Count me as a third

Kathy Shaidle: Finally: Two people agree with me that the Paralympics aren’t really that great, actually

Count me as a third ... and remember, my mother was a cripple (*), from birth: I know, as well as any able-bodied person can, what it is like to be crippled in body.

I also despise "handicap parking" -- which is just one more special privileges/victimization lottery for the well-off.

(I'm aware of this Frankie Boyle, and normally I'd agree that he's a boil upon the ass of humanity; but in this case, at least as reported by James Delingpole, he's right.)

(*) In case it was missed, let me emphasize my deliberate use of such an "offensive" word: 'cripple', as in, "My mother was a cripple" ... and I am not ashamed to call it as it was.


edit:
When my mother was growing up in the 1930s, it was common to treat crippled children as though they were 'retards' (*gasp* did he really go there?) and shuttle them off to the hell-holes that were that time's version of "special-needs education". These days, the fashionable 'we' treat them as pets (**) and patronize them. Of course, they also patronize their own children, so in a half-emply/half-full kind of way, perhaps patronizing can be seen as progress.


(**) I especially have in mind that disgusting manner that most women adopt when talking to at small children and pets ... and old people. And "the mentally challenged". If one pays attention, one will notice that this same sing-songy patronizing condescension is also generally employed when talking to at "the disabled" ... which is why it's so commonly used when talking to at old people.