The Prime Minister’s Gift, Round 2

Unbelievable!!:

While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies – including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins on his recent visit to Washington.

Yeah, we knew that...

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

No. Don’t tell me...

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words “wrong region” came up on his screen.  Although he mournfully had to put the popcorn away, he is unlikely to jeopardise the special relationship – or “special partnership”, as we are now supposed to call it – by registering a complaint.

<Ballsy Announcer Voice^[1]>
Going beyond parody, into the realm of farce, at the speed of light!!!
</Ballsy Announcer Voice>

A White House spokesman sniggered when I put the story to him and he was still looking into the matter when my deadline came last night.

“...sniggered...”!?!   RACIST!!!
(Erm, oops, Britishism.  Ahem.  Never mind!)

By the way, when Obama’s unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films.  Funnily enough, it was not.

At least somebody is finding cause for amusement.

Via:  SDB, who remarks:

Quite frankly, I’d rather be grinding my teeth in annoyance at his success in implementing policies with which I disagree, than to be flabbergasted by the sheer ineptitude he has been demonstrating.

I’m not quite to that point.  Not yet.   But it is rapidly approaching.

-----

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:36:49 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 272 words, total size 3 kb.

Cat snips

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:18:53 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 2 kb.

The first rule of Australian internet censorship...

Pixy Misa:

The ACMA (which apparently stands for “petty-minded bureaucrats”) has a list of a thousand-odd sites that are banned in Australia.

This list is secret.

Also, it's just a list. The sites are banned, and viewing them is illegal, and linking to them incurs an $11,000-a-day fine, but no-one is allowed to know what is on the list...

So when, for example, popular Australian technical forum and news site Whirlpool found itself featuring a comment linking to a banned site, it also found itself facing a huge fine, and understandably removed the comment.

This even though the site in question has not been shown to be in breach of any law or regulation, and that the details of the site were made public by the original complainant, which is also not a breach of any law or regulation...

And, naturally, this is all “for the children.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:14:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 157 words, total size 2 kb.

Yep, those federal centralized medical records will be *SO* helpful

Frank Munger:

Free medical screenings for workers at Oak Ridge and other Department of Energy sites have been put on hold while DOE investigates an incident in which personal information could have been compromised and establishes a new protocol for handling such data.

The incident involved a lost disc containing the personal information for thousands of current and former employees at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory...

According to information provided by Queens [Queens College, N.Y., a participant in the screening program] and the United Steel Workers Union, which coordinates the screening programs at Idaho, the computer disc was reported lost Jan. 30. It was being shipped via UPS from Queens to the Center to Protect Workers’ Rights in Maryland.

Jim Frederick, the assistant director of health, safety and environment for the USW, said the disc contained the personal information for 59,617 current and former workers at the Idaho laboratory. That information includes names, social security numbers, dates of birth, and other personal data.

Via: Insty.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:56:46 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 164 words, total size 2 kb.

Did you vote for the stimulus bill?

I just saw a clip from this morning’s hearing [on the AIG bounses] where a congressman asked, “How could the government do something so stupid?,” apparently with complete sincerity. - “Dave E.,” in a comment at JustOneMinute

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 23:12:01 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

“A whirling vortex of SUCK”

Kevin goes after Ruben Navarrette, Jr.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates that 90% of the firearms confiscated in drug crimes in Mexico come from the United States, and some of the shipments can be enormous.

Which again illustrates graphically that the BATFE is a whirling vortex of suck at DOING THEIR JOB, doesn’t it? Instead of investigating “straw purchases” etc., they seem to spend an extraordinary amount of time screwing with manufacturers after changing the rules on them without warning, or pursuing typographical errors instead of, you know, known criminals because, I suspect, legitimate businessmen (unlike drug dealers) don't shoot at you when you screw with them. [links in original - o.g.]

Not to mention that (at least according to what we’re told) those firearms consist mostly of fully-automatic weapons (many from places like Korea and China), weapons which aren’t, you know, legal for general sale in the U.S., and which you sure don’t find at your average gun shop.

Anyway, read the rest, but keep in mind that Navarrette’s piece is just another case of our duplicitous government:  Ignoring the real problem in order to use an imaginary problem as an excuse to push its agenda, aided and abetted by a complicit MSM.


Via:  Mark

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 22:33:16 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 213 words, total size 3 kb.

In the midst of life...

Was working up another post of cat links (seems to be a lot happening this week).

On checking in at Rahel’s, I found that the Missy, whose pictures I’d linked just five days ago, has died.




Cherish ’em while you’ve got ’em.


(I’ll hold the rest for later.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 15:57:46 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 53 words, total size 1 kb.

grumble-grumble &#@!?*%$ Blogger grumble

Trying to leave a clever(?) comment at 21/2 Baker Street...




So where’s the d*mn captcha, hmmm?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Meta at 23:42:43 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

We need somebody doing this...

S.Weasel:

The peppery proprietor of Devil’s Kitchen has started to poke around the British world of fake charities, with a site called…ummm…Fake Charities.

Turns out, many of these organizations get, like, 1% of their money from real people donations.  The other 99% comes from government — either the British government or the European Union.  These are groups lobbying for things like higher booze prices or lower speed limits or restrictions on the internet.  Paid for with our money...

So. Government wants a law, government funds “charity,” charity recommends law.  Plus, many useless lefties with junk degrees get sweet jobs.  Bonus!

The entries for some organizations are quite interesting.  For example, consider Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food & Farming:

The charity is a modern-day “back to the land” charity that campaigns for people to consume less meat and milk in favour of more organic food and vegetables.  It opposes intensive farming, wants a ban on “junk food” advertising and claims that eating the “wrong” food causes mental illness.

According to its 2007 accounts, Sustain was given the following grants:

• £120,289 from DEFRA
• £55,100 from the Department of Health
• £46,470 from the European Regional Development Fund
• £17,000 from the Food Standards Agency
• £13,739 from the London Sustainabilty Exchange
• £12,000 from the Government Office of London
• £7,000 from the Government Office of the South West
• A further £99,581 comes from “other grants and income.”

This revenue amounts to more than half of the charity’s total income.  There is no record of any voluntary donations from the public.

Similar shenanigans occasionally come to light on this side of the pond,^[1] but I’m not aware of any one-stop resource for tracking the “independent” groups involved.  Such a site would be most handy in vetting the objectivity of the source the next time some rewritten press release gets big play in the MSM.

Related:

-----

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 22:32:09 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 356 words, total size 5 kb.

The housing bust, manufactured securities, and Martin guitars

“Monty” ties ’em all together :

I am a guitar player, and the “grail” of many acoustic guitarists is the pre-war Martin D45.  Some of these guitars have sold for upwards of $500,000.00.  Now, let’s say that I have one of these guitars, in excellent condition, and want to use it to plan for my retirement.  How can I treat it as a financial asset?

Well, let’s say that my friend Bob has been pestering me for years to buy it.  I don’t want to sell yet, but neither do I want to miss out on a potential sale should I want to sell.  So Bob and I draft an agreement...

Read the rest. [more] [and related]

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 20:18:26 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 120 words, total size 2 kb.