I lived in the area for three years, and your description is hilariously accurate. The only thing I'd add is that nicknames ("duck boots" comes to mind) were quite prevalent, especially within the greater "Friesen" clan since it's far and away the most common surname. I'm surprised you didn't mention Klassen, since I knew more of them than most of the names on your list.

Given a population of 200-400 billion stars in the Mikly Way, 7.6% are similar to ours for 15-30 billion stars... 1/3 of which would be 5-10 billion stars purportedly hosting planets capable of supporting life as we know it.

Is it just me, or is it all fine and dandy for so many non-Americans (be it Belgian teenagers, Australian journalists, or whomever) to support WikiLeaks, when WikiLeaks hasn't launched a smear campaign against their own nations? I understand and support the stated purpose of bringing to light corruption, fraud, malfeasance, etc but so much of their recent material has nothing to do with any of that... and everything about furthering an Anti-American agenda. As much as we do things that anger you (rightly so, often enough) we also do many otherwise laudatory things that are often unremarked on or taken for granted. My country's not perfect, but neither is anyone else's.

I won't repeat what others have said, but I'd like to point out that scanners don't do jack if someone gets into the middle of a security line and blows everyone up long before they even get onto their plane. All a suicide bomber needs is a large crowd, and what better way to take as many people possible than by getting into the middle of a long and slow-moving line at a security checkpoint? Or a bus, train, shopping mall, sporting event, etc etc?

Bryant-Lake Bowl, Decemebr 16 at 9pm. Bring a toy for priority seating. http://wcco.com/local/star.wars.holiday.2.1356544.html