Terror in the Skies. My solution.

So Al Qaeda has decided to claim responsibility for the failed terrorist attack on Christmas day in Detroit.  Convenient.  Not sure why they are so proud that their specially trained mercenary almost burned himself to death instead of blowing up the plane, but then again, at this point in order to keep up appearances, if my toilet over-flowed, Al Qaeda would claim responsibility.

As a result of this near-disaster, CNN news and other stations have been buzzing with experts and eye-witnesses giving trade secrets and showing how terrorists have managed to circumvent the security of these airports and how easy it would be for this to occur on a daily basis. 

You’d think they were wide open for these attacks on a daily basis – like allowing wacko’s with bombs strapped to their backs to board planes, but security has been tight – not as tight as say El Al (Israeli airlines) but it’s tight.  

After 9/11, airlines responded swiftly by barring boxcutters and other sharp items like scissors and knives.  Smart move.  Hard to cut my food, so they removed the food to save money.

Then that idiot Brit they called the “Shoe Bomber” tried to set off explosives in his shoes, so now we have to remove our shoes as we pass through security.

Seeing the pattern now?

So no knives, blades, shoes, food, liquids, long waits and lots of searches to make sure families like mine are not carrying bombs and what results have been achieved?

None.

Some piece of shit from Kenya decides he wants to create more flying terror for the civilised world – he fails to do what he intended to do – but the airline industry has responded loudly.  No more than one carry on, unable to leave your seat during the flight. no blankets, no pillows. 

Way to react.

But I’ve given this some thought and I have a solution.

The way I see it from up here in Canada, there are some countries really pissed off with the US.  They tend to come from some very radical counties like Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan and a bunch of other countries who hate democracy.

So here is my thought.

Do not allow anyone from these countries to fly over International airspace.

The way I see it is like this.  If I’m playing street hockey with my neighbours and one neighbour keeps hurting all of us, he’s no longer allowed to play.  Now it may take some time and some more injuries before someone has the balls to speak up, but it will happen.  Guaranteed.

So I challenge the international community to not allow citizens from these countries to fly.  If they must come, they can use their own planes, full of their own citizens once and only once the flight is full, and all the people and all the bags have been thoroughly searched.  Kind of like they do for transporting prisoners.

Then land the plane at the nearest airport to water, away from anything and anyone, and put them on another plane to their location.

Better to inconvenience a few than jeopardize the lives of the innocent, no?

If someone has been coming over to the US from Kenya often, then allow them to fly.  If not and it seems odd, it usually is.

If you want the privilege of travelling to the US (and Canada) then you have to go through proper authorities.  Geez, if it was legal, the safest way for people to travel is nude, no?

So I forsee a bunch of really rich sheiks from the middle east flying in their own jets anyways and tourists come with their families, so question the single travellers who are making their first trips to the US, possibly the ones coming from the UK who may or may not have been hanging out in radical mosques and whose parents may or may not have been trying to tip-off US authorities as to the lack of common sense their child has been exhibiting.  That might be a good place to start.

Then if all goes well, the sale of picture books of US tourist sites should sky-rocket as less and less people will be flying to the US in order to cause shit.

I just feel that closing off airways to Kenya right away might send a strong message to terrorists.  Keep your terrorist views to yourself or your country will suffer.

You never know…

My Christmas

My Christmas includes “Do they know it’s Christmas” by Band-Aid.  Cannot imagine the holidays without it.  Reminds me (and we don’t celebrate Christmas) that the holiday is about thinking of others first.  It is better to give than receive!

And a trip to the local fire station with my boys to drop off new toys that they have set aside from their birthdays to give to those who do not have and cannot afford. 

It’s VERY important that my kids understand during the holiday season that it is indeed better to give than receive.

Urbanmummy started this tradition of the kids giving their toys to charity, the 4th year for the boys.  She continues to instill the true meaning of charity into our household.

Tuesday Newsday

Tuesday Newsday, an Urbandaddy exclusive!

1)  I get it that a football player dying at a very young age is a tragedy but I also understand that when you are chasing / attacking your fiance by jumping on a moving vehicle and having been in trouble with the law before (and turfed off your team numerous times) you may suffer injuries or even die, like Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengal’s did.  At his funeral she said while she may have helped steer him out of trouble, he changed her life. Henry, 26, was killed after he fell out of a pickup bed being driven by his fiance Loleini Tonga during what police described as a domestic dispute.

Police are investigating, but no charges have been filed.

But the comments from his fiance at the funeral re-iterate my comments about what happens when we pay athletes millions and millions of dollars and shove this in the faces of the youth of today.  They think that they don’t need to get a good education and learn about things like… English.

