Perhaps blogging about blogs seems a bit self-absorbed, self-referential, derivative or too many steps removed from real life, too cyber-unreal. Nevertheless I want to point to Mark Steyn's comment on National Review Online's "The Corner" yesterday, in which he discusses a significant story about yet another Obama administration staffing misadventure. He highlights that this story has been working its way through cyber-space while being scrupulously ignored by most of the mainstream media. As he pointedly notes, the technological woes of modern newspapers are very real, but there could certainly be more attention paid to relevant, important content even if it is about things liberals would rather not discuss.

Canada's soldiers have been asked to do so much for so long with so little that, the Ottawa Citizen reports, chief of the army land staff Andrew Leslie just told the Senate national security and defence committee that our entire army may have to take a year off to recuperate. Fine. Just make sure somebody tells the bad guys "Don't do anything until we get back."

The Ottawa Citizen notes that "Canada is being told it’s not doing enough in areas such as aboriginal rights, violence against women, poverty and racism by UN Human Rights Council delegates representing countries that allow torture, jail bloggers and amputate the limbs of criminals." The Council even noted criticisms by Iran, which is not a member, of our treatment of migrants, aboriginal women etc. And of course our government hurriedly groveled. Now I'm not saying Canada could not improve its record in some areas including free speech and property rights. But to be critiqued by the UNHRC, whose membership contains some pretty scurvy regimes, invites a classic retort from the golden age of rhetoric: Ah shaddap.

Is it not curious that Barack Obama, like Bill Clinton, should have a series of cabinet appointees in trouble over laws they didn't bother to obey? It seems paradoxical that those most eager to make rules for other people should be so casual about following rules themselves, especially when the new President campaigned so aggressively on improving ethics in Washington... unless of course they think they're a genuinely superior type of person liberated by their awesome responsibilities and talents from the tiresome, mundane moral standards that apply to ordinary folks.

Dutch politician Geert Wilders faces criminal charges for being rude about a religion. As for what he said, well, you don't need to hear it, do you? The government says he's a bad man and should go away and not be heard. And that's good enough, isn't it? I mean, who could disagree with the state over something like that? Especially when it can put you in jail for saying stuff it doesn't like.

Good luck to President Barack Obama. He will need it, not only because of the enormous challenges of the office he assumes today but also because of the highly unrealistic expectations of many of his supporters.

The BBC's story on Gaza today again invites readers to submit tales of suffering but, credit where credit is due, doesn't only ask residents of Gaza as it did on Dec. 27. Instead this time says:

Are you or your friends or family in the region affected by the violence? Tell us your experiences by using the form below.

It doesn't amount to "balanced" coverage of the whole issue let alone reasonable coverage (the latter, for starters, can tell an attack from a counterattack and knows who wants a truce so they can regroup and attack again and who wants one as a prelude to peace). But it's still an improvement.

So now the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee wants to boycott Israel... again. According to CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan, "In response to an appeal from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, we are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general." And do they also want to boycott Palestinians unless they explicitly condemn terror attacks? No see when you fire rockets at Jewish kindergartens it um uh that is to say...