You’re a bigot if you utter the word “Negro” – even though Negro is not a slur, merely outdated. If you don’t believe me, just ask Harry Reid.
You’re a bigot if you use the word “retarded” – even though the word used to be used in polite company all the time, but now, like Negro, it’s been relegated to the junk heap of language. Paging Rahm Emanuel.
You’re a bigot, believe it or not, if you use the word “midget.” Little People is now the preferred term.
Which brings us to Leslie Calhoun, the cook at the NBC commissary who is in hot water because she thought it was a good idea to serve soul food in the dining hall during Black History Month. NBC took down the menu and offered a contrite apology to anyone who was offended. This raises a question:
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?
What was this woman – who by the way is black – supposed to serve for Black History Month? Sushi? Matzoh ball soup?
“All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy — and that I eat myself,” Ms. Calhoun said. .
The woman, obviously, is a monster.
Let’s face it, there are people in our culture who derive their power from being offended. And there are people who make a pretty good living off of being offended. Hey, I’m not advocating saying and doing things to intentionally offend people, but enough of this hyper sensitivity is enough.
And here’s a piece of free advice for the word police: SHUT THE HELL UP!
We are becoming a nation of sissies. Uh oh, can I say sissies? If not, I sincerely apologize to any sissy I might have offended. And one more thing …
MIDGET.
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You missed a little something, Bernie. It’s not “midgets.” Aren’t you up on your Little Rascals? Stymie calls them “fidgets”.
Hey fellas! The fidgets are robbing the bank!
Oh! but CRACKER I guess is PROGRESSIVE! Once again the P.C. Police run-a-muck. Thank You
cut this stuff out, people are having too much fun reading it……
We must fight the Politically Correct Goon Squad (PCGS) when ever and where ever they attempt to slap us into their mold. Bernie, we are on the same page.
Oh yeah, MIDGET!
Bernie,
It is politically incorrect to refer to those with mental handicaps as “retards or retarded.” However, it is offensive to refer to so called “normal” people as acting retarded, looking retarded or being a retard. I worked with mentally handicapped adults for 20 years and now work with autistic children. At times the residents had more sense than the staff but they all had different areas that they were deficient in. As conservatives who decry abortion on demand we need to be more sensitive to those with special needs. Since liberals favor aborting those with disabilities you can see why they have contempt for them.
May I add to this the ban on Lego guns from schools. Somebody will have to serve in our military in the future and our boys are no longer allowed to talk guns or play guns. They are turning our boys into sissies.
In this information age, I can’t believe the ignorance that abounds about the word “negro”.
It is not an outdated word if you are Portugese. The word negro is Porutgese for “black”.
A minibyte of history:
The Africans and Arabs have never completely been out of the slave business. When European countrys started colonizing the world, it was Portugal who started buying Negro slaves from the stronger tribes of West Africa to provide labor for the colonys. Thus the slave trade began and the word Negro was introduced into other European languages.
Another example of a foreign word in our language is “kindergarten”, from the German language.
Oh come on Bernie, how simplistic can you get. It wasn’t the use of the words ‘negro’ or ‘retarded’ that offended people. It was the context in which they were used. If you actually read or listened to what was said in the former, what Ried insinuated was that there is a ‘negro dialect’, and that its use could be an asset or a liability in running for the presidency. So please explain to me why a black man like myself should not find the term ‘negro dialect’ offensive?
As far as the NBC menu goes, what in the h*ll does soul food have to do with Black history month? Celebrating the accomplishments of black American’s suddenly has something to do with food groups eaten by some southerners? Personally I can’t remember the last time I ate any of that crap.
Then we have some ‘moron’ in the White House, excuse me if you find that word offensive, calling people ‘f*cking retarded’ because they don’t agree with him, and not even this is offensive to you.
Well, Mr. Goldberg, your commentary deserves an “F”. You seemed to have focused on words and not context. Maybe you should go back to the drawing board and try this again. And as far as the ’sissy’ and ‘midget’ references, again, it’s all about context, and this time it’s you who offends, not the words.
