Re: Correctness of bus-"master"ing

[Jo Francis Byrd <jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com>]

KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com wrote, in part:

snip <<By the way, you're hearing this from a guy who once gave in to a pack of
# -at- %&* and removed all occurrences of the word "rear" from a hardware manual, and
replaced them with "back", because somebody was titillated by "rear" and could
understand it only as "rump">>

Let's see....he (she?) is bringing up the rump (rump of WHAT? Roast beef? Roast
venison?)....Hitchcock's Rump Window.....

Sorry...the images that conjures.....

However, there is a serious issue here, quite apart from the master/slave
debate.

To those of us who live in countries which allow freedom of expression, this
amok political correctness is a real threat. It robs us of speech, of
expression, of stated opinion. We "shouldn't" say this, that, or the other
because we might offend someone's sensibilities.

You can bet there is NOTHING any of us can say that won't offend someone
somewhere! There is a difference between using an expression that accurately
describes something (double blind test, for example. That appeared in an ethics
situation in the STC Intercom sometime back) and deliberately using expressions
we know to be derogatory.

The example cited earlier about the official being forced to resign for his
temerity in using the word "niggardly" is an example. A perfectly acceptable
word, accurately describing the situation, but because some people did not know
the word, the man's career and reputation were damaged.

We live in dangerous times, gang. We need to keep our guard up. And our
vocabularies honed.


Jo Byrd