Here we go again. On Christmas day some Islamic nutjob tried to blow up a plane bound for the US. It's only through his flawed understanding of chemistry that he didn't succeed. And of course within hours the usual overreaction began as restriction upon restriction was heaped upon a weary public just trying to get back home for the holidays.

Let's actually examine the state of security in our nation's airports...

- Metal detectors. Completely useless as guns can be made out of ceramics and not all sharp objects need to necessarily be made out of metal.

- Subjecting people to pat downs. Useless as any would be bomber could just ingest the necessarily explosives and/or conceal them in a body cavity.

- Scanning luggage for explosives. Again useless as it's not always reliable. Just look at what happened to Pan Am Flight 103.

-  The newly imposed one hour limit. This has to be the most idiotic of the new restrictions. Any would be bomber would simply adjust his timing accordingly. In fact it would make more sense to detonate an explosive in mid flight.

- Any security restrictions. Even if you could absolutely stop a terrorist from getting through security all it takes is someone at the airport working on the inside to defeat all those measures. Not only that, but you still run the risk of getting shot down by a surface to air missile (which is why Israeli airliners carry flares as a defense mechanism).

- And even when someone's not trying to bomb a plane you still have to worry about dying from bad aircraft design, poor maintenance, and pilot fatigue.

Yet despite everything, flying is inherently the most safe form of transport!

So quit wasting our time and our money and just admit that there's ultimately no way to prevent someone who's determined from blowing up a plane. Stop inconveniencing us in order to maintain the illusion that the Government is protecting us.

Maybe focus on actually following existing security protocols instead of introducing even more restrictions. Doing so would have prevented this latest incident from even happening.

Even better, why not just address the root cause of all this?

Maybe the US should stop spreading 'freedom' to the Middle East by propping up corrupt governments, funding dissident groups, illegally attacking and torturing foreign citizens, and generally interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations.

Nah, much simpler (and convenient) to make us pay while they continue to carpet bomb the hell out of some shithole 'over there'.

It's that time of year where everyone does Top Ten lists, so I figured I'd throw in my contribution. Enjoy.

	The American Idol winner is now a rock superstar and in truth, he does have a great voice. But Adam, you're flaming gay. We get it. Do you really need to remind us by simulating oral sex on stage at an awards show geared towards teens? And what's with the completely stupid getups you wear? Freddie Mercury would be ashamed.
	Heath Ledger? Yes, Heath Ledger. I was so tired of hearing from all the Batman fanboyz as to how he was the greatest actor ever. How he was so freakin amazing. Sure he was impressive in that movie, but so what? Does that justify having someone explain to his daughter how Daddy was just a junky who OD'd?
	Michael was still warm in the ground when news broke of a Jackson's reality show on TV. Nothing like capitalizing on your brothers fame just after he died. But really why would that be shocking? They've been riding on his coattails from the beginning as none of them actually have any talent.
	As if listening to 30 minutes of screaming kids wasn't bad enough we now have to endure every minutia of these idiot's lives being dissected. Kate is a bitch and John is a whore. Why can't we just leave it at that? Who cares about Kate's new hairstyle or what skank John is banging. At least their kids won't be exploited anymore (hopefully).
	I think if you look under the dictionary for 'Douchebag' it will say 'see Kanye West'. The fact that this moron has interrupted the winners on at least two separate awards show is bad enough, but to then appear on Leno crying and saying you need to take a break from touring - and just a week later go on tour just shows what a total loser you are.
	I'll admit I find the 'fat' one kinda hot and the other sister appearing in a 'stolen' sex tape was a nice turn of events, but why do I have to keep hearing about the Kardassians? Their only claim to fame is being famous. And of course now they have their own reality show on TV. Hey, call me when you contribute something useful to humanity and I'll watch.
	Poor Lindsay. She started out with such promise appearing in such films as Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. From there she slowly slid into such dreck as I Know Who Killed Me. And that was back when she could still land a role. Now she's broke and having drunk sex with strangers she picks up in Hollywood burger joints. She might want to stay away from The Viper Room.
	Sure Miley is hot in a 'I'll go to jail for statutory rape' sort of way. But she has absolutely no talent. None. Zero. It seems that with each generation the bar for these Tween stars keeps getting lowered. I did manage to watch her do a duet with Taylor Swift at the Grammys. The good news is she didn't lip synch. The bad news is she sounded like a wounded chipmunk.
	At least the irony of winning the Nobel peace prize days after announcing an escalation in the Afghan war wasn't lost upon Obama. Because hey, he gave another great speech. Perhaps Americans should have made his speech writer President instead. Because this guy has done absolutely nothing worthwhile since taking office. Change indeed.
	Hearing her called the cloying nickname of 'RiRi' is bad enough but to then be inundated with the details of her domestic dispute is worse. Despite saying she still loved him and initially going back to him she's now somehow a beacon for battered women and her face is plastered in every single magazine. Maybe he beat the crap out of her for a reason? (Ya, I said it.)