Larry, I’m a white southerner—does that conjure up any notions in your mind? I’m a son of a southeast Kentucky coal miner. I grew up there and somehow graduated with honors in college and then got into Yale for grad school. When I went north (I’d never been before) I was made fun of for my southern mountain accent. I’m sure I was looked down on more times than I really was aware of and many laughed at me behind my back.
You know something, I lived with it. I didn’t go whining or crying to the word police––it would not have done me any good. After all, I was a bumpkin from the south and that made bigotry and hatred of me politically acceptable. Later I became Catholic….and then I became Conservative. As the saying goes, consider all that and just let me know how else I can piss you off today.
I was refused jobs, even though I was the best candidate, because I was a southern, a male, a white man and a Catholic…I was told as much by an honest college administrator. Instead they picked a minority woman who had nothing of my background and experience…who was fired in a year because she couldn’t do the job well and couldn’t get along with others.
I didn’t whine. I didn’t mount a law suit. I went my way and it turned out much better for me. And when I succeeded I succeeded in the real world of business, and it wasn’t because I had the government, unfair legislation, the word police, hiring laws and a battery of crooked lawyers behind me. It was because I was actually outstanding at what I did, and no other reason.
There are groups here in America that have nothing but thin skin because that’s how they bully their way and grasp power. It makes me sick, and racial politics and class warfare is destroying what good remains of the nation for ALL of us.
There is a black dialect—several in fact. There is a mountain twang accent—several in fact. And if someone presented them self to the public for office or some high position speaking like some hay seed from the backwoods of my home I wouldn’t be the least offended or surprised if he was rejected out of the chute. And if some black stepped up for the same position, talking black Chicago street lingo ((what ever that is) and couldn’t string two sentences together without making half a dozen basic errors in grammar and was treated like the southern hay seed–you shouldn’t be offended or surprised either. People are rejected in public for more things than color. In fact, color is the least of it. That’s how classy guys like Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Walter Williams, Tom Sowell and Clarence Thomas were embraced and are sincerely admired by a wide number of people across racial and cultural lines. (Actually, the only people I know who reject Thomas are those blacks who make big profit off welfare pimping and telling other blacks they can’t make it without their help.)
We’ve all experienced rejection and difficulty. Some Irish were driven out of ancestral homes of 13, 14, 20 generations by the British just because they were Catholic––their priests were shot on sight and had to say mass on the moors using large stones as altars. If they were caught they were executed.
But here in America, so much power is gained by certain self-appointed leaders using racial politics as a fear tactic they serve as role models that teach others they can do the same.
The result is that some people are obsessed that everything is about race. That’s what they’re taught; it’s in their mother’s milk. They’re like open, angry wounds looking for a dagger.
There is real racial hatred, and that kind of behavior does not reduce it. Quite the contrary, it foments it and stirs it up. What’s more, it’s like crying wolf; once you do it so many times for so many trivial reasons people just stop fearing and stop taking you seriously.
As I see it, just as we must take life one day at a time, we should take people one person at a time, and, for God’s sake, stop looking for any thing that is said that can be remotely construed or twisted as malicious and bigoted. Let me tell you, if you’re sick enough in the head, if you’re bigoted enough yourself you’ll obsessively look until you find some thing. I know feminists like that too. I know a feminist who told me I only liked Aristotle and St. Thomas because, according to her feminist orthodoxy, they hated women. (That was news to me, but she would hear none of it. I was a woman hater, a misogynist, pure and simple.)
What a horrible way to live life.
Early on I learned to not force myself on others who didn’t want me around–there were a lot of those because I wasn’t very popular growing up. What did I do. I just didn’t show up. That last thing on earth I would have dreamed of would have been getting parents, teachers, administrators, lawyers and courts to force them to associate with me. If we all did that and went our way, if we simply let birds of a feather flock together, it would be a better world, and one with a lot less hateful people. Yes, there is a problem with those of different skin in America, but the skin problem is not a color problem. It’s a thickness problem. Grow up.
PS
I grew up on some of that food on the NBC list. It’s something white southerners shared with blacks, but blacks usually made it better. It’s not crap. It was grown in our gardens, raised in our chicken houses, without chemicals or hormones, and it was damned good!
