Bagpipe bungee jump

YouTube link.

Gender-dependent humor - The Window Cleaner

 

YouTube link.

Found at the now sadly defunct Titam et le Sirop d'Erable.  (Reposted from 10 years ago)

Politicians ponder how to improve the economy

YouTube link

Difficult ethical conundrum... or not...

Some people enjoy pondering or discussing ethical conundrums.  "You can only save one person from drowning; should it be the mother or the young child?"  "Is it OK to kill X in order to prevent X from killing 4 innocent people?"  You've heard many others.  And the principle involved is the central theme behind Ursula LeGuin's classic The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. (highly recommended short story, BTW).

The cartoon panel embedded above poses a theoretical question.  You can view the second panel of the cartoon at Jobsanger.

Related:  Toddler solves the "trolley problem"

Reposted from 2017 to embed the video suggested by Nolandda in his comment:

YouTube link.

Introducing Bernie Sanders - updated

YouTube link.

"We've all become so accustomed to stage-managed, focus-group-driven candidates that authenticity comes across as lunacy." - Jon Stewart

Reposted from 2015 to add this information from a new Atlantic article:

The senator from Vermont has been huddling with staff in meetings and brainstorming on phone calls over the past few weeks, chewing over plans. Barring a surprise, last-minute change of heart, he will jump into the 2020 race, convinced he can win, according to people familiar with his plans...

Last time, he didn’t get in until the end of April 2015. This time, the launch will be in February. He sees advantage in a much more crowded 2020 field. The left-leaning politics he campaigned on in 2016 have been broadly embraced in a progressive surge among Democrats, and Sanders has succeeded in diminishing the nominating power of so-called super delegates, the elected officials and party elders who help consolidate establishment power within the Democratic National Committee...

There are also the nuts-and-bolts political considerations that Sanders doesn’t focus as much on, but that his team pays close attention to: He’s the one with the massive email list. Alone among those eyeing the Democratic nomination, he’s the one who had 40,000 people watching various live-streams of his State of the Union response. He’s the one whose team thinks he could, on day one, raise more money online and get more attention than any of the other candidates...

If the early states all come together, Sanders would be positioned to power through the front-ended primary calendar that has California, Texas, and several other big states voting on the first Super Tuesday, March 4, just a month after Iowa. No one else in the field has anything like his proven success with both grassroots supporters and the small-dollar online fundraising that it will take to fund the kind of massive national operation any 2020 campaign will require...

“With all the other people in, the fact is, Bernie is the one whose ideas everyone else is ‘borrowing,’ whether it be Wall Street reforms, or Medicare for all, or free college. These are all ideas that Bernie came up with first and best,” Fort said. “I’m a little bit skeptical of the sincerity of some of the latecomers.”..

What a Sanders candidacy may do for Warren, though, is enable her not to seem as radical as his democratic socialism. It might also enable her to note that she’s a generation younger than Sanders, as opposed to currently being the oldest Democratic candidate in the field. And a Sanders candidacy might allow Warren to argue that she’s largely in line with him politically, but the one who could actually win...

But Sanders skeptics doubt that he fully appreciates how much of the approximately 45 percent of the primary vote he received in 2016 was fundamentally an anti-Clinton vote, and doubt that he realizes how many of those people might leave him once they realize how many other choices they have.

 Updated (Feb 19) from two weeks ago, because his candidacy is now official:

Announcement Email:

Brothers and Sisters--

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you today to join me as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I'm talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the private-prison industry and the large multi-national corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that works for the many, not just the few. 

We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are under-insured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Make no mistake about it. The powerful special interests in this country have unbelievable power and they want to maintain the status quo. They have unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns and lobbying and have huge influence over the media and political parties.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that works for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

Stand with me as we fight to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Add your name to join this campaign and say you are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform our country.

You know as well as I do that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. 

We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.

I’m running for president because, now more than ever, we need leadership that brings us together – not divides us up. Women and men, black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together.

I’m running for president because we need leadership that will fight for working families and the shrinking middle class, not just the 1 percent. We need a president who understands that we can create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and construct the affordable housing we desperately need.

I'm running for president because we need trade policies that reflect the interests of workers and not multi-national corporations. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, provide pay equity for women and guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave.

I'm running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I'm running for president because a great nation is judged not by how many billionaires and nuclear weapons it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable – the elderly, the children, our veterans, the sick and the poor.

I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. 

We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

I’m running for president because the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I'm running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counter-productive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local state and federal level.

I'm running for president because we need real criminal justice reform. We need to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not more jails and incarceration. We need to end the destructive "war on drugs," eliminate private prisons and cash bail and bring about major police department reform.

I'm running for president because we need to end the demonization of undocumented immigrants in this country and move to comprehensive immigration reform. We need to provide immediate legal status for the young people eligible for the DACA program and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum.

I'm running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. We need to take on the NRA, expand background checks, end the gun show loophole and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons.

I'm running for president because we need a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and world peace. The United States must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and global wealth inequality.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were "radical," and "extreme." We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all of concepts that the 

American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Game on.  Contributions via this link.

A Dane makes fun of Norwegian swimming rules

YouTube link. 

