You get paid to write this garbage?

Letters Our piece yesterday on the inexorable rise of the machine provoked a certain amount of ire from Reg readers. Typical among these was Steve Reeves:

You get paid to write this garbage? Not for long.

Tessa Tumangday elaborates:

Lester,

Your story 'A robot in every home by 2010' posted in the register 1 April contained a very upsetting quote:

'Yes, it's that time of year again when we can read with glee that the cybernetic Phillipino maid is just around the corner. She'll be just like the real thing, too: you can pay her peanuts, beat her with a stick and lock her in the shed at night. Marvellous.'

Perhaps you were trying to be funny? If so, you failed miserably. Racist humour is the lowest form of wit and only ever funny in this day and age to members of Combat 18. Furthermore, your failure to bring out some sort of ironic humour using the image of the beaten down Filipino domestic worker is a reflection of your poor writing style and a relection of the racial stereotypes that you have of a certain group of people. why do feel the need to share your ignorance, insensitivity and bad writing style with register readers? Perhaps you are only a select racist (against Filipinos) and wouldn't make the same jokes about Blacks and Jews. It might be a bit of bad luck should Rabbi Lionel Blue and Trevor Philips knocking on your door for an apology - easier to target the Filipinos as they do not have any political representation. I've got your number.

Do us all a favour Lester, give up journalism, don your white hood, burn some crosses and take your rightful place next to Nick Green. Perhaps you would consider doing his PR for a bit of a laugh?

Sincerely,

T. Tumangday

I'd rather not, thanks. In any case, I doubt whether I'd pass the Combat 18 vetting procedure. For the record: I have a Brazilian wife; I once worked as stage manager for a black women's theatre group; and, most enjoyably, did a stint as lighting man for a lesbian punk rock band.

None of which, of course, will make any difference to those who are convinced that our observation in this case was nothing more than a racist attack. Observation being the operative word here - as opposed to neo-nazi propaganda.

We understand that sometimes humour treads a fine line between this ironic examination of the way the world is and causing genuine offence. And of all the readers who read the piece, 20 or so of you felt we had crossed the line.

We'll certainly take on board all your comments and continue - as we do every day - to carefully consider all material before publication.

Now, moving on to the main thrust of the article, we have Lumatrix - one of dozens of like-minded readers waiting to get his hands on the transport of the future:

Hi Lester,

I luv luv luv it! Your Register future column - please give us more, more, more.

Where is my flying car?

Where indeed? Robert Irving, among many others, thought he had the answer:

See here: www.moller.com/skycar/.

Thanks for that Robert. Sadly, we've been there, seen that, didn't get the Moller flying car:

Skycar crashes and burns?

And the bloody flying car isn't the only thing we're waiting for. Take it away a very irate DZ-Jay:

You forgot the jet-pack. Where's my fscking jet-pack I was promised for the end of the last millennium by Popular Mechanics et al back in the 40's, 50's and 60's??! That's what I'd like to know.

Well said, sir. ®