Thanks. I'm addicted now.

I made the fatal mistake of reading a blog from The Cranky Conservative about his new favorite time-waster, and now it's one of mine. So since I fully believe in the concept of paying it forward, I now provide it to you.  It's called Flickchart, and you use the site to rank your favorite movies. What it does is give you two movies to choose from at a time, and you pick the one you like more.

So far I've compared 505 movies and given a total of 1,882 rankings. According to the site here are my top 20 movies:

1. The Godfather
2. National Lampoon's Animal House
   
3. The Empire Strikes Back
   
4. High Fidelity
5. The Godfather Part II
   
6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
   
7. The Manchurian Candidate
   
8. Adaptation
9. Cold Mountain
10. Ben-Hur
11. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
    
12. Rocky
13. The Usual Suspects
14. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
    
15. Taxi Driver
16. Star Wars
17. Blazing Saddles
18. 12 Angry Men
19. Being John Malkovich
20. Gladiator

Overall it's not exactly how I would rank my top 20. The Manchurian Candidate would be #1, Citizen Kane would be in the top 5, and Adaptation wouldn't be in the top 40. Still, for a web site it does a decent job.

Happy wasting time!

Blogs of Interest - Part 2

Well they're interesting to me. You might find enjoyment in some of these.


Left Of The [Political] Dial.  I guess you could call this the counterpart to The Cranky Conservative, though he's a lot more pragmatic than most.

Knights Notepad. I follow the UCF Knights. Unfortunately the Orlando Sentinel is the best of the mainstream sources since Florida Today dumped John Denton.

Israeli Suzy. A fellow transplanted New Englander who made aliyah and now lives in Tel Aviv.

Francase Place. Another fraternity brother and apparently a Texas Hold 'Em addict.

Fistful of Talent. Another HR blog. This one looks at the challenges of finding and keeping talented people.

do I know you from somewhere?. My sister. A tech writer by day, an author/actress by night.

Consumer File. Greg Dawson is probably one of the more effective columnists the Orlando Sentinel has, which means his job is always in peril.

Compensation Force. Since a lot of what I do deals with compensation issues, I'm always interested in seeing what they have to say about the art of pay and reward systems.

Blogs of Interest - Part 1

Well they're interesting to me. You might find enjoyment in some of these.


Typing About Movies.  Fraternity brother who does movie reviews in his spare time.

Tony's Blog. Fraternity brother who finds there's a lot more to do than just be a student.

The HR Capitalist. Being an HR geek myself, I like to see what others are thinking about the profession.

The Cranky Conservative. My girlfriend's best friend is among the more rational political bloggers out there. He's a good read, even if you don't always agree with his take on things. If only he'd quit lamenting the inevitable fates of his favorite sports teams.

Marc Musing. A Rabbi in South Carolina shares his perspective on life, both past and present. He rambles sometimes and other times you may not "get" him (you'd have to be Jewish to understand), but he is never uninteresting.

The Business of Management. From Workforce Magazine, HR's take on what's going on in the business of business.

Sharky's Blog. From Computerworld, tales of ID10T errors and other stupid users.

My Improbable Adventures. The goings on of another fraternity brother who can land in any airport in the world with nothing but a few bucks in his pocket and his clothing, but somehow finds a way to do the sorts of things most of us only wish we could do.

I'll share more in a couple of days. Meanwhile, enjoy reading.

Just when we thought it was safe to show Palmetto Pride again...

...South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson disgraces himself with this display of disrespect (about 1:28 into the clip).



I'm okay with him disagreeing with the President on many issues, and health care is a complex enough one that I don't expect any type of reform that passes will do so with anything better than a slim majority. But when the President is speaking there is a certain decorum you are expected to follow if you are a Congressman and part of the audience.

1. If you support the President's words, applaud.
2. If #1 applies and you are in his political party, stand when you applaud.
3. If the President's words make you orgasmic with glee, add tasteful cheering.
4. If you are not in the President's political party, standing is optional.
5. If the President's words do nothing for you, lean over to the person next to you and crack witticisms for as long as the applause lasts.
6. If you think the President is being overly partisan, you may consult with any papers you are holding if you have run out of witticisms.
7. If you have completely tuned the President out, you may yawn, pick your nose, clean out ear wax, or scratch yourself only if you are completely certain there are no cameras pointed within 25 feet of you.
8. Under no circumstances do you boo, heckle, laugh at (laugh with is okay), or otherwise do anything that is indefensibly disrespectful.

Kudos to photographer Chip Somodevilla for capturing (hopefully) soon-to-be-ex-Congressman Wilson for capturing the winning moment.

Maybe Joe Wilson has a governorship in his future. He certainly hasn't crossed the Sanford line yet...I think. I've never voted for the man who all but called Essie Mae Washington-Williams a liar when she revealed Strom Thurmond was her father. Trust me, I don't plan to start anytime soon.

Yes, You Are Overreacting

Since no one has seen the text of what President Obama's speech to students on September 8 will be, is the reaction from conservative circles to the fact he's doing it just a little over the top?

No.

It's a lot over the top.

Whether or not you agree with his politics I tend to think he and his speechwriters - or any other president and theirs for that matter - would be smart enough to limit a nationwide speech to students about the importance of education.

At least I hope they're that smart.

So in absence of the speech being delivered or the release of any text, what on earth would create reactions like the ones outlined here?

There is a nice summary of the brief history of presidents speaking directly to students at PolitiFact, which includes some of the reactions when Presidents Reagan and Bush (the first) "wasted taxpayer dollars". There is no mention however of school districts having their switchboards jammed, liberal radio talk show hosts crying foul, or an ill-informed citizenry screaming "Fascism!"

I'm starting to think there's a healthy chunk of the populace in desperate need of a prescription for Valium. Maybe that by itself is enough to get universal health care coverage passed.

Check Your Brain At The Door

Two interesting-yet-disturbing things in the media during the past couple of days which are being totally ignored.

First was a spiritual leader of Hamas stating teaching about the Holocaust to students in Gaza is a "war crime".

Most people will generally listen to more than one side of a discussion or debate. It's fundamental to how we learn and grow as a society. This is anathema to Hamas, which prefers the people it claims to support hear no one's perspective but their own.

If you need any examples of why the Gazans don't have a homeland of their own, start with this. Heaven forbid the children of Gaza learn that 6 million Jews were eradicated simply because they were Jews.

Then again, Hamas has never stepped away from their objective of finishing what Hitler started.

The second bit of news is something that has flown under the radar since April, when Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced Senate Bill 773, more commonly known as the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. What has drawn the ire of many conservatives is Section 18 which reads in part:

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(2) may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

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(6) may order the disconnection of any Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

The concern here is the definition - or lack thereof - of the word "critical". After all, what if President Obama designated FoxNews.com a "critical infrastructure network"?

Somehow I just can't envision President Bush the Younger doing the same with ACLU.org, unless he was giving a speech near their headquarters.

In recent days Rockefeller has submitted a revision to the bill which allegedly would have addressed this issue, but in the opinion of many who read such things he has not only failed, but has further muddied the waters.

Maybe the Tea Baggers should consider forming an offshoot group called e-Baggers to protest this blatant expansion of governmental power.

I will award you five internets each time you forward this post to someone else.