We have been following the on-again/off-again saga of the Canadian Province of Ontario's dealing with open adoption records for a while now as legal maneuvers shift goal posts often, and sometimes within days of the last move. Now, apparently, there is an amended bill in the works.

Looking at a compromise of sorts, the point now is to allow a disclosure veto for adoptions in the past while making future adoption information completely open.

British Columbia, Alberta and Newfoundland have opened records, but included a veto option.

Not everyone is happy, and there is disappointment over the fact that Ontario did not appeal a court decision that overturned open records legislation.

Talking about not everyone being happy, I suspect that there were some groans when this story made the page.

All about the White House "reaching out to faith-based and community groups to find homes for the nation's 115,000 children in foster care", it quotes the leading man from the film "Bella", Eduardo Verastegui saying, "Families have changed their lives forever after adopting a child. Because it's not only that a family can give a child a home, but they themselves would have the gift of motherhood and fatherhood. So in adoption… everybody wins."

In today's world, win-win is a no-no, a fact I'm sure someone has pointed out to Mr. Verastequi by now.

Although the cause is deserving, a triangle made up of Madonna, Gucci and Malawi just doesn't have quite the right ring to it in my book.

Not that I don't think people like Madonna and organizations like Gucci shouldn't give until it hurts, because they should ... everyone that can, should ... it's just that coming up on two such graphic icons of excess juxtaposed against such a stark tableau of need seems to sum up tidily a good deal of what is wrong in our world. Smudging the lines between opulence and paucity, even if altruism is the medium through which the blending is attempted, seems a practice in clouding the waters and trying to give an impression of equality that simply doesn't exist.

Perhaps it's just sour grapes on my part, but I lose faith quickly when confronted by a world that has $4000 handbags de rigueur in some circles, while in others it's rags-and-food-optional.

Anyway, I hope a lot of money is donated in directions that will do someone that needs it some good.

A bunch of Iraqi orphans have just been given citizenship papers and ID cards after repeated government refusals to affirm their legal status in the past.

I'll mention in passing that all of them are boys.

In the USA, ABC has story on abuse of children by mothers' boyfriends.

Although the breakdown of the 900,000 abuse incidents and 1,500 child abuse deaths per year, there are no stats available on how many of these children were tortured by the partners of their mothers.

Children living in stepfamilies or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents, according to several studies co-authored by David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

The report gives some horrendous examples and makes for an awful read, as does this from Australia about a 7-year-old killed by her parents ... she weighed 9 kilos -- less than 20 pounds.