There are only 33 million Canadians.  That number is about the same as California.  However, Canada is a very well educated and motivated population.  They have provided the United States with many of its leading citizens in business, politics, and entertainment.

Look at this list

Many more famous people supplied by University of Toronto professor Jeffrey S. Rosenthal                   http://www.probability.ca/jeff/canadians.html

There are no tricks here –

just a simple test to see if you are current on your information

This is quite good and the results are shocking.

Test your knowledge with 12 questions, then be ready to shudder when you see how others did.

http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/quiz/index.php

Al-Qaeda’s leaders must have been laughing as they watched CNN and ABC news.  After all it looked like the Keystone Cops as the United States tried to get its footing on the “war on terror.”  Wait may be this is all the work of Inspector Clouseau.

Here are the scenes:

>A father tells the CIA that his son has become a terrorist and no one stops that young Nigerian from flying to Detroit.

>Seven CIA operatives are killed by an Al-Qaeda double agent. This is definitely Not funny!

>A man walks the wrong way through a Newark, New Jersey air terminal but the guard left his post a moment before and no one stops the intruder.  The security cameras are on but the recording device has not worked in many days.  Passengers must be re-screened and while they are waiting a traveling guitarist has everyone singing.

>Meanwhile the head of homeland security tells everyone on all the Sunday morning talk shows that “the system worked.”

>Where is the President of the United States?   Oh, he’s vacationing in Hawaii.  When he finally does arrive in Washington D.C. he tells us the “system failed.”  Really?

What part of this stupidity do I have wrong?

At Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, screening is done in 30 minutes. The key? Look passengers in the eye!

After eight years of incompetent security at our airports (that’s eight years since 9-11-2001) the United States is finally getting serious. Or are they?  This is a summary of a report appearing in the Toronto Star this past December 31.

While North America’s airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.

“Israelis, unlike Canadians and Americans, don’t take s— from anybody. When the security agency in Israel (the ISA) started to tighten security and we had to wait in line for – not for hours – but 30 or 40 minutes, all hell broke loose here. We said, `We’re not going to do this. You’re going to find a way that will take care of security without touching the efficiency of the airport.'”

The first layer of actual security that greets travellers at Ben Gurion is a roadside check. All drivers are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?  The questions aren’t important. The way people act when they answer them is.

…they’re not looking for liquids, they’re not looking at your shoes. They’re not looking for everything they look for in North America. They just look at you.

It is time the president went from “no drama Obama” to “one big drama Obama.”  He needs to pound the table and demand that the agencies protecting this nation start communicating with each other.  He needs to fire those responsible for allowing a terrorist onto an American plane.  He needs to say to Janet Napolitano, Robert Mueller, the head of the FBI, and Leon Peneta, the head of the CIA, “I don’t give a damn about your personal problems and your need to know crap.  All of you make this system work NOW. Not next week. It starts working today.”

There are people in this world who want to bring harm to all of America.  The want to kill, maim, and destroy the United States.  The president must put every possible action into play that will protect this country.  That does not mean running around like Chicken Little.  It does mean using every means at our disposal to find and destroy America’s enemies.

All of Islam does not hate America.  Some Muslims do hate America.  We need smart people to find and kill them before they kill us.  I do not care if they were born in the United States or another nation.  The Department of Homeland Security has its work cut out.  No excuse is acceptable.

I am not alone in my view.  This is not a “liberal” versus “conservative” political debate.  Maureen Dowd, a supporter of Obama, agrees that the President needs to become emotionally involved.

Janet Napolitano should never have appeared on the Sunday Morning interview shows because she was utterly unprepared.  Her answers to questions from Jake Tapper, hosting This Week on ABC and David Gregory on Meet the Press were utterly stupid or perhaps the words to describe her response should be beyond logic. She said “the system worked” on both of those shows.  Her statements that systems were under review were not reassuring at all.  Her words were not believable.

Screening systems did not work.  Terrorist watch lists did not work.  What actually worked were passengers on the plane subduing the Nigerian terrorist.

Today she concedes that the aviation security system failed.  Representative Peter King of New York was correct when he said Airport security “failed in every respect.”

Those crying about increased security at airports and on planes are in the same category as Ms. Napolitano.  The systems will protect us. Ri-ight.

Reading the Associated Press version of Ted Kennedy’s life is like reading a soapbox novel.  It’s hard to believe that people like the Senator actually exist in real life.  Maybe that is because my life has been very quiet in comparison.

It appears that Ted Kennedy finally did grow up.  He really did realize his youth was too foolish.  There is no doubt that he did take advantage of his family’s influence and power in Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts State Attorney General, Edward J. McCormack, running against Kennedy for U.S. Senator in 1962 said, “If your name was simply Edward Moore, your candidacy would be a joke.”  That was an accurate assessment of Ted Kennedy back then.  In at least the 18 years of his life, after his marriage to Washington lawyer Victoria Reggie, he finally became a significant force in his family and in the U.S. Senate. According to ABC News Kennedy authored 2,500 pieces of legislation. 300 of those bills were passed into law.

Ted Kennedy will be missed.