Browsing the news at CBC.ca, there was a headline I had to read twice. Actually, I had to read it three times.

Sean Avery starts internship at Vogue

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In late December 2004, I wrote about the 23,000 who perished in the Boxing Day tsunami in south and east Asia. That 23,000 total ended up being a small fraction of the actual number of casualties. Over 225,000 died as a result of that Indian Ocean earthquake.

Earlier this month, Cyclone Nargis struck Burma (also known as Myanmar) and at least 23,335 people have died with a further 37,019 people still missing. The U.N. has suggested the death toll is likely to be more than 100,000.

My question is simple. Why did the tsunami strike such a chord and result in numerous celebrity benefits and an overwhelming outpouring of united relief when I sense the attention and eagerness to assist Burma (also known as Myanmar) pales by comparison?

The simple answer is to blame Burma's military junta who declared that their acceptance of international aid relief would be limited to food, medicines and other supplies as well as financial aid, but would not allow additional foreign aid workers or military units to operate in the country.

More than a week after the disaster, only one out of 10 people who are homeless, injured or threatened by disease and hunger have received some kind of aid. These delays are killing thousands. This secretive and selfish military junta is a bottleneck that needs to be removed.

We can't collectively throw up our arms and declare the situation helpless, but I'm not sure what alternatives will bear essential fruit.

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I checked my news feeds for a post-lunch news check. The CBC Toronto feed is full of doom and gloom, which is typical of the news in this day and age. No news is good news.

Here are the six most recent headlines.

• Gas to soar to $2.25 in 2012, economist projects
• Bread prices on the rise, food reps say
• Man stabbed to death in east Toronto
• Ontario mulls inquiry into Baltovich case as pressure grows
• Halladay tosses away 3-0 lead as Tampa wins again
• Is Ontario already in recession?

On the bright side, I rolled up the rim last week and won a free coffee.

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If mainstream media outlets like CityTV and CBC start going heavy on The Tragically Hip, Homer Simpson quotes, Bill Barilko lore and lots of lists, you know who to blame.

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Just about everything I ever knew about Tibet I learnt from the Beastie Boys. I doubt I'm alone.

I was (and am) a big Beastie Boys fan, and back in 1994 they sampled Tibetan monks on Ill Communication. The Milarepa Fund fund was created to disperse royalties to these monks and in 1996 the first Tibetan Freedom Concert was held. Adam Yauch used his band to support the cause of Tibetan independence and increase awareness and it certainly worked on me.

The recent unrest in Tibet is huge news right now, especially with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing mere months away. As always with events in China, information is difficult to attain and believe. On March 16, for example, the Chinese government says at least 22 people died in Lhasa violence. Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed that day. There's a Wikipedia page tracking the unrest.

As if we needed another reason, this crackdown on Tibet has people considering a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Polish government has already decided to boycott the opening ceremonies. That's a start.

When I think back to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the overuse of capital punishment, the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, the deadly pollution crisis and the overall suppression and oppression of Chinese citizens, and now this recent Tibet unrest, I hate the idea of rewarding the Communist Party of China with an Olympic Games. Isn't it time we enlightened nations sent a message that these practises aren't acceptable?

And to think all this awareness started with the album that brought us "Sabotage".

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On Valentine's Day, Steve Kazmierczak killed five people and wounded sixteen others before shooting and killing himself at Northern Illinois University. As usual after a school shooting, people hit the web searching for digital breadcrumbs and signs as to what went wrong.

As with Cho Seung-Hui and his alarming one-act plays, cyber-sleuths have dug up some interesting tid-bits, but nothing as fascinating as a rant by Jim Schaffer left on an Aphex Twin fan forum in April 2006.

steve motherfucking kazmierczak. yes thats exactly the problem here.

i was working at pirates cove in late 1995 and i was you know $4.50/hr child labor laws be damned and like i remember steve kazmierczak, the kind of kid who engaged in odd acts of fellatio with his dog, the kind of kid who'd go and masturbate in the bathroom while you were over at his house, the kind of person who injured kids on the train ride cuz he was mental and he shouldn't be given domain over kids on little faux-traincars with an aluminum baseball bat... when steve fucking kazmierczak ran up to me in late 95 early 96 proudly boasting his brand new copy of "i care because you do" like he was finally in with the cool kids.

both me and my friend joe died a little bit that day.

This is an analysis of Kazmierczak quite different from what's been written since his death. We know he had become erratic in recent weeks after he stopped taking Prozac, but most of the character analysis has been of the "Steve is the last person I would envision doing such a thing" variety and nobody saw it coming.

Except Jim Schaffer.

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The Gulf islands near Nanaimo, British Columbia have a foot problem.

Three severed right feet have washed ashore there in the past six months. The latest was at Valdes Island while the two other right feet were found at Gabriola Island and Jedidiah Island.

All three right feet were in a sneaker. The first two were size 12 and I'm guessing we'll soon learn this third right foot was a size 12 as well.

Friday Five Bonus: My favourite "feet" songs, excluding references to the measurement

• God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies
• Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette
• Fall At Your Feet - Crowded House
• Stocking Feet Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
• At The Angels Feet - Payolas

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The juxtaposition is jarring. Tonight I watched my three year old daughter perform a ballet routine. Watching three year olds dance ballet is just about the cutest thing on the face of the earth. With every twirl and every step I beamed with pride. Then, my thoughts turned to Aqsa Parvez.

Aqsa is the 16-year old Mississauga girl allegedly murdered by her father. Reports suggest Aqsa's father was upset she shunned the hijab, a traditional shoulder-length head scarf worn by females in devout Muslim families.

I've never given Michelle a spanking. I've never spanked James, either. I can't imagine what would make a father so angry he'd attack his 16-year old daughter and kill her. I can't comprehend how such a thing could happen. Aqsa never had a chance.

Our children rely on us, look up to us, depend on us. Our duty is to give them every opportunity in this lifetime. We're their advocates, protectors and guides. The Aqsa Parvez tragedy dumbfounds me and saddens me.

I just don't get it...

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About a year ago, I test drove StarP.M., a free, downloadable afternoon daily newspaper in PDF format. Every weekday afternoon since I've enjoyed this little paper with up-to-date news. StarP.M. has been cancelled and will make their last issue available on October 17, 2007.

The email I got from the Star telling me this service was ending was a hilarious example of spin doctoring in the digital age. The subject line read "Web and mobile services replace StarP.M." but when I read further I learnt StarP.M. isn't actually being replaced by anything. They're just touting their existing web site and mobile version, optimized for small screens.

That's too bad, I'll miss StarP.M..

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It's April 1993 and the Leafs are at Maple Leaf Gardens hosting the Detroit Red Wings in the Norris Division Semifinals. It's the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the entire city is on the Maple Leafs bandwagon.

