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I am as pissed as any of you about that's happening in down town Toronto.  Thugs, not protesters, thugs taking over the streets.  Smashing, looting, rioting.  But come on, the people who thought the G/20 in the gut of the city was a good idea must have seen this coming.

You don't spend a billion dollars on security unless you have an inkling there might be a blip or 2 along the way.  We've had more than a blip.  And it's not like there isn't precedence for this.  Everytime you have a public gathering of world leaders it happens.  This kind of protest has a long history.

I don't think any of us has a problem with legitamate protest.  Pick your cause, make your signs, choose your song and go out and chant one of the the Gipper.  But the moment you cover your face and toss a brick through a Starbuck's window all guarantees are off the board.  You have committed a criminal  act and you should be treated like a criminal.

'Course none of this had to happen. When you put 20 of the world's most powerful leaders in the same place at the same time you don't have to send out rspv cards.  You know who's going to show up. 

Now, I'm along way from being the first to mention that there are much betters ways to stage these things.  With the technology we have today you could no doubt hologram all 20 of the elected elite into one place.  You wouldn't have that human touch but you also wouldn't paralize the core of Canada's biggest city.

Even better, make it remote. Why not take the G/20 to Manitoulin Island.  For a week, if you don't live there, you don't go there.  Accomadations?  Take the billion you spent on security and build resort.  Once it's done turn the place over to the province and keep the prices reasonable so the folks who forked out their tax dollars can afford to take their kids to it for a week in the summer.

The worst protest and the most bitching you'd get would come from reporters barking about the black flies.  No need for a fake lake. Georgian Bay is right there.  No need for cops in riot gear. No need to turn the entertainment district into a playground for faux revolutionaries and wanna be anarchists.  No need for business and restaurant owners to shut down or see their weekend take vanish.  By the way, are the deep thinkers who figured the G/20 was a stroke of genius to peddle Toronto to rest of the world going to reimburse these people for their lost income.

I realize that each one of us has the right to travel though any part of the city at any time of day we choose.  But each one of us also knows there are certain areas best to avoid at 3 in the morning.  We shouldn't have to but we're smart enough not to chance it.  The organizers of the G/20 have turned the core of the city into one of those areas that no one wants to hang out in.  Forget 3 am.  We're avoiding it 6 pm.  Not too many folks coming in from the 'burbs" to do a walking tour of Queen St. West. this weekend.

Take this to a more remote area and maybe you don't get the violence.  I assume that most of the members of the "Black Bloc" responsible for a good chunk of the damage so far would figure they were selling out of they had a drivers license or owned a car.  What do you think the chances are of anyone picking up a balaclava bedecked dissident thumbing a ride up the 400 to get the ferry at Tobermorey. 

Even the protesters are protesting.  I have a friend who's heavily involved in the labour movement.  He was heading to the city on Saturday to be a part of the demonstrations.  He didn't go.  He didn't want his cause to be identified with the violence.

I'm still convinced that this is a glorified photo op.  It's not worth the cost.  It's not worth the damage.  It's not worth the embarassment.  2 world class events.  The Vancouver Winter Games and the Toronto G/20 summit.  I don't know anyone who's had a bad thing to say about the Vancouver Olympics. I don't know anyone, so far anyway, who's had anything good to say about the G/20.

Few days ago Fred Patterson blogged about a question he had heard on the radio.  "How long before it's acceptable to fart in front of your mate?"  Fred admitted he did it early on in his relationship then went on to explain his fascination with flatuation and what a wonderful and understanding wife he has.  She must be!

Bringing up the rear, so to speak, on that was a f/b link today posted by Chris Kennedy.  It's for "The Better Marriage Blanket"...The blanket that absords farts.   According to the blurb farting is one of the leading causes of divorce in America.  The Better Marriage Blanket contains active carbon fibers which will "filter out odor badness".  I've never heard the back door burp refered to as odor badness before but I think we all get the drift.

