Seasons

Well, *were* they clients? Were they paying you for a service? Or were they merely consuming public funds?

I can see why someone would object to being called a victim. Calling someone a victim isn't far off from calling them a mark. Unless they really are victims -- casualties of the acts of others who could not reasonably be expected to have prevented it.

In another language, French I think, it means late. When I was studying in Israel we had a lot of fun with that whenever a student was late getting on the bus. We also had fun with the technical definition of "moron" which is someone with the mental capacity of a 7-12 year old. So if you call a six-year-old a moron, it's actually a compliment.

Mr. Crab, I haven't forgotten your discussion, I just haven't been alert enough to think hard when I've been at home and online.

I don't remember it now Eugene, but I'm sure any debate will be fun...

"en retard" is a 'complex verb', meaning "to be late"

don't you just miss english class?

I got one of the good library computers today, but it´s the one with the Spanish keyboard. I´m not familiar with the layout and I keep making typos.

Mr. Crab: good point. They weren't paying me. It was the government.

I hung out with retarded/autistic people at their small, usually part-time jobs for one of two reasons: they had the minds of small children, or they had a history of criminal violence. Injuring people to the point of hospitalization, raping anything on two legs, that sort of thing. Why the second category wasn't locked up for the rest of their natural lives is beyond me.

Yeah, they were consumers. But I still don't like that term. It makes them sound like savvy customers checking Consumer Reports, Epinions, etc. before they buy. It would mean they had the power.

Well what you call retarded people is hardly the peak of the problems of political correctness.

Yes, those aren't really consumers, but we have a very adequate phrase for them: welfare recipients. Though I agree with you, someone who poses an imminent danger to those around him needs to be isolated.

There's a difference between retards & welfare recipients. A welfare recipient can eventually get a job and be useful to society, whereas a retard will always be a retard. And actually, most retards aren't technically on welfare, they're on SSI (i.e. disability).

Maybe if I show Bush my website, I can get on disability.

I always thought of welfare recipients as anyone who gets money from the public but is not employed by it.