Good column, Bernie, thank you. When I was growing up, my grandmother used to make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day. She was on the Irish side of the family. Was that an anti Irish statement of some sort? Of course not! She was celebrating the day. The chef in the NBC cafeteria was doing the same thing that my grandmother used to do on St. Paddy’s Day. Cooking ethnic food to celebrate a holiday is a fun way to celebrate your ethnicity. How silly!
Have to disagree with you on the word, retarded, however. There were bullies in the neighboorhood in Brooklyn where I grew up who used to make fun of special needs kids. They used that word often. Young people today need to learn to be more respectful and tolerant of special needs children than they were in my day. Calling out Rahm Emanuel or any other public figure on misusing that word is the right thing to do. Besides, I can think of a lot of names to call the democrats, Emanuel doesn’t have to use that word
Great appearance on Bill O’Reilly the other night, Bernie. Thank you for telling the President that he can’t always control the conversation. This IS a democracy. He seems to have a problem with Fox News not playing ball like the rest of the lapdog media. Too bad. There is a thing called Freedom of the Press, remember?
Kathy, saying someone is “retarded” is not meant as an insult to those who actually are through no fault of their own. It’s only an insult to those who are acting that way and know better.
Sometimes it’s just a common way of saying some one is acting stupid. 999+ times out of a thousand people don’t say such things with malice aforethought directed at those unfortunate souls who suffer from various retarded conditions. Their malice is directed at those they are talking to and nothing more.
Unless there is also something else that’s indicates otherwise I think you’re wise to take it as that and let it be. We all say things all the time others can easily misconstrue––if they’re so minded.
What is needed in such cases is good will. I come from the mountains of Southeast Kentucky, and I was taught by word and example to assume a good will on the behalf of others until they prove otherwise. We need a lot more of that attitude nowadays to diffuse the government enforced racial politics and political correctness that feeds on and profits from keeping us suspicious, divided and hating each others.
A sense of humor goes a long way. And it really pisses off someone who is genuinely malicious, because they want to be taken seriously and to be responded to in kind.
Don’t give them the satisfaction, and…stop talking like a retard. Okay.
You, Mister Ridenour, would never use the word “retard” in a demeaning way to a person that suffers from Mental Retardation, or to a parent of a chld that has it. You know it would be insulting to do so. That being the case, explain why it is acceptable to use it in that manner at all?
You’re right about one thing – that usage certainly is “common”. In all kinds of ways.
Remember the 9 or 10 days after 9/11 when there were no blacks, whites, no straights, gays, democrats, republicans? We were all on the same page. It was the first time in my life (b. 1960). Then after day 10 I picked up the Boston Globe to read one of their front page story/editorials about one of their pet victims. It all ended and it’s been the same old same old. And make no mistake, a ton of it is anti-white male. It’s always US who are doing the offending.
America is suffocating with political correctness. Time for another PC revolution
When does this insanity end?
it doesn’t end instantly
it ends with “midget”
Bernie,
Rarely do I find my self at odds with your commentary but I have a slight issue with this topic and here’s why. Consistency. It’s not there. I think we r a hyper-sensitive society. But it’s become such an issue when a conservative says something deemed “offensive”, as opposed to equally offensive comments made by liberals. And we all know this. So I do commend Sarah Palin for making a big deal out of this. If she did not, then it may have slipped by us. And I can’t blame her for taking offense to that remark. As a mother, it is a natural instinct to protect her “cubs”. I don’t think anyone can argue with that.
To sum it up: keep it consistent!
Bernie– Emmanuel said “retard” not “retarded”. Big difference, don’t you think?
Nope, it’s not. Intent is what’s important here, and you’re obviously trying to excuse Emmanuel’s social ineptitude.
Bernie –
I agree to a point. Somewhere along the line “retard” became synonymous with “dimwit”. I don’t think many would appreciate our kids, parents, spouses, etc being called dimwits, which does lend itself to an interpretation of inferiority. I am defending this group of people because, they are vulnerable and well, its the right thing to do.
