I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Amazing.
Where did Condi find the time to film?
Well they write their contracts like Tom Waits put in lyrics:
"The big print giveth and the small print taketh away"
http://www.intercom.net/local/sh...l/
yas11015.html
One wonders also how the Christian Right and other conservative pseudo-moralists have no problem working for, supporting and endorsing Murdoch's various properties.
Were these blind men?
How tough is it to tell it's a man when it looks like this?
I figured it was Ann Coulter.
As for the contracts (1) Consider that contestants on these shows in the US tend to provide a lot of fodder for The Smoking Gun (past jail time, porn careers, stalking, etc.)---they're probably just and they probably aren't much different in the UK---this is all about some wierd kind of narcissism that trumps "normal" behavior; and (2) consider that there's probably no disclosure, but probably some vague, obtusely worded language to the effect that the show has no liability for "compatibility" or the veracity of the other contestants, including the "woman".
"How tough is it to tell it's a man when it looks like this?"
I thought Aaron Magruder was joking, but she really does have an Adam's Apple.
I figured it was Ann Coulter.
That was my first thought!
One wonders also how the Christian Right and other conservative pseudo-moralists have no problem working for, supporting and endorsing Murdoch's various properties.
Right, Ares. This is another good place to give the Bush coalition a severe wedgy.
I wonder how Hannity feels about his boss subsidizing such a thing.
Something tells me his opinion will be more affected by his salary than his "deeply-held convictions."
Geez, without even the benefit of a reach around.
So what is up with the Yes song titles? Rick Wakeman's birthday???
Perhaps Atrois's real identity is John Anderson of Yes?
That's Jon Anderson. Don't forgot Roundabout and Close to the Edge and Perpetual Change when commenting on press briefings...
Great to see some Waits lyrics on Atrios, Thor!
I think you'd be shocked and awed if you ever spent some time with the transgendered community.
I've never seen any real evidence that either Coulter or Rice were transgendered women, though it wouldn't surprise me if Coulter was. I happen to think that her masculine attributes are caused by her eating disorders, which are known to suppress estrogen production.
I am saddened to see that issues related to trangendered persons are still worthy of jokes. This is a seriously marginalized community that I've worked closely with on issues related to health, including HIV infection. I can tell you that these issues are profound and serious, and the community that I worked with are dedicated and hard-working and committed. These issues are no joke.
It is really heartbreaking that now, in the 21st century, this community is still treated so poorly, by the left and by the right, and by Fox. But what do we expect, it IS Fox?
Suggestions for further Yes songs that may be good post titles:
Time and a Word - About W contradicting himself (ex. The Banner)
Changes - About how things were under Clinton vs. now
Leave It - About R's moaning about D's filiburtering
On The Silent Wings of Freedom - left as an exercise for the blogger. 
I'm eagerly awaiting the FOX airing of "When Good Monkeys Go Bad", in which a snarling George Bush nips the hand of Dick Cheney and has to be tranquilized.
Atrios:
Ive seen some on the contracts (albeit for a straight-forward contest type show). I believe the first way they do it is to put a clause in saying that the producers have full production control and they may add undisclosed plot twists/surprises as the see fit. People going on reality shows want the fame, and dont particularly care.
The second way is that they hold all the money you earn until after the show has fully aired and put in secrecy clauses (the one I saw was 10 million dollars; it basically forces whoever breaches it into bankruptcy).
Speaking to my friend who was on one such show, he said that he was told that the contract was non-negotiable and that they'd sooner replace contestants than haggle out terms. He signed it, and things worked out well for him.
Of course, I'm waiting for "Your Move"... or did I miss it?
Perhaps Atrois's real identity is John Anderson of Yes?
Sorry, wrong. I am Atrios.
uhhh..nevermind. Ok, how bout' And You And I, Yours Is No Disgrace, Starship Troopers and I've Seen All Good People. Please contact me for the Steely Dan lyrics and song title portions of the show...
suggestions: Black Lightning, Pretzel Logic, "Agents of the Law, Luckless Pedestrian", The Royal Scam, Katy Lied, Two Against Nature, Century's End, Showbiz Kids, Do It Again, Any Major Dude, Here at the Western World and many many many more hits aplenty...
Of course, there may be fraud in the inducement (to sign the contract). That's difficult to prove, however.
Okay one more Dan: Only a Fool Would Say That
Your 72 hours are almost up, defamer.
Dobb's poll is once again a twisted freaky puzzle. I award bonus points for unsuccessfully baiting the xenophobes.
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT QUICKVOTE
What do you think is the principal cause of U.S. unemployment?
-- High productivity
-- Record trade deficits
-- Illegal aliens
-- Outsourcing
It's almost perfect, but they should have written "Outsourcing to other states"
Philip: don't forget "Home at Last," my personal fave. bonus points for working allusions to Homer into the post...