Roberto Alomar, the best player on the 1992 World Series champion Blue Jays, is in attendance as the puck drops. The 16,000+ in attendance know the perennial all-star is there and the Hockey Night in Canada cameras find him and focus on him. Roberto Alomar is wearing a Detroit Red Wings cap and clearly rooting against the home town Leafs.

The above scenario never happened. If it had, this entire city would have freaked out. Alomar's face would be plastered on the front page of the Sun and we'd all be talking about how damn wrong it was for Robbie to wear a Red Wings cap to a Leafs home playoff game. Heck, we'd be burning his jersey in effigy and begging Gillick to ship his ass out of town. At the next Jays game, Roberto Alomar would be booed heavily, despite having led us to a World Series championship only months earlier.

If you haven't heard, LeBron James proudly wore a Yankees cap at the Indians game last night. In Jacob's Field, the star of the Cavs made it known he wants the home town ball team to lose. LeBron is either the world's biggest ass, brain dead or suicidal.

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I've been following the Steve Fossett search closely as I'm fascinated by his disappearance. Fossett took off September 3rd and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Crews are now combing a rugged area near Death Valley going on new leads from Air Force experts.

Fossett is as experienced a pilot as there is. He's been missing 23 days and counting. Barring a miracle, Steve Fossett is likely dead.

This begs the question, when does hope expire? When do newspapers run Fossett's obituary? When do we acknowledge a man's death when he's disappeared into thin air?

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Despite what Dubya may have heard, Nelson Mandela is still alive.

In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible for a unifying leader to emerge and stop the sectarian violence that has engulfed the Middle Eastern nation.

"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.

A reputation for a verbal faux pas? Sure, and Tiger Woods is a pretty good golfer.

Speaking of leaders who are still alive, Fidel Castro appeared in a television interview today. That's right, he's still alive, too. The integrity of hard news hound Perez Hilton is lost forever.

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We all remember the crap storm that brewed last November when O.J. Simpson was set to release his book "If I Did It". HarperCollins pulled the book and over the summer a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Ronald Goldman's family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgement against Simpson.

That means Goldman's family now controls the book and they're having it published by Beaufort Books. Check out the cover and see if you can spot the "If" in "If I Did It".

If a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map is there any prayer they'll see this as anything other than a confession by The Juice?

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A couple of sports headlines caught my attention this week because I knew the names, but I knew the names as they belonged to completely different people.

First there was news that Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson completed a 25-day hold out. I know Larry Johnson, but I knew him as a basketball player who starred for the Charlotte Hornets. He and Alonzo Mourning were awesome for that squad.

Earlier today I read about Eddie Griffin, who played five seasons in the NBA. He died last week when the sports-utility vehicle he was driving collided with a moving train in Houston. I know Eddie Griffin, but I know him as the comedian who starred in Deuce Bigalow. That Eddie Griffin, I believe, is still with us, which is good, because the world needs laughter.

In related news, there is a Wikipedia page for Mike Boon, but he's a stand-up comedian from New Zealand and definitely not this Mike Boon. I wonder if he knows those dudes from Flight of the Conchords...

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Prior to his suicide last weekend, I had never heard of Chris Benoit. I was a big WWF fan in the 80s, and I knew the big names that have come since like The Rock and Steve Austin, but I'm so far removed from the silliness now I completely missed Benoit's career.

As details emerge, it all becomes that much more puzzling. I'd like to know who updated Chris Benoit's Wikipedia page. The AP article has the details.

Investigators had not yet discovered the bodies of pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son when someone altered Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death, authorities said.

Authorities said Thursday they are trying to determine who altered the entry on the collaborative reference site 14 hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their son.

Benoit's Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife's death.

The entry was made by someone using an IP addy in Stamford, Conn. That's where the WWE is based. Did Chris Benoit kill his wife and text message someone at the WWE about it? If so, why would someone at the WWE add this detail to Benoit's Wikipedia page but not call the police?

Here's what's written about the incident on the Wikipedia page itself.

The phrase "stemming from the death of his wife Nancy" was added to the English Wikipedia's "Chris Benoit" article at 12:01 a.m. EDT on June 25,[98][1] whereas the Fayette County police reportedly discovered the bodies of the Benoit family at 2:30 p.m. EDT (14 hours, 29 minutes later).

In this cyber age of instant publishing, this Wikipedia mystery is but another wrinkle in a mind boggling episode.

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Let the armchair psychoanalysis begin. The Virginia Tech shooter has a name and factoids about Cho Seung-Hui are starting to filter in.

We're learning he was quiet and disturbed. Evidence of his disturbed nature comes from accusations he set fire to his dorm, stalked women on campus and wrote alarming one-act plays for his playwriting class. He quoted lyrics from my favourite Guns N' Roses song in one such story in which a group of teenagers plot to kill a teacher who is ruining their lives.

These acts are typically performed by angry young men. Cho Seung-Hui was quiet, disturbed, a loner and very, very angry. I remember teenage anger. I remember that burning rage within and the rush that seemed to thrive off it. If you've never been a young man, you can't know this anger. It festers, it swells, and in the case of Cho Seung-hui, it erupted.

Many years removed from such angst, I can honestly say I'm no longer angry. The fury dissipated long ago. Many of us can harness the rage, channel it elsewhere and maintain total control. Some, cannot.

Cho Seung-hui was 23 years old. The talk shows and infotainment outlets will debate why a student in the final year of an English degree would murder so many before taking his own life. He was angry, yes, but many angry young men survive their rage without touching a weapon. What made Cho Seung-hui different?

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In 2007, the ideal form of communication with university students is email. People of that generation are always connected, even when out and about they're receiving email on their cell phone, Blackberry or other PDA. If you need to share time sensitive email with a large group of students, send a mass email.

Virginia Tech sent several mass emails to students this morning during their horrific school shooting. Here are the emails they sent:

From: Virginia Tech
Date: Apr 16, 2007 9:26 AM
Subject: Shooting on campus.
To: All Students

A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.

The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411

Stay attuned to the http://www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information.

From: Virginia Tech
Date: Apr 16, 2007 9:50 AM
Subject: PLease stay put
To: All Students

A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows

From: Virginia Tech
Date: Apr 16, 2007 10:17 AM
Subject: All Classes Canceled; Stay where you are
To: All Students

Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where there are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus.

From: Virginia Tech
Date: Apr 16, 2007 10:53 AM
Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody
To: All Students

In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

Police and EMS are on the scene.

Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter.

All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice.

All entrances to campus are closed.

In my humble opinion, your best source for news regarding the Virginia Tech shootings is this Wikipedia page.

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The deadliest school attack in U.S. history took place this morning at Virginia Tech. At the time of this writing 22 are dead, but it sounds like that number will rise.

