Blinking Tealeaves

WHICHENDBITES has a very humorous look at the despicable theft from the British public by Britain's Members of Parliament (MPs) via their expense claims;

I is for Ikea carrier bag:
5p, claimed by a Labour MP in his Scottish constituency.

J is for Jaffa Cakes:
£1.60 for two packs, charged by an outspoken junior minister in 2004.

K is for Kit Kat:
£2.50, bought from the minibar of the Sherlock Holmes Hotel in London by one of Labour’s best-known female MPs.

L is for loo seat:
One particularly heavyweight Labour MP bought two in the space of a year for his constituency home.

Just before you go over there just please note:

• £1 = $1.45
• An Aga is a large, wood fueled oven, normally left on 24/7 and used in country mansions
• And 'Blinking Tealeaves' is cockney slang for 'Bloody Thieves'

kthanxbai!

You saw it here first!

Warship of future revealed by US Navy

The Daily Telegraph has a lovely little piece on the 'Warship of the Future'. But you saw it here first.





kthanxbai!!

I like Gitmo. Please don't take it away

Whilst everyone is shouting about how cruel and wasteful the Guantanamo Bay 'Terrorist Detention Program' was and how we broke the Geneva Convention by locking up and torturing people who plotted to kill us, here is a nice little bit of info to make you think twice....

Because of Gitmo, the following, amongst others, were averted;

• The West Coast Airliner Plot
• The 2004 UK Urban Targets Plot
• The Heathrow Airport Plot
• The Tall Buildings Plot

For more info hop on over to The Effectiveness of Gitmo and the Terrorist Detainee Program at the In Homeland Security blog. it makes for very interesting reading.

I put Roseanne's picture up there because I don't really like her. No other reason.

kthanxbai!!

Focus people, focus

see more Funny Graphs

kthanxbai!

I am a teaspoon

I realized just the other day that my wife, child and I can be classified as The Teaspoon Family.

This photo was taken after lunch. As you can see from the contents of the washing up bowl (on its side at the back) all we had used, since early that morning, were teaspoons: formula, coffee and more coffee between the 3 of us!

Is that a bad thing?

kthanxbai!

The US's first Littoral Combat Ship

Littoral Combat Ship - relatively small surface vessels intended for operations in the littoral zone (close to shore) (thanks Mr Wikipedia)

The US launched their first LCS on 1st May, the USS Freedom, and having seen the boat's trials at sea, I am very impressed with the little tyke. It looks like any Somalian even muttering the phrase 'ooh arr me hearties' will be wiped off the face of the earth with quick dispatch!!





The LCS has 3 helicopters, a 57mm gun, a variety of missiles and a couple of .50 cal guns so it really can make a pirate's day a very unpleasant one.

LCS High Speed Trials

Good luck and godspeed!

kthanxbai!

The Drawn Cutlass: War Crime: U.S. Military Shot Muslims With Ammo Made By Jews!

With all the 'hoopla' (and you can quote me on that) that the UN has been going on about Israel being not very nice to their enemy during their last war, I was wondering how they'd react to 'kosher bullets' being used in Iraq.

Bob has the story over at The Drawn Cutlass:

War Crime: U.S. Military Shot Muslims With Ammo Made By Jews!

kthanxbai!

Why their god gave them camels!

Wow. I'm still in shock.

Over at From My Position... On The Way Chuck has a link to a marvelous story over at Nabble 'In Case You Hadn't Heard'.

My question to you is... do you think it is true?

Answers in the comments please.

kthanxbai!

Further to my Star Trek Film blog

Following on from Geek to the 3rd Power. . . .



kthanxbai!

Goodbye Corner Gas

YouTube - Corner Gas (101)- Ruby Reborn Pt.1

I've just watched the last episode of Corner Gas. It was a great comedy and will live on in re-runs forever but like the Office UK, The Young Ones and Fawlty Towers the writers decided to end the show before it started to fall from it's zenith.

Here is the first part of the first show. Enjoy!

Corner Gas (101)- Ruby Reborn Pt.1


kthanxbai!