Dear Mr. G., Caught your guest slot on Mr. O’Reilly’s show.Why did I get the feeling ,Bill, was truly asking: “What have I gotten myself into?” Haven’t watched the show for weeks, and it was a real treat catching your segment. Your cowhide covered thoughts hit the sweet spot of white ash. Am I a bigot for calling the ash white? When using the term, old hickory, are we offending all aged hickory? Has our nation become pusillanimous? Of course let’s not make a citizen feel uncomfortable. Does it simply boil down to: “It’s not what you say, but how you say it?” How should I know? I’m a Boy!
Mr. Goldberg:
Over the months there have been many times I know you would’ve gotten standing ovations for putting out the message of how ludicrous PC has gotten. The “give me a tissue and then I’ll lawyer up” crowd that thinks if their little feelings are hurt it’s a crime needs to move on.
Would I purposely denigrate another human being by using a term or name I knew to be hurtful to him/her? No. But do we understand how ridiculous we’ve become? “The ‘N’ word, the ‘R’ word, the ‘B’ word, the ‘F’ word…” We sound like a bunch of lunatics. Just because I use the letter doesn’t change the fact that you know what I mean when I say it.
The best example I recall of how this kind of overdo on sensibilities is driving us to isolate into groups of like-minded people instead of risking what could otherwise be good relationships was a day when my Italian father was upset and self-righteously huffing and puffing that someone had called him a WOP. My 4′10″ Italian grandmother walked up behind him in his chair, flat-palmed him to the back of the head and said, “Get over it! It just meant ‘WithOut Papers’ when we were coming through Ellis Island.”
Yes, she flat-palmed him to the back of the head. There’s a reason why some stereo-types gain traction in the general public.
I have rarely been so disappointed in someone as intelligent and thoughtful as you. I’m the mom of a beautiful, charming daughter with intellectual disabilities. Someone you would prefer to call plain old retarded. Have you lost all semblance of simple compassion? If these people and their family members are now speaking up and explaining to you that it is hurtful to use the word, shouldn’t that be enough? Do you really need to rue the fact that it is no longer okay to use the word in polite company? You are too intelligent to hide behind the smoke screens of free speech and political correctness. This is just about common decency. Using words like midget, retard, or any ethnic slur is beneath you. You should have the courage to admit your mistake and call on people to listen to the better angels of their nature.
Enough…Enough………Just don’t start defaming us “Texan-Americans”. O. K. ?????
As I read your article Jackson and Sharpton came to mind.
The Democrats, especially people of color, including the hypocritical Sharpton were scurrying around like rats coming to the defense of Reid.
Speaking of Reid. This is what he said about Trent Lott in 2002:
At a birthday party for noted longtime Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, Lott said this: “I want to say this about [Mississippi, which Lott represented]: When Strom Thurmond ran for president [in 1948, as a Dixiecrat], we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”
Trent Lott resigned.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2002 agreed with former Sen. Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) decision to resign his leadership role after Lott made what some felt were racist remarks at former Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party.
“He had no alternative,” said Reid at the time claiming, “If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.”
Is that rich or what?
Just imagine if Sarah Palin, Mitch McConnell, or Joe Wilson described Obama as a… light-skinned African-American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one. I hate to think what would happen if Beck or O’reilly said it.
Bernie: I always enjoy your “Factor” segments. Also, your last 2 books ( “Slobbering Love Affair” and “Media Bias”. I particularly found your HBO Real Sports bit on “air tag”, etc…fascinating. I just accidentally stumbled onto that segment. Wow!! How disturbing.
Anyway, keep up your great work! Most often, I find myself in complete 100% agreement with your opinions
As a semi-retired ( not by my own choosing ) and 35+ year vet of the Ad agency biz ( Young and Rubicam ), I find your contributions on the media to ALWAYS be of special interest.
I’m looking forward to your next piece.
Hey Bernie, Did you watch Jon Stewart in the No Spin Zone?
The full and unedited exchange between Bill and Jon Stewart.
http://www.billoreilly.com/video?chartID=554&vid=194554720156101071
Check it out.
Sir,
I get your point and agree that political correctness has gone too far, but not in all instances. Reid is criticized for saying “Negro,” but I’ve heard Oprah say it. It’s as offensive as Caucasion. I have worked with people with developmentally disabilities. Doctors and psychiatrists may, in a written diagnosis, assess someone as being “mildly retarded,” but many supervisors of field workers will object to them using the term. I was very upset with the President’s so-called joke about the Special Olympics and was happy to see Dennis Miller get loud about it on his segment on the O’Reilly show. O’Reilly had nothing to add. Not a word. I do know that some people use the word towards another to liken them to a person with a developmental disability. Particularly, kids. When they say it, ask them what they meant. Were you ever made fun of as a child or an adult? How often do you think it happens to children and adults with disabilities? It happens a lot and usually because the instigators know there is no chance of their heads getting cracked by someone who is not as physically or mentally able as them.
I would not be suprised if many people could not recite the definition of the word. The columnist Leonard Pitts once compared Hugo Chavez to an autistic boy holding or looking at a globe. I was halfway through the column when I read it. I stopped reading and called him (it was a Sunday). I got his voice mail and left a message. I told him it was not funny and he should consider what folks who are afflicted with a disability, and their family members, go through. I left my name, address, and phone number and I never heard from him. He probably wrote a column soon thereafter about how we all have to help one another, because he’s a writer and they want what is best for us. “Larry the Cable Guy” has a retarded cousin in his act. Lisa Lampanelli, in her act, says its cheaper to adopt a child with a developmental disability. You don’t have to send them to college. Well, as the humanist Whoopi “It’s not rape, rape” Goldberg would say, what they do is art and it’s protected by the First Amendment. Apparently, all ideas are good ideas and if an artiste has pieces of fecal matter in his or her thought process, well, they should share it with us all. There is a coarseness in this country and it has diminished our civilization.
Civilization requires traditions and boundaries. Even the law, which is sometimes an ass, has given special consideration to infants and those with diminished capacities, for centuries.
It is not too much too ask the President of the United States of America not to make jokes about the Special Olympics and the people who compete there. (Note that the President joked in public, but did not apologize in public.)
Ultimately, the point with that other guy — my list of nice people keeps getting longer — Rahm Emanuel, is how he used the word. Was he describing a person or a process? Some things and some people are out of bounds for mockery and derision , and that is not political correctness.
Michael Misczuk
Port Jervis, NY
You know as a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, having been put through humiliation and abuse by especially the liberal progressive crowd, I think you people who are insulted so easily should grow a tougher hide and SUCK….IT….UP..!
Firehawk, I propose we use the word “jarhead” from now one to denote a lack of intelligence.
That’s so jarheaded. What a jarhead. Are you some kind of jarhead? Never go full jarhead.
Let’s use it over and over in the most demeaning and dehumanizing way. I’ll start today.
Kudos to you Bernie….you were correct when you appeared on “America Live” with Megyn Kelly….we were standing, cheering and applauding you when you spoke out about the rediculous extent of “political correctness” in this country for the sake of offending someone or some group. We all enjoy a Constitutional protection to free speech and others dicating my use of a particular word or words infringes on that right. You bring common sense to the conversation. Thanks. Oh, and by the way…..MIDGET MIDGET MIDGET;)
Perhaps people still don’t want to understand what our president is. He is a half-breed, technically a mulatto, one who has one parent who is white and one who is black. For those who want to refer to him as our 1st black president, I can say he is our 44th white president….!!!!. I think you politically correct people should start referring to us honkys as European- Americans.
