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You go to Brampton by the 407. That's why it doesn't take you that long. Cause they have Indian food there. Not because your parents live there? My parents aren't Indian. Your parents are Canadian. Are they? Can I take the 407? If I found a route on how to get there? I have to ask you, because it's a toll route. Because you're the one it's registered under. OK. Because the bill goes to you. So. So, it's common courtesy to ask before you do it. Does it matter what I say? Yes it does. How so? Because ... if you tell me no, that I can't use the 407, I won't use the 407. Oh. If you tell me how much it is, then I can pay you back at least a portion of it. A lot of money. How often do they bill you? Hmm? How often do they bill you? Every a month, or every time you use it? Every month. On average, how much do you pay? Depends. Course, that's why I'm asking you for an average. I don't know, I don't have all my...

You don't have to love South Park -- in fact, you can hate it -- but if you live in the free world, you should be willing to defend its right to exist. You should be willing to defend its right to offend, as it does with every episode. That's what free speech is all about. Of course, that free speech also protects those that espouse hate, which South Park does not. (In fact, while it offends, the one thing you can't pin on South Park , is hate. It hates not one. It loves everyone equally, cause it can poke fun at them.) So recently, when South Park aired an episode featuring the Super Best Friends -- namely Buddha, Moses, Joseph Smith, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Muhammad, Jesus and Sea Man (actually, Semen) -- and censored Muhammad's appearance -- he appears in a U-haul truck, then a bear costume, since it might offend Muslims -- they got some hate directed at them. Specifically, revolutionislam.com got their shorts in a knot, and posted quite the diatribe on their ...

I don't know what the comment was, but I'm sure it was rude, offensive and insulting. That would be the comment Guy Earle threw at Lorna Pardy, when she disrupted his comedy act in BC. There's conflicting reports from Earle and Pardy, on what was said, and how it got escalated. But, Earle, had his act disrupted continuously by Pardy, who was was with her partner taking in the act. As the heckles continued, Earle verbally went after Pardy. Pardy on her part, didn't shut up, and threw two drinks on Earle. Earle took her sunglasses off her face, and broke them. Was Earle wrong? Was Pardy? Yes, they both were. They both misbehaved. Earle should should have expected as much as a live performer. Pardy for her part, should have shown a little bit more respect for the other patrons, and the other comedians. Where this all goes wrong is with Pardy's suit against Earle and the restaurant owner. She's claiming damages of $20,000, on human rights grounds -- for ...

Why do strangers cooperate? Help each other? And practice fairness -- even when there is no direct benefit to themselves? Researchers have long puzzled over this. Is it an evolutionary thing? Or is it cultural? Using behavioural experiments that looked at notions of fairness in relation to a society's economic integration and how much the individuals subscribed to a world religion, a team of researchers have found that the answer may be cultural. Notions of fairness -- that fairness is a good thing, and unfairness should be punished -- was stronger in economically integrated societies. Societies that lacked economic integration, didn't see much need for fairness -- or much need to punish unfairness. The researchers also found that one's propensity for fairness was also strongly linked to a subscription to a world religion. Religion does bring moral codes, and belief in an omniscient god who punishes bad behaviour and doles out rewards for the good, should favour th...

There are over 100 million missing women in the world. In rich countries, as well as the poor; in the educated ranks as well as uneducated; across all religious backgrounds -- women are missing in startling numbers. 100 million. That's like having one third of the American population going missing; our the entire population of Canada being wiped out three times. No only are women the poorest in the world; the most likely to experience violence within their lifetimes; but they are also the largest visible group to which the world wages a quiet war against. It starts with the ancient prejudice -- males are preferable to females in all societies -- for a variety of reasons that are no longer valid today. Family names are passed down through males; inheritance of property favours males; males earn more women; traditional societies expect the parents of females to pay dowry; males are assumed to be the ones who would be capable of taking care of their parents in old-age; males supp...

What a way to end the Olympics!

They're Canadians. They're hockey players. This is part of what they do. Of course, I can understand why there may be some people upset. They are, after all, women. So, to those embarrassed by this, I say, go look in the mirror. These ladies are fine examples for girls all over the country.