We don't yet know the name of the shooter, but I'm going to jump to the conclusion it's a male and he left digital clues as to his mindset. When Kimveer Gill opened fire on students at Montreal's Dawson College last September, he left clues all over his online Vampire Freaks page. I'm guessing we'll learn something similar about today's shooter.

In 2007, when a young person feels the hate and bitterness required to plan something of this nature, it always spills onto the web before blood is spilt in the hallways. There's likely a blog, bulletin board postings or some form of online discussion that will reveal his state of mind. We'll likely wonder why we missed the clues when he was digitally screaming for help.

This is all speculation at this point and I only know the scant details available at CNN.com, but I'm fairly certain he left cyber bread crumbs on his road to infamy.

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You've all heard by now that several suspicious packages found attached to bridges in Boston earlier this week weren't bombs but were ads for Adult Swim.

They were magnetic lights that comprised a guerrilla marketing effort in ten cities. Apparently, these lite-bright-like figures were in Boston for two to three weeks before law enforcement overreacted and shut down roads and ignited panic.

This is a great story I've been following closely, but it gets better. The Boston hoax suspects held a news conference yesterday where they only spoke about hairstyles of the 1970s. Here's the conference so you can watch for yourself.

It turns out the USA has this station called the Cartoon Network and this lite-bright hoax was to promote the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force from their Adult Swim lineup. Another show in the Adult Swim lineup is Perfect Hair Forever. Get it, these dudes are yakking about hair and the one guy says he's got pretty perfect hair and it's all yet another marketing attack.

And here I am writing about it now, proving these guerrilla tactics actually work.

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We already knew Lynn Johnston was freezing the For Better or For Worse characters' ages next fall, but we now have more details. The strip isn't actually being retired, there will be new material that would include revisiting storylines from the past and expanding on them. Everyone will stop aging, however.

That Star article discusses Elizabeth's three suitors: former high school boyfriend Anthony, new love interest Paul, a policeman, and Warren, a helicopter pilot. It also reveals Warren's full name, Warren Blackwood. I recently wrote about another Warren Blackwood.

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It was a strange day for news. First there was that gas-like odour spooking residents of New York City. Then there were bird deaths in Austin that had the police shutting down ten blocks downtown. Then, there was that package in Miami that gave the area its second terrorism scare in as many days.

This is how it's going to be post-9/11. Whenever a city stinks, birds die or a package fails a test, we'll be holding our breath and wondering if we're under attack.

We don't know what that smell was, the dangerous package was just sprinkler parts and they haven't yet determined what killed those birds. Unconfirmed rumours have Dubya blaming Saddam for all three incidents.

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I remember as a fifteen year old feeling awfully proud that I had negotiated my way up to $5 an hour. I was working at the CNE as a games booth attendant and I think minimum wage at the time was $3.85. $5 for an hours work was sweet.

Ontario's minimum wage is now climbing to $8 an hour. That's up from $7.75 in case you haven't made minimum wage in a while. The Radical Reverend, my MPP, lobbied to raise it to $10 an hour but her private member's bill stalled after a second reading at Queen's Park.

It has to be awfully tough to live in this city while earning $8 an hour. I make a little more than that and I find it tough. $10 an hour doesn't seem like too radical a jump to me, but while we slowly get there minimum wage earners will have to be satisfied with that extra quarter.

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A while back I stopped linking to articles in The Toronto Star to protest their horrible URI structure. Fellow bloggers know exactly what I'm talking about.

Part of their newly unveiled redesign is a decent URI structure. It's about time! My protest is over.

I actually came within a whisker of being a part of the Torstar Digital team that worked on this redesign. They did a great job.

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Today's National Post column entitled "The city" is about that awkward video of Jane Pitfield being told by City TV they had declared David Miller the winner in last week's municipal election. This happened approximately 90 seconds into the telecast.

I'm linking to the article because it concludes on such a high note. Here's how they wrap it up.

But perhaps the most apt comment in the blog world belongs to YouTube's very own "mikeboon," who sums up the affair with a simple "I voted for Pedro."

If only, mikeboon.

It's true, I left that apt comment on that YouTube video page. I like how the Post refers to me as "YouTube's very own mikeboon". Where's my cut of the Google cashola?

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Michael Richards, the actor who delighted us as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, appeared at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles last Friday. A heckler got under his skin and his retort was about as unfunny as you can get.

Watch this and judge for yourself. Not only is it not funny, but it made me totally uncomfortable. I can't tell if he was trying to be outrageous or if he'll check into rehab later this week and blame the whole thing on an addiction.

Ouch.

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Lynn Johnston's "For Better Or For Worse" is my favourite comic strip by a very large margin. It's the only strip I read daily and I've been reading it since I was a little whipper-snapper.

Not only is it well written with a great balance of humour and reality, but the characters have aged in real-time. Sadly, the end is near. Lynn Johnston will freeze the characters' ages next fall when she takes a well deserved break from it all. "I feel I've done the best I can do for as long as I can do it," she said. "It's time."

It saddens me to think there will soon be mornings when I can't check in on The Patterson's. For the first time I will age while Michael Patterson stays in his early 30s. The long rumoured ending for the series will be Elizabeth marrying Anthony and uttering the words "for better or for worse" in the final panel. However Lynn decides to end things, I'll be there reading.

Other entries about For Better or For Worse:

• I Don't Get It
• FWOFW Theories
• Thank You, Farley
• Riddle Me This

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I never heard the name Ron Porambo until today. Porambo choked to death while eating an orange in New Jersey State Prison a couple of weeks ago. This guy had the most intriguing life.

• He was serving 30 years to life for the 1983 murder of a drug dealer during a robbery
• In Toronto in the '70s, he worked for the Star and the Globe and Mail, and as a Global TV producer
• "No Cause for Indictment: An Autopsy of Newark", his best-selling book on the 1967 race riots in Newark, N.J., came out in 1971 and the New Yorker called it "probably the most moving and instructive book yet written on any of the bloody civil disturbances of the '60s."
• There were at least three attempts on his life, once he was shot twice in the legs, another time he ended up with three bullets in his head
• In the 1950s he was a Golden Gloves champion boxer in New Jersey who fought at Madison Square Gardens
• While working as a reporter, he moonlighted as a thief to supplement his income
• His dad invented the "twister cruller"

I couldn't have made this up if I tried. Now Porambo had a life worth blogging about.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer blog has a very interesting entry today regarding Bob Clarke. I highly recommend reading The Bobby Clarke Era as it contains an insightful quote from some guy named Toronto Mike.

City of brotherly love, welcome.

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Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield yesterday introduced an amendment to the Ontario Highway Traffic Act that would require one seat belt for every person in a vehicle that travels on Ontario's roads.

I've always thought that was the law. I had no idea you could legally have more passengers in your car than seat belts. Is this news to anyone else?

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When I first heard about Cory Lidle's tragic accident yesterday afternoon, I had no idea it involved the former Blue Jays pitcher. I knew it was a small aircraft and my thoughts immediately went back three days when I was in such a plane flying around Southern Ontario.