Anders Lund Madsen is a professional comedian.  These supplemental notes from the uploader/subtitler:

The reason i didn't translate "Stuper" and "grunt" is because Anders is using them in the Danish sentence, and that is why there is an "Er" in the end of "stup."

The rule really means, "don't swim if you don't know how deep the water is."

Brygge = A pier (hope that is right)
Stupebrett = A Tipper

"Dytt" or "dyt" is a Danish slang word, that means hump... But in Norway it means push...

Since I'm half German (and half Norwegian), I particularly liked these lines:

"Get some friends!"
"But I'm German!"
"Then go online!"

Via Boing Boing. 

(Re-reposted from 2011, just for laughs).

Does anyone else remember "Fractured Fairy Tales"?

YouTube link.

You have to be of a certain age.  YouTube has dozens of them.   (They also have Peabody and Sherman.)

With a tip of the blogging hat to Neatorama.

Please remain calm...

YouTube link.

In this brief video, a White House spokesman explains that people should not be concerned about the sudden resignation of Defense Secretary General Mattis following the departure of the Chief of Staff and the impending prolonged government shutdown and bear market for stocks.

Ronald Reagan reacts to a popped balloon two months after having been shot

YouTube link.

The best video on "how to fold a fitted sheet"

 
YouTube link.

If you search YouTube for "how to fold a fitted sheet," the resulting list seems to scroll endlessly.  If I had to recommend one video on the subject, it would be this one, via Neatorama, where Miss C always posts excellent videos.

Laughter is contagious

YouTube link.

This is the famous "Dad at Comedy Barn" video.  24 million views on YouTube, just to hear a man laugh.  If this is your first time viewing it, don't give up in the first two minutes (and the red advertising box closes via the small "x" in its corner).  And note it even ends with a refrain of "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Reposted from 2009.  And again from 2013 because I needed a laugh tonight.

A period should signify a full stop

YouTube link. 

The news as it was written for the newscaster:

“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida; Dana is off tonight.

He was murdered and then set on fire while celebrating his birthday. The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"

The result when read off the teleprompter:

“Good evening, I’m Ken Bastida. Dana is off tonight; he was murdered and then set on fire while celebrating his birthday.

The body of Jimmy Frezshi was found by firefighters on Monroe Street…"

Reposted from 2009 to add this example from the BBC:

YouTube link.

Listen again... "This is BBC World News.  I'm Jonathan Charles, kept hidden for almost two decades and forced to bear children."

Reposted from 2012 because I needed a laugh today.

Japanese game show

Posted as a reminder to those of us living in the Upper Midwest that winter is just around the corner.

In the cheese shop...

Customer: Cheshire?

Wenslydale: No.

Customer: Dorset Bluveny?

Wenslydale: No.

Customer: Brie, Roquefort, Pol le Veq, Port Salut, Savoy Aire, Saint Paulin, Carrier de lest, Bres Bleu, Bruson?

Wenslydale: No.

Customer: Camenbert, perhaps?

Wenslydale: Ah! We have Camenbert, yessir.

Customer: (surprised) You do! Excellent.

Wenslydale: Yessir. It's..ah,.....it's a bit runny...

Customer: Oh, I like it runny.

Wenslydale: Well,.. It's very runny, actually, sir.

Customer: No matter. Fetch hither the fromage de la Belle France! Mmmwah!

Wenslydale: I...think it's a bit runnier than you'll like it, sir.

Customer: I don't care how fucking runny it is. Hand it over with all speed.

Wenslydale: Oooooooooohhh........!

Customer: What now?

Wenslydale: The cat's eaten it.

Recognizable to all Monty Python fans as an exchange from the Cheese Shop Sketch (first aired November 1972). You can access the text of Monty Python's Flying Circus sketches HERE and HERE. Never know when you might need to get an exact quote from the Spanish Inquisition, or the Argument Clinic, or Anne Elk's Theory of Brontosauruses...

Reposted from 2008 (! this blog is getting old) to add the complete video, which wasn't available to link to back in the old days:

Remembering Sean Spicer (2017-2017)

YouTube link.

Addendum:

Via Jobsanger.

Snickers commercial

YouTube link.

This commercial aired during this week's Fargo episode.  It's been a long time since I literally laughed out loud at a commercial.

Scott Sterling videos - updated

YouTube link.

Trigger warning: slapstick comedy dialed up to 11. (If you're going to watch, you might as well click the fullscreen button).

If you liked that one, you will enjoy this one of him getting facials in a volleyball match:

YouTube link.

Don't watch these at work if laughing out loud will get you in trouble...

Reposted to add this Scott Sterling-type goal from real life.

Remembering Gallagher

YouTube link.

 
American readers of this blog who are of a certain age will very likely remember watching Gallagher on television in the 1980s.  He started his career as a conventional stand-up comedian, making use of his collegiate studies as an English major (!) to regale his audience with the oddities of the language...

"Con is the opposite of pro.  So Congress must be the opposite of progress."

And so on.  Then he found his shtick in physical comedy, and parlayed that into a series of television specials.

Be careful what you wish for

YouTube link.

Classic Whiskas commercial

YouTube link.

Posted for anyone who has a "cat lady" in their family.