LOL -- And how exactly is this post, explaining the actual events that led to Clarkson's lack of contract renewal, a trollish post?

Please tell me who is getting trolled? This is probably the most literally informative post of this article's discussion.

He's missing the point and still explaining an issue.

RSA doesn't want to promote the objectification of women any more.
Vendors are still willing to objectify women to have a chance at winning business.

So, let's say that hire and train those who would otherwise be hired as booth babes so that they're useful temporary representatives of products and companies. Let's say they show up dressed in business or business casual attire. And let's say a man goes to one of these conferences, see a beautiful woman, finds out she's a knowledgeable associate in the industry, and continues to ogle her for her secondary sexual characteristics while she convinces him to try some products.

Is any wrong done? If so, are you saying that attractive women are not allowed to represent a company or product?

They were more of audacious humor being taken as rude and thus made the BBC look bad. See this highly informative post I made that was quickly down-modded (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=7156205&cid=49345691).

1. Drove a truck in the Arctic circle while having a gin and tonic. (No roads, international waters)
2. Called truck drivers porn-loving prostitute murderers.
3. Called the Prime Minister a one-eyes idiot.
4. Said the BBC was obsessed with hiring Black Muslim lesbians (commentary on the focus on diversity).
5. Told a story about a woman wearing a burka falling over and exposing a g-string and stockings.
6. Called a Ferrari "special needs".

And on and on. Within the context of the character he plays, this is all to be expected. It's all the joke of him being an ignorant buffoon. He plays this character on TV everywhere he goes, but his more intelligent normal self pops out from time to time such as on QI or on some of his specials.

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Basically, I loved my old Microsoft Intellimouse Optical which is no longer available. I killed the main two buttons and the feet/pads on probably 5 or 6 of those over the years. I can't find anything to match that fit anymore.

I said nothing of the UK government (even though the UK government does restrict speech more than the US [http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/21/394273902/on-libel-and-the-law-u-s-and-u-k-go-separate-ways]).

My intent (and I apologize if not 100% clear) was to explain that in the UK, there is public outrage for anything that can be considered by some people as rude. For example, in the United States, Rush Limbaugh can say many, many atrocious things throughout his daily radio show. He can even lie. He can intentionally lie to the public without attempting to shock people with audacious humor.

In the UK, however, audacious humor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY) is acted against by the public. People who take offense are empowered by weak-willed companies to silence things they don't like to hear... or more accurately, hear about.

Because most of the people who watch Top Gear do so with the expectation of audacious humor-- for the group's non-PC manner of conversation. Once one person says, "Clarkson said this last night..." all these other people who weren't watching call the Beeb and write them letters saying how offended they are. The few loud offended are then touted as "100% of the motoring public" (to steal from Top Gear) and then apologies must be made.

That's how the UK speech is more restricted than in the US.

I tend to agree. That's what should happen.

But it's not what normally happens. Especially with gravy-train stars.

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I assert that if Clarkson's audacious humor hadn't offended as many people, this most recent action wouldn't have resulted in his contract not being renewed. Instead, it would have been one of a couple more serious incidents and he'd still be doing Top Gear. He'd maybe pay some big fines, go to anger management, and/or make an official apology, but the BBC would still be riding his gravy train.

You can get away with a lot if you make people big money. If Hollywood isn't a good enough example, try the NFL or NBA.

I'm not the one who said it was a free speech issue. The parent to my comment did.

Context, buddy. Context.

Of course not. But all the other "offenses" were speech and had those other "offenses" not been considered offenses due to free speech, this would have simply been a fight. A damnable offense, to be sure, but not something a gravy-train star would have been let go for.

The "fracas" was the "last straw"... except 95% of all the other straw was Clarkson being rude, not actually harming someone.

No he didn't. His colleague got a bloody lip and went to A&E just in case and to record the injury officially. There's a big difference between "an automobile collision sent 3 men to the emergency room" and "An automobile collision happened. The three men involved took themselves to the doctor afterward."

Very much this. Most Americans don't understand just how restricted speech is in the UK by comparison to the US. The US has concerns about the PC culture, but the UK rides the PC horse like it's running from a posse. The mere mention of someone being offended or people sending in letters to complain require a company or station to react and make prostrating apologies.

The US has shock jocks, audacity humor-- look at what passes for news at Fox News!

Of course, physically assaulting one of your staff is inexcusable and he deserves the storm he gets for it, but the vast majority of his "offenses" are actually just people being offended by audacity humor.

That's what stars do. They're spoiled brats. It's not good, it's not right, but it's certainly normal. People ride the star's gravy train and are, usually, willing to put up with it. See Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men or Christian Bale absolutely losing it while filming Terminator (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0auwpvAU2YA). Hell, I went with some friends to watch a taping of the show "Friends" over a decade ago and we were there from 10am to 9pm, watching very, very little of the show being taped because Jennifer Anniston was "having a bad day" and didn't want to come out. We weren't allowed to leave our seats to get food unless we were leaving permanently. That day sucked.

Moreover, it wasn't that "his food wasn't warm". It's that there was no regular dinner. They had finished filming at 10 or 11pm and the hotel cook staff had already gone home. All that was left was a cheese/meat plate. Clarkson was already drunk, so his inner asshole was more pronounced than normal. That's obviously no excuse, rationale, or justification, but it's a more correct appraisal of what actually led to whatever happened.