Prior to take off in this C-GSIN I asked my pilot, Humble Howard, if there was some sort of parachute or escape hatch should something go horribly wrong. I learned there was no such thing, but he pointed to a Cirrus and explained that the Cirrus had a parachute system. Cory Lidle's plane was a Cirrus SR-20, that very plane Howard pointed out to me.

As Howard says on his blog, "GA pilots do all we can to be safe. We make sure the plane is in working order, fueled correctly and fit before every flight. Pilot error is the cause of the majority of small plane crashes and we all try and minimize that to the best of our ability."

He swears you're in more danger driving on the 401 and I trust him. I went up last weekend and I'd go up next weekend if the forecast was agreeable. We may never know what happened with Lidle's flight yesterday and it's extremely sad, but I doubt it will deter the avid pilots I saw at Buttonville Airport the other day.

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It's not the big National Post write up I mentioned earlier, but I am in the paper today.

Here's The City article about Humble Howard's new blog. In this entry he asks what food says Toronto. I chimed in with a quote from this entry I wrote on that very subject. My comment there has now been quoted in a national newpaper.

Grab a copy while you still can!

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Here's the Google cache of Kimveer Gill's profile page at VampireFreaks.com. Gill wore a black trench coat when he opened fire on students at Montreal's Dawson College yesterday. Two are dead and nineteen are wounded, six critically.

Going by the name fatality666, Gill's web page is quite revealing. When answering the question how he'd like to die, he writes "Like Romeo and Juliet -or- In a hail of gunfire". His journal, a blog of sorts, was updated as recently as yesterday morning at 10:41am. "Whiskey in the morning, mmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm, good !! :)" gives little indication of what was to come two hours later. Clearly, he was disturbed and in a dark place. Littered throughout are references to Satanism, him being an Angel of Destruction, Adolf Hitler, guns and death. He's clearly disturbed.

Yesterday night and this morning I heard many opinions and suggestions as to what we have to do to prevent school killings like this. Some want to arm school security guards with guns, some want to have everyone pass a metal detector, others want to lock everything down and take away basic freedoms we all take for granted. Everyone is an expert and almost everyone wants action taken and wants it now. I see it differently. I don't think you can prevent someone with a desire to do something like this from doing it. If Kimveer Gill decided he was going to go on a shooting rampage, blood was going to be shed. It's difficult to acknowledge this lack of control, but it's the sad reality. Fortunately, such incidents are very few and far between.

His VampireFreaks.com profile tells us he thought about death, was depressed and thought highly of evil. In hindsight, is it so shocking he followed through on his threats? The larger question here is what made Gill this way? What in Gill's life history created such a persona? Instead of arming school security guards with guns, let's reach out to clearly troubled youth before harmless threats in a website profile turns into something far more real.

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The Toronto Star introduced Star P.M. today. To quote the Star P.M. page, it's "a free, downloadable afternoon daily newspaper in PDF format". At 4:27pm I received an email from the Star letting me know today's issue was ready for downloading. I decided to give Star P.M. a test drive.

The complete edition was 12 pages, so I downloaded it, printed it and threw it in my bag for the subway ride home. I got on the subway at St. George and started to read. I learned five more soldiers were injured in Kandahar, it's going to be 23° tomorrow, Castro's lost a lot of weight and the Pens have signed Malkin. There was more, but a great deal was fluff about how Rosie bored on The View, large fast food combos aren't good for you and web surfing on the job costs employers. By Runnymede station I had read every word which was perfect because I was getting off at Jane.

All in all I liked it. A tidy 12 page wrap up of the days events. It's certainly not hard hitting news and it just skims the surface, but that's probably the point. It's a brief overview so you know what to dig into that night.

We'll see what tomorrow's Star P.M. brings.

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A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson. I couldn't make that kind of thing up, it's true.

She was letting her damn dog steer while she worked the pedals. Shockingly, she crashed. Unfortunately, she survived, thereby contradicting Darwin's theory of evolution.

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I came this close to being referred to in The National Post as an "internet wizard". Humble Howard Glassman has been writing editorials for the Post's Toronto section, and he recently submitted a column to his editor that referred to me by name, heaped praise upon me and gave a well deserved shout out to this very blog. I know this to be fact because he forwarded me the draft. Cool, eh?

Every day I would search the National Post online to see if Humble's article had gone to press. Every day I came up empty. Finally, Humble broke the bad news to me. The editor had rejected the column because it wasn't Toronto enough. It was too much about Humble getting canned from the Mix 99.9. The editor asked for another story and threw mine on the shelf to perhaps find its way into print one day, space permitting. I've stopped checking.

Since the Post will probably never print the article, I'm going to post it here, in its entirety, exactly as it was emailed to me back on August 14. Enjoy!

"Hi, my name is Humble Howard and uh I've been fired"

"Hi Howard"

And another meeting of BFA begins. If Being Fired Anonymous actually existed I'm sure they'd have no shortage of people, for me though, being fired has been anything but anonymous. For me it's been a BFD. (You can figure out what that stands for on your own!)

A few weeks ago I wrote in the weekend Post about being let go from Mix999, I mean 99.9 Mix FM (they changed their name and me) -the reaction has been overwhelming. I guess a lot of people know what getting canned feels like because our generation isn't likely to have jobs-for-life, we're too restless.

What have I learned?

People are really really curious as to what the hell happened.

"Hey Humble, what the hell happened?" Strangers will yell at me on the street.

Being in the public eye is weird at the best of times but since I got canned it's been even more so.

True story. I'm at home 2 o'clock in the afternoon and there's a knock on my door. I open it to find a soccer-dad I'm only sort of friendly with whose daughter used to play on a team with one of my kids.

"I just have to know," He says frantically. "Why did they fire you?"

No you don't, do you? I mean do I have to tell everyone the story!

I'm sure a few of you who've been through this know that there's a degree of shame and humiliation that goes along with Carreeris Interupptus. It's sort of personal and not the kind of thing you want to bring up all the time.

Sometimes when I'm with friends it's like a weird vibe around whose going to bring it up first. It's as though they don't want to be rude but I can tell they want to talk about it…they're just not sure if I'm going to freak out or not. Of course no one wants that in the suburbs.

"So tell us, how's the whole "being-out-of-work" thing?

The next thing you know I could be sobbing or flying around the room screaming like a maniac tearing at my clothes and yelling about how now I'll never get to introduce Nelly Furtado again!

This doesn't happen. I just politely go into the story…no, there's no hard feelings the station just felt it had to make a change, yes we'll be okay, no I don't hate Mad Dog and Billie!

I wish the new morning show at the Mix good luck. I don't know Billie but I've met Jay and he's neither Mad nor a Dog.

Here's something else I've learned.

I'm not dead I've just been fired!