I have never been sao compelled to type on sites like this before with this type of sentiment, but I love my Country. I have I have been willing to give my life for 25 years in the Marines and love you all. I may not be the most educated, or the best speller but I promise you I love all of my country men-and- women. I may not share the same experiences or I may be of your race or not but I am an american,. And America is in dire need of solid leadership and tauught “real world lessons” things that someone who has not traveled country wide or globally may understand. Not that you are ignorant but its not right that you get your information soley from media-there is soooooo (soory for the o’s I have daugters and try and to diferentaiate from texting and eamils lol) media, which includes entertainment is a huge, huge impact on our society. If you do not believe me ask any kid in America what happen to the “T’s” in our language it used to be Kitten now its Ki en. It used to be Mountain now its Mou an… Ask your kids to say “Ricky Martin Climbed the Mountain to save the kitten “and really listen to what you hear, lol..I am not trying to get on anybodys band wagon by saying this, but in my opinion Americns leadershiop lshould look into stop dividing the Country by saying its a holiday for these people for this week, or this month. Maybe we should listen to Martin Luther Kings message of ” not to judge people by its color, but rather by its content of character. Maybe OUR country if we must divide be more of the good and the bad. All races have excellers, giving, educated, uneducated, athletes, crimimals, and any other type of people that can grace a nation.
Mr. Carlile, thanks for your 25 years service to this country as a Marine. God bless you.
It was my honor
Yes, Mr. Carlie, thank you so much for serving so that we can still have this kind of open dialogue and freedom to put it out for any who care to read!
Mr. Goldberg,
The purpose of this letter and my registering serves to hopefully educate you that words have meaning.
Now, I know you are an educated man and you are probably aware of that, but I’m a little unsure of that when you propose on national television that people are hyper-sensitive to the word “retard” or “Fng Retard” as attributed to Rahm Emanuel.
I must write to you to make you aware of something.
People who are “retarded” and those who treat and care for them refer to the condition as “mentally challenged” because the word “retarded” is so hurtful to them.
Yes, as surprising as it may seem, there are many “mentally challenged” people who understand the word “retarded” and they understand it is demeaning and it refers to them.
People in the position of Rahm Emanuel or even you have the mental sophistication to not use such words come off as the truly mentally challenged, you have a choice. The mentally challenged, those who have no say in how sophisticated there speech is, very rarely refer to others so derogatorily.
Why don’t you make it your business to find out how hurtful that word is to mentally challenged people? Find a home for them in your neighborhood and refer to them to their faces as retards and note the look on there faces.
If you can’t find one, next time your in Chicago I’ll take you to the group home my mentally challenged brother lives at, Orchard Village in Skokie, IL.
He’s been a grocery bagger for Jewel Food Stores for a couple of decades and has never missed a day of work. I assure you, if you stood in the check-out line and said, “Hey, look at the old retard bagging groceries.” he would know you were referring to him and he would no what you were saying wasn’t nice. You would see the pain on his face.
Respectfully,
CEG
P.S. man-up and unlock your “contact us” thread.
Is it any less demeaning to say, “Hey, look at that old mentally challenged guy bagging groceries.”??? I think he would know that he was being referred to and he would know it was not a complimentary comment. You see, sir, it depends on how the words or phrases are used in context. Bernie is quite right when he says people are hypersensitive. How about the guy who perceives any comment about his Mother has to be an insult..? Hypersensitive..!
Bernie,
Thanks for your call to our nation of oversensitive speech monitors “to just chill.” As an African
American it is offensive to me for Blacks and Whites who think they need to speak on behalf of Blacks, to talk about how offended they are about the most harmless of comments or actions. Many of the items on this NBC menu will be served in Black Churches and other organizations all over our country in observance of Black History Month. Harry Reid’s reference concerning Obama not having a Negro dialect is in my opinion quite different in the
sense that it can be viewed by many in our community that Reid is intentionally rejecting the name we choose for ourselves (Black or African-America) while continuing to refer to us in the
terms of White oppression. Referring to Obama as “light skinned” lends itself to several negative racial suggestions. One being the thinking that light skinned Blacks are more acceptable to White America than dark skinned Blacks. But as far as the NBC menu is concerned, bring on the “soul food.”
Thanks for drawing the distinction, Reverend. Various guests in our household throughout the years have been incredulous that for some of the holiday meals we skipped the turkey or ham and went with the traditional spaghetti & meatballs of our Italian heritage. I didn’t take it that they were prejudiced against Italians.
