Jeremy Clarkson, host of the popular British car TV show Top Gear and a contributor to the print edition of Wheels, is arguably the most famous auto journalist in the world.
He recently got himself in deep doo-doo at a bun-fight in Australia by referring to Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as a "one-eyed Scottish idiot."
Scots, needless to say, were not amused.
Neither were various disability advocacy groups, who were scandalized by the apparent assumption that being disabled - in Brown's case, having lost the sight of one eye to a rugby injury as a school boy - was somehow linked to his intelligence or lack thereof.
They called for various punishments, not quite but almost including public whipping and locking him in stocks.
It was made worse because there is a current scandal in England over a TV presenter who made an off-camera reference that could be considered racist, so the Politically Correct Brigade was already on full alert.
Almost as the syllables escaped from his lips, Clarkson knew he had perhaps gone a bit far, even by his standards.
He has subsequent apologized, as abjectly as he ever does.
Not, he was quick to point out, for the 'idiot' bit, which he still truly believes, but for the disabled one-eyed bit.
During the media explosion this incident caused, it was also reported that Clarkson makes some two million pounds a year.
Holy Cow.
Do you think maybe I could make more money if I started calling our Prime Minister Stephen Harper 'Lego-Hair'?
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