Not a day goes by where we're not bombarded by the media of the dangers of H1N1 and how we must get our vaccine to stay healthy. When this virus first appeared earlier in the year I'll admit that I honestly thought the end was near - well more accurately I was petrified of what could happen. Before Swine Flu made it into the daily lexicon I was well aware of the Spanish Flu and the horrors of 1918.

However as I've learned more since the initial outbreak I've become convinced that all is not what it seems and I will NOT be taking the vaccine. Here's why:

- For years scientists have been worried about a pandemic of the Bird Flu - of which the Spanish Flu was a variant. However thankfully, transmission from human to human did not occur easily. But what if it was combined with the regular flu? During the outbreak in Mexico when the virus was first analyzed it was determined that it was made up of Human Flu, Bird Flu (North American strain), Swine Flu (European strain) and Swine Flu (Asian strain). Four different versions including two different strains from opposite ends of the planet. There is NO way that occurred naturally in some small Mexican town. In fact, Adrian Gibbs, a scientist who worked with Swiss drug maker Roche to develop Tamiflu, the anti-viral drug has stated on record that he believes the virus was man made likely having been released from a laboratory [1].

- The long dormant Spanish Flu virus was recently retrieved when scientists dug up a victim of the 1918 outbreak from the Alaskan permafrost. Samples were sent to both the CDC in the US and the Canadian equivalent lab in Winnipeg. The aim was to study this lethal virus [2].

- A few months before the Mexican outbreak, Pharmaceutical giant Baxter 'accidentally' shipped live bird flu in vaccines to laboratories throughout the world. It was only discovered that these vaccines were contaminated when the animals that were injected with the vaccine quickly died. I'll repeat that again, vaccines were infected with live virus samples and 'accidentally' released from a Biosafety Level 3 facility [3].

"While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people."

- The vaccine that is being pushed down our throats is made by the very same companies that I believe whether accidentally or maliciously created the virus to begin with. In the US nurses and doctors are being forced to take the vaccine and those that refuse are being fired [4]. In Canada, it hasn't been made mandatory (yet), however a recent survey has indicated that at least half of health care professionals will not be taking it due to concerns over its safety [5]. In fact, the Obama administration has granted vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline immunity from prosecution related to adverse reactions to the shots. In Canada, the government has refused to comment on the matter [6].

- Several prominent people in the political and military establishments have a vested interest in many of the companies making the vaccine and related anti-viral medications. Most notable is former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who was the chairman of the company who holds the rights to Tamiflu [7]. In addition, it was recently revealed that one of the key 'advisors' to the British government on pandemic preparations receives almost $350,000 a year from the same company selling the vaccine [8].

- We've been through this before. In 1976, Swine Flu appeared at the military base in Fort Dix, killing one, and making hundreds sick. Fearing the worst the Ford administration authorized a massive campaign to have everyone in the United States vaccinated. However the virus never spread from Fort Dix (nor was it ever explained how it occurred there) and people soon became ill and started dying from the vaccine itself. Not long after the campaign was cancelled and the lawsuits started flying [9].

Note: Whenever one makes a statement or expresses a belief which is contrary to what the mainstream news tells us to think and believe they are asked for proof. And if you reference anything that is not part of the same mainstream media establishment then your claims are instantly invalidated. Therefore all the links I've referenced come from well known sites.

It is my firm belief that this virus is man made. To what purpose I don't know, at best it's purely greed, at worst, well it's something more sinister. I would never preach as to what I think people should do, especially when it comes to such an important topic as one's health. However I would ask that everyone stop and think and at least question when told that the H1N1 vaccine is in your best interest.

Stay safe.

