Re: string-length example

I like Shakespeare quotes, and even though I am a pacifist and a Mennonite 
at that, I'm not offended by this one.

But since two people, including one editor, are offended, perhaps we can 
choose among many other Shakespeare quotes? In my current mood, I like "A 
man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king"...

Jonathan

At 03:18 PM 9/10/2003, Jim Melton wrote:

>While I am not a devotee of political correctness, I strive to not 
>gratuitously offend others.  But saying that a famous, widely-known 
>quotation from arguably the most important writer in English literature, 
>is so offensive that we have to avoid it is astonishing.  (Note how I am 
>sincerely trying to avoid perjorative terms or attitudes!)
>
>I will also say that I personally know a couple of dozen lawyers, 
>including members of my family.  All of them know the quotation, none of 
>them are offended by it, all of them use it in their own conversations and 
>jokes with other lawyers and with clients, and none of them have expressed 
>the slightest discomfort with it.  So I find myself wondering why we are 
>debating whether to include a quotation that *might* be offensive to some 
>uneducated lawyer, even though significant personal experience 
>demonstrates that many --- probably most, perhaps nearly all --- lawyers 
>are not at all offended by it.
>
>I don't think that anybody who has studied English literature even in 
>small amounts believes that Shakespeare was actually proposing killing 
>anybody, much less wholesale slaughter of an entire class of people.  The 
>reason I would not be inclined to quote David Duke or Adolf Hitler is 
>because their statements are intended to hurt people directly and to 
>foment the physical destruction of classes of people.  That is, in my view 
>of the world, a very different thing.
>
>Sigh...
>    Jim
>
>
>
>At 06:55 PM 9/9/2003 +0200 Tuesday, Tobias Reif wrote:
>
>>scott_boag@us.ibm.com wrote:
>> >(I assume you would not quote David Duke or Hitler...
>>
>>Exactly.
>>A sentence does not get any better just because it has been written by a 
>>famous person.
>>
>>I still think that adding the source of the quote would improve the 
>>situation, but only slightly.
>>
>>Tobi
>>
>>--
>>http://www.pinkjuice.com/
>
>========================================================================
>Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL)     Phone: +1.801.942.0144
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>========================================================================
>=  Facts are facts.  However, any opinions expressed are the opinions  =
>=  only of myself and may or may not reflect the opinions of anybody   =
>=  else with whom I may or may not have discussed the issues at hand.  =
>========================================================================

Received on Wednesday, 10 September 2003 17:06:54 UTC