C+ must try harder

First of all I'd like to apologize for the lack of postings but I've just been too busy with Baby Jack and trying to get my sleep pattern into some semblance of order.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

There I was, reading a blog by BlackFive about a firefight in Afghanistan. Somehow, whilst under fire, a soldier had filmed an unbelievable attack on a US base being fired upon from 6 different directions and GoogleTube had even allowed him to post it.

I watched the clip and kept GoogleTube up. just to see what else they might have of a similar ilk to watch and they decided on the following;


I can think of nothing more different, unconnected or even possibly relevant to a near death experience by machine gun fire than 'Proper Water Lily Trimming'.

Or someone at GoogleTube has one awesome sense of humor!

kthanxbai!

Sleeping on stained sheets

Of all the fun things people mention when they reminisce about their kid's infancy there is always a tale of being peed on, especially by young boys.

Funny Huggies Commercial

This happened to us after the 3 am feed, explaining how my wife and I slept on baby-pee stained sheets the other night. We also went to sleep crying with laughter at our own plight!

At least Jack's kidneys are healthy....

hat tip to EE at Backboards and Band-Aids

Our Selective Moral Outrage

I may be a bit dense, blinkered or naive but I have never really understood why so many agencies such as the UN (and all its UN derivatives), WHO and Amnesty Intl., and news services such as the BBC and CNN really push the anti-Israel perspective as much as they do.

When I lived in the UK I also never understood why eggs were thrown at Jews walking in the street, why bricks and stones were thrown at synagogues and why there existed such vile antisemitism in the daily papers at the pen of Robert Fisk and his ilk.

Thanks to Bret Stephens over at the Wall Street Journal I now have an inkling as to why this occurs:

Our Selective Moral Outrage
Why does Israel face more opprobrium than Russia?

EDIT UPDATE Hat tip to In From The Cold

As always, all comments are very welcome.


«« if this blog comes out as one complete link to the WSJ article then I apologize and insult ScribeFire through clenched teeth. If not, then please ignore this notelet »»


kthanxbai!

Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel

Just in case anyone out there didn't know about the attack in the Sudan a few weeks ago, or forgot about Osirak, Entebbe, The Yom Kippur War, The Six Day War...



Hat tip to Doubletapper

Brothers at War

There is a very interesting new film about our soldiers over in Iraq called 'Brothers at War'. Above is the Fox News interview with the star / director.

kthanxbai!

A new tv show for me - and I'm sharing

Somehow I stumbled across a new TV show, Parks and Recreation. Its a 'mockumentary', similar to the series of The Office and the film. I strongly recommend watching it as it does have a few gems of jokes in there and i really laughed out loud watching it.

Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope, the main role in the show and she is aided and abetted by a great team including Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones and Paul Schneider

The documentary cameras follow Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler, NBC's "Saturday Night Live," "Baby Mama") a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana.

Definitely worth seeking out and watching.

kthnaxbai!

Geek to the 3rd power

Just to prove to you that I can be as geeky as anyone else, here is the latest, extended, trailer for the new Star Trek film. Looks good, eh?

Star Trek (2009) Forth and Final Full Length Theatrical Trailer HD 1080p


kthanxbai!

Stressful holiday

What a week! My parents have just departed our sweet and sunny country to return to England after a week of indulgence at a hotel 'up North'.

Sadly it wasn't exactly as relaxing as we had planned. Baby Jack, at 5 weeks, is beginning to settle down to needing a bottle every 3 - 5 hours. Which is fine. Except I feel exceptionally guilty whenever I sleep through a feeding so I make sure to make every bottle, 24/7!

We arrived at the hotel already tired, our room was perfect, large and roomy and far enough from the open area lobby to be very quiet. Or so we thought. Sadly our neighbors were exceptionally loud.

And rude.

Have you ever had to tell a 40 year old woman to not talk on her mobile phone in a hotel corridor at 10pm? I have. Ever had to tell kids to stop running up and down a corridor doing their own Olympics, presided over by their 16 year old sister? You are missing out!!

