Telling it like it is

Joke or truth? :- Michael Chertoff, director of homeland security, is trying to decide whether to scrap the Visa Waiver program for Britons because he's afraid that the Pakistanis who live in Briton might use the program to enter America and commit acts of terrorism. In any other time, that would be such a funny joke, you'd not look at it twice - you'd dismiss it. Yet somehow, it's actually not a joke. Michael Jerkoff wants to close the US borders to people from England unless they go through a stringent visa application program. Well - I guess Orlando, Disney and Vegas can kiss 4 million visitors a year goodbye then. Because that's how you want to treat the citizens of the last ally you have left. Story

Mmmm. HD-DVD cracking goodness. I like the web.

The number of things on my to-do list on my whiteboard has come down by one. Excellent. Oh. Wait. I've added three more things to it to replace the one I just took off. Bugger. Still, I found out today some of my colleagues read my blog too and they get a kick out of it. Which is really the whole point of a blog. So that's nice.

(sarcasm) Woohoo (/sarcasm) Delta have emerged from bankruptcy. They're banging on about new paint schemes for the aircraft, new flight attendant uniforms, new seat covers (fake leather), new entertainment systems. In fact, new everything except what they really need - more sodding leg room and a method of allowing your bags to fly with you. Arrogant bastards. They way they talk you'd think they're all about customer service when in fact they couldn't give a toss about anyone who flies with them.

The 25th came and went with nary a sign of a new tablesaw as promised a couple of weeks ago by the service centre. Instead, what arrived was a cheque for $40 less than we paid for the tool. I called the service center this morning and after 20 minutes of telephone pingpong, it became clear that they'd sent me a refund because the product had been "discontinued due to manufacturing problems." M'kay. So now I've had to fax a copy of the original receipt to Black & Decker HQ to get the remainder of the refund. Watch this space.

It's not bad enough that Delta can't keep your luggage with you, to add insult to injury when my bag finally arrived today, it was totally fucked up. Check the splintered hard plastic and the nicely bent-in frame. I reckon it's been driven over right across the middle or something. And for my trouble, I'm going to be lucky to see $50 for this. The girl at the luggage counter had the gall to ask why I'd put a carry-on in checked baggage. If the TSA Nazi's weren't limiting you to basically travelling in your underwear, I would have used it as carry-on. But you try and get anything in a carry-on that you'd need nowadays. You can't take liquids larger than 3oz and conveniently, nobody sells stuff like deodorant, toothpaste and shaving gel in sizes that small. So you have to check bags, then Delta can fuck them up, drive over them and lose them. I will never fly Delta again.

Apart from the fact that they lose your luggage on every flight, Delta also insist on putting all their passengers at risk. Refuelling aircraft should never be done with passengers on board: