As to, for instance, calling my wife a slut or some other vile term, they'd be plain idiots. She died some years ago. Were she still alive, I shouldn't envy the chap who made such a stupid comment. She'd have had one HELL of a lot of sport at his or their expense, trust me on that! (grinning, thinking about it...)
His or their contract wouldn't be renewed, of course, but not out of pique. If they're that uninformed and/or his or their judgment is so poor as to say something so ridiculous, presumably in public, then speaking broadly, I believe the proper thing to do would be to put a microscope on their performance, and I similarly believe VERY strongly they'd fall short there. A demonstrated lack of logical process is very, very costly when designing a highly expandable and dynamic set of databases, wouldn't you agree?
SAJ, I'd like to take you out to dinner and have a good debate, but I'll settle for a late night give and take. I think we're parsing pennies at this point. We both have different business philosophies, but I don't imagine that we're that far apart. I'm really sorry to hear about your wife, btw.