Free Republic

There are no words for the horror of Rotherham.More than 1,400 young girls have been raped and brutally exploited in the northern England town of roughly 250,000 over the past 16 years,while nearly everyone in authority did all he or she could to look the other way.An independent investigation released last week says: “It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated.”In other words, the local government tolerated sexual violence on a vast...

Golfer Tiger Woods has been criticised for saying he played like 'a spaz'. Can using the word ever be right? Two years ago I was involved in a linguistic incident at work. I called a disabled colleague a spaz after hearing he'd spilt coffee over yet another expensive bit of computer kit. My colleague laughed it off. It was a friendly bit of banter - spaz in this case meaning I thought he was being a bit of a stereotype like the helpless disabled people you used to see in telethons and charity posters. I use the term with irony...

Much frustration and despair results when the average non-brainwashed human is confronted with the mindlessly sterile political correctness that infects the higher educated strata of our society. Actually, outside the internet and selected television shows, there are few sanctuaries available for the habitually anti-PC. Today, as another commentator has stated, the golden rule is reversed. We are expected to be “sensitive” to everyone we meet, which in essence, means treating others as they’d like to be treated rather than how you yourself would like to be treated. This adds considerable stress to interactions as it’s impossible to know, by...