I wasn't the only one to complain. By the 2nd night of the package deal they had been moved to their own dining hall as they were so loud.

Anyway, they are long gone now and I intend to forget them very quickly. Or, if I see them again, give them a wide berth.

UPDATE: Dad just phoned from the airport an told me that Mum was laughing so hard she was crying. This is what she was watching;

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

kthanxbai!

Wherefore art thou 'Hallelujah'?

After my Hallelujah ramblings on Sunday night I was astonished to be pointed, by Movin' Meat, in the direction of Clapclap.org and their article "It Doesn't Matter Which You Heard": the Curious Cultural Journey of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" from April 2007.

They have a wealth of information on the classic song including when it has been on TV:




The popularity of remaking the original song:




So where did I hear the song last night that started off the musical musings? I haven't the foggiest!!

of mule dung and ash has a very interesting blog regarding religious music, and mentions Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah in his blog 'Hallelujah' But I'm a HUGE Elvis fan and would have listened to his YouTube clip and gone on from there. So where I learnt about Buckley's cover will remain a mystery...

Here's Elvis to make you feel better about yourself. Now go grab a  peanut butter sandwich and a deep fat fryer.

Happy listening anyway.

Elvis Presley - An American Trilogy (Live 1973)

kthanxbai!

Lack of work can be fatal

Over at Marooned, Jay G talks about the 53 deaths in the USA in March in mass shootings.

This is very sad as each life taken was completely avoidable. Jay G speaks along the lines of "guns don't kill people, but people kill people" and I agree 111%.

In the stats that Jay gives something else caught my eye; 29 of the 53 lives taken were attributed to someone having worries about employment. Those numbers are from the few incidents where we know the reasons for it all.

That is just insane - can we really believe that these murders would not have happened if there wasn't the Worldwide Depression©®? There is something very fishy going here.

Cable TV - what you pay for v. what you watch

The graph below, obviously scientifically calculated, explains just why I canceled my cable TV yesterday. Its only $55 a month but thats still money...

Cable TV - what you pay for v. what you watch

Hallelujah

I've been feeling a bit down recently, what with the world going into a Depression, my inability to find a job and my sleep pattern being obliterated by my 4 week old son.

And yes, I know I should be happy with him, and I am, its just that the 'big picture' sucks.

Once Wifey and Son were asleep this evening I decided to listen to some of my favorite music and just chill. I found one of my favorite songs on the Tube o' You and listened, then found a few more versions in the 'Related Views' section and thought I'd share them with you.


The version loved by musicians the world over:

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah



The song's latest popular reincarnation, as used in the film 'Shrek':

"Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainwright (Central Park)


Bob Dylan's version:

Bob Dylan - Hallelujah



And the original:

Leonard Cohen Hallelujah Live



A very nice Norwegian version, in English - Espen Lind (on guitar), Askil Holm, Alejandro Fuentes, Kurt Nilsen

Hallelujah Best version!


Well, I feel better now, do you? No? Just be happy I left the Il Divo version out!!


kthanxbai!!

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

i saw this video on TV this week and then a friend posted it on Facebook. I thought I'd take the opportunity to share it with you. It really is quite marvelous.

Enjoy!

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

kthanxbai!

The Red Bullog is now closed

I'm a huge fan of the motor racing series 'Formula 1'. I love fast cars and being a confirmed geek, I love the engineering aspect too. I worked in and around some of the manufacturers way back when and so was a bit surprised when I read that the Red Bull team were coming down a bit hard on one of their fan's blogs.

The Red Bullog had not been around for too long, and was obviously made by fans, in fact there was a disclaimer at the top of the now defunct blog, and in their opening spiel included the following;

The Red Bullog is a fan-based blog which aims to provide you with up-to-date news and views on the least po-faced Formula One team of recent times: Red Bull Racing.

As a fan of both the sport and the team, I hope to be able to provide you with the sort of articles I think you would like to read. From the rather serious world of F1 to the more satirical, irreverent news related stories. If it happens in Red Bull Racing land you can bet The Red Bullog will be covering it.

