My new hero is airline passenger Ryan Bird, who wrote on a clear plastic bag “Kip Hawley is an idiot” before he went through airport screening in Milwaukee. In case you’re blissfully unaware Kip Hawley is the head of the most inept government agency in operation today - the Transportation Security Administration.

In response to Bird’s musings on the intelligence of Hawley a TSA screener pulled him aside and told him he wasn’t allowed to write things like that and that he had no right to his opinions when going through screening. Then TSA called a sheriff’s deputy to check Bird for warrants before they let him go. In addition TSA tried to confiscate the bag but relented after Bird protested.

The Transportation Security Administration are a bunch of fascistic assholes. They treat us like prisoners being transported from one correctional institution to another. Strip down, metal detectors and harsh questions - all are what prisoners go through before they’re transported and we’re undergoing the same treatment except we’re paying for the privilege! You have no recourse with the TSA, they’re going to do what they want to you regardless of how it makes you feel or whether it’s applicable to flying safety or not.

And worse none of what they’re doing is making flying any safer. The TSA is so behind the curve they should change their motto to “Always One Step Behind!” They’re the ultimate example of reactionary government but in their case their reactionary posture could cost us our lives.

Flying is a terrible experience now and its been made so much worse by the ineptitude of fools like Kip Hawley and his merry bunch of idiots who are ruining the experience of air travel with their poorly thought-out and arbitrary rules.

What bloated gossip blogger has the casting director for Celebrity Fit Club on speed dial? This weighty Web wordsmith has become so concerned over his seemingly never-ending weight gain that he’s begging Celebrity Fit Club to cast him on its next season. No word yet on whether his fervent requests will be considered.

The whole notion of government, which previously existed to budget and manage public services, has changed to mean one thing: Lifestyle Maintenance. The nanny-state government of New York City has now decided to “ban” trans-fats by sending health department inspectors into restaurant kitchens to look for cans of Crisco or other “banned” items. This on top of the various smoking bans, bans on fois-gras, bans on fast food, bans on sugar, bans on tanning beds etc… When does it ever end?

The long and short answer is: it doesn’t. I saw a quote from a New York City Council member who said of the proposed ban on fast food restaurants; “Maybe it’s time we considered it. A few years a go people didn’t want us to ban smoking in bars or restaurants and we did that so maybe we can do this too.” See the logic? We got away with it before so we’re going to keep on banning.

People have the right to make their own choices, as unhealthy as they may be, without those choices being unduly influenced by the government. I’m all for eating healthy foods but is arbitrary action like “banning” a substance a good idea? Has the government ever heard of “targeted laws” which are aimed at those actually breaking the law instead of everyone else who is following it?

I know I’m going to hear the same argument again and again: trans-fats cause cancer, trans-fats cause obesity. Yes, but so does a lack of exercise and eating not enough vegetables and fruits. So are we going to start banning cars, elevators and buses? Why not ban the subway? That would encourage people to get off their fat asses and walk. In a city like New York the easy availability of public transportation encourages sloth and laziness, once we ban public transport everyone will have to walk and all our problems will be solved!

See the lunacy of the argument? The city is saying it doesn’t intend to become the food police but that’s exactly what it is becoming. It’s one step from banning trans-fat to regulating all restaurant menus to ensure maximum nutritional value, then to ridding supermarkets of all white flour and sugar and then eventually to banning meat and dairy and then to banning cooked foods entirely. It may sound absurd but that’s exactly what proposals like the city’s “ban” on fat would have sounded like twenty years ago.

Ask yourself this question: is life better than it was twenty years ago, when few of these bans existed? Are we happier, living richer or more full lives because the government banned our right to eat a french fry cooked in shortening or to tan our skin in a tanning booth? Are these bans conducive to allowing us to make our own choices, to reap the benefits or the consequences of our own actions?