There's a sense of loss and grieving with being turfed and it's a major stressor in people's lives like a death. In my case it's also been an amazing opportunity to hear what people think of me and my show. It's like being able to attend your own funeral. I have had hundreds of e-mails from people saying all sorts of nice things. Being a morning show host for 17 years you get to be part of a lot of listener's lives and they feel like they're a part of yours. My kids, my wife, my stupid stories have been with them for a long time and now they're gone, and so they write me. The week I was let go this internet wizard I'd never met named Mike Boon put up a little note on his blog titled "Humble Howard are you okay?" Since then it has become the defacto place for listeners to show their support for me and my goofy little show. It's been visited by thousands and It's much appreciated. . Check it out at MikeBoon.com.

Mostly I'm asked what I'm going to do next and mostly I have no clue. I like talking and interacting in people's lives, maybe I could get fitted for a blue smock and be a Wall Mart Greeter.

In the meantime this meeting of BFA is adjourned.

Told ya I was this close.

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Forget what you have learned. Forget what they rammed down your throat in primary school about there being nine planets in our dinky little solar system. Forget My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies. You can replace that with My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nothing. Pluto has been demoted.

Astronomers today declared that Pluto is being reclassified in a new category of "dwarf planets" and has lost it's status as a "classical" planet. Eight is enough, apparently.

Admit it, Pluto was always your favourite. It was the furthest from the sun, by far the smallest and it inspired the name of a popular Disney character. They can rewrite the text books if they want, but when it comes to my solar system, there's no room for scientific fact. I want my Pluto.

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I'd like to personally thank the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for ruining my life. Their study suggests hot dogs may contain DNA-mutating compounds that might boost one's risk for cancer.

We're talking about Toronto's official food here. Is it the objective of science to ruin everything that's even slightly enjoyable? I know hot dogs are bad for me, but I love 'em. After a concert or a ball game, there's nothing better. Now some egg heads are telling me it causes cancer. That sucks.

Ask yourself this... Do you want to live in a world where eating a hot dog is wrong? Neither do I.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has banned from carry-on luggage all "beverages, shampoo, sun tan lotion, creams, toothpaste, hair gel, and other items of similar consistency." This is in response to the foiled plot to blow up planes with chemical bombs smuggled on board disguised as drinks. The response sounds sensible, I suppose, but this BoingBoing post has me raising a Spockian eyebrow.

While in line at security checkpoints in American airports, any liquids found with passengers are being poured into receptacles. If the fear is liquid explosives, isn't it incredibly dangerous simply pour potential explosives into receptacles in the middle of a crowded airport?

Chew on that one for a while.

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I've always sort of liked Mel Gibson. The Lethal Weapons were fun, Braveheart was fantastic and even movies like Ransom, Payback and Signs were pretty good. Then, Mel went all Passion of the Christ on me and I crept away frightened and worried.

On Friday, Gibson was arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies in Malibu. He allegedly flew into an anti-Semetic tirade, making the following statements. Remember, these words in the blue are quotes attributed to Mel and bear no resemblance to my personal opinions.

My life is fucked... You mother fucker. I'm going to fuck you... Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?

Whoa. When "The Passion of the Christ" was released, I remember hearing about the underlying anti-Semetic tone and how Gibson's father denied the Holocaust. After Friday's outburst, can Mel ever again be that universally beloved actor who brings in the box office while appealing to both male and female fans? This wasn't an implosion, it was career suicide.

Of course, Tom Cruise is nuts and he's still opening movies. With tearful public apologies and references to his battle with alcohol addiction, there may be hope for Mel yet. Look for him to cry on Oprah in early September.

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When I learned today Wiarton Willie had passed away I was a little sad, then I remembered Willie-gate. Wiarton Willie had actually passed away in 1999, but when they rolled out poor Willie laid out in a coffin in his tuxedo, it wasn't him. They actually tried to pass off another dead groundhog as Willie because Willie had badly decomposed.

The Willie who died today was yet another albino groundhog that replaced the original Willie. Rumour has it, there is already another lined up. Mourn the death of Willie II if you like, but don't believe the hype. Willies are like Rockys. They'll keep churning them out so long as there's enough people who give a damn.

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You know that guy. He's always gotta do something outrageous, stupid actually, and more than a little dangerous. He does this stuff because he didn't get enough attention as a child and now he's feeling neglected. Look at me! Look at me! He's so desperate for attention he'll be a jerk and proud of it. We all know that guy and as much as we'd like to ignore him and shake our heads in embarassment, his outrageous actions could actually hurt somebody and that's just not cool.

Kim Jong Il is that guy. Don't you just wanna kick his ass?

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All day long I've been digesting the news that 17 suspected terrorists were arrested here in Toronto accused of obtaining three times the amount of explosives used in the Oklahoma City bombing. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested the suspects on terrorism charges including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. According to today's Star, the suspects attended a terrorist training camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario.

Yikes. Three tons of ammonium nitrate and "a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida". I keep thinking back to that hit-list Osama bin Laden ran off. It included the United States, Britain, Spain, Australia and Canada. Of those five nations, only Canada has yet to be attacked. Many have said an attack against Canada is imminent. Toronto is the most likely target.

These 17 arrests were the result of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, federal agencies such as the Canada Border Services Agency and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and provincial and municipal police services working in unison. It's good to see these groups working together to prevent these attacks, forming an alliance to help defeat the dark side. Perhaps such synergy with sufficient preemptive intelligence and due dilligence will thwart future attacks, ensuring the inevitable never materializes? We can only hope and pray.

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Nobody wants an Ipperwash sequel. In 1995 Dudley George was shot dead during a standoff in Ipperwash, Ontario. Today, a standoff between native protesters and police at a construction site in Caledonia, Ontario, continues and sympathy demonstrations are disrupting freight train and Via Rail service.

The demonstrators are attempting to stop construction by Henco Industries on land they say was stolen from the Six Nations in 1841. Here's a PDF that illustrates the history of the land claim. More demonstrators are arriving each day and sympathy demonstations will likely multiply.

You can sense the tensions escalating. One spark could set off a hellish conflagration. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants another Ipperwash.

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H5N1, the form of the bird flu virus we've been shaking in our boots about for the past year, could appear here in North America within six to 12 months. At least that's what Dr. David Nabarro believes, and he knows his stuff. He's the United Nations' top avian flu preparedness official afterall.

Wild birds will likely carry the virus from West Africa across the North Atlantic into the Arctic this spring. Migratory birds flying south for the winter will take it from there, spreading the virus into the rest of North America. Once I get word that this thing is here and spreading from human to human, I have a plan.

I'm gonna stockpile water and non-perishable food Y2K style and quarantine my family until we figure H5N1 out. So long as my internet connection holds out, I'll report my slip into madness here. This virus is for the birds.

