The irony in the whole F-35 aircraft controversy is that no matter how good the strike aircraft may be, its full capacity will probably never be used by Canada. The present CF-18 plane that it is supposed to replace was also never used to its full potential, although it shot up Libyan installations that never fired back.

It's hard to fault the Tories for getting rid of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, whose achievements were miniscule and whose in-fighting was both embarrassing and disruptive. Better by far that Foreign Affairs advance Canada's reputation abroad -- and a fitting start would be defending Canadians in peril in foreign lands more assiduously than Canada has done in the past.

After a year or so of killing people in areas that protest his dictatorship, Assad apparently has agreed to withdraw troops from killing zones -- starting some 10 days after making his promise to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. What the hiatus does is give Syrian forces breathing space to further crush anti-government elements and destroy towns that harbour rebels.

It may sound silly, but there's not a day goes by that I don't miss Murphy, or think about all the Jack Russells who've owned us -- each with its own personality, each distinctly different, each with similar characteristics, each valued as full family members. Anna Quindlen is right: "The life of a good dog is the life of a good person, only shorter and more compressed."

This stuff that Mitt Romney doesn't "relate" to ordinary people is a smokescreen. What presidential candidate is mindful of ordinary folk? They're all millionaires. Romney's appealing virtue is that he's not a Washington insider -- not part of the Beltway cabal who exist on taxpayers' money.

With Santorum gone, the real campaign for president can begin. Reality is that the 2012 presidential campaign is going to pit two candidates against each other, both of whom have higher disapproval ratings among the public than they have favourable ones.

Recently the Wall Street Journal told its readers that Canada is faring better than Americans, and that "Canada shows how mistakes can be reversed with sound policies." When outsiders remark that Canada is being well and responsibly governed, we in Canada could do worse than take note.

One thing seems certain about the upcoming Nobel Prize for Literature: No Canadian author will win it. No Canadian author ever has, despite Canada arguably being the most literate country in the world, where virtually every citizen can read and write.

PETA "Lettuce Ladies" plan to serve veggie snacks at the next weigh-in of Ford's campaign to publicly lose 50 pounds. He ain't doing too well in this -- nor is PETA, for that matter. Huffington Post contributor Douglas Anthony Cooper's recent expose of PETA reported that the group "takes in animals, with the gentle lie that it intends to re-home them. It then exterminates them. Generally within 24 hours."

In other words, the 100,000 Canadian soldiers who won the greatest battle of World War I were not Canadians, according to today's Citizenship and Immigration. How dare Harper's government say that no one born in Canada prior to the 1947 Act was "legally" a Canadian citizen!

Toronto is the fourth most congested area in North America and has a reputation of being a nasty city to drive in. I disagree. I find Toronto alarmingly easy and courteous to drive in -- so long as you are decisive, no nonsense, and not a dawdler. What Toronto motorists can't abide are hesitant slowpokes -- drivers who wait endlessly for openings, who are officiously courteous, who show infuriating patience.

I used to visit Kingston pen -- which is now shutting down -- throughout one summer about 20 years ago to visit the late Clifford Olson, Canada's most notorious serial killer of 11 young people. Olson fit in well at Kingston. He had a bounce in his step, eyes probing every direction, cheerfully greeting people, gesturing and not the slightest subdued. The contrast with other inmates was startling.

What to do about bullying -- in schools, in the work place, in families, in society in general? Crackdowns by schools, and laws and penalties imposed for bullying will not work. They may change the style of bullying, but won't eliminate the practice. Bullying is an aspect of life

An Athiest was so offended at a Christian prayer uttered before a Saskatoon volunteer appreciation dinner that he wants an apology from the mayor. He called the dinner prayer "religious bigotry." One hopes mayor Don Atchison politely tells him to stuff it.

To view Omar Khadr as "treasonous," or even as "criminal," is wrong to the point of absurdity. He's done nothing against Canada. His "crime" of murder -- to which he confessed, in order to facilitate return to Canada -- was fighting against an invader.

When I left to catch the train back to New Delhi, I thought the Dalai Lama was a bit wistful. He had a hunger for outside opinions, a curiosity about what was happening in the world (the Cuban missile crisis was on), and his last words were again to express interest about possibly living in the Canadian Rockies. I wonder if he still thinks of the Rockies?

Accused of spying for Russia, Canadian RCN Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle's next court appearance is May 8. The charges against Delisle are the first since the Information Security Act came into effect after 9/11. If guilty, Delisle is treasonous and deserves whatever sentence he may get.