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An Angry Jon Stewart At His Best

Whether it is fair or not for Jim Cramer to be the face of Jon Stewart’s nightly tirade can be debated some other time but I don’t think I have seen Stewart as pissed off as he was last night. The fall of the financial markets and the deceptive game the networks played by saying they did not see this coming really seemed to have gotten him ticked and not in the way he was angry against Paul Begala and Tucke Carlson of CNN’s Crossfire. 

You have to give some sort of credit to Cramer for coming on The Daily Show to face the criticism — or the fact that he was incredibly naive to think he could come on the show and it would be a cakewalk and the bad press would just blow over.

You can say a lot of things regarding Jon Stewart about whether he has his liberal bias or whether he sometimes takes quotes out of context with going after people but one thing you cannot accuse him of is being unprepared for an interview. He has always shown his intelligence and ability to be quick on his feet in almost a Meet-The-Press kind of way by allowing Cramer to go up against his own words yesterday which led to his downfall.

Mr. Cramer can now hide behind his tears and hope that his show does not get canceled but I think this is only a start of the way things need to change on the cable news networks and it is about time those networks starting giving Jon Stewart the credit he deserves for journalistic integrity — something they all lack.

Here is the entire unedited interview in three parts:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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Personal Ratings of Best Picture Winners

So I guess it is safe to say I have been on a movie watching rampage recently – more specifically watching the movies that not only were nominated for Best Motion Picture but actually ended up winning the award like this year’s Slumdog Millionaire (rated 8.5/10).

First let me get out of the way that I have not seen either of The Godfather films that won the award and I have only seen three movies in the stretch of 20 years spanning from 1969 to 1988. However, I have seen nine of the 10 that won from 1959-1968 and 1999-2008 as well as a total 30 of the past 50 award winners. I am sure as I watch more of these films the list will continue to change and hopefully the next time I post a list like this, I’ll have watched the other 20 that are left off. 

When I first started to think about ranking them, I did not want to give too many films a perfect score as that leaves very little wiggle room to adjust for a following movie if it exceeds expectations or sets the bar even higher. I don’t think I had much of a problem with that as I watched the movies with The Departed being the only one getting a perfect 10/10 and only one other scored above a 9.0 which was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at 9.5. 

The more I watch the older movies, the bigger fan I become of them.  As of now, 12 of the top 22 movies that I have rated were produced in 1989 or earlier… that is 20 years is old at the earliest. Two of those movies I have even ranked in my top 6 (Annie Hall and Driving Miss Daisy) which both got a solid 9.0 out of 10. 

Take a look through the list of those that I have seen and let me know what you think. Also, to view the list by year, look after the break, and let me know which ones I should see next from the list. Currently I have Chicago and The French Connection lined up before I hit the weekend.

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Another Out of Control Cop [Video]

After watching video after video of authorities continuously overstep their powers or having very short fuses just makes me wonder whether those enforcing the law are more out of hand now or just that fact that technology is so readily available that we are just seeing more of it now.

Anyways, here is the surveillance video released in an assault case against a King County, Wash. sheriff’s deputy shows him kicking a young girl, slamming her to the jail cell floor and striking her repeatedly. The deputy has (obviously) pleaded not guilty in case… did you expect anything different?

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An Old Friend Stands Out

I usually don’t like posting very much about the Devils since I despise them with pretty much every ounce blood in me but there was something yesterday that I just couldn’t pass up. So here is an old friend of mine from high school who has gone to more New Jersey Devils games than anyone else I know. Just turns out that all that paid off yesterday as he was in attendance for Martin Brodeur’s return in which he blanked the Colorado Avalanche 4-0.

Brodeur’s win which his seven of the season now puts him at 545 for his spectacular career, leaving him just six shy of Patrick Roy’s NHL record of 551. He also recorded his third shutout of the season and 99th of his career, which puts him four short of Terry Sawchuk’s all-time NHL mark of 103.

rusty

Congrats Rusty, he seemed in pretty good form for being out how ever many months he was out.

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Apple Genius Bar Is Filled With Idiots

Usually I am all for buying things online and even talking to customer service over the phone or online instead of physically going to the store to deal with a matter. For some reason, when my headset for the iPhone stopped working I decided it would be a great idea to go to the store to get a replacement instead of trying to see whether they could mail it to me.

I walked into the Apple Store at Menlo Park Mall and was immediately greeted by a nice guy who asked me about my problem. I ended up going to the Genius Bar desk where I went on to describe that recently my right side of my headset stopped working. I probably could have lasted longer with my headset but that is also the side with the microphone that I use to talk on the phone so the problem escalated in priority for me. The first lady who looked at my headset went back to ask a “technician” whether this was covered in the AppleCare Protection Plan. On their own website, it clearly states that the plan “covers iPhone & iPhone Bluetooth hands-free headset and included accessories” which I think is fair to say covers my problem.

Initially, they tried to scheme me into admitting that I physically broke my headset by either stepping over or not “properly” using it. I was there with my brother where we both argued what is the point of the Protection Plan if it does not cover a simple problem like the headset? After being quite disappointed with the level of customer service I walked out and ended up calling Apple Customer Service before I even reached my car. The guys (Brian & Scott) on the other end were very friendly throughout the entire conversation. All he did was ask me about my problem, asked for my serial number and told me to wait 2 minutes while he asked someone whether he could help me out. 2 minutes later, he came back on the line to tell me that he was ready to mail me my new headset.

Since I was already out when I called, I asked him whether I could just pick it up at the store instead of him having to mail me and having to wait a couple of days before I could have this problem fixed. He told me some CS code or number and gave me his direct line in case the store employee gave me trouble.

I walked back in the store and lady that initially told me that I couldn’t have a replacement listen as I explained that I called Apple Customer Service and they issued me a code that I can pick up a replacement headset for free. A couple of employees including the manager there at the time looked me like I had 3 eyes on my face or was an alien or something. They seemed to have never heard of this number issued by Customer Service to customers. The lady took the phone number and the CS code and walked into the backroom saying she would be right back. About 10-15 minutes of waiting later, she walked out saying she could not reach the person and was only getting his voicemail. I took the piece of paper back from her, dialed the number myself and reached him immediately – which makes me question how much she really tried to reach the guy. So I ended up calling Scott and had the in-store manger talk to him as he explained what he had done for me.

After having this discussion, I thought my troubles would be over and they would simply just hand me a headset… and I couldn’t have been more wrong if I tried.

Turns out even for a simple replacement, they needed me to schedule an appointment where they needed to fill out paper work for the replacement equipment and needed a “technician” to come out and replace the part for me. I just cannot believe that they needed a technician to issue me a new headset and somehow the person behind the Genius Bar couldn’t do a simple parts replacement. The manager tells me to wait until the next technician which he couldn’t give me an accurate estimate on how long it would take. He estimated it would be 10 to 15 minutes and after a 20-25 minute wait later, a guy named Dan who I presumed is the “technician” called me up, entered took my name/email/serial number and printed out a receipt along with my replacement.

So about one hour, two phone calls to Apple Customer Service and talking to five different Apple employees later, I painfully and finally got my replacement headset.