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The Associated Press has obtained and made a confidential government video public. This video confirms the suspicions many of us had about Dubya and his government's preparations for Katrina.

The day before Katrina struck, Dubya attended a briefing about Katrina during which he was clearly warned about the coming disaster. He didn't ask a single question during the briefing but he did assure state officials that "we are fully prepared." The rest is an unfortunate and ugly piece of history.

I'm not surprised, are you? Back on September 12 I wrote about how Bush blew it. The average American knew more about what was happening in New Orleans than the President.

How this guy got re-elected is beyond me. The problem with Dubya has been crystal clear for some time now. According to polls, his approval rating is at an all-time low of 36%. I'm shocked it's that high.

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For the past couple of days, all anyone wants to talk about in this city is The Great One and his alleged ties to Rick Tocchet's illegal gambling ring which may or may not have ties to the Bruno-Scarfo crime family. Just the other day I wrote about the wiretaps that caught The Great Wayne Gretzky discussing this multimillion-dollar gambling operation. I mentioned how this contradicted what Gretzky told us Tuesday night when he claimed he had no knowledge of any gambling allegations until Tocchet called him Monday night.

New reports suggest this wiretap is only days old. In fact, it may have been recorded as recently as Monday. For 48 hours I've heard colleagues and friends suggest Gretzky's dark side had finally emerged and that he should avoid Turin, step down as coach of the Coyotes and assume his role as the Pete Rose of the NHL. For 48 hours I've been defending The Great One, reminding others that he's earned the benefit of the doubt and asking others to wait for evidence slightly more solid than vague leaks from unnamed insiders on the New Jersey police force before passing judgement.

I'm certain Gretzky never bet on hockey, I'm very sure Gretzky never bet with Tocchet and I'm reasonably certain Gretzky will be absolved of any wrong doings and will escape "Operation Slap Shot" reasonably unscarred.

Why is it that so many get such a rush from knocking heroes off of their pedastals? Wayne Gretzky is the most famous and well respected Canadian in the world. He has assumed his role as hockey's greatest ambassador with vigor, making every Canadian proud. Recently, he's suffered two great personal losses and now must learn his wife has been caught making substantial bets on sports in an illegal gambling ring. He doesn't need this. He doesn't deserve this.

Bring us back another gold Wayne and make us all proud once more. That would be Great.

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"Operation Slap Shot" isn't going away any time soon. According to this article from The Star-Ledger out of New Jersey, wiretaps caught The Great Wayne Gretzky discussing the multimillion-dollar gambling operation run by his friend Rick Tocchet before the ring was dismantled Monday. This contradicts what Gretzky told us Tuesday night when he claimed he had no knowledge of any gambling allegations until Tocchet called him Monday night.

This Star-Ledger article makes the following claim about Janet Gretzky, f.k.a. Janet Jones, wife of The Great One.

Jones was among the gamblers who placed more than $1.7 million in wagers in the past six weeks with the ring allegedly run by Tocchet and a New Jersey state trooper. Jones put down $500,000 on games during that period, including $75,000 on last weekend's Super Bowl, sources said. She even wagered on which team would win the opening coin toss -- winning $5,000 with that bet.

Apparently, investigators are looking into whether The Great Wayne Gretzky placed any wagers through his wife. My admiration for Gretzky has been well documented in these pages. There isn't a blemish on his record, he's the best to have ever played the game, the greatest ambassador the sport has ever had and the architect of our 2002 Olympic and 2004 World Cup champion teams. In 1982 I secured a copy of The Great Gretzky by Terry Jones that I read to pieces. There's a reason we refer to him as The Great One. He's Canadian royalty.

When this was a story about Rick Tocchet and a few NHL players like Jeremy Roenick and Travis Green throwing a few bucks on football and basketball, I was filing it under "live and learn". Now that it's seeped into #99's realm, I'm raising the threat level to Elevated.

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Tucker Carlson is experiencing another bout of verbal diarrhea. Only a year ago he ridiculed this fine nation in a typically immature fashion and just last week he made the following statements.

Anybody with any ambition at all, or intelligence, has left Canada and is now living in New York. Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada.

Jon Stewart was right. This guy is a dick.

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I'm following the aftermath of hurricane Katrina fairly closely, and I can't get over the surreal nature of it all. Much of New Orleans is under water, looting is widespread with many looters armed with weapons, thousands and thousands of people are simply homeless with no food or water, rescue efforts are failing due to dangerous conditions and police and National Guard troops are struggling to restore order in a scene reminiscent of "Escape From New York".

These are merely the short term concerns. Long term, there is real concern that disease could kill thousands, with dead bodies decaying in the already polluted water. Then, there is an overwhelming number of poor that have been displaced and a city that has simply been ravaged. Of course, New Orleans isn't the only city affected as more and more dead are reported in Mississippi. The death toll, officially tallied at 185, will surely skyrocket once everything is sorted out. It's devastating.

I read these reports and I see the horror, and it plays out like the script for an epic disaster flick. Earlier today, there were even reports that Superdome evacuation efforts were halted because some people have become violent against the rescuers. They closed the entire city and declared martial law, and still there is mass looting and lawless behaviour. For once, the headline on CNN.com doesn't seem hyperbolic. "Desperation and Danger" it reads.

If it wasn't so damn real, it would make a tremendous summer popcorn movie. Sadly, it's all too real. Donate online if you can. Desperation and danger indeed.

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As if there isn't enough to worry about in this big bad world, the avian flu virus is making its way to North America. We've been hearing about a global pandemic being an imminent happening, and this could be it. With a whopping 50% mortality rate and no vaccine for this mutating virus, all we can do is try to contain it, produce a vaccine and distribute it.

Some say the avian flu will hit Canada later this year. Others predict it will arrive next year. Just about all experts agree it will hit and it will be deadly.

Have a great weekend!

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The Irish Republican Army announced earlier today it is renouncing violence as a political weapon and resuming disarmament in a dramatic declaration designed to revive Northern Ireland's peace process.

Here's to a long deserved peace in the mother land. The mills of God grind slowly but they grind finely.

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If you're a useless trivia junkie like me, you'll probably appreciate this list of the world's 10 largest newspapers by circulation.

1. Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) 14,532,694
2. Asahi Shimbun (Japan) 12,601,375
3. Sichuan Ribao (China) 8,000,000
4. Mainichi Shimbun (Japan) 5,845,857
5. Bild (Germany) 5,674,400
6. Chunichi Shimbun (Japan) 4,323,144
7. Sun (England) 3,718,354
8. Renmin Ribao (China) 3,000,000
9. Sankei Shimbun (Japan) 2,890,835
10. Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan) 2,705,877

The Toronto Star, Canada's largest newspaper by circulation, doesn't crack the world's top 100.

