A couple weeks back, I ended my commentary on the case of west Michigan housewife Janice Barton -- jailed for using the word "Spic" in a private conversation -- with the comment, "For it is not merely a far-fetched theoretical notion that they might use this new `politeness' puritanism to actually foreclose, shut down, stymie and disallow a vital public debate on issues of legitimate public concern by barring the very language by which their opponents may choose to express those ideas." Can I come up with an example? Glad you asked. I don't know that I've ever been...