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FI and elin...there really is no difference in saying this word in a hurtful way versus saying it to make an example because they are both the same in this case. This word should never be used unless it is in the clinical sense of calling someone "mentally retarded" and I don't think that was Rush's intent. Unless one is referring clinically to someone who is mentally retarded, it should never be taken lightly nor ever be used. I take it that neither of you have someone who is mentally chanllenged or "retarded" in your family or you would take offense. As for what you said, Elin, you referred to idiots. That's a good term and doesn't really offend anyone but other idiots. I wish you would all refrain from the "R" word because I find it very offensive when not used clinically.
Yes, that would be good use of "retard". Congratulations on having a Model T and being so proud to use the word "retard" in an appropriate manner. I'm glad that you don't have anyone in your family who is mentally retarded. Consider yourself lucky that you have a perfect family and also for having the Model T..you should be able to make a lot of money on it after you get that spark fixed.
Last edited by Tw0PenniesToYa
quote:
Originally posted by Tw0PenniesToYa:
Yes, that would be good use of "retard". Congratulations on having a Model T and being so proud to use the word "retard" in an appropriate manner. I'm glad that you don't have anyone in your family who is mentally retarded. Consider yourself lucky that you have a perfect family and also for having the Model T..you should be able to make a lot of money on it after you get that spark fixed.


My nephew who has Downs and is high functioning, will tell you this. "I used to be retarded, then handicapped. Now I am mentally challenged". "But, I am still me". He is a delight, Bless him. This is one of those words. Used badly, it will bite you. It's just a word, use it wisely. What kind of mileage do you get with that Model T? Big Grin
quote:
Originally posted by Tw0PenniesToYa:
Yes, that would be good use of "retard". Congratulations on having a Model T and being so proud to use the word "retard" in an appropriate manner. I'm glad that you don't have anyone in your family who is mentally retarded. Consider yourself lucky that you have a perfect family and also for having the Model T..you should be able to make a lot of money on it after you get that spark fixed.


"Next, the lever to the left beneath the steering wheel is the spark adjust advance/retard from before top dead center ignition to after top dead center. To retard the spark it is moved up, to advance the spark it is moved down. The Model T is always started in the retard position, as it was designed to be started by hand cranking. Unless it is retarded the engine can and will KICK BACK and do damage to hands, wrists and arms. NEVER crank it except in the retard position. After the engine is running, the lever can be moved down to advance the ignition until the engine chuckles smoothly, and when rolling to get the best performance."

http://www.barefootsworld.net/ford-t-4-beginners.html

Retarding the spark is a natural part of starting a Model T, it doesn't need fixing.

I'm lucky to have no family members who have such problems. Although there are a couple that don't have good walking around sense.
Last edited by elinterventor01
There is a vast difference between being polite and being politically correct. Being polite means taking others feeling into consideration – courtesy.

Political correctness is a form of social control -- inventing insults to be permanently aggrieved, to force someone to be constantly on guard for their speech. Another old term for political correctness is stalinism. It was used regularly in the old Soviet Union as a means of social control. The promise to ban the word from federal legislation is right out of the playbook for old Reds.
Obama used the word rather legitimately, on two occasions.

From ‘Dreams From My Father,’ page 73:
“We stopped at an old hotel, a grand hotel with chandeliers. There was a piano in the lobby and a lounge filled with cushions of soft satin, and I took one of the cushions and placed it on the piano bench, and the old white man sat down, retarded now, or senile, and when I looked again he was a small black girl, her feet barely reaching the pedals.”

From ‘Audacity Of Hope,’ page 22:
“At times during his first campaign, [Bill Clinton's] gestures toward disaffected Reagan Democrats could seem clumsy and transparent (what ever happened to Sister Souljah?) or frighteningly coldhearted (allowing the execution of a mentally retarded death row inmate to go forward on the eve of an important primary).”

Another good example is the term “oriental.” A few years ago, suddenly it was the N word for persons from Asia. One blogger even stated it was never used for a person – only for things from the orient or the area, itself. A quick check of any dictionary would belay that lie. “Of or pertaining to a person indigenous to Asia.” My late wife was French-Vietnamese. She had no problem with being called oriental or Asia, or Eurasian, which is the more technically correct term.

Rahm Emauel purposely used the term in a hurtful manner, it’s the F-word, that should be even more resented. Rush Limbaugh used the word in a satirical skit about Rahm.

To excoriate Limbaugh, as if he meant to insult those who are a bit slow, is to attack the roots of free speech and expression. In my well spent youth, I spent considerable time in West Berlin. During the day, I helped plan ways to make that city a tough nut for the Soviets to crack. Nights, I spent in the numerous jazz kellars and cabarets. The satire was wild, biting and ranged from personal to sexual innuendo – think the movie/pay Cabaret without the anti-Semitism. The atmosphere was one of the freest I’ve seen for such theater. Much was leftist, but, I have a thick skin and can take it.

During my eleven years in DC, I visited comedy clubs, but few were as funny or as outrageous as those of Berlin. I’ll take freedom over the PC of the left. Its they who are the most thin skinned and easily offended.
elin...as for the reason for the post, I don't feel that your expertise on mechanics is really relevant but I'm sure you felt good posting it. I guess it made you feel "un-retarded" in your family that has some people that don't have good "waling around sense". I'd have do say that I wouldn't begin to know how to go about "waling around" myself...so I suppose that I am retarded in that extent. As for your second rambling post, I think you could have left off the rest of it after you mentioned the word "courtesy" because that is really all that ones of us who have mentally challenged family members really ask that you truly appreciate.

Tenn...I'm happy to hear your story on your nephew...he sounds like a very special person.

JOY...I'm not one who looks for a reason to be offended, but the mentally challenged hold a special place in my heart.
quote:
Originally posted by Tw0PenniesToYa:
elin...as for the reason for the post, I don't feel that your expertise on mechanics is really relevant but I'm sure you felt good posting it. I guess it made you feel "un-retarded" in your family that has some people that don't have good "waling around sense". I'd have do say that I wouldn't begin to know how to go about "waling around" myself...so I suppose that I am retarded in that extent. As for your second rambling post, I think you could have left off the rest of it after you mentioned the word "courtesy" because that is really all that ones of us who have mentally challenged family members really ask that you truly appreciate.

Tenn...I'm happy to hear your story on your nephew...he sounds like a very special person.

JOY...I'm not one who looks for a reason to be offended, but the mentally challenged hold a special place in my heart.


In a few more years, when "mentally challenged" is no longer acceptable, what do we say then? "Retarded" isn't a dirty word. It's all in how you use it. Definition: slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development or academic progress. It isn't wrong to use as a description for people who fit the definition.
quote:
Originally posted by kperk014:
In a few more years, when "mentally challenged" is no longer acceptable, what do we say then? "Retarded" isn't a dirty word. It's all in how you use it. Definition: slow or limited in intellectual or emotional development or academic progress. It isn't wrong to use as a description for people who fit the definition.

Sadly, some other "made up" politically correct phrase will be "accepted" and anything else will be "mean" and "uncaring".

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