Today while running at the gym I watched a bit of President Bush’s news conference. I listened to my iPod while watching CNN paraphrase what he was saying and everything he said centered around the following theme: “Everyone is wrong, all the intelligence agencies are wrong. Conspiracies, vast and deep, lurk everywhere. Trust me, I”ll keep you safe.”

The whole thing was so absurd, so ridiculous that I switched the channel so I wouldn’t have to listen to anymore of the blabber-blabber emanating from his mouth. The newest intelligence estimate, leaked to the media yesterday, paints a damning picture of how the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place, with Iraq and now Afghanistan in turmoil. The President stands next to Hamad Karzai and talks about how he “stand by” Afghanistan. If he feels so strongly then why is he allowing Afghanistan to turn into a narco-terrorist state with the Taliban making a huge resurgence?

You have the President and his minions running around saying the intelligence estimate is all wrong. It reminds one of the scene from Wizard of Oz where the wizard is shown to be fake and the man behind the curtain exposed. He keeps yelling “pay no attention, pay no attention!” but people are paying attention. This president’s words have no credence anymore. He’s surrounded himself with incompetent flackies who tell him whatever he wants to hear and now he and his party are going to pay the price.

San Francisco City Supervisor Chris Daly likes to call other people names. In the past two years he called another supervisor a “punk-ass bitch,” called homeowners protesting his plans to restrict sales of TIC condominiums “bitches,” and told a lobbyist to “fuck off.”

But Chris Daly doesn’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot. He’s gone postal over the San Francisco police union’s president printing up t-shirts that say “I don’t drink diet coke - I drink screwdrivers. And I don’t sit down with Chis Daly.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle the shirts refer to a comment from the head of the firefighters union that Daly and the head of the San Francisco police union should “sit down over diet Cokes and try and work out their differences.” The head of the San Francisco police union, Gary Delganes, is a foe of Daly’s and considers him the worst most anti-cop supervisor on the Board.

So Daly, in typical Daly-style vindictive fashion, stormed into a meeting of the Board of Supervisors and introduced a resolution to merge the city and county police forces together.

What’s wrong Chris? You don’t like it when you get a taste of your own medicine? The only punk-ass bitch on the Board of Supervisors is Chris Daly, truly the worst, most demagogic Supervisor the City of San Francisco has ever seen.

It’s really amazing how much self-loathing there is amongst gay people, or perhaps just people in this country.

I just read another’s blogger’s comments on Josh and Josh’s blog and he said “Man those two REALLY like themselves….”

What’s wrong with liking oneself? Have we all become so self-loathing and filled with sadness that we believe the natural state of man to be one of despair? I know I don’t, or at least I hope I don’t… it’s sometimes difficult not to buy into it.

Most nasty comments people receive from others are based around the commenter’s perception of the other as too self-involved, too “full of themselves,” too “arrogant” and undeserving of their success. But arrogance, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

The world is filled with desperately unhappy people who resent the success and beauty that surrounds them, that seems to exist just beyond their grasp. So these same people content themselves with tearing down those around them they resent, either for their academic, professional or financial success, or because they’re more attractive.

Of course they never do it to that person’s face - these people like to do it behind other’s backs, or anonymously. They then content themselves with the knowledge that they “showed” that person a thing or two because they brought him/her down a couple of notches, and now maybe they’ll know what it feels like.

What “It” is is a strange form of dissonance and it’s practiced everywhere in this country today. The rise of what people perceive to be “undeserved” celebrity has fueled this trend. Previously people may have resented celebrities but now that they see celebrities becoming celebrities for celebrity’s sake - they can’t stand it. Each bubble of celebrity, journalistic, blogger, TV, cinema - every one of them has their own set of haters, consumed with anger and rage over what they see as “undeserved” fame and success.

I’m quite sure most of these people aren’t necessarily bad people, they’re just doing what comes naturally, which is to lash out at others - to bring everyone else into their own private circle of pain, rage, despair and self-loathing, because after all - misery loves company, doesn’t it?

I bought this painting from an artist friend of mine to hang on the wall of my NY apartment. Ana Wolovick is a great artist - check out her site.