I am not English major by any stretch of the imagination but I know this is just fucked up. 

“Can’t nobody feel what I’m feeling right now. … We loved each other very much. People say I helped change his life. No. He changed mine.  We were supposed to get married in three months, but I’m going to wait until I see him again.”

“Can’t nobody feel”???

Oy.

2)  This is why the world will be a better place once the Taliban are no longer in power…

Taliban blow up Pakistan girls school.  The Taliban blew up a girls’ school in Pakistan’s Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.

 3)  I don’t want to call this next story for what it is, but for some reason it slipped under the radar.  If you remove the country “Egypt” and change it to “Israel” you would have seen yet another UN resolution asking for sanctions against Israel, and CUPE here in Canada would have gone ape-shit asking for banning of Israeli professors, or worse, banning the letter “I”.

To think that Egypt is let off the hook for creating a giant steel wall between themselves and the Palestinians in order to keep Palestinians out and shut down the some 150 tunnels, under the guise of national security is ok, but Israel doing the same is apartheid and terrorism.

Makes you wonder if mainstream media is anti-Israel or anti-Semitic?!?

Egypt confirmed on Tuesday it is engaged in construction along its border with Gaza but said it is not building what some reports have said is a steel wall to block cross-border smuggling.  (But it is)

Hamas and other militant groups have called on Egypt to stop building such a wall along the Gaza border and Egyptian security officials have confirmed a steel barrier is being built.

Tunnel builders say around 150 tunnels along the border between Egypt and Gaza provide a vital supply link for the enclave whose imports are blocked by Israel.  The “wall” will go below ground and shut off these tunnels.

“The procedures that Egypt is undertaking inside its lands, whether building or construction work along the border with the Gaza Strip, is an Egyptian concern that is related to Egypt and Egyptian national security.”

4)  In a sad story relating to how unsafe and dangerous the drug trade is in Mexico, a drug cartel shot dead the family of a policeman in retaliation for the killing of their leader and arresting of others.  If drugs were not such a money making venture none of this would happen.  Killing will continue until something gives.

Considering the government will never be able to out fire-power the cartels and there are way too many corrupt officials, Mexico will need to either make it legal and tax the crap out of the cartels or crack down on their exports of drugs and import of weapons.  If drugs are no longer leaving the country, users will look elsewhere…

MEXICO CITY — It had been an elaborate farewell to one of Mexico’s fallen heroes.  The mother of a slain Mexican sailor and his aunt attended his funeral on Monday. Hours later, gunmen killed the women.

Ensign Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, a special forces sailor killed last week during the government’s most successful raid on a top drug lord in years, received a stirring public tribute in which the secretary of the navy presented his mother with the flag that covered her son’s coffin.

Then, only hours after the grieving family had finished burying him in his hometown the next day, gunmen burst into the family’s house and sprayed the rooms with gunfire, killing his mother and three other relatives, officials said Tuesday.

It was a chilling epilogue to the navy lead operation that killed the drug lord, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, and six of his gunmen. And it appeared to be intended as a clear warning to the military forces on the front line of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s war against Mexico’s drug cartels: not only you, but your family is a target as well.

Prosecutors, police chiefs and thousands of others have been killed in the violence gripping Mexico, with whole families sometimes coming under attack during a cartel’s assassination attempt. But going after the family of a sailor who had already been killed is an exceedingly rare form of intimidation, analysts say, and illustrates how little progress the government has made toward one of its most important goals: reclaiming a sense of peace and order for Mexicans caught in the cross-fire.

The military and police forces who have been fighting the drug war typically cover their faces with ski masks to protect their identities. But the government generally releases the names of police officers and soldiers who have been killed in the drug war.

Responding to the killings on Tuesday, Mr. Calderón said, “These contemptible events are proof of how unscrupulously organized crime operates, attacking innocent lives, and they can only strengthen us in our determination to banish this singular cancer.”

Weekend wrap-up

What else does a family of 5 do on the last weekend before Christmas???  We go to the mall.  But not just one mall, we go to several. 

When you’ve been cooped up in the house as much as Urbanmummy has, something has to give and what gave was our peaceful weekend at home with the family.  We needed to get out!  Even if it meant heading into crowds of holiday shoppers lollygagging their way through the mall.  We needed to return stuff.  We bought a stroller for the car seat so we wouldn’t have to carry Berry around all day, we hit up Toys R Us, a big mall and a bunch of other little stores.  We got errands done.

Woo hoo.

