Euphemisms can also serve to recirculate words that have passed out of use because of negative connotation. The word lame [in the sense of "crippled in the feet or legs], having faded from the vernacular, was revitalized as a slang word generally meaning “not living up to expectations” or “boring.”
[...]
In the early 1960s, Major League Baseball franchise owner and promoter Bill Veeck, who was missing part of a leg, argued against the then-favored euphemism handicapped, saying he preferred crippled because it was merely descriptive and did not carry connotations of limiting one’s capability the way handicapped (and all of its subsequent euphemisms) seemed to do

Given Mahar’s past, we’re *seriously* supposed to buy into the idea that he meant it in a positive and uplifiting way?

PUHLEEZE

“The short bus” has entered the vernacular as the special ride for “slow” kids. It may be offensive to some to mix some special needs kids other less acceptable special needs, but that is not the concern of the comedians.

I have members of my immediate family who have and have had extensive speech therapy, suffer from autism and other societally branded “disorders.”

The “short bus” vernacular has been set. Whether the comedians have it correct or not is another matter.

I can understand your angst if Maher said your child is a retard because he rides the short bus. Maybe Whoopi and Walters could explain to you why Maher was not being mean.

To me, RE-tard is by its very nature a term of abuse and is always intended as such, while re-TAR-ded is an example of a once-respectable term that has fallen out of fashion, like “Negro” or “colored.” (Thus, the National Association for Retarded Citizens, founded in the early 1950s, now calls itself “ARC of America” in order to make the “R-word” less prominent.)

So, Whoopi Goldberg is technically correct in the very limited sense that if a senior citizen who isn’t very media-savvy were to use the term “retarded”, one might give them a pass for it. Just as certain senior citizens might get a pass for referring to Ms. Goldberg as “a colored woman” — because once upon a time, “retarded” and “colored” were polite terms used in respectable society. (But an 80-year-old who says “RE-tard” or “n*gger” is less likely to be excused, unless he or she is in the grips of dementia, because those words have never been polite.)

On the other hand, in Maher’s case, using “re-TAR-ded” is arguably worse than “RE-tard” — because media-savvy Maher knows perfectly well that “re-TAR-ded” is nowadays widely considered insensitive, despite the fact that it may persist as a “legacy usage” in the names of various groups advocating for the mentally disabled.

So when someone like Maher says “Trig Palin is re-TAR-ded,” it’s as though a white Republican were to call Obama “our first Negro president,” while deliberately pronouncing it “NIG-grow” instead of “KNEE-grow” — and then disingenuously protesting that the word is still used by the United Negro College Fund, etc.

I agree 100% that it’s incredibly low to mock people who can’t mock back.

Maher knows better. He’s an ass.

Goldberg lamely tried to assist Walters, saying “we, society took the word ‘retarded’ and made it into something derogatory…When I was a kid, it wasn’t derogatory…”

Bullfeathers!

I have no idea what constituted Whoopi’s culture parameters when she was a kid, but no one has ever used the word “retarded” as a benign and colorless form of identifying objective normalcy. “Retarded” actively identifies a condition of being abnormal.

Because of the pejorative use of the slang epithet “retard” to infer a reserved seat on the short bus, “retarded” has joined the long list of politically incorrect words. Maher and Goldberg and especially Walters are stretching credulity beyond its limits by claiming an innocent and harmless use of the word.

I can not imagine Walters introducing her sister as retarded in any sort of blithe manner.

When one student expressing his views tells another student that his point is “retarded” he is not paying a compliment.

Until Bill Maher can produce the evidence that he was objectively discussing retardation and Sarah Palin’s son came in as a logical subject, I will have to believe that the word was not used by Maher as a message of good will. I base that on what words Maher has used to describe Sarah Palin. I might also note that both Whoopi and Walters also have that same generic slang slot between their legs. I don’t recall Maher reducing either of them to a vagina.

Didn’t we hear that once, in an old movie with Vincent Price? Or was it Bela Lugosi?

http://www.benefits.gov/

This is why the country is boned, by the way.

When a government program is ended, the vulturous political class in both parties swoop down to reassign the money “saved” on some other government bullish*t that has sprung up out of nowhere. Remember the “peace” dividend that was spent ten times over after the Berlin Wall fell?