Category — Buffoonery

Unless the people over at the recently launched Mumbai Mirror have just landed on earth after a really long stay in space, they should know what a blog is! Hell… the whole world and it’s dog knows about weblogs!!

There’s a link on the Mumbai Mirror homepage, titled “Mirror Blog“. And where does that link take you?? …

… to the feedback page where messages sent in by readers are posted!

Gimme a break, guys… if this is what you call a blog, then I’m Santa Claus!!

Today’s edition of Times of India is like waking up to a cartoon nightmare. These days, no one expects ‘Times of India’ to resemble a serious newspaper, today’s edition takes the cake.

But what’s really irritating about today’s edition is the fact that every page has a space devoted for Bush-bashing. A joke or two about President GW Bush’s penchant for coming up with hilarious phrases can be termed as funny. Hell! … we all do it!! But this is crazy!! I just cannot think of any provocation for it or cannot fathom the intention or the agenda behind such a stunt.

Here are a few examples of the Bush-bashing jokes in today’s TOI…

1. President Bush submitted the annual budget - $2.5 trillion. He budgeted the upcoming Iran invasion under office supplies
2. President Bush has proposed an increase in the tax on airline tickets to pay for more security. It’ll cost you extra to have your wife felt up at the airport.
3. The parties have ended, the inauguration is over, it is back to work for President Bush. That’s right - today, he left for a vacation.
4. Bush is slashing the education budget. Brilliant. When kids graduate, they won’t be able to calculate how much debt they’re in.

If you ask me, some nincompoop at the TOI office just discovered the joys of Internet and came across these stale jokes unaware of the fact that they’ve been recycyled a zillion times before. And in an orgasmic fit of laughter that followed, decided to include them in today’s edition!

If ‘Lalu Yadav is a visionary‘, then I am Santa Claus!!

Two dumb Radio Jockeys (RJs) from the US have apparently stirred the hornet’s nest by abusing an Indian call centre employee live, on air.

The live call, made during the Philadelphia-based morning show of RJs Star and Bucwild, ended with one of the RJ’s repeatedly calling the female call centre employee a ‘bitch’ and a ‘rat eater’ and threatening to choke her.

Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, initiated the call under the pretext of inquiring into an order he had placed for a product known as ‘Quick Beads’, hair beads marketed primarily to girls outside the black community (Star and Bucwild are black). Midway through the call, Star became aggressive with the call centre representative, Steena.

My first reaction was of indignation at the lowlife RJs who made those sexist and racist remarks. Even making an allowance for the abundance of stupidity in most of the Radio Jockeys on the numerous FM channels everywhere, I think this episode was appalling!

In fact, I believe there are already petitions calling for the resignation of the concerned RJs. But I believe that mere resignation is not enough. They should be prosecuted for racist utterances on air.

Check out this blog entry for resources on this story.

[Screenshot of news.google.co.in taken at 13:48 on 01/11/2004]