With Berry being 3 weeks old and the boys finally sleeping in their bunk beds (or not sleeping for that matter) we figured what better than to drive around a lot and give them all plenty of time to sleep in the car while we spent money.   I could tell it was going to be a productive day when I saw Urbannummy’s eyes.  She was out of the house and dammit she was going to get stuff done.  I did not realize how much of a chore it was getting three sleepy kids out of the car and into a store… Whew.

On Sunday Linus had a birthday party at the movie theatre.  Great idea in theory, but tough to coordinate since he’s only seem one movie before, with us, and we were told that the Princess and the Frog was a touch scary for 4 year olds.  One of us could have joined him, for $11.00 but it didn’t make sense since there was Berry and Stewie still to be dealt with.  So off Linus went.  He said it was scary but he had fun… Fun being chocolate, juice, popcorn and “TV”. 

On Sunday morning the boys went to Karate and excelled.  They were focussed and awesome.  Made me proud.  At karate I sat with the President and CEO of the incredible indie music site; www.supernova.com.   It was there I learned that Chad Kroeger, the lead singer of the bank Nickleback produced Theory of a Deadman’s recent effort, which I thought was AWESOME!  He also talked about another band in the Kroeger stable called Default.  I’ll have to check them out. 

As a HUGE music fan, I’m going to try to arrange for a monthly supernova.com music discussion to introduce some outstanding up and coming bands for everyone to watch out for.     

So the only downfall of this fun, busy weekend is that Berry slept too much on Sunday and thus did not sleep Sunday night so Urbanmummy was exhausted and she (thankfully) let me sleep so I could work the entire day. 

Last I checked the boys, they were sneaking into our bedroom just before 6:30am to come hit Bozo.

Remember Bozo???

We bought Bozo in effort to stop the kids from hitting each other and everyone else.  We’ve had a few incidents of children who cannot keep their hands to themselves and thus have hit, smacked or slapped each other, us, their nanny and strangers in the karate dojo.   They have told their teachers about being hit… They get frustrated, they smack each other… But not any more.  Now they know that if they get “angry” they should wait, get up and walk over to Bozo and punch him until they feel better.  Then they can go back and play. 

I’ll keep everyone informed as to whether this works and if so, how long it took them to either lose interest in Bozo or punch a hole in him.

Brittany Murphy dead

I was standing in a warehouse in Mississauga, Ontario (just West of Toronto) when my wife asked me if I knew who Brittany Murphy was.  I knew the name and I could picture her, so I replied, “yes”.

“She’s dead” my wife blurted out.

Odd.  I thought she was young… Very young.

Turns out I was right.  She was 32 years old and she died from “cardiac arrest”… At 32?  Cardiac arrest???  Drug OD I thought to myself.  When will they learn? 

I thought it would be Brittany Spears or Lindsay Lohan first…

So what can I tell you about Brittany Murphy that I did not know…

Well, she was best known for her acting in the movies; Clueless, and 8 Mile.   She also starred in such hits as Sin City, and Girl, Interrupted.

Murphy was born in Atlanta and raised in New Jersey.

Her movie career took off when she co-starred as one of Alicia Silverstone’s best friends in the hit 1995 comedy Clueless (even I saw this movie!)  She also had a number of voice roles, most notable as Luanne in the Fox animated series King of the Hill (who knew!) and in the movie Happy Feet.  And she also sang…

It is being reported that she was found unconscious by her mother Sharon at the home of Murphy’s husband, screenwriter Simon Monjack (married 2007), in Los Angeles in the early hours of Dec. 20. She was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

Like I said earlier, 32 year old females don’t just die of heart attacks.  DJ Samantha Ronson wondered on her twitter account when G-d was going to stop calling people back, and I was tempted to say when people stop abusing their bodies with drugs.  I know it’s sad and unfair of me to jump to conclusions but there has been a plethora of celebrities who have died of accidental overdoses, just like a bunch of athletes dying from stupidity (see: Chris Henry) or steroids (see: professional wrestling and football).

While these celeb deaths used to shock me, they are becoming second nature now.  Sad.  Twitter has been over capacity for most the evening and RIP Brittany Murphy is the number 1 trending topic.

And before I posted this story, I went to see if there were any updates but instead of going to mainstream media, I went to the new media kings, x17, TMZ and other’s as they seem to have all the good stuff.  But they had nothing new… Yet…

Winter Solstice – December 21st. Shortest Day of the Year

Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s all due to Earth’s tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21.

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

“Solstice” is derived from the Latin phrase for “sun stands still.”

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21), because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.

During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the “top” half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.

Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year’s darkest day, but it’s not the coldest.

Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December they still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn’t hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.

Throughout history, humans have celebrated the winter solstice, often with an appreciative eye toward the return of summer sunlight.   In my family, it has been a long time coming for my oldest boys, known to blogosphere as “Linus” as whenever anyone would comment about it being winter, he would remind them that the solstice had not yet occurred and it was technically not winter. 

He has been looking forward to this day for other reasons as his birthday is the 27th, so when it was the 21st, he knew there were only 6 more days until he turned 5.  He jumped for joy and danced around his room.

Ahhh, to be young again…

Thursday Thirteen re-post

Thirteen Questions I’d like to know about my wife…

I posted this in 2006 and after 2 more children, wonder how the answers will have changed.  Only time will tell.

1. Whom are you named after? What was she or he like?

2. What did you want to be when you grew up? Why? What options seemed open or closed to you?

3. What did you do for fun as a teenager? As a young adult?

4. What volunteer or paid work have you done? How has it been important to you?

5. What has been important to you as a daughter? A life partner? A mother? As a friend? As a member of a community?

6. Who have been your role models? What about them do you admire?

7. What words of wisdom did your mother/grandmothers/aunts share with you?

8. Who are your favorite cultural heroines? What appeals to you about them?

9. What world and national events have significantly influenced your life?

10. What in your life has brought or given you the greatest satisfaction or fulfillment? Looking back, what would you have done differently? What would you do again?

11. What achievement in my life would bring you greatest joy?

12. What attribute would you like me to help you develop in yourself?

13. What mutual goal would you like us to accomplish?

Stuff that comes into my mind

For tonight’s entertainment we have some random thoughts that have entered my mind over the past couple days of little quality sleep and a ton of important projects to complete for my family and for work;

Sit back and be prepared to answer any (or all) of the following questions.

Channel No. 5.  What was the deal with Channel No’s 1-4?  Was Channel No. 6 not up to speed? 

What is a “zigga zig ha”?

Is anyone surprised that some sponsors have dropped Tiger Woods?  I’m not.  Or that his wife is rumoured to be filing for divorce?  If she leaves him she will be totally justified, but if she stays, she will be typecast as being weak.  Not fair either way for her.

Anyone else happy that the Toronto Rock have welcomed back Colin “Popeye” Doyle to the fold?

When was the last time some asked a sick person if they had “H1N1″ or “swine flu”?   How do you think the government feels having signed a contract to pay for enough vaccines for the entire country but the crisis is no longer newsworthy and those getting the shot are fewer and fewer every day.

My satellite radio stopped working on the drive into the office and I actually looked out the window to the sky… It was overcast.  Not sure what I expected to see, but I still looked.

I really like Black Machismo, Jay Lethal.  He deserves a bigger push.  But I cannot help but feel betrayed when I see the Anvil and Tatanka on TNA Impact.

What crap keeps you awake at night?

Happy Hanukkah

To all that celebrate this Jewish Festival of Lights, I wish you all a Happy Hanukkah full of love, family (if that makes you happy), latkes, gelt and candle-light!

(and I love that the spell-checker wants to change the word “latkes” to “lattes”).

OMG… Snow

It’s Toronto.  It’s winter.  It gets cold and it snows.  A lot.  You would think drivers would know to be cautious and slow down… but nope. 

Now that the first snowfall is on the ground, drivers get stupid.

We had a snow storm Tuesday night / Wednesday morning and here are some of my observations after spending 2 1/2 hours in my car on what should have been a 25 minute trip to the office;

Cars follow too close

Why it is that tow trucks get to sit on the shoulder of major highways, idle much longer than the 3 minute limit and drive like complete assholes most of the time.  What makes them so fucking important.

When the road is covered in ice why is there always that one asshole in a SUV or a minivan who you see racing up behind someone like their car has special tires, then at the last minute you see them slam their feet on the brakes and fishtail because you just can’t do that in the winter.  I wish I had the ability to take people’s driver licenses away on the spot.

I also had the opportunity to have to duck for cover as I was shovelling my driveway and the snow from in front of my house and a woman drinking a Starbucks coffee came flying down my street and splashed slush all over me.  Don’t these drivers realize in the winter than they should go slower than the speed limit when there is something on the road?

Or the idiot driver I was beside yesterday who was eating, on the phone – and driving in the right lane with a flat tire.

There needs to be graduated licenses for new drivers in Canada for winter driving.  For the safety of others.  It’s not a dig or cash grab against new Canadians, but driving in snow is tricky.  Even for the most experienced drivers.