I was surprised, yesterday afternoon, to find out that the site was closing down. It wasn't for lack of funding or time or even a lack of enthusiasm, it was because Red Bull, the team that the blog was talking about, had sent the blogger a nasty letter telling him to toe the Red Bull line, or they'd sue.

I didn't realize what an impact this blog had on the F1 blogging community until later on in the afternoon when the blog 'BlogF1' wrote an article about it.

In retrospect I think that the main point that rankled me was the fact that 'the men in suits' had decided how the blog was to be depicted. No free speech here! I wonder if they have heard of the phrase 'any advertising is good advertising'?

kthanxbai!

Musings From the Grocery Store

Over at Voodoo Medicine Man a very interesting discussion has started. In his post 'Musings From the Grocery Store' Voodoo Medicine Man asks if we should or could intervene when we encounter an incredibly obese person.



In the self-centered world that we live in I can assume that none of us would even consider approaching such a person. But as Voodoo Medicine Man notes:

If she were about to jump off a bridge, or swallow a hand full of pills, virtually anybody would intervene and attempt to save her life. If she were a drunk driver, some would take her keys away or call the cops. If she was a child who wandered onto a busy highway, people would risk their life to save her.

And he continues;

Why the difference in human concern when confronted by somebody risking death by Twinkies compared to those risking death by a bullet?

Personally I think that the reverence in which society today holds the concepts of free speech and one's own, complete, ownership of one's own future, preclude intervention by anyone except a respected health-care worker or Oprah (!).And until such a health worker is contacted far too much damage, both mental and physical, can be done.

What do you think?



kthanxbai!

Kutiman's ThruYou Mashup

Fresh in from The Underwire from Wired.com, well from March 25th anyway, is the story of Ophir Kutiel, aka Kutiman.

An interesting story with a funky conclusion;

Enjoy!

Kutiman-Thru-you - 01 - Mother of All Funk Chords

kthanxbai!

Unlabelable video

Hell in a Handbasket posted a link to a very cool video. I'd love to label it a story video or a music video but you'll just have to have a look and decide for yourself!

Slagsmålsklubben Sponsored by destiny

Elder of Ziyon: UN notes - and excuses - Gaza violence against women

I've had the opportunity to read all of the blogs I follow over the last few days. For a normal person this isn't unusual but I follow over 200 blogs, many of which post multiple times a day, so we're talking hundreds of blogs a week.

In fact Google Reader informs me:

From your 230 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 5,952 items, starred 2 items, shared 14 items, and emailed 0 items.

The blogs I read concern everything from Formula 1 to the Airline Industry to Afghanistan and Iraq based soldiers' blogs to The Daily Telegraph Obituaries (!)

So why the lengthy introduction to just tell you that I read a few blogs? Because this one really stuck out.

Elder of Ziyon: UN notes - and excuses - Gaza violence against women

It is too long an article and relatively complex. Sufficed to say that it shows all of its readers just how blinkered the UN is when it comes to Israel and I just don't get it.

The original article from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is here and I can see that Elder of Ziyon has not changed anything or even dug deep to get the same conclusion that most of us would.

Comments?

kthanxbai!

Oops ScribeFire 'issue' / 'bug'

The last blog, and for all I know, this one, turned into one big link to a video of Jeff Dunham.

As rubbish as the blog may have been, the clip did have 85,318,247 views!!

Anyway, to say sorry here is another Jeff masterpiece - Bubba J. Only 10,362,438 views on this one though...

Jeff Dunham and Bubba J

kthanxbai!

Jeff Dunham - genius

I am a zombie.

Baby Jack is up every 2ish hours and I'm busy helping with his care.

In a fit of amazing clarity I decided to make myself some extra strength Turkish coffee, the stuff that is used to peel the paint off large container ships. 30 seconds after having finished a mug, yes over 200ml of 112% caffeine, I fell asleep!