Personally, I'm just rooting for the streak to keep going. There must be some kind of blogger record for Consecutive Titles Alluding to Common Source, or something like that...
I went to a ballgame during Pete Rose's NL record hitting streak when I was a kid...this feels sorta like that, in a strange, intensely geedy sort of way.
m
err, intensely geeky...
And now you're slandering ME but cutting the "Law" off my title "Attorney at Law"! I'm giving you 72 hours to fix THAT!
Then there was that "Jenny Jones Show" where the idiot had on a hetero guy on the pretense that he was going to meet some girl who was hot for him, and Jenny instead brought on some guy who was hot for him. The hetero guy, manly fellow that he was, killed the gay guy a couple days later.
May I humbly suggest:
Traffic
Coulter-
"Low Spark of High Heeled Boys"
NSC meeting-
"Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory"
Cheney-
"Mr. Fantasy"
Lieberman-
"Hole in my Shoe"
Calico John-
"John Barleycorn Must Die"
Scare Tatics actually stopped because it was sued, but I doubt that there is any way to get a successfull lawsuit out of this. All it will really do is be like suing Al Franken
suckas.
bwah ha ha ha
If the worst problem with a date was that she happened to have a penis, they should be counting their blessings.
Believe me, I could tell you stories.
I'm waiting for a Scare Tactics or a Punk'd wherein the unwitting victim, feeing all is lost, pulls out a machine pistol and shoots everybody
Go check out Salon today -- they have an interview with the former FOX News guy who revealed the existence of "the daily memos".
You have to scroll down -- it's under News -- but it's worth it.
I'm surprised that Salon is burying this story. It deserves to be put up front and center.
salon would rather showcase camille paglia
cat: I've tried bringing up this point with our friendly commenters before, but to no avail. It really makes me wonder just how deep support for queer issues is among mainstream Democrats. When the GOP starts dragging out the lavender menace scare tactics next summer, as they undoubtedly will, what will ensue?
Maybe our esteemed collegues should tell Callie Addams, Howard Dean, and Dick Gephardt their best Ann Coulter jokes.
I'm not a bit surprised, and I suspect that Murdoch's right-wing fellow-travelers won't be too terribly outraged.
You might expect them to be, on account of the whole "ick, a TS on network TV" effect, but consider: It spreads an evil myth and sows distrust and fear toward an already embattled minority. Typical of that crowd.
Reeling in the Years, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Kid Charlemagne, Peg (works great at parties) and My Old School.
The case sounds pretty frivolous. So you accidentally kissed a guy? Oh well. Recalibrate your gaydar and move on. I really doubt Sky told these dudes anything remotely like, "This person over here is completely female. She has a vagina and everything." Absent that sort of guarantee, you just have to take your chances. Especially on a reality show, for crying out loud.
I sort of wonder about the ethical dilemma from the trans person's perspective, though. Is it right to lead someone on when you know they expect something they won't get? I guess it's pretty mild as TV pranks go.
Yeah, it is a bit troublesome to see purported liberals using gender issues as an opportunity to smear opponents. However, it fits in with the "two-tier" strategy, where some of us sling mud and insults, and the rest debate the issues with respect, above the fray.
That was a tragic tale told by Callie Adams, Melissa.
I'm puzzled by the two-tier strategy; some sling mud and insults at transgendered women, and the rest stay above the fray and debate issues with respect?
I repeat, the transgendered community is extremely marginalized, even to the point of violence and murder. They suffer ridicule, job, health care, and housing discrimination, and extreme hate violence against them. People on the left aren't above ridiculing these individuals.
In my opinion, the ridicule is coming from lack of understanding; it is easy to ridicule a faceless, nameless figment of one's imagination. The right are masters at creating that figment with respect to people of color, libruls, Muslims, gays, etc. In the trenches, however, this inflammatory language translates into hate crimes and murder.
I would just ask people on this blog, to think about how your jokes against transgendered women may be translating into violence as well, Coulter notwithstanding.
Ann Coulter is a living insult to the transgendered.
Okay, if we are talking progressive rock, see:
Rush on Rush.
Haloscon screwed that up. Try:
http://www.campchaos.com/othersh...doom/
cod10.html
For Rush on Rush.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2...1/tv/
index.html
"As Miriam is a transsexual, I would never refer to her as male or female. She is a gorgeous creature,'' the spokesman told the magazine.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/
broa...1074310,00.html
As far as I know, I've never met a transsexual. I have no understanding of them as individuals.
Intellectually, I understand that they must have undergone intensive inner turmoil before making such a choice. I can't argue with anyone's decision to do something that will bring peace to their lives.
