To me, Ellen has always been the gay world's version of Hillary. I don't think she's very funny, I found her comedy of errors with that bi-curious actress depressingly plebeian, and I've never understood or accepted the construction of her as the "face of the New Lesbian," and the symbol of how we are accepted by mainstream society today. I didn't know she had a talk show, but it seems she's no friend to unions either. I'm alll for lesbians breaking the glass ceiling, but this seems like a classic case of "fuck you, I've got mine." Way to help out your fellow artist, grrl. Not.

I know I'm the big anti-TeeVee blogger here, but I thought I'd take this moment to say that I do actually care to see the writer's come out on top in this strike. When I'm Queen of the World, creative people will be the ones paid the most for the work from which others have been making billions. The Suits are the reason TeeVee sucks so badly today; I just heard a piece by some director talking about media consolidation, and he was saying that basically 6 corporate entities are responsible for everything that is shown. Worse, it's no longer acceptable to use "out of house" production companies; if you're part of the Disney Borg, you'll find other Mouseslaves to write, tech and act in your show.

Media integration is a great evil, and for that reason alone, I support the strikers. I hope many of them realize that it's still somewhat free on the Intertubes, and they've got the know-how to skip the corporate trap and just produce material for distribution here. I already pay for Netflix so I can watch what I want commercial free and at my lesiure; I would do the same for material from a production house headed up by say, Joss Wheadon.

All you non-TV-watchers can skip this one. Very lowbrow, no possible int'rest, eh?

Now for us survival-in-the-wilderness watchers, gather round. So the NYT breaks the story of

To watch Bear Grylls on his program “Man vs. Wild” is to be in a constant state of disbelief —

to note that, shock! disbelief is entirely justified. Dude's been faking half the shit he supposedly does all singlehanded and all. The commentors--this is one of NYT's "bloggy" things you see--respond extensively. A shame we cannot similarly comment on the Gonzales hearings.

But back to the Important Stuff of Breaking News Importance: Corrente brings you exclusive news that Mr. Grylls' major competitor, and predecessor in the TV Survivalist biz, "Survivorman" Les Stroud (an infintely superior show anyway imho) has been caught with his knickers in a prairie-dog trap too. From yesterday's NPS Morning Report:

On July 16th, park resource management specialist Mike Tetreau, currently an intermittent employee working with a private firm conducting follow-up studies related to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill along the park coastline, found an apparent commercial filming production in Taroka Arm, a seldom-visited area along the park's southern coast. In addition to the campsite "set" itself, a nearby support crew camp was located near a sensitive archaeological site. Ranger Sean Brennan, currently on detail as a criminal investigator assignment with the NPS Investigative Services Branch, flew to the site by chartered float plane the following day with Tetreau and contacted Les Stroud, also known as the "Survivorman", who has a show by the same name currently running on the Discovery Channel.

There will be a show tonight on Sundance on blogs. 10p according to the website. I believe I was interviewed for this, I don't know if I made the final cut or not. If this is one I think it is, look for me babbling away like a very silly person during the section of the program that covers KosVegas. I was in a very positivist mood, and I'm a little embarrassed at all the gushing I did, but then again I always look terrible on camera and I wouldn't be surprised if they decided not to include me in the final version of the show. But I'm sure many of your favorite bloggers will be included, it sounds like they talked to "everyone." If someone wants to YouTube it, that'd be great; I don't have that channel in this apartment.

I bitch about TV all the time, but it's not really the case that I hate it so much. Rather, I'm just pissed that I can't be a lazy slob and enjoy a passive moment of slacktivism, and at the same time be stimulated intellectually in the tiniest way. Thank Shiva for Netflix, which allows me to experience some truly severe envy of the British, or at least of those in the 90s (I have no idea if they still are making TV this good).

I won't spoil it for those who've not yet seen it, but I just finished the first half of part two last night, and I am so impressed, jealous, bitter, etc. Why can't we have political TV like this? I've seen a couple of episodes of "West Wing," and it just doesn't come close. Again, watching this reminds me of just how childish and stupid Americans must sound to the British. No one uses the Mother Tongue like they do. If you want to be entertained, and still feel like you're "doing something political," rent these today.

Ha. This is the long War, kids. We've got to wean the addicts, one at a time. But let's rejoice, for now. And hope that as the scales fall, they will not regrow over anytime soon.

He better hope I don't run into him while I'm in town. Seriously. I don't know if this counts as a form of vote suppression, stupidity, or that create your own reality shit Republicans are so good at. But whatever the case, I swear I'll give him a fat lip in Valerie's name if I cross his path.

Crap. Why is it I always find the posts I really want to wax upon with eloquence when it's late, and I'm bone tired? Lindsay is such a bright and attractive woman. And she gets why this is so important. I like to think I do too.

Bottom line: total, complete bullshit drives much advertising in this country. Based on metrics and numbers from decades ago and cultures dead, ads are bought by companies who believe in well, a lot of crap, and who don't understand what their ad dollar does and doesn't buy them. Advertising entities aren't stupid; it's not like they're going to tell GM that their return on their billions is in fact much less than traditional MBA think suggests. Greatly like the political consulting class, advertisers have created an environment in which people continue to pay them despite the lack of profitable results.

Here's something you rarely get out of me. Brevity. I was travelling without computers this weekend, so I missed a lot of the blogosphere reaction to the ABC hatchet job on "9/11 = The Clenis." But reading through a lot of the efforts, I've got to wonder how a coordinated blogswarm to make it instead the rallying cry for a national movement to turn it off would've gone. People wrote a lot of letters to uncaring executives on the Bush payroll, and media people who have exactly no motivation to be other than willing lapdogs. If instead they had begun conversations with their neighbors and friends, how could that have gone? And to what effect? Even shorter: what? you didn't really expect the TV people to tell the truth about 9/11? Did you? ABC is one of the "free" networks, and in my world, you get what you pay for. There's also the notion of GI/GO.

Fucking brilliant.

Yes. Sports are so important.

Its also worth noting the threats to this World Cup are roughly comparable to those in a modern battlefield - peaceful and violent demonstrators, far right/left wing groups, multi-ethnic /multi-religious group tensions and possible foreign terrorism will make affective security and policing a challenge.

Along with the usual surveillance equipment associated with modern sporting events, some of the 2006 World Cup technology includes:

* Fast Fingerprinting devices allowing German police to transmit identification data to be matched against archives stored in the central database of the German Federal Intelligence Service.