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The morning after The Thrilla on Parliament Hilla, I was quite interested to read the headlines of our four daily newspapers. Here they are:

• "The Liberals Survive" - The Globe and Mail
• "Happy Now?" - Toronto Sun
• "Election Averted" - Toronto Star
• "Grits Buy Time" - National Post

The National Post is unashamedly conservative, overtly boastful of their right-wing bias. The paper has never received a dime of my money and it never will. I continually read about how it has never made a profit and I look forward to the day I learn the Aspers have pulled the plug.

The morning after Belinda's epithany, I noted the sexist headline smeared on the front page of the National Post. It read "Blonde Bombshell" and it, along with the unfounded insinuation of "Grits Buy Time", are embarrassing examples of what happens with a paper merely exists to promote conservative and pro-American values with no interest in preserving the integrity of the story they're covering.

It's racist, it's sexist, it's homophobic, it's your National Post.

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I, like many of you, have been following the Terri Schiavo case quite closely these past few weeks. Terri is in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. Terri's husband is fighting to have her feeding tube removed while her parents fight to keep it in place.

It has become quite the hot topic of debate in the United States. From my clearly Canadian perspective, this isn't all that controversial. I believe if Terri lived in Canada, removing her feeding tube after fifteen years in a persistent vegatative state would have barely caused a ripple. Terri clearly has the right to die in this instance and although she is being kept alive by this tube she is in no way living a life. The moral and right thing to do for Terri is to remove it and allow her to pass away.

If Terri were my wife or daughter, I have no doubt what I would want for her. A few years ago, my Grandmother and I had a conversation about her having a living will created. She told me that should something happen and she enter a state like this, she wouldn't want to be kept alive. I agreed as I feel the same way, and we visited a lawyer to draft a living will for her. Below is an except from this document:

If at such a time the situation should arise in which there is no reasonable expectation of my recovery from extreme physical or mental disability, I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by medications, artificial means or "heroic measures".

The only way to be certain your wishes are adhered to is to create a living will such as this. The document my grandmother signed says it all. We should be allowed to die.

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Scott Peterson's former mistress, Amber Frye, is releasing a book this week and will be plastered all over your television while she promotes it. Scott Peterson, meanwhile, will be formally sentenced on February 25 for the murder of his wife Laci and their unborn child.

Why do I know these names? How is it that the trial of Scott Peterson became an international news story? I understood the interest in OJ Simpson's court case because he was a famous celebrity. Hell, the man once ran for 2000 yards in a season for the Bills and he had a big roll in The Naked Gun. People knew him, but nobody knew Scott Peterson before he murdered his wife. Scott and Laci Peterson were unknowns in Modesto, California, so how did this story become more than a localized California tragedy?

Lets face it, this story became extremely popular because Scott and Laci Peterson were attractive white people. The media eats attractive white people for breakfast. A few days after the tsunami disaster last week, I read a cover story on CNN.com about a little Swedish boy who may have lost his parents in the tsunami. It was a sad story and this little boy's picture was plastered on the front page, a symbol of the devestation. This boy, of course, was blond and blue eyed...unlike 99% of the children suffering in south east Asia.

Like Scott Peterson, men kill their pregnant wives on a fairly regular basis throughout the United States. These incidents are always sad and receive significant coverage in their locality, but never has it dominated the news like this. Here in Toronto, I shouldn't know the name Amber Frye, but I do. Mass media is sickeningly superficial and style outrates substance every time.

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Yesterday, while many of us returned Christmas gifts, hunted for Boxing Day bargains and relaxed after a day of celebration and heavy eating, there was a violent earthquake under the sea near northern Indonesia. The resulting tsunami was absolutely devastating, sending huge waves crashing into coastal resorts across south and east Asia.

When I first read about this natural disaster yesterday, they were reporting 3,000 dead. Throughout the day and over night this total grew and now stands at 23,000. 23,000 from Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Maldives and Somalia are dead. I fear this total will only continue to grow before all is said and done as mass graves are dug and people hunt for the missing.

The Canadian Red Cross is appealing for cash donations for earthquake and tidal wave relief in South East Asia. Follow my lead and Donate Online. The Canadian Red Cross will process your credit card information securely in real time using the latest available encryption technology...give that $40 you received from Great Aunt Judy or that $50 you were going to use to buy that DVD you'll never watch.

Our world is smaller than you think and fellow citizens dealt a brutal blow by mother nature need our help. Help.

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I love articles like this one from the San Francisco Chronicle.

It's a great read with a great headline that immediately caught my attention. Canada Goes To Hell: Legal pot? Legal gay marriage? Universal health care? What's next, free porn and candy?

I won't ruin it for you. Set aside a few minutes of your busy day to give it a read.

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Welcome to When Good Newspapers Go Bad. The Globe and Mail's website has launched Insider Edition, a desperate attempt to force a new revenue stream. A great deal of their online content now requires a paid subscription. I've checked it out, and it appears most of their content now demands that you fork over $14.95 a month. Even those who get the Globe and Mail delivered to their front door now have to pay $6.95 for full access to their website.

I've now removed this site from the news section of Links and I shant return to it. I'll get my online news from another source...another free source.

This trend bites and I hope it doesn't continue. It's irritating enough navigating through subscription sites like the New York Times and Toronto Star that are free. I hate it when good newspapers go bad.

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Google News spiders more than 7,000 news sources and is my preferred news portal.

Digital Deliverance analyzed all of Google News' categorical news pages one day last month. Their snapshot revealed that the top 25 sources accounted for 54% of the content. Very interesting... Below are the top 20.

• Reuters 1058 stories 8% of all
• New York Times 646 stories 5% of all
• Xinhua 482 stories 3% of all
• Washington Post 469 stories 3% of all
• Voice of America 396 stories 3% of all
• ABC News 373 stories 3% of all
• Bloomberg.com 322 stories 2% of all
• Reuters.co.uk 278 stories 2% of all
• FT.com 242 stories 1% of all
• Boston.com 240 stories 1% of all
• USAToday 203 stories 1% of all
• International Herald Tribune 180 stories 1% of all
• Forbes.com 173 stories 1% of all
• SFGate.com 157 stories 1% of all
• Newsday.com 145 stories 1% of all
• TheStar.com 139 stories 1% of all
• CNN 138 stories 1% of all
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer 137 stories 1% of all
• Guardian.co.uk 132 stories 1% of all
• Houston Chronicle 125 stories 1% of all

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The 575-page report from the 9/11 Commission was released earlier today. You can read the 9/11 Commission Report in it's entirety here.

According to the report, some of the failings of U.S. intelligence and domestic security are that the FBI was not set up to collect intelligence domestically, the intelligence agencies failed to share information, they missed opportunities to possibly prevent the attack, and they failed in "connecting the dots" in the intelligence community.

The final document reportedly illustrates 10 missed opportunities by both the Dubya and Clinton administrations to halt the suicide hijacking plot, six of which are attributed to the Bush administration, four to the Clinton administration.

