KLS wrote:
On Tue, 17 May 2005 00:49:55 GMT, "George E. Cawthon"
wrote:


Not an insult, just an illustration and a true
one. Apparently you can't stand the truth. Short
people are short, tall people are tall, old people
are old, and retarded people are retarded. No
matter how much you don't like it, people are not
equal and I can't hold a basketball hanging down
by one hand, and I can't and never will be able to
fire a 5 shots from a pistol in 44/100 seconds.
Reality keeps the 4 foot 5 inch guys from wasting
there life trying to perfecting their 30 perfect
football throw in the hopes of becoming a national
league football player.


I don't believe for one minute that you consider the words "short,"
"tall," and "old" to be insulting and demeaning in the same way and to
the same degree as "retarded," used in the same context and manner
that the original insulter intended. Derogatory language is not
necessarily the same thing as "the truth." Would you, for example,
feel similarly comfortable telling someone on this group who was
considering shopping at Mr. Seconds instead of a local cabinet
supplier, "Don't be such a Jew! Spend the money on better quality,"
just because it happens to be true that Jewish people frequently are
frugal money managers?

My point is that the original insulter has plenty of other choices
that do not cast aspersions on a particular, innocent group of people.


Your argument is a straw man as the OP didn't cast
aspersions on any innocent group of people. He
said special Olympics which indeed is mostly for
people with lower intelligence. Not innocent, not
guilty, just is.