[1] http://www.flu-treatments.com/h1n1-virus.html

[2] http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8103-us-scientists-resurrect-deadly-1918-flu.html

[3] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTo3LbhcA75I

[4] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/04/eveningnews/main5362636.shtml

[5] http://www.discovervancouver.com/forum/over-half-ottawa-health-workers-t358816.html

[6] http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/09/21/swine-flu-h1n1-sue-court.html

[7] http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

[8] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1202389/Government-virus-expert-paid-116k-swine-flu-vaccine-manufacturers.html

[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14517-2002May26?language=printer

Ah yes, it has begun.

The daily hell that is the commute to work in Calgary during the Winter. Where what is normally a 20 minute drive soon becomes 60, sometimes 90 minutes. While I made it to work ok on Tuesday, I got up this morning at 6am and checked the news only to find there was already four separate crashes on Deerfoot. Did I really want to spend 2 stressful hours stuck in gridlock? Nope. So I stayed home.

It's been so bad the past couple of days that even our esteemed Mayor was inconvenienced. Oh the horror! In fact he's apparently come to the realization that getting around in this city is a bloody joke. Of course now that he's finally experienced what the rest of us mere peasants go through on a daily basis he's indicated he wants more money for snow removal - which he'll get by raising our taxes of course. City coffers are pretty bare what with financing such genius ideas as fancy pancy bridges that no one wants or needs don't ya know.

I haven't even been able to get my snow tires put on yet either. I had planned on doing it around, oh, I dunno, now. Seriously. I figured mid October would be a safe bet to get it done. I don't think it snowed last year until it was almost New Years. Apparently Friday will reach a balmy 10 degrees, so I'm going to bee line it to Kal Tire to get my tires put on - me and everyone else in the city most likely.

With all the commuter chaos I figured I'd pass on my infinitely wise Winter driving tips:

• Just because you have Winter tires and/or a 4x4 doesn't mean you should drive like a moron

• If you don't have Winter tires get them! Because your driving along at 20km/hr is only going to piss off other drivers and make them aggressive (see the first point)

• If you're a newly landed immigrant from a country that has never seen snow, maybe go and take a course on winter driving (you can easily spot them - hunched up to the dash, grip of death on the steering wheel, eyes wide open in terror as they poke along wondering why everyone is honking and giving them the finger as they go by)

• And finally, it doesn't matter how great a driver you may be, it's the asshole in front of you and the asshole behind you that you need to worry about

Happy slip sliding!

Oops he did it again. Looks like Kanye West just doesn't know when to shut the hell up.

At last night's MTV Music Awards he jumped up on stage complaining that it should have been Beyonce that won the Best Female Video Award and not Taylor Swift - this moments after Swift was presented the award and had started her acceptance speech. After the audience realized it wasn't a gag they all started booing him to which he responded by giving them all the finger.

And this isn't the first time he's done this. At the 2006 MTV Europe Awards he jumped on to the stage to complain that he didn't win the award for best video - again while it was being presented to the winner.

I can't stand these egomaniac Hip Hop losers who think they're God's gift to music - even more so when they think they've made it despite 'whitey' keeping them down. Their success obtained by pushing onto their market of impressionable kids videos of scantily clad women shaking their asses in the camera while 'singing' lyrics consisting of nothing more than killing cops and smacking their "bitches" and "ho's".

Equally sad is all this occurred on a night that they paid tribute to Michael Jackson. Despite fatigue at constantly hearing his name in the news, there's no denying he was a great artist despite his eccentricities. As he famously said in one of his many hit songs 'It don't matter if you're black or white' - truer words have never been said because talent is talent.

Unfortunately, Kanye has none and is instead just another asshole.

Kanye West - Small talent, big Ego.

As I walked home on my usual route today I came across a bunch of young kids with their dog. They had cornered a gopher and were proceeding with glee to try and bash it to death with sticks. As I walked by I asked them how they'd feel if someone did that to their dog? They didn't care, they just continued what they were doing. As I walked away all I could hear was the poor animal's squeals as they kept hitting it.

Now one might argue that gophers are pests, and I would counter that so are people, but the point is that these kids were deriving PLEASURE out of killing this animal.

This coming on a week which saw a family's dog stolen from their yard and when the boy finally found his lost dog it was being hit and kicked by the youths that took it. And lets not forget the footage posted on YouTube of a bunch of hicks joyfully blasting away at a group of baby ducks and high fiving each other as the little animals flayed around in their death throes.

And before that the guy that dragged his dog to death behind his pickup truck, before that the kids who broke into a house and microwaved the cat etc. etc. ad naseum, over and fucking over again.

