I think most people would consider that unreasonable cumbersome and unnecessary.

But if you think it’s wise to google things on your blackberry or laptop to do fact-checking and verification of definitions while you have a discussion with someone, then all the power to you. I’m sure your friends will love it.

I thought you said in an earlier thread that you had never heard of the term.

What about “albatross”? Or even an original metaphor — “tapeworm” vel sim.?

That`s the problem when we allow ourselves to be controlled by the wishes of the language police. Everybody would be so afraid of offending one another that the language soon becomes like pablum ( I`m sorry if I offended the babies of the world ! ).

By constantly repeating these words Aaron invites Jack and others to instinctively vent their anger at a person they do not like. Such phrases as ” sheer viciousness of his invective ” and ” should be horsewhipped ” seem to show a deep anger in the writer more than any insight into an elected MP.
It is hoped that the anger of the language police does not also implicate the good people of Nepean.

Too much.

Back to the basement there Baird.

This isn’t to say one side is right, and the other wrong, but just that political opportunity is political opportunity in the eyes of political parties, regardless of how asinine the whole thing looks from the outside. It pains me to say this, but Poilievre didn’t mean it in a racial way, I’m convinced of that. That being said, by not say sorry if anyone was offended, this winds up playing in the news for longer than it should, and probably gets an extended shelf life thanks to his past.

He really should have changed it to quicksand — it still works, as far as the imagery goes: He could have described the top of Dion’s head disappearing under the muck as he’s sucked into the depths, and Ignatieff in full flail mode, grappling desperately for a rope so as to escape a similar fate.

(Yes, it’s distinctly possible I’ve put way more thought into this than whoