I
Ibrahim Al-Qassam \(Abdelaziz\)
Flightless Bird
Bill Yanaire's condition is deteriorating
Hios case is now classifed as:
Mental Retardation - Subnormal intellectual development or functioning that
is the result of congenital causes, brain injury, or disease and is
characterized by any of various deficiencies, ranging from impaired learning
ability to social and vocational inadequacy.
There is a cycle that repeats itself in the world of insults, having to do
with adopting scientific medical terms and using them as insults. The weird
rules that apply to "socially acceptable" insults eventually catches up to
the medical dictionary usurpers and the PC police try to shut them down.
Some insults, it seems, are just too insulting.
But the usurpers have traditionally won the battle, and the medical terms
are removed from the medical books, to live out eternity in the land of
misfit words.
For instance, the words idiot, imbecile and moron all started out as medical
terminology, not insults. So much a part of the acceptable lexicon were they
that the constitutions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and New
Mexico were written to say an "idiot" can't vote. New Jersey's constitution
says you can't vote if you are an "idiot" or "insane" (until the last
gubernatorial election, it appeared this provision of the New Jersey
Constitution was being fully ignored).
Some words, like midget, are still in medical dictionaries, but with a
disclaimer against usage as it is now a pejorative term.
Odd as it seems, America allows the purveyors of insults to trump the
purveyors of science in deciding which words are acceptable. Imagine a
doctor telling parents of a child, "I'm sorry, your son is an imbecilic,
idiot, retarded moron, destined to live out his life on public assistance or
as chairman of the Democratic National Committee."
The doctor would have used nothing but scientific terms, but all would agree
his bedside manner is atrocious and his civility beneath that of a treating
physician. The medical terms are now insults. Don Rickles wins.
Hios case is now classifed as:
Mental Retardation - Subnormal intellectual development or functioning that
is the result of congenital causes, brain injury, or disease and is
characterized by any of various deficiencies, ranging from impaired learning
ability to social and vocational inadequacy.
There is a cycle that repeats itself in the world of insults, having to do
with adopting scientific medical terms and using them as insults. The weird
rules that apply to "socially acceptable" insults eventually catches up to
the medical dictionary usurpers and the PC police try to shut them down.
Some insults, it seems, are just too insulting.
But the usurpers have traditionally won the battle, and the medical terms
are removed from the medical books, to live out eternity in the land of
misfit words.
For instance, the words idiot, imbecile and moron all started out as medical
terminology, not insults. So much a part of the acceptable lexicon were they
that the constitutions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and New
Mexico were written to say an "idiot" can't vote. New Jersey's constitution
says you can't vote if you are an "idiot" or "insane" (until the last
gubernatorial election, it appeared this provision of the New Jersey
Constitution was being fully ignored).
Some words, like midget, are still in medical dictionaries, but with a
disclaimer against usage as it is now a pejorative term.
Odd as it seems, America allows the purveyors of insults to trump the
purveyors of science in deciding which words are acceptable. Imagine a
doctor telling parents of a child, "I'm sorry, your son is an imbecilic,
idiot, retarded moron, destined to live out his life on public assistance or
as chairman of the Democratic National Committee."
The doctor would have used nothing but scientific terms, but all would agree
his bedside manner is atrocious and his civility beneath that of a treating
physician. The medical terms are now insults. Don Rickles wins.