I'm so fed up with people right now it's unbelievable. Mankind absolutely makes me sick to my stomach. And what drives me up the wall the most are the inevitable comments of 'who cares it's just a stupid animal'. Really? Well you know the guy that blew away three women in a fitness club a couple days ago? Who cares, they were just a bunch of stupid women!

See how completely and utterly retarded that sounds? Well if you can't see the same level of stupidity in the comment about animals then you are no better than the low life pieces of shit previously mentioned.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral compass can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Gandhi

1. Dog owners who feel that the entire world is just one big off-leash dog park.

2. The David Letterman/Sarah Palin feud. If Letterman really wanted to be 'edgy' he would be calling Michelle Obama a slut instead.

3. Idiot drivers who wave when they screw up. But instead of actually learning to fix the bad driving they've instead learned that merely waving makes it all better.

4. Smart ass posters on blu-ray.com who don't use spoiler tags and ruin movies I haven't seen yet!

5. Global TV's Hi-Def channel. Wow, now I can watch the same prime time shows in Hi-Def that I've been able to watch on the other Hi-Def channels for years now. Call me when The National is in Hi-Def.

6. Farmers whining about their crops. I'm pretty sure every year since I've been born they've been bitching about the lack of rain. Maybe try something else for a living.

7. My stupid neighbor and his goddamn noisy toys.

8. Idiotic delivery guys who expect me to sign a blank Visa slip.

9. My financial luck. I add a bunch of money to my portfolio and the market tanks 3% the very next day.

10. Shirtless joggers. Ooh look at me, I'm the epitome of health, my abs are rock hard, my girlfriend is a model, and I drive a bimmer to my corporate job.

Other than that I'm as happy go-lucky as can be.

Ok, this pisses me off. I got Panago's latest flyer in the mail and on the cover is a delicious looking picture of their latest creation - Surf 'n Turf. It looks amazing because it has big chunks of steak and plump, large shrimp. Not having had Panago in forever I ordered one up.

Well I also ordered some wings and as I'm eating them I keep getting this whiff that smells horrible, faintly resembling dead fish. I open up the pizza and surprise, surprise it looks nothing like what was in the advertisement. Even worse the smell was coming from it and the teeny ass, fishy smelling shrimp that they used!

The Bait	and The Switch

Oh and for my gullibility that'll be $32.50 please. I've long been resigned to the fact that the burgers you get at fast food places look nothing like what's advertised, but this is bloody ridiculous. Oh but hey, at least their flyers promoting this crap were made with 10% recycled material. So I guess it's ok. Screw you Panago!

My second issue is with the current Holmes on Homes series where he goes to New Orleans to help rebuild from Hurricane Katrina. On the surface it seems like a worthy goal. Now don't get me wrong, I love Holmes on Homes, have all his DVD's, and even went and saw him at one of the Calgary Home Show events. So what's my issue? It might be that him and his crew are building exactly one house. Yup, one measly house. Brad Pitt (which the show delights in showing every opportunity it can) is there spearheading the building of hundreds of homes, but apparently Mike can only come up with the effort for one.

No, that's not what what really bugs me. Maybe it's the fact that he repeatedly keeps slagging the powers that be for ignoring the people in the devastated 9th ward. The implication is that the reason the mayor and the rest of the New Orleans officials don't care is because the residents there are predominantly Black (apparently it doesn't matter that the mayor is himself Black). Maybe, just maybe their heart isn't into rebuilding that area because it just so happens to be the one section of the city that is the most below sea level - in all likelihood if they rebuilt everything the next major Hurricane would just wipe it out again.

Actually, that's not what's really annoying me either. I think it's because the cost for this one house is 3.2 million dollars. It seems to me that if they really wanted to make a difference there that they could build a hundred homes for that amount. Ah, but they are using the latest technology to build a home that will be Hurricane proof. And that just reinforces my point. If it costs that much to build a house that will withstand Mother Nature's wrath in that area then clearly it's not realistic to rebuild the neighborhood and it should be left abandoned.

So who's really being dishonest?

To all the Obama is the second coming, Kool Aid drinkers out there, this one's for you. Take a gander at this video. Robert Reich, Obama's economic advisor is speaking to Congress advising them of how infrastructure money from Obama's stimulus package is destined to be spent.

Update: It looks like this video has been yanked from YouTube, I guess the Obama administration doesn't like this uncomfortable truth. Change indeed.

For those who can't be bothered to watch, I'll summarize things for you:

• They are going to distribute this money to unemployed minorities regardless of their qualifications

• They don't need to worry about any reaction from Joe Sixpack, he's too busy working to try and pay his bills

• They want to make sure this is done without any pesky oversight

Now before anyone starts trying to pathetically justify this clear case of reverse racism, here's the true Litmus test. Wherever Reich says the word 'White' simply substitute it with the word 'Black'. See my point? If that was the case this would be ALL OVER the mainstream media and we'd be hearing about it for weeks upon end. Yet there was zero, ZERO, coverage of this in the mainstream media. Truly scary.

Obama is going to heal race relations in America? Based on the number of venomous reaction posts to this video that I've seen, if these are the kind of people Obama is getting his advice from things are going to get very ugly, very soon.

I'm so annoyed, frustrated, and angry at everything right now. It's like the past few weeks have been nothing but a constant stream of minor annoyances and irritations that each in themselves wouldn't be a big deal, but cumulatively is causing me to just about lose it.

• Having to listen to the bitch behind the Air Canada counter say 'we can't control the weather' as a lame excuse for all the delays we had to experience when it wasn't the weather that was the problem it was that they didn't have enough staff at the bloody airport. And having to listen to her say all that BS while wearing a stupid Santa hat no less!

• Sending a practically irreplaceable vintage computer to someone in the States only to find out weeks later that it was damaged all to hell in transit. I literally would have had to have jumped up and down on the damn thing to do the damage that occurred!

• Calling the GM dealership to get my car in for service to replace a fault battery which powers On-Star. I call the service department and they tell me I have to call the parts department. I call the parts department and they tell me I have to call the service department. I call and complain about getting the run around and someone calls me back and tells me he can't help me but he'll have someone who can call me the next day - and I'm still waiting for the call.

• Having to deal with the morning commute and the DAILY multiple accidents on Southbound Deerfoot. And then while creeping along at 10km/hr having to watch the asshole drivers who zip past in the left lane and then try to squeeze in at the last second. And it's always, ALWAYS, people driving goddamn pickup trucks or mini-vans!

• I order some fancy Hunter Douglas blinds for the main floor bathroom. A month later they show up, I have a hell of a time getting the brackets installed (snapped the heads off a couple screws), attach the blinds and....they're 3 inches to short. We call Home Depot and they verified they had the correct dimensions. Hunter Douglas apparently decided that instead of a blind for a standard sized window they'd just give us one 3 inches shorter than normal. Who the hell has a 31 1/4" sized window????

• I've been forced out of my parking spot at work. Why? Because I'm boxed in between two goddamn Ford F350 type monstrosities on either side of me making it impossible for me to park in between them. So I ask the person responsible for parking assignments if they can have one of them move just one spot away. Fuck no! They don't want to move, why should they? So despite us being chronically short of parking that spot is now vacant.

• Finding out about my heart condition purely by accident as the lab never bothered to contact me about my results. Good thing I didn't have cancer. Or do I? It's not like I would ever know from them. Why am I paying for Blue Cross and Alberta Health Care again?

It's not a coincidence that one of my favorite movies is Falling Down. I can relate to Michael Douglas' character so much. There's a certain beauty in the thought of one day just snapping, saying fuck it to the world, and truly going off the deep end.

Thankfully Chris keeps me grounded (even if she doesn't realize it).

Without her and in the right conditions...

I was going to write up a scathing commentary on the ongoing crisis in the Gaza strip and how in his first true test as incoming President Barack Obama was a complete and utter failure by not condemning Israeli aggression.

He probably doesn't want to interrupt his vacation in Hawaii or more likely he was to busy doing photo shoots for various magazines. It looks like the 97% of black Americans who voted for him voted for more of the same. Congratulations.

Anyways I'm starting to go off on a rant here and I didn't want to end the year on such a deep and down topic. So I'll end on a light note instead.

I came across the picture below while browsing a 'Top Music of 2008' list. Katy Perry? I'll admit her song is catchy (I own it on iTunes) but best of 2008? Seriously?

Anyways for some reason this picture attracts me, repulses me, and manages to amuse me all at the same time. I took one look at it and came up with my own captions for what they are all thinking.

Happy New Years everyone!

The dancer on the left is thinking "God, I'm so fat!"

Katy Perry is thinking "I can't believe I'm making money off this crap!"

The dancer on the right is thinking "I'm way hotter than that bitch!"