At a more fundamental level, they give me the creeps. I understand that it is wrong to feel that way and I'm trying very hard to get over it. Eventually, I will. I think a lot of liberals feel this way. I think most conservatives wouldn't even entertain the thought that it might be OK to be a transexual.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's good for Cat to remind people like me that transsexuals are people and do not deserve to be treated the way society treats them. I also would like to ask Cat to understand that some of us are working to overcome decades of indoctrination and we will make mistakes at times.
That said, Miriam shouldn't have allowed herself to be used by the producers of the show in this way. It doesn't help the cause for better treatment of transsexuals. I doubt any man, no matter how tolerant he is, would like to learn that the woman with whom he's been involved is transgendered. That's a decision a guy should be able to make before the onset of a relationship that may lead to sex.
I also would like to ask Cat to understand that some of us are working to overcome decades of indoctrination and we will make mistakes at times.
PB, thank you; my intent was really to try to educate; I realize my posts come off as too strong some of the time. Before I had the occasion to work with a group of TGs on a research study, I was completely ignorant of the issues they faced. During my association with this community, I came to like and respect many of my transgendered associates, and gained an understanding (for an outsider) of their appalling marginalization.
I'll betcha many people have known a transgendered man or woman; for many, the goal is to integrate into the mainstream and do so successfully, with or without surgery. Those on hormone therapy are pretty much indistinguishable from a biological man or woman while dressed.
I'm just pleading to stop the ridicule; before you write a joke, ask yourself, would I say this about another group? And realize that this kind of marginalization can and does result in base-ball bat beatings by angry white males, as happened to one of my TG colleagues during our project.
Key, let's put on a show where Rupert Murdoch bites the heads off of chickens. He'd do it if there was some money to be made, he does just about everything else. I'm sure his audience would watch. There's nothing he touches that doesn't turn to shit. His spawn seems to be ready to take over the family business too.
Two words, Jenny Jones.
I think that if I were one of those guys, I would be fairly upset about having been tricked -- both by the producers of the show and by the putative objet d'amour. On the other hand, if I were on such a show, I would be wearing shoes on my head and hats on my feet, because it would obviously be upside-down day in a parallel universe or something; I mean, if you go on Trading Spaces or Ground Force, you mostly know what you're getting into -- but if you sniff the deadly hand of Murdoch anywhere near the Reality show you're applying for, run.
By the same token: I'd certainly want to talk to -- Miriam, was it? -- afterwards, to try and find out how much of the personality she displayed was real, and how much was artifice; and if she needed needed support and encouragement during the difficult latter stages of her reassignment, I'd almost certainly be there, despite the heapin' helpin' of lie that served as our introduction. I mean, yeah, she was certainly directly involved in the deception; but whereas for the producers of the show it was nothing but an opportunity for crass exploitation, for her it was, presumably, practice, a Final Exam in being who she was about to become. And anyway, the more interesting and diverse a set friends and acquiantances you have, the more Bonus Points you get in the Game of Life -- and she's a triple-word score, that's for sure. 
"I'd certainly want to talk to -- Miriam, was it? -- afterwards, to try and find out how much of the personality she displayed was real, and how much was artifice."
She might well ask the same of you, Ray. Kate Borenstein, a transsexual who has written and lectured on the subject extensively is a truly delightful person and if she's making an appearance your way be sure to attend.
Pat Califia, a lesbian science-fiction and porno writer who I worked with a number of years ago at The Advocate has in recent years become a man. I haven't seen him since the operation, but knowing him when he was a woman this alteration doesn't surprise me in the least.
And not because the female Pat "acted like a man." She didn't.
She might well ask the same of you, Ray.
It's certainly a fair questin to ask of anyone who has agreed to participate in a "Reality" TV program (which is why I would blah blah blah Bizarro World etc etc). For that matter, it's a not unreasonable question to ask of any potential romantic partner, even without the pressure-cooker of lights, cameras, camera crews, surprise twists, and the other accoutrements of Reality programming.
Anyway, what I mean is that my hypothetical subsequent doubts and questions would be rooted more in the Reality TV aspects of the situation than in the trans aspects.
Kate Borenstein, a transsexual who has written and lectured on the subject extensively is a truly delightful person and if she's making an appearance your way be sure to attend.
I don't actually get out very often these days, unfortunately; so unless she's making an appearance at the local Kroger's, I'm unlikely to see her in person.
I will keep an eye out for interviews and the like, though.
Pat Califia, a lesbian science-fiction and porno writer who I worked with a number of years ago at The Advocate has in recent years become a man. I haven't seen him since the operation, but knowing him when he was a woman this alteration doesn't surprise me in the least.
