Slang Versus Profanity

Is there a descriptive word in the English language that isn't offensive to somebody? I'm thinking of all who have been accused of hurling slurs when they've done no more than use slang.

The current flap is over Rahm Emanuel accusing liberal activists of being, "f______ retarded". It took Sarah Palin a nano second to come forth and decry it as a slur on all God's children with cognitive and developmental disabilities. I'm sure that is exactly what Emanuel was thinking when he said it.

Recently, too, Harry Reid was castigated for referring to Obama as a Negro. Gasp. Horror of horrors! And of course awhile back there was the now infamous incident when Don Imus referred to the Rutgers girls basketball team as 'nappy-headed hos', slang used with great frequency by many of the girls' own race.

Oh yes, we must be politically correct and not offend anyone. Rush Limbaugh and his feminazis! I can remember when Italians were Wops, Mexicans were Beaners and Indians Ragheads. Slang. Descriptive. Be offended if you so choose.

I, however, am far more offended by the f-word Emanuel used preceding retarded. He uses it with abandon so it is said, just as it is on just about every program on the Comedy Channel. It has no business in the vocabulary of the President's chief of staff. Why Jon Stewart has to use it with the frequency he does escapes me. It does not make a skit funny. In fact I've gotten to the point of turning him off more and more frequently because of the sexually explicit language he and his cast use.

If there is a good side to all this it's that we will soon talk like we text. In abbreviated versions of the words we mean to use. The r-word, n-word. I'm the M-word writing a p-word on my b-word.

No one will have a c-word what we're talking about but at least we won't o-word anyone!