Not in the best of taste (comparing a retarded child to a high-maintenance boat), but someone is easily offended. Does the OP have a child or relative who is afflicted with some form of mental retardation perhaps? If so, a simple note in that GQ thread would have sufficed, methinks.
Notice I didn’t “pit” the posters, because I actually respect Stranger a helluva lot, but I find it highly offensive used in such a throwaway manner. I pitted the term, the usage of the term. Which in my opinion was wrong. I don’t give a fuck what the normal pit piss stains (You know who you are, the ones who jump into any thread to throw in there worthless .02$ because you can) think about it, it offends me.
What’s right? There were two options in my question. Which one are you agreeing with?
Exactly.
Miller you’re smarter than that. Retarded can be used in a proper, respectable manner. Or a casual, flippant offensive manner. That usage was the latter.
Wrong. “Gay” or “Homosexual” is descriptive, without being offensive. “Fag” is (almost always) offensive, even if it is also descriptive.
Here’s a better analogy to what you’ve pitted:
Q: What’s it like being an epileptic?
A: Well, in some ways it’s like being gay. I was born that way, but people kind of ostracize me and act as if it’s somehow my fault, or that they might catch it, too, if they get too close to me.
I don’t think that would be particularly offensive.
I have such a massive mod crush on you it’s not even funny. This was really the funniest post I’ve read in, like, 3 years. Laugh out loud, tears rolling down my face funny. Good job. I needed that. 
I work in education and I haven’t heard the word “retarded” in the field for many years. “Developmentally delayed” is usually what one sees on IEPs and research studies.
That may be an unwarranted assumption.
Sooo… “no analogies” is the answer?
Yeah but it’s acceptable in all forms here because this is a board of enlightenment. One just must toe the line, since we have different races/religions/sexual orientations etc here we cannot even think about using anything to offend them (which is correct I might add) but since we do not have anyone “Developmentally delayed” the term retarded in any form is more than acceptable.
Well, now, I wouldn’t say that.
And I haven’t even emailed you a picture of someone’s penis yet! 
Keep the flirting outta my thread.
*isn’t it your tongue that gets all the ladies anyway?
Not an analogy that I would use but as long as Stranger knows the difference between words and deeds, no worries.
That’s an oversimplification. My lazy eye and crippling flatulence play important roles as well.
Hey, I ain’t no lady!
And I saw him first!
How about I e-mail you one of yours? NSFW!
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Okay, you’ve lost me. Now “retarded” is okay?
Anyway, what parents of retarded children need to do is remind other people at every opportunity that being retarded trumps all other problems, then cloak oneself in martyrdom and think up an alternate definition for the word.
This is interesting. The county department through which my kids get some services is called MRDD–as are the departments for the three adjoining counties through whom Deb has provided services in past years. The people running those outfits distinguish between mental retardation and developmental disability (although clearly putting them on a continuum) and I have never heard anyone working in any of those groups hold that “retarded” was offensive as long as it was not shortened to “retard” or used as a stand-alone insult (“That’s retarded.”)
I thought the original comment lacked grace, but it was hardly a pittable offense–particularly when one has to change the word used in order to extract the offense on the first try.
I figured someone of your standing could read a bit further and note that RETARDED carries the exact same “offensive” tag as all the other words.