I know we're just a decade in but if this thing works it could be the invention of the century. Do you realize how many marriages it could save.  God, do you realize how many of my marriages it might have saved! 

Now, I don't mind a good fart joke.  When I did the Sunday Funnies one of the shows that got the biggest reaction was a full hour about nothing but the vulgar vapour.  When I was a kid my mother used to call them "putt putts". Say that today and you'd figure that Tiger Woods needed 2 shots on the 17th green to save par,

The word fart comes from the middle english "ferten". That word is still used in parts of the southern US.  "What's Bubba Joe doin' over there?"...."He's ferten'..he had chili for lunch". Speaking of lunch, I had no idea that peanut butter was a flatulent.  Peanuts are legummes and legummes will make you pass the gas longer and louder than most other things your mom packed in your lunch bag.  So it finally made sense that the last class of the afternoon smelled like my gym locker.  25 kids firing off air biscuits in a class room while they're trying to read Great Expectations with no expectations of making it trough the final 15 minutes. 

Now, I'm no expert but I have noticed that dogs will let go with a butt bark  and immediately leave the room.  Speed of light, speed of sound, speed of fart.  You hear the sound but don't appreciate the essence of it for several seconds. In the mean time your mutt managed to avoid the results of it's vapor caper.

From experience it would seem that women are less flatulent than men. Can women actually do what men think is anatomically impossible and hold it in?  If they can wouldn't they become inflatuated with it?  Truth is women can't re-route the toot.  Research shows that men and women have an equal amount of gas.  Women seem to be able to some how disguise their booty bombs.  For men it's the art of the fart.  We brag about it. 

The Better Marriage Blanket?  Do it for him.  Do it for her.  Do it for your relationship.  Just don't lift the covers. 

With so much time on my hands the past few months I sometimes wonder if I did the right thing moving an hour north of the city.  It gets a little lonely at times but I do have my cats to keep me company and it's all getting pretty weird.  Infact as I'm writing this I have one cat laying on my right arm and another laying on my left arm so I only have movement from my wrists down.

When I started taking in strays I figured I'd have to build something for them to live in.  Because I live in an old farm house I don't have a basement per se so I converted a 2 car garage into cat rooms or as I call them the "cat-a-combs".  I dressed up part of it as a rec room. The cats have free reign and they have those cat flaps so they can get outside.

These days I spend virtually all of my time with them.  I play with them, I brush them and (I hate to admit this) I talk with them.  During the evening when I'm watching sports Maynard usually sits beside me.  Goalie makes the save and I say to Maynard, did you see that?  That was robbery.  It obviously didn't impress Maynard.  He continues cleaning himself.

Kramer (who I call the Red Rocket) is a little slow.  Put a cat toy down and the other cats immediately start batting it around.  Put one in front of Kramer and he stares at it.  He thinks it's going to move by itself. I don't think Kramer understands Newton's Laws of Motion. I have to give the toy a little kick before the game is on.  I'm looking for remedial cat claasses to send him to.

Simon is the class clown, a free spirit and a delinquent.  If he was a person he'd be doing time.  Now the food and the water are communal.  About a year ago Simon would go to one of the several water dishes, take a drink, climb on board and pee in it.  Yes, I immediately wash it out and freshen it up but what pees me off is that the little bugger does it right in front of me. No Fear and no shame. 

Simon also has an interesting habit of waking me up.  He licks my nose.  Could be midnight, could be 2 am.  He can't tell time.  Which is interesting.  Every night, just before I have my dinner I give all the cats some treats.  I've never figured this out but it's like clockwork.  The treats are in the laundry room and at about 5 o'clock every afternoon they start to gather around the laundry room door.  By 10 after, if they haven't been given them yet, they start  meowing.  It's like the Vienna Boys Choir at a keg party. How the hell do they know what time it is?

Tell you about one more of the guys.  Bad Boy - Bad Boy.  He got the name because when he first showed up he was a bad boy.  Every time I saw him I'd start singing that song from the tv show "Cops"...."bad boy, bad boy what you gonna do, what you gonna do when they come for you".  Thing is when you say his name you have to sing it like they do on the show.  The folks at the vetrinary clinic thought I had lost my mind but after a while they sang his name every time I brought him in.

Oh and one last thing about cats.  If you have cats DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get a herding dog.  I did.  Herding dogs are bred to herd and that's what they do.  Cats can't be herded and that's that they don't do.  It's not a good a combination.  Fun to watch some times but really. not a good combination.

If you've been following Toronto Mike's blog you can't help but know about the controversy going on about P K Subban.  He's a Montreal Canadien's minor leaguer who was up for a cup of coffee with the Habs.  Subban is one of a growing number of black players in the NHL.

Last week a couple of fans showed up for a game in Montreal figuring they'd show their support for Subban.  Make a sign? Nope,  Wear his jersey? Nope. They showed up with huge afro wigs and in black face.  You can't pretty this up.  It was more than bad taste it was racist. 

Now forget the 2 guys for a second here.  What I don't get is how they were allowed into the building looking like that and I don't get why the tv broadcast spent so much time giving them face time during the game. What the hell were they thinking?

Mike put a broadcast of the Team 990 on his blog.  Give it a listen.  This is not a Leafs vs Habs thing.  It's not Toronto vs Montreal.  This is stupidity vs common sense.  One of the hosts pointed out that these 2 don't know the history of black face.  And if they don't know that then they don't understand the history of slavery or the history of blacks in the western hemisphere. It's ignorance, a lack of knowledge.

Something that's bothered me for years is the Washington Redskins.  The name, quite simply, is racist.  You wouldn't walk down Yonge Street, run into a Native Canadian and yell "hey redskin".  It's demeaning.  I never used the term on the air.

A side bar to the all of this is huge reaction Mike got on his blog.  The disturbing part is the number of people who went to bat for the 2. People who came up with excuses that they seem to actually believe and the vitriol they directed at anyone who disagreed.

Maybe these 2 were ignorant.  Maybe they didn't know their history but as I've been told more than once by my parents, my teachers and my bosses ignorance is not an excuse. That also goes for the people who let them into the arena and the tv people who turned this into a national embarassment.

There's an acid test for people like this. Walk a mile in my shoes.  If you were him would you look at black face and afro wigs as support or would you look at it as a demeaning,

One of the great quotes in history is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Sounds pretty simple. It is that simple. 

Could our Maple Leafs have come up with a worse show than they did last night?

They were embarassed by the third worst team in the NHL, one of the very very few team that was worse than the Buds for most of the season, against their former coach and on the eve of the trade deadline.

If these guys want to stay in Toronto they sure didn't play like it.  But maybe that's the point.

"Hey guys, let's tank this one and maybe they'll trade us before the deadline."  Phaneuf and Giguere must be wondering what the hell they got themselves into.  Kessel has a silver medal that was close to being a gold tucked in his skivvies.  He must be saying to himself "I came back from Vancouver for this?"

20 games to play.  This aint the last of it.

My top 5 Olympic moments:

1:  Sidney's goal.

2:  Joannie Rochette holding it together and winning a bronze medal less than a week after the death her mother.

3: Yonge Street at 6 o'clock last night.

4:  Mellisa Hollingsworth appologizing to Canadians for finishing 5th in the women's skeleton.

It was heart breaking to watch but I wont forget it.

5:  Fans breaking into an impromptu rendition of Oh Canada as Kevin Martin was beating

Norway for the curling gold.

And then there's those 14 gold medals.  Most Olympics I've either watched or covered have been considered failures by alot of Canadians and the folks who run our Olympic program.

What happened?  What's wrong?  How do we fix it?

14 gold.  No country has ever won 14 gold medals at any Winter Olympics,  Doesn't seem like there's a whole lot to fix does there?  This has been the single greatest Olympics in the history of Canadian sport.  Let's enjoy before we start disect it.