You're Here, You're Clear

Finally I get a chance to get to my computer. I have been stuck in Moscow, in the airport for days, riding the escalators and people watching. I was starting to get kind of bored.

Now I'm home and Stephen is on a two week break. That's okay, it gives me a chance to get caught up. Too bad I wasn't paying more attention when I was over in Moscow. It seems that Edward Snowden was or is at the Moscow airport. It would have been great to get a few photos of him, maybe get an interview that I could post here. I guess the airport is just too big and it's hard to keep track of everyone who is there.

Anyway, Stephen was concerned about the whereabouts of Edward Snowden and just a bit confused about what he looks like. For a short time, he was ready to believe that Jay the Intern was in reality Edward the Snowden (i.e. a white guy with glasses). Until Jay the Intern pointed out to Stephen that first of all, "No, I'm Jay," and secondly that he (Stephen) was also a white guy with glasses. Quick thinking, Jay.

In news that's happening, the Tea Party is unhappy. I should clarify since no one seems to know exactly what or who the Tea Party is. A bunch of people showed up to vent anger, and considering the amount of hot dogs and beans being eaten, to vent a lot of other stuff. They are mad at the IRS. Luckily, Michele Bachmann was there to tell them, "You're Here. And you're Clear. With your message." Stephen added that "if you happen to be queer my husband runs a camp that can cure you with Jesus."

Darrell Issa, apparently one of the richest Congressmen as evidenced by all the extra letters in his name, is one of the people heading the charge for the Tea Party. He investigations showed that, "Certain things are true." Elijah Cummings released all pertinent information which is not what Darrell Issa wanted done. He only wanted the truth, but then Elijah Cummings had to go and release the whole truth. Darn. That showed that it was a conservative Republican at the IRS looking into the Tea Party.

Stephen, as you all know, invented truthiness. Now, with the help of a human centipede, he has invented truthinews. Simply put, the media ask the vast audience out there in TV Land or Radio Land or Internet Land what they think they know, then the media reports it back to them. It's great. For example, Bill O'Reilly has found out that 75% of the people who believe it's a good idea to watch his show, believe what he tells them. I can't help but think that number should be higher. Why would you watch the Factor if you thought it didn't have the appropriate amount of truthiness? For the comedic relief???

Andrew Solomon was the guest on Stephen's show way back on, when was that (?), June 24. Both Stephen and Andrew paid attention to the calendar and dressed appropriately for "Light Blue Shirt Yellow Tie Day." They discussed Andrew Solomon's newest book, "Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity." And I know I say this about a lot of books, but this one really does seem very interesting. So, yes, go out and buy it. It's not Tek Jansen, but I think you will find it a good read just the same.

Hello Handsome!

After last night's show, I was almost positive that Stephen would have Edward Snowden on. If not as the guest, at least as the pre-guest. That was not to be. Instead Stephen talked more about NSA and how everyone is concerned about who knows what and when they knew it and what they will do with it. There was a little bit about Prism and about NSA data mining with companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo!, paltalk, Google, Skye, YouTube, facebook and AOL. Well, all those companies are dealing in data, right?

 People are concerned and yet I would ask them, did you read any of those User Agreements or did you just check "I Agree?" It only takes a few hours to read the User Agreements, so no reason you couldn't have done that. And when you're buying something in the store and the cashier asks, "Will that be all?" do you say yes? And when the cashier asks what your phone number is, do you tell her???? Aha, I thought so. You willingly give out that information. So, as Stephen said, I'm okay with that. (I just typed "I'm okay with that," into Google search box, so I'm good to go.)

However, there is something that does concern me. I have learned through some channels, that I won't disclose here, some disturbing features over at Google. I innocently typed "do a barrel roll" into the Google search box and nearly fell out of my chair. Then I typed "askew" into the Google search box and felt like something was just a little bit off with my computer. So, I think Stephen is right to report on this turn of events even if he's okay with it. Only thing I'm not comfortable with is Googling those terms that Stephen Googled.

Enough about the NSA and all that data. It's old news in that Stephen told us it has been going on since 2006. And he showed us that there are other, older ways to communicate with your friends. Oh, and Stephen had an expert, Jeffrey Rosen, President, The National Constitution Center, on to put Stephen's mind at rest. Whew.

Daniel Bergner visited the show and talked with Stephen about his new book, "What Do Women Want? Adventures in the Science of Female Desire." It seemed like an interesting topic. Only problem is we all know what women want. They want Stephen. That's science. And while Daniel Bergner had some interesting thoughts to share with us, the interview too quickly evolved into a discussion about monkeys.

It seemed somewhat amusing to me that the whole show seemed to be about surveillance. I'm for sure not going to go into details, but even Daniel Bergner talked about various surveillance devices.

Don't You Dare Clap!

Stephen talked some about Edward Snowden and NSA and the inventor of the Clapper, John Clapper. He promises there will be more about this tomorrow, so it must be really big. Currently, Snowden is in Hong Kong.

Bigger than that though is the revelation that Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show, headed to Jordan to direct a "serious movie" (Stephen's air quotes). He was replaced by a foreigner - from England.

Speaking of the Middle East, The Imploding Muslim Country of the Week Booth was in the studio. Stephen stepped in, Jimmy started up the fans so that the slips of paper, each with a different Middle Eastern country, could swirl around colorfully, and after only about 10 minutes, Stephen was able to catch one slip of paper. Tonight's country??? Turkey! It only took Stephen another minute to get the door open and head back to his desk.

In Turkey, conservative Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared that women should have at least three children, that there should be single-sex beaches, and that there should be new regulations on the sale of alcohol. Omer Taspinar, of the Brookings Institute, joined Stephen to help make it all clear for him.

At long last, Stephen had a Cold War Update. I think the people who are griping about their jobs as missile launchers are going to move to being FOX correspondents. To help them make the transition, Stephen introduced his new video game. Sounds like lots of fun: Call of Duty: Padded Chair. Seems like it needs some work to make it more, um, versatile. Stephen pretty much ended the game within a minute.

Stephen's guest was Dan Savage. His new book is called "American Savage - Insights, Slights and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love and Politics." Soon the Supreme Court will be handing down decisions. One is about DOMA, the other is about California. They got into heated, well not heated, but warm debate about marriage. Both are married, but Stephen feels that he is more married than Dan. The show seemed longer than usual, but I think that's because both men were talking at the same time, so twice as much content. Dan Savage said he wants equal rights not a double standard.