THE IN-AND-OUT SCANDAL Remember Elections Canada getting hassled by the Cons because of a fishy funding program? It’s interesting to see what happens when a bunch of law-and-order tubthumpers actually encounter being on the other end of the court system. Suddenly plea-bargaining isn’t so bad, eh? (The Globe and Mail)

MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD NUKE PENN STATE FROM ORBIT AND WE’D ALL BE DONE WITH IT Or maybe not. Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, you probably have heard about a massive scandal involving Penn State University officials covering up the Nittany Lions’ football coach’s sexually exploiting young boys. Deadspin has been providing very good coverage of breaking stories here. Though they may have missed one: the Pennsylvania DA who decided not to press charges against Sandusky in 1998 has been missing since 2005. (NBC Philly) One of my favourite sportswriters, Dave Zirin, tells why Penn State officials let him get away with it for so long – nobody cares about the kids when there’s millions of dollars to be made in college athletics (The Nation). And Dan Savage, as always, should get the last word. (Slog)

THIS IS WHY STEPEHN HARPER DOESN’T BELIEVE IN PAYING ATTENTION TO PUBLIC SURVEYS You know all those people clamouring for an end to the CBC? Empty barrels make the most noise. (Globe and Mail)

LOOK WHO’S TALKING Former RCMP commissioner Bill Elliott, himself accused of verbally harassing his staff, wants Mounties to report verbal abuse and harassment to their superiors. Yeah. Right. (Toronto Star)

WHAT WAS HARPER’S ‘NO-BRAINER’ IS NOW HIS MIGRANE The Obama government throws the Keystone XL pipeline into doubt. (Lawyers Guns and Money)

IRONY MUCH? Shrub Bush has a ‘freedom institute?’ Good gravy … (Al Jazeera)

YOUR MUSICAL MOMENT OF ZEN I really have a conflict about Remembrance Day. (So does the Globe and Mail’s Judith Timson) Yes, I’m glad the Allies beat the Nazis, and we have to recognize the human cost, civilian or military, whether they came home or they didn’t. But since Harper came along, we’re glorifying war, which is pretty easy for most of us – we’re not the ones getting shot at. We’re the ones doing the shooting. And we’re not the ones paying the cost. And the ones who are paying the cost – our veterans – are being treated like disposable objects by a government that glorifies foreign wars (The Mark) Thank God for Bruce Springsteen for putting the cost of war in a human perspective, which neither the Harper government nor the mainstream media never do. Paris, 1985: Shut Out The Lights.

Ron Kovic, author of Born On The Fourth Of July, at the Kennedy Center awards, 2009.