"If you're bored by this conversation why are you here?"

Ha! ;-) Because I'm a silly, terminally bored son-of-a-gun with way too much time on his hands, that's why. It gives me something to do. It's the equivalent of killing some time by chatting with the folks at the local diner, only it doesn't cost me anything, and I don't even have to walk out the front door.

Yeah, I find the word "retard" (when it's used as a noun) offensive. So I don't use it. And I don't like people who do.

If, however, I saw a comedian like Lenny Bruce use it deliberately in order to demonstrate through satirical means just how dumb it is to use that word to hurt other people...THAT I would not mind, because a useful point would then be made by that form of satire.

Likewise, I don't mind the specific use of the word "nigger" in one line of the long Bob Dylan song about Hurrican Carter, because the entire song is an impassioned defence of the rights of Black people, and the context in which that world "nigger" is used in the line where it appears is not offensive at all, but appropriate.

Context is everything.

You don't judge by the word itself, you judge by the context.

And THAT interests me...seeing that distinction clearly and understanding...so in truth that's probably the real reason why I'm bothering to post on this specific thread.