China is apparently succumbing to pressure from its affluent middle class to stop eating dogs and cats. Which I suppose is a good thing. As a pet owner, I'd much rather not eat my cat -- or have anyone else eat her for that matter. But why the taboo? Yes, pet owners do come to regard their pets as part of their families -- akin to having children -- but why just dogs and cats? There are people who keep pigs, cows, horses, etc., yet we don't seem to have the emotional reaction to their consumption -- either by us or in the meat that feed our beloved dogs and cats. I think the taboo is silly, but also think our general consumption of meat needs to be rethought. Generally, we're ravenous when it comes to meat -- vegetarians excepted. There is a huge environmental cost to its consumption, and the taking of a life, regardless of whether it was raised specifically for that purpose, is done without a second thought. There is little respect or thanks given for the life that...

You can find hope in the most unlikely of places -- and the unlikelier the place and story is, the more it gives me hope for the rest of us and the miseries we witness and inflict on each other. Staff Benda Bilili (Show What's Hidden) is a musical group of street kids from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The live around what passes for a zoo in Kinshasa, scraping out a living by performing with their home made instruments -- homemade guitars, single-stringed harp made of wire stretched over a tin can, and a drum which is a plastic chair beaten by flip-flops. The band members are all disabled, having suffered from polio as kids. Listen to them below. The band won the 2009 Artist Award at Womex and are now off on a European tour. How cool is that? For more, check out their MySpace page .

"Honour" ... honour is such the wrong choice of word for murder. Maybe it wasn't murder. Maybe the car did manage to miss every obstacle, leave no skid marks behind and plunge into the Rideau Canal to kill the three girls and their aunt . And maybe Canada does need the death penalty to deal harshly with such honour crimes. The girls were 19, 17 and 13 years old. They had all of their lives ahead of them. Now they have nothing. This shit pisses me off to no end. The three murderers need more punishment than Canada is going to give. Canada needs to make a bigger effort at cultural integration of those from higher risked countries immigrating here. More of this happening around the country in new immigrant families, where the old world rules still rule the house. It has got to stop. Read more .

pa-tri-ot-ism [pey-tree-uh-tiz-uhm or, especially Brit., pa-] –noun devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty. Canadians who attend NHL games (and some watching at home) unabashedly display patriotism. It comes with the warbling of the national anthem -- anticipating the ceremonial dropping of the puck to start a game. The same can't be said about other sports games -- and can't be found with such predictability outside of armed forces ceremonies. I therefore invite the following for consideration: Every Canadian should attend one NHL game every year -- and a hockey game a month, for at least one year, should be a prerequisite for citizenship. It's probably OK to cheer for American teams too ... since wherever hockey is played, Canada is present.

America's south is still fucked up. School rules in the Needville Independent School District requires boys to keep their hair short -- which was a problem for a five-year-old kindergarten student of Native American heritage. His hair is short. His parents asked for an exception to the rules, siting cultural and religious reasons. School officials refused to budge. When the boy attended school with his long hair anyway, he was suspended. It took a lawsuit to force the Texas school district to do the right thing. Why did it have to go that far?

My wife and I were at a small, local bookstore yesterday, specializing in African, African-American, West Indian, and even a little on North American natives. A Different Booklist is a small bookstore, carrying both fiction and non-fiction, with a healthy selection of children's books, and a smattering of related videos and magazines. You'll definitely not find these books in your local libraries in Toronto -- nor will you have much luck at the bigger bookstores. It's a small operation, just behind Honest Ed's , and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for something different. If you're in that area, you may want to have lunch at the Roti Palace , coffee at the Future Bakery , catch a movie at the Bloor Cinema , and drop by BMV for books on the cheap as well.