If I go 0 for 10 in slo-pitch, I have one hell of a restless night. Dubya and Clinton went 0 for 10 and 3025 lost their lives. Almost three years later, it's still hard to imagine.

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A popular news destination for me on the web is the Toronto Star's site. It's the newspaper I'm most familiar with and I peruse it online daily.

If you've visited their site recently, you've noticed they're asking you to register. Soon a great deal of their online content will only be accessible if you login first. This is similar to the New York Times website which requires you to register and sign in before you can view the article.

Currently, registration for the Toronto Star site is free. My question is, is this the end of free? I no longer read the National Post online because they have much of their content reserved for subscribers. Will the Toronto Star eventually follow suit?

There are enough good news sources publishing their articles online that I'm not yet willing to pay a penny for such content. If the Star decides to follow the National Post's Electronic Edition model and charge $10 or so a month, I'll simply have to get my fill from the CBC, BBC, Reuters, AP, Globe and Mail, Canoe and the many other news sites still free.

I hope this isn't the end of free. I'm a big fan of free.

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U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney recently told Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to "Go fuck yourself". Strong words for the senate, and certainly news worthy. Only one U.S. daily newspaper spelled out the expletive in full when reporting this news, and that was the Washington Post.

Here's how other newspapers and wire services handled the vice president's words, according to the LA Weekly.

• L.A. Times: "Go . . . yourself."
• L.A. Daily News: The headline said Cheney cursed.
• The story, by the Associated Press, said Cheney said, "F- off" or "F- you."
• The Boston Globe: Referred to the expletive as a "vulgar directive" and provided no other clues.
• Calgary Sun: "(Bleep) off" or "Go (bleep) yourself."
• Daily News (New York): "Go f- yourself."
• Greenwire: "Go (expletive) yourself."
• The Guardian: "Fuck off."
• The Weekend Australian: "F . . k off" or "Go f . . k yourself."
• Miami Herald: "F- off" or "F- you."
• The New York Times: "obscene phrase."
• The New York Post: "F- yourself."
• Newsday: " - yourself" or "Go - yourself."
• CNN: the "F" word.

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Ten years ago, 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were systematically slaughtered in Rwanda. Survivors of the genocide buried 20 coffins today filled with the remains of victims in a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the atrocity in the central African country. Paul Martin did not attend this symbolic burial.

I use the words of Amnesty International below.

Between April and July 1994, as many as one million people were killed in a genocide organized by extremist elements within the Hutu-dominated government and armed forces, the Forces Armées Rwandaises (FAR). Many of these killings were carried out by the militia known as interahamwe. Most of the victims were members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, but members of the Hutu ethnic majority who were not supporting the extremists or who were viewed as political opponents were also killed. The international community must accept its responsibility in the genocide. Arms supplies from French, Chinese and South African companies as well as political support by several foreign countries to the government of President Habyarimana helped extremists gain political and military power. During the genocide, perpetrators received arms from Albania and Israel, organized by traders based in the United Kingdom. The international community failed to react to warning signals before the violence, and the UN peace-keeping force was withdrawn from Rwanda at the height of the massacres.

Our very own general Romeo Dalliare was in charge of the small UN peacekeeping forces during the genocide. His words ring true. "There exists no country today that, 10 years later, has the right to wash its hands of Rwandan blood, by simply saying 'sorry' and giving money." He went on to say "The Rwandan genocide happened because the international community - if I may be brutal, as the genocide was - didn't give one damn for Rwandans because Rwandans don't count. Rwanda is of no strategic value to anybody, and has no strategic resources".

Ten years later, decomposing bodies are still being found. Sadly, I sense people in North America simply don't care. Dalliare is right when he bluntly states that Rwandans don't count. Human rights abuses, even on a scale as large as this, are conveniently ignored when they occur in poor, distant lands such as Rwanda. There is no doubt in my mind that racism plays a huge role in this general disinterest.

More than 800,000 perished in particularly brutal fashion. May they not have died in vain.

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The Federal Court here in Toronto has ruled the Canadian Recording Industry Association hadn't shown copyright infringement by 29 people who had allowed their music files to be uploaded. This is a significant victory for individuals who share personal copies of music files on the internet.

This ruling essentially legalizes the sharing of MP3s. Furthermore, it prohibits the CRIA from subpoenaing ISPs for the names of those doing so. Have a read of this synopsis from the Federal Court. On page 14, the judge states the following: "I cannot see a real difference between a library that places a photocopy machine in a room full of copyrighted material and a computer user that places a personal copy on a shared directory linked to a P2P service."

Wow.

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I was at my mom's house this morning and she had today's Toronto Sun on the kitchen table. I read it and came across the following headline: 'Very nice' man shot

That got me thinking. Would they ever print the headline "Arrogant jerk shot", "Controlling, abusive man shot" or "Mean and nasty man shot"?

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Yesterday, over 11 million rallied in Spain in a powerful show of defiance against terror. Here's a picture of the main street of Zaragoza in Madrid. The death toll from the terrorist strike that killed 199 people on 3/11 is now at 200 and there are over 1400 injured.

When 11 million poured into the streets yesterday to protest this terrible, horrible, cowardly act, it was a bold act in defiance of those who believe terror is a means of accomplishing ones agenda. It was an act of peace, an act of protest, an act by a pained people that screams "No To Terror".

Whether Eta, the Basque separatist group, or al-Qa'eda is ultimately responsible for this strike, it has to stop. Once and for all.

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The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study on blogging yesterday.

According to this study, somewhere between 2 percent and 7 percent of adult Internet users in the United States actually keep their own blogs. Of those, only about 10 percent update them daily, the majority doing so only once a week or less often. So, if we consider that only 10 percent of 2 percent of adult Internet users in America are updating their blogs each day, I'm in some pretty select company.

According to this Ipso-Insight report, there are 128 million adult Internet users in the United States (a number that's actually dropping, by the way). 2 percent of 128 million is about 2.5 million people. 10 percent of that is 256,000 people who are apparently updating their blog daily. On second thought, maybe I'm not in very select company.

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One of my favourite sources of news is the Google News Page. It's a nice synopsis of some of the top news stories with links to numerous publications. Unfortunately, most of the top news stories are negative. War, famine, disease, corruption, controversy, death, terrorism, you get the idea.

I stumbled upon this Goodle Good News page. It's laid out to look like the Google News Page I know and love only it includes good news only. The stories, of course, are all false. Still, it's an entertaining read.

My favourite headline? "Spam Dries Up". Imagine...

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The Canadian Recording Industry Association is about to file dozens of lawsuits against those sharing copyrighted music via Kazaa and other file swapping services.

According to an article in today's Toronto Star, 20 Canadians are currently being targeted. First, federal court orders will be delivered to major Internet Service Providers early next week requiring that they identify the initial unl