yes, I get the liberal heart bleeding nonsense that we want to stop them from being sick so that, just in case they clean up on their own, they return to society as a healthy, productive member of society instead of being infected with some fatal disease. Here's the thing: the bulk of the users, according to the article, are single, disabled men. Right, so they will likely not hold a lot of jobs a recovering crack addict would be likely to get. And, depending on their disability, they may not even be able to pass on a sexually transmitted disease easily.

So why are we just facilitating these people to continue their miserable existence as a drug-addicted, single, disabled but otherwise healthy lifestyle?!?

Sure, infection rates will go back up to the 64-some-percent they were, but the rates are still at 49%... So this very expensive plan doesn't seem to be doing much more than adding contaminated shards of glass to our sewers, streets, parks and landfills. What we need is a treatment program, funded by that $300,000 a year. It may only help a handful at a time, but once their addiction is broken, they are done, finished, over with! Instead we continue to allow people to get high on the government's money.

The only reason, aside from blatant government laziness in getting an addiction treatment center going, is that my provincial government is full of single, disabled men smoking their crack through Government of Ontario crack pipes.

How much are your children worth?

Shocking title I know, but it should be, because that's the question going before a committee in Parliament in regards to the bereavement benefit for when a soldier is killed in combat.

For those unfamiliar, if a married soldier is killed, normally the Government of Canada will provide $250,000 to the spouse and dependent children. This policy exists to help support a family who just lost half of their earnings due to the military placing the soldier in harm's way. Single soldiers, who have no such responsibilities, have no such benefit paid out.

Errol Cushley says this is discrimination.

Mr. Cushley, along with two other sets of greedy parents, have filed grievances in order to get paid for their children's deaths. But they swear it's not about the money, it's about equal treatment for single soldiers who have no one to benefit from their death other than, say, greedy parents.

It is a true tragedy when a soldier is killed in the line of duty, and we as a nation mourn their passing. But should we, as a nation, pay these filthy opportunists who think they should get tax payer dollars when their children die? Does that mean that children could now be sold off to the military on the off chance that, say, little Billy takes an IED to the face and thereby give their lucky parents a quarter of a million dollars to pad their retirement fund with?

Seriously, this makes me sick. These soldiers were recognized as heroes, awarded medals for their sacrifice, buried with all the honours they deserved. They were not discriminated against, in life or in death. Just because they never married does not mean they are deserving of money earmarked for supporting dependents of a married soldier.

Get your hands off our money, Mr. Cushley. Go work instead of crying unfair that you can't line your pockets with the blood money of your son's sacrifice!