Years back I came sooo close to smacking a fellow in Safeway upside the head when he asked if my daughter was retarded.

Brucie, what's the matter with "retarded"? My son Hans (now 31) is retarded; "retarded"--slowed up in development. Nothing wrong with that.

Hans could also described as a Down Syndrome person, or trisomy 21, true enough, but that's only one form of retardation.   

Nothing wrong with "retarded".    Now, "He's a REE-tard" is a different matter, because there an insult is intended by the deliberate twisting of the word.   And even misusing the expression as a noun, "a retard", without the deliberate mispronunciation, is offensive.

Dave Oesterreich