Six On Sunday

1 CIVIL WAR OVER Sri Lankan's 30-year war is ending as the rebel Tamil Tigers surrender (and in some cases kill themselves). As usual with civil wars, civilians paid the price, with tens of thousands trapped inside the battle zone in the war's last hours. God knows how many Sri Lankens were killed in the last three decades, if I can Google-up a number I'll update this this afternoon. (Guardian)

UPDATE: In this Q & A, the Telegraph says 80 thousand people are believed to have died in Sri Lanka's civil war. And over here at the BBC the estimate is "well in excess of 70,00 [sic] people", but I think they mean 70,000.

2 HOORAY FOR THE NORTH AND FOR TOM TOO Well here's some good news--the CBC will keep its LaRonge bureau open, after all. And it sounds like Tom Roberts, who, if you didn't know, is awesome, won't be taking an early retirement. Phew! Now if we can just get a massive injection of cash into our beseiged public broadcaster, maybe our country can move forward on this file. (CBC)

3 SMELLS FISHY TO ME The AWOL Saskatoon cancer doctor beloved by his patients has officially resigned. In a Saturday story, the StarPhoenix interviewed the chair of a stem cell advocacy group, who was apparently "fighting back tears" over the resignation. What the hell? Is the program under political attack because it uses stem cells? Was this doctor a closet serial killer? What goes on here?

4 IT'S NOT THE MONEY, IT'S THE MESSAGE Yesterday the Leader-Post reported that the tab for fired civil service employees has hit $11 million. But really people, this isn't about the money, the "cost to taxpayers". When you let people go without cause you have to pony-up the cash. Simple as that. No, if there's a problem here it's that qualified, non-political public servants have been getting canned in droves. That's just not good. Government needs non-partisan civil servants to provide a little thing called "facts" to politicians who often (usually) aren't experts in the areas they're legislating on (which is okay, by the way--I don't expect my politicians to know everything about everything). When you get rid of, or intimidate into silence, informed independent opinions, you move away from reality and into ideology. Are the Sask. Party's firings going beyond the merely political and into the reckless? That is the real question. The money is a distraction.

5 REAL-LIFE TERMINATORS The New York Times has an editorial condemming American use of unarmed combat drones. It's worth a read, so go read it. What? Lazy? You don't wanna? Fine, be that way. But here's the article's eye-popping factoid: it's reported that drones have killed 14 terrorist leaders. And 700 civilians. Yikes. (New York Times)

6 "OH BABY [THUMP] OH BABY [THUMP]" Here's one for Dog Blog's libertarian readers: a British woman has been arrested for having loud sex. There's to be no moaning in the New World order! The article's in the Toronto Star--yay Canadian content!