I've never met Pat, but we do have mutual friends, friends-of-friends, acquaintaces, and so forth, from the SF community. I know Loren MacGregor used to work for The Advocate, for instance, and was mutually aware of Pat (but didn't actually meet Pat until fairly recently, at a wedding); and Rob Hansen and Avedon Carol's bed was a gift from one of Pat's former lovers. And I'm pretty sure that Kevin Bacon must be in there somewhere.
"The world and its people," as Loren wrote, "twist sinuously around each other, each biting the other's tail."
Oh, and to tie all threads together, Rob and Avedon and others are good friends with Roz Kaveney, who has, in her life, hit at least the G, L, and T of "GLBT," and who knew Bill Clinton at Oxford, which allows us, of course, to blame all of this on... well, you know.
cat,
OK, you're a tranny and you appear in a show where you fool men about your ownership of a penis. Why are you shocked people are angry.
There's an ethical duty for ts/tg people to be honest about their gender. I don't really care about how they feel. Say you have a penis and let me determine what I want to do. Don't lie to me about something that important.
Both Sky and the person going along with this were wrong to do so. These guys had a right to know if they were courting a man or a woman.
This was kind of inevitable. The Netherlands version of Big Brother had a famous TS confession, when post-op Kelly van der Veer told one of her male housemates about her TS status while they were in bed together. Of course, because the Dutch are...well...Dutch, the man involved in this was pretty cool about it. But with the recent turn from "reality TV" to "cruel hoax TV", this idea was a natural.
As for Miriam, she could cerrtainly have exercised better judgment, but I am guessing that the money was too good to pass up. Reassignment surgery is expensive and employment options for transsexual women can be pretty limited. In England, T-folks cannot marry, nor (I believe) can they have their birth records ammended.
In the US, we have the idiotic "Is it a Man or is it a Woman" stunt that Maury pulls three or four times a year, and the perrenial "I have a Secret" Springer shows. T-folks can make pretty good coin putting themselves on display this way, for a little while.
I've heard stories about Adult Video "producers" lurking outside the offices of gender counselors (and the other helping professionals that transsexuals are required to employ to qualify for surgery) looking to recruit talent. If it was a choice between teasing six cocks for Rupert Murdoch, and sucking sixty cocks for the "legitimate businessmen" cutting checks in the porn industry, for enough money to get set up someplace nice and warm with a tolerant population (Brazil, maybe), I think I'd be inclined to the former.
Of course, the difference between "Something About Miriam" and "Chicks with Dicks volume IX" is too narrow to slip a check through, but that's more an indictment of the masterminds at Sky One than of Miriam.
1 in 200 people are born with genitalia that is not considered "normal"
think about how many people you know.
it's gotta suck ass to be a transgendered person =p
Making out with a transexual is worse socially than appearing in a reality show? That's... counter-intuitive.
They have no case. They might as well complain that the producers didn't tell them that Miriam had a mole on his left buttock.
It's hard to argue that anybody dumb enough to appear on a Murdock/FOX "reality" show doesn't deserve everything they get - they asked for it, after all, and it's Rupert Murdock, for Christ's sakes - but I can see why these guys would be humiliated by this little stunt. Sorry, Cat.
Jim Hightower once said of Rupert Murdock: "He'd moon the Queen of England if there was money to be made in doing it."
There's an ethical duty for ts/tg people to be honest about their gender. I don't really care about how they feel. Say you have a penis and let me determine what I want to do. Don't lie to me about something that important.
I think that the point was that most likely she was perfectly honest about her gender. And how you feel about their gender doesn't matter when you are talking about honesty. What matters is how they feel about it. You don't have to conform to other people's opinions in order to be honest.
I happen to be a female-to-male transsexual (and a devoted leftist commie). I don't think it's fair to put the responsibility of the entire TS/TG communities on Miriam ... I mean, heck, who would want President Bush to be made responsbility for all white guys everywhere, you know? Bush is one white guy. Miriam is one transsexual. And while she was at least partially dishonest, so was Joe Millionaire. No better, no worse.
Also, Miriam is NOT "really a man." She is a transgendered woman. To call a trans woman a man or he--or to call me "really a woman" or "she"--is profoundly disrespectful. Really, the obsession over biological sex is rather silly. The only people who should care even the slightest about what my genitalia does or does not look like are my lover(s) and my doctor (both of whom are well aware of my physical appearance).
Under normal circumstances it isn't an issue. I don't care what someone has in their pants.
However, the show was built around deceit. It existed for the sole purpose of getting apparently straight people to kiss someone they thought was biologically female.
That being the case, I think it was a bad idea for Miriam to participate in the show.
It's spelled "Bornstein" (only one e. And she's worth looking up.
Didn't know Ann Coulter got her own Fox show...
thhhh
testing tt
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