You're thinking of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice.

The UK has much, much lower tolerances for satire and criticism than the US. Check out this list of "screw-ups" that Clarkson made-- all of which contributed to his final release from the BBC. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/top-gear/11137651/Poll-Which-of-Jeremy-Clarksons-gaffes-is-worse.html) Almost all of the "wrongs" done have been issues of him being "rude".

Drink-driving, July 2008 - The press would like to have you believe that this is was illegal and atrocious. But it wasn't. He was in a customized, polar-ready Toyota Hilux driving to the North Pole over international waters. There were no roads. There were no people on the ice. There were no laws forbidding drinking behind the wheel.

Lorry drivers, November 2008 - Like many subgroups, Clarkson feigned disdain for truck drivers by describing them as hard-working, but sloppy, porno-obsessed men who murder prostitutes. This fits perfectly in with his "overgrown ignorant man-child" character that he plays on TV.

Gordon Brown, February 2009 - He called the Prime Minister a "one-eyed Scottish idiot". The PM is blind in one eye. It's disrespectful but does no damage to anyone.

Black Muslim Lesbians, October 2009 - In an exaggerated protest of diversity efforts within the BBC, Clarkson said that the BBC was obsessed with hiring black, Muslim lesbians. He never implied that it was a bad thing (especially since he's quite fond of lesbians), but was point out the obsession with diversity.

Burkas and lingerie, July 2010 - During a Top Gear discussion on distractions while driving: “Honestly, the burka doesn’t work. I was in a cab in Piccadilly the other day when a woman in a full burka crossing the road in front of me tripped over the pavement, went head over heels and up it came, red g-string and stockings.” Again, this is a conversation between a few "guys" on an exaggerated comedy show, not Sesame Street. There's no reason for this to be a mark on one's record.

Special needs, August 2010 - Clarkson referred to a Ferrari as 'special needs' and a 'simpleton' as a way of giving it a bad review. Many people still use the term "retarded" to describe an action today. Some people take offense to it. In the UK, when "some people take offense", it's a scandal.

Mexico, February 2011 - An actual issue! Clarkson, during a discussion on Top Grear with fellow presenters James May and Richard Hammond, described Mexicans as "a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep". This is prejudice and stereotyping of impermutable characteristics and they deserved every bit of flak they got for it... but that's audacity humor for you.

India, January 2012 - Viewers complained about Clarkson's provocative remarks concerning the country's clothing, trains, food and history. To be fair, they demonstrated the issues with the trains and food, but I don't remember them saying anything critical of their clothing or history. Clarkson put a toilet seat on the back of his car "just in case" he got diarrhea. Ask anyone who has been to India-- this is a genuine concern. I have colleagues *from India* who refuse to drink anything but bottled and will refuse ice when offered (since it's made from tap water).

The 'N'-word, May 2014 - First off, Clarkson never said the N-word in the purported clip. He never even mumbled it. As he said in his explanation, they had done 3 takes of a scene where he was reciting "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo" where in the old school version would use the term n**ger. In one take, he murmured something to take the place of the word. In the second take, he left the space blank. In the third take, he replaced the word with "teacher". In reviewing the takes, he immediately contacted his production crew and ordered them not to use the first take because if you turn it up REALLY loud, you can convince yourself that the word is being said when it wasn't. (Paul is dead.) YEARS LATER, the video of the unused take resurfaced and somehow became a scandal.

Slope, July 2014 - Ofcom said he had breached their guidelines, when he referred to an Asian person as a 'slope', again on the BBC2 show, while on location in Burma. The fact of the matter is that the Top Gear team had just finished building a bridge over a river and in viewing the bridge while a local Asian worker was walking over it, Clarkson and Hammond were discussing the quality of the build. Clarkson mentioned that the bridge "had a slope on it" directly stating that the bridge was leaning, but allowing the viewer to associate the appraisal of the bridge with the outmoded slur for the Asian worker crossing the bridge. Clarkson did not directly call an Asian person a slope-- he played a mind game with the viewer, much like this well-memed "legs or lamp" image (http://goo.gl/BwGEdF).

Argentina, October 2014 - In their visit to Argentina, Clarkson drove a Porsche with the license plate H1982FKL which some locals took as a reference to the Falkland Islands War. It was well-proven that the license place came with the used Porsche when Top Gear purchased it.

Fracas, February 2015 - After a long day of shooting, a producer had to tell the Top Gear team that the hotel's cooking staff had gone home and there would be no hot meal-- instead, a cheese and meat plate. Clarkson, who had already worked his way through a bottle of wine, was belligerent and verbally abused the producer. Whether Clarkson punched the producer is still not 100% clear because, due to the flowery way in which these things are described, there has been no direct statement of such. The most clear statement was that "Clarkson aimed a punch"-- but what in the world does that mean? A wind-up? A thrown punch, but a miss? An actual strike? All that's known is that the whole thing lasted 30 seconds (from first yell to being broken up) and the producer left with a fat lip. In the US, this "Fracas" would get Clarkson in trouble, but not thrown off the show. Just look at Charlie Sheen.

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It's a hi' falootin' acronym, so it need to be capitalized. (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ56/pdf/PLAW-107publ56.pdf)

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