So I decided to enjoy the time that I'm awake and remembered a DVD that Mrs Jumblerant bought me in December - Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity

I am still completely cream crackered (Cockney rhyming slang for knackered, which in turn means 'very tired indeed thank you very much') but at least now people know why I have an inane grin on my face.

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Jeff Dunham - Arguing with Myself - Peanut & Jose Jalapeno

kthanxbai!

Simon Cowell Made Me Obese

It's not my fault that I'm fat

This family say they are unable to work because they are too fat. They blame their GP, the Government, even Simon Cowell - but not themselves

Now normally I'd strongly disagree with that phrase, being slightly pudgy myself I know its because I eat junk food and don't exercise enough. With Jack's birth 2 weeks ago I have lost 2kg - 4.4 lbs, which is nice.

So back to the article which I'm now calling Simon Cowell Made Me Obese. If you don't know who Simon Cowell is;

• Simon Cowell Wikipedia,
• Simon Cowell Fan Club,
• Simon Cowell Hate Club.

What surprises me about this article is the fact that even after the family allowed the journalist in to their abode, chatted to her for a bit and had photos taken, they are still ridiculed. In the past I feel that these people would have at least have been given the oppurtunity to a bit of respect but here they are ripped apart.

And about bloody time too!

So maybe the tide has turned and the culture of blaming everything under the sun, except yourself, for your own problems, has gone. Hurrah!!

Twitter Worm Could Take Over Your Computer

As Twitter starts to take over the world I am proud to announce that the vile and disgusting art of virus creation may, possibly, if they work stuff out, rip out the insides of twitterers' (or just plain twits) computers.

Twitter Worm Could Take Over Your Computer (in Theory)

Laugh? I nearly fell over...

kthanxbai!

Kinda 'Test Test' but not

I've playing around with the Feedburner settings on the site and I need to publish to observe the changes. Instead of just writing 'TEST TEST' as others do I thought I'd give you a fun vid to watch, as a complimentary gift.

Enjoy!

Hamas children, THE GAYS and Sarah Palin!

kthanxbai!

Now I'm not a cat lover

Now I'm not a cat lover, in fact i can still feel where my great Aunt Annie's moggy stuck it's claws into the back of my hand back in 1982 but over at I can has cheez burger they do have a funny picture every now and then.



The 'lolspeak' can be annoying, especially when I stumble across their blogs late at night, but I'm getting used to it.

Hope it made you grin, if not outright smile.

kthanxbai!

Living MoH recipient may be coming

Living MoH recipient may be coming

Since Vietnam there has not been a living Medal of Honor winner, although now we may have one.

Very exciting.

kthanxbai!

Have your assistant's assistant book now

I stumbled upon this clever advertising project this afternoon and thoguht you might appreciate it.

I've flown JetBlue a few times and am very impressed with it's service. My sister, who lives in Miami swears by them, as opposed to US Air which I swear at....

Welcome Bigwigs

kthanxbai!

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS! (kinda Featuring Michael Moore)

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS! (Featuring Michael Moore)

For my 2nd amendment rights friends out there. . .

kthanxbai!

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

We've all been talking about $800 bashmillion of aid and Madoff Made Off (haha) with $80 billion and all but what the heck does a trillion dollars look like?

A trillion dollars looks like this

Hat tips to The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and IMAO

Dear Sir: The “Pick-n-Mix” aisle is not an all-you-can-eat buffet

Over at Cranky Epistles the Cranky Lit Prof has an interesting little opinion piece.

Dear Sir: The “Pick-n-Mix” aisle is not an all-you-can-eat buffet

Enjoy the beauty.

Kthanxbai!

Not bad for a retarded chimp banging away at an old IBM Selectric...

Jay G is celebrating 2 years of blogging, and reiterates why he does it.

Warms the cockles of my heart.

Pop over to MArooned for a good read.

Kthanzbai!

You Don't Know Jack - yet

Baby Jumblerant was finally named yesterday - Jack

He is happy, healthy and feeding well. And boy, does he have a set of lungs on him!!

Thanks for all of your good wishes over the last few days, I'll get back to you when I can.

kthanxbai!