Happy New Year! I greeted the new year last night by going to bed early. I don't get staying up to midnight watching others party on the streets around the world -- Torontonians freezing their collective asses off at Nathan Phillips Square, or those watching a giant ball in Times Square, NY. So, unlike most nights, where I do stay up late past midnight, cause I am a night owl, I celebrated in my contrary ritual of going to bed early. I went to bed early -- it's a once in a year event! I did wake up at 12:30AM, went to the bathroom, came back, wished my wife a happy new year and broke into a gentle lullaby of snores. This morning, I was roused from slumber with the great smells wafting up the stairs and into the bedrooms. My wife, a habitual early riser, was down in the kitchen, breaking eggs, tossing flour and creating a lovely smelling breakfast. Not sure how I made it down the stairs -- I think my nose led the way, with my feet sluggishly padding the air behind me as ...

Thanksgiving history isn't lost on me -- it is a harvest festival that has been celebrated in North America for hundreds of years, but the cynic in me can't help but think of the North American aboriginals that got there thanks the hard way at the hands of the European settlers. Wonder how they view Thanksgiving. Anyway, I'm not about to start another tirade on political and social injustices. For my wife, it's a tradition that brings back memories of family -- and so this year, I decided to take on the task of bringing some tradition to the table for supper. I've never roasted a turkey before, and since we're only a family of four, my wife asked that I do something smaller. So I got a chicken. Something smaller. I've never roasted one of those before either, so I called on my friend, Google, and found the instructions at Canadian Living to create a classic roast turkey -- which I applied to my chicken -- with some slight modifications, as I'm n...

19.20.21. -- 19 cities in the world with 20 million people in the 21st century , is a cool project, collecting data to gain a better understanding of how supercities are redefining the future -- culturally and economically (and if I may add, also environmentally). The 19 supercities chosen for this study may be surprising. Only two are in America, and in total, nine reside in the developed nations of the world. The others are in developing countries. The cities: Los Angeles, New York City, London, Berlin, France, Tokyo, Osaka-Kobe, Seoul-Incheon, Moscow, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bueno Aires, Istanbul, Cairo, Tehran, Karachi, Beijing, Shenzhen, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, and Lagos. The mission of 19.20.21. is a multi-year, multimedia initiative to collect, organize and better understand population's effect regarding urban and business planning and its impact on consumers around the world. This 5+ year initiative will deliver results via 5 chann...

South Park fans, rejoice. MTV Networks now has every South Park episode available online , uncensored, and for free. This is how media should be available to the masses. And you know what? People will still fork out money for the DVDs.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) symbol -- now universally known as the Peace symbol -- turns 50 this year. The symbol was designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC), by designer Gerald Holtom in 1958, to be used in a 50-mile Easter march from Trafalgar Square, London, to atomic weapons factory at Aldermaston. The symbol combines the semaphoric signals for the letters "N" and "D" -- representing "Nuclear Disarmament." From its adoption by CND, the symbol spread to the US, then around the world -- with CND never trademarking the symbol -- leaving it free for the world to use. 50 years ago, the symbol was created to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Today the symbol is universally recognized, though its power to provoke has diminished with the loss of the baby boomers idealism. Nuclear weapons has proliferated, and the world is now threatened by rogue states with nuclear enrichment programs; a new found inter...

The NYTimes chronicles a female circumcision event in Indonesia, where women take their daughters, usually before their 14th birthday, to have their genitals brutalize by older women who should really know better. It's a sickening, misogynic act, practiced to keep women in a station of life -- made much worse by women who offer up their daughters to this torture. The thumbnail image to this post is of a 9-month-old baby, who had her genitals mutilated. Backwards -- culturally and religiously. Some places of the world, people are still living in the dark ages.

I've come across the garden variety video sites in my travels on the internet, and they are the usual fare. Only a few cater exclusively to original content from filmmakers that I would want to see. Today I came across a site that hosts films I definitely want to see. Isuma.tv is a Nunavut based video site for and by indigenous peoples from around the world, founded by the producers of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen . It's a site with a noble goal -- to try and get indigenous stories, told by indigenous peoples, to a wider audience -- even if you don't understand the language of the films. The site also restores old videos and digitize them for the internet age, ensuring their preservation for future generations. The site's content comes from filmmakers who wish to share their creation, free, to the world. In return for allowing Isuma.tv to hosts their films, the site links to sites where the films can be purchased. The site asks...