Is there an official reason for the change in spelling of the names Omar and Osama to Umar and Usama? My impression was that it was polital correctness because of the similar sound of Obama. Somehow Umar Khyan or Umar the Tentmaker just doesn’t sound right.
Maybe Al Qaeda changed Osama Bin Laden’s name because they didn’t want any similarities. That’s it! I must’ve missed one of his Al Jazzeira broadcasts. I have always been a good speller and am pretty sure I missed at least one of the proper names in the above.
I too have enjoyed all the political correctness I can stand.
Bernie, you are awesome….do they still slobber over him? ugh
Bravo Jim Allen
Bernie – For Pete’s sake, let O’Reilly talk when you are his guest. Just mumble a few words, then wait for him to interrupt. You can count on his interruptions whevever you’re making any kind of salient point.
Bernie,
We are retired Marines that recently were interviewed for an article by a Major newspaper how we transitioned from Marines to civilian business owners. The story was how we learned hardknocked lessons that hurt our pocket books immensley . Any how what I thought was funny was I recieved like 20 phone calls and the article just came out saying they cant believe we said we give employees “Ass Chewings” when its called for and” boost them up” when they need it. You can google the article by googleing: Steve Carlile and Joe Araya and Servpro… Anyhow I do think with all my heart that we have created a numb, politically correct, Oprafried, hold your true thoughts in society. I have so many situations in the millitary and civlilian world that I have seen that just isnt right. No wonder our ourput on a world scale and business is suffering. Why would a country want to do business in America wilth all of our special interestt groups, friivulous law suits. We have created such a soft society its ridiclous.. Steve Carlile
Oi vey, Bernie, oi vey!
Did the word police see this yet,,,,I dont know, they didn’t contact me yet….oh, my, what have I done? Oi vey.
What city is the backdrop of Bernie’s comments on the O’Reilly Factor?
Thanks, Bill
BRAVO! I just heard your comments on the O Rielly show about Obama being thin skinned, and I think it’s about time someone called him out for what he is. Bravo.
I agree with Bernard Goldberg’s comments on the recent skewering of Rahm Emauel for the use of the word “retarded” in the predicate adjective form.
The word “negro” is a legitimate racial term taken to mean dark-skinned people from African origins. It would certainly seem to not be very meaningful to most anyone to refer to light-skinned Libyan immigrants to America as Afro-Americans which they actually are. The word midget refers to a very small, but well proportioned person in contrast to a dwarf, a smaller variety of animal or plant, being ill-proportioned if a homo sapiens. Midget means smaller than usual (e.g., midget racers). If I were casting a movie and the role called for a midget, and I was provided with a dwarf, I would be upset. Note that in this case, both the midget and dwarf have both experienced retarded growth in their lifetime. They are “retarded growth people”. Retarded means slower than expected or restrained growth, uptake, speed, etc.. Emauel was probably correct when he referred to his audience as “bleeping retarded” from his perspective. I would expect Rahm believes most people are “retards” compared to himself. Now if he had referred to his audience as a bunch of retarded negro midgets he probably would have been inaccurate in his description, but we were not there to verify his descriptions, were we?
Jim Allen
Good article, but will it make a difference?
“there are people in our culture who derive their power from being offended”, B. Goldberg. That’s it, Bernie…that’s the quote I’ve been looking for to tame my very liberal son and daughter-in-law, when they’re on their pc soapbox. Thank you! Great article!
That’s very small of you.
I’m having a hard time typing because I am laghing so hard. Bernie, excellent form of tongue in cheek to get your point across. I haven’t seen this from you in a while, but Bravo!
Here! Here! Political correctness has destroyed freedom and is in the process of destroying this country in general. I have been an unidentified minority all my life (French Canadian descent) and could care less about the “denigrating’ terms (Canuck?, frog, etc). Context has always been the key in my book.
Thank God for your clear thinking. There are days you reset my baromenter.
Bravo Bernie!! I’m sick of the word police. Next they will be up in arms about the label on a toddler’s pajamas. “flame retardant”.
Perhaps later, if someone rolls their eyes they will be accused of being eyeball bigots.