Now here's a whole other wagon and I can already hear the music playing.
A friend at school had severe polio. He ended up with both legs in calipers. He, his doctors and the rest of us described his condition as a handicap. For some reason handicapped became a derogotary term (who decides these things?) and we now talk of things like "learning difficulties" or whatever is the flavour this month. Well Tony Macrae didn't have learning difficulties, he was brilliant academically but had a great deal of trouble walking and tragically died in his thirties. Spastic is a medical term referring to muscle spasm caused by cerebal palsy. This is a good example of a condition's name being used to insult the patient and then extended to include anyone else you want to insult. So here's another complication. It's not the word/s but the intention behind it/them. If I come from a time when handicapped meant nothing more than finding certain activities difficult or impossible owing to a medical condition why do I have to change my word because of political correctness?
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Tue 1 Nov 2011, 11:44, 1 reply)

I dunno. Can they shoot you for crimes against political correctness yet?

(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Tue 1 Nov 2011, 14:22, closed)

.Depending on who you mean by "they"
the short answer is yes
( edjogs Collared doves are shit., Tue 1 Nov 2011, 15:22, closed)

/*gulps nervously*

(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Thu 3 Nov 2011, 4:30, closed)