Telemarketers can dish it out, but can't take it

Dave Barry always has something amusing to say. I guess his columns are the closest thing to a blog that you can find in newsprint. Of course, since Dave is a computer-savvy writer, he also has an online blog utilizing Blogger and hosted on Blog*Spot.

In a recent column, Dave talked about telemarketers and their very annoying use of the First Amendment to claim a "right" to call and disturb your dinner. Dave suggested that perhaps his readers might want to all call the American Teleservices Association to see how they like getting unwanted calls. It seems that once Dave published the number, the ATA had to stop answering their phones because of the flood of calls. All callers could get was a recording that said that because of "overwhelming positive response to recent media events, we are unable to take your call at this time." Talk about putting a spin on the response from angry telemarketing victims. The executive director of the ATA actually had the nerve to complain that there "appeared to be some malice" in Dave's intent. Dave's response was: "They have phones like the rest of us have phones. Their attitude seems to be if you have a phone, people are allowed to call you."