One of the key problems with PC liberals is that they generalize too much. Everything is off limits. Everything is censored or self censored. And the arbiters of everything that pisses someone off become the Brain Police. Tell you what, the stiffest most rigid broom up the ass PC liberal in the whole world has said something to offend me. And I protest. In fact your very existence is to me obnoxious and since I reserve the right to never ever ever ever ever be offended by anything lest I...well....be offended by it, I will therefore be offended by that.

Looks can kill, as they say.

No, they don't. It's "IF looks COULD kill..." It means exactly the opposite of what you're on about.

Gods, people sometimes suck. How's it going to help your kid to pretend they don't?

The trouble is that the meaning of words shifts. Retarded</> means the same thing as backward, which means the same thing as developmentally delayed, but over time it has been adopted as an insulting term that means generically stupid, so it is not considered acceptable when used in connection with people who are the opposite of advanced for their age.

In the same way the word asylum which once meant a place of safety is now considered offensive when used in connection with mental hospitals rather than political asylum. In fact event the word mental is considered dubious in some circles and mental hospitals are now behavioral health centers. The word misbehavior has pretty much disappeared from common use now, and, of course, soon behavior will become a term of abuse too and will have to be replaced with something more long-winded.

"PC" is the term people use to compensate for having said something hateful and hurtful.

The difference between calling someone a "retard" or someone any one of a number of words that manners and Miss Manners forbid me to regale people with is that, although the others can and probably should punch you one -- so much for PC -- the mentally retarded individual may not be able to and may know only that s/he has been insulted.

Lynn, I can't believe you spent two pages justifying verbal cruelty. Your sister-in-law is a dwarf: she can tell you what she finds acceptable. Can most of the mentally disabled?

I thought better of you. Guess mental disability just isn't a chic enough cause.

When I was probably 8 or 9, I was on the playground at recess.

I was jumping rope with friends, waiting for my turn to jump in the double-dutch ropes, when some kid ran past me, and bumped into me, knocking me on my ass and tangling me in the ropes, making me feel humiliated.

So I yelled "Watch it, you retard!" as the kid sped away. I hadn't seen the kid's face, and didn't know the kids' age, race or gender from the encounter (but I could say they had bony elbows -ouch).

Yeah, well, he was a kid from the Special Ed group. And a teacher overheard me. So, I got a lecture. And I never in my wildest *dreams* would have called a Special Ed kid (as we called them then) "retarded," or wanted to make them feel bad about something so beyond their control. I then felt humiliated *and* mean for the rest of the day (though, FWIW, I doubt the kid in question ever heard my outraged put-down. He was half-way across the playground).

So, I haven't used the word since. I have come up with several other colorful phrases to use when someone is being "irretrievably stupid" (thank you "A Fish Called Wanda!") or a "jerky" (Jerky Boys). (I have recently had to be careful with a favorite "crack whore" since, well, someone I know has a sister who is, regrettably, a crack whore). My dad always used "turkey" to describe other drivers. Now that I'm a mom, that's getting more use. Political opponents are likely to be labeled "fucktards" (but only when kids aren't around)! And in college, I was fond of quoting Shakespeare and (John) Webster.

My point is this: the English language is full of wonderful, roll-off-your-tongue words that work just as well (or even better) as "retard," without making you sound callous. It's a word that sounds as dated as the colorful ethnic epithets from WW II. And it makes the speaker sound a little oafish.

In my opinion the whole place is retarded. In my military service time we had people from Boston. That's what convinced me that the whole place must be retarded

As for Down Syndrome, the words that I grew up with was "mongoloid idiot". Then the war came along and many terms changed during the war.

I doubt if Boston has changed much. Their English is weird.

"Make a girl" means what? Not the same as anywhere else.

It's ok to laugh if you find such things funny. Don't force it if it's not your brand of humor. Let common sense and your own morality decide what is appropriate and what is not. I have liberal values through and through, but I think part of the reason many Americans do not share these values might be because of PC over-reactions. And PETA, and vegans, and other morons like them. Sometimes us libs and dems just go "full-retard", unfortunately.

The word in question was used as a line in a movie. Can anyone think of an alternative wording for the line that would have conveyed the authors intent and elicited the desired reaction?? Anyone?

All this discussion of the use of the word only glorifies it's use beyond the original art. You don't want to see it used? SO STOP USING IT!

The terms "moron", "idiot" and "imbecile" are used fairly frequently and don't seem to reflect badly on those whom they originally described fairly precisely in terms of function and/or IQ. To a large extent they were replaced by the euphemism "retarded" and now "retarded" has inevitably been replaced by other terms even less precise (although "Down's syndrome" is actually more precise and has not yet come to be used pejoratively).

While I sympathize with the effort to remove the stigma from mental deficiencies, I'm not sure that much is gained by an endless progression of euphemisms.