Politicians are pretty much the same the world over. They take minor issues, blow them out of proportion, conjure up doomsday scenarios, then promise voters that deliverance lies in electing him or her to office. They also have a peculiar knack for missing the forest for the trees (read: focusing on trivial issues while serious ones go unattended).

By these standards, Hillary Rodham Clinton is now a full-blown politician. While America is in the midst of a bloody war in Iraq, Clinton had gotten all hot under the collar over virtual sex. This indignation was apparently prompted by an Easter Egg in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where a scene shows characters having sex. To access that part of the game, players had to download and install a patch, which was far more complex than simply Googling for more realistic porn. This issue occupied quite some time of the august lawmakers, and also led to the introduction of a failed Senate bill. In her latest campaign declaration, Clinton announced that if elected President, she would take stringent steps to monitor virtual sex peddled by the gaming industry. Which would mean countless press conferences, debates—the works. Now if that isn’t a nanny state, then what is? 

Clinton is in the news for another wrong reason: Two anonymous, recently-launched Web sites featured attacks on her main competitor Barack Obama. Serious allegations were raised, and there was quite a bit of speculation as to who was behind these sites. Then someone did some snooping around—and found that the official Web site of Hillary Clinton and these Web sites were hosted on the same domain. Sniping at political rivals is part of the game, but getting caught due to a minor oversight is pretty embarrassing. Surely with all those campaign dollars, they could have afforded a different IP address...

Getting The Rap

If you have been reading our past few issues, you’d have noticed a sprinkling of stories about music companies suing individuals for illegaly copying music. The premise of these cases was that file sharing is harmful to the interests of artists who have toiled so hard for success. By not buying music, fans are cheating the musicians of their livelihood, and the record companies are being the good guys, fighting dirty legal battles while the musicians can keep the creative juices flowing, bless them.

All well and good, but has anybody bothered to ask the artists themselves what they think? We were wondering when some hack would try to get it straight from the horse’s mouth, but rapper 50 Cent has himself stepped forward to set the record straight. For those not in the loop, Curtis James Jackson III, who goes by the undeniably silly name of 50 Cent, is one of the most successful rappers today. The guy is also a canny businessman and markets his own music. According to him, all the hullabaloo over file sharing is misplaced, and artists are not really feeling the pinch when their music is illegally copied. He displays a rare degree of pragmatism when he says that musicians have to keep up with the times, especially musicians like himself, whose fans were younger and more likely to adopt newer technologies. 50 Cent sees current DRM business models outdated, and feels that music companies are not doing enough to exploit marketing opportunities in merchandising and the crowded concerts.

In other words, his message to the music label suits was: “get off your lazy behinds and think smart.” We may not like his music, but we sure appreciate the message.

Phones Celebs Use
Deep down in our hearts, we always want to be like our favourite celebrity. No, don’t deny it: those sunglasses, clothes, and cars—how we want to look like them! Alas, for us ordinary fans, the hoi polloi, these things don’t come cheap. Their shoes cost more than our monthly paycheck, and we wouldn’t be able to afford their cars even if we worked our arses off for life. So what’s a ordinary guy / gal to do? Use the cell phones the celebrities use, of course.

The above solution might be a tad difficult if you are a fan of a celebrity who has a particular attraction for gold-plated, diamond-encrusted mobiles. However, last we checked, most of the usual suspects use common Motorolas and Nokias and such. Maria Sharapova has often been spotted with a pink Motorazr. In Hollywood, phone companies give away free phones as publicity; business phones from Blackberry are the most popular among celebs. Among its long list of users are Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Cristina Augilera. The Blackberry also seems to be a favourite assault weapon: Naomi Campbell has been prosecuted after beating housekeepers and assistants with it. The iPhone, however, is not a hot favourite, which is surprising because of its now-certified hotness. This is partly due to Apple’s not cosying up to the Page 3 type. Another reason would be its poorer e-mail capabilities compared to business phones.

Closer home, our desi celebrities might be endorsing handsets left, right, and centre, but we can bet they’re not all using the phones they profess to love. Now while we won’t go about naming brands, we suggest you do a little harder staring when next you see a photo of your favourite celebrity on the phone. Then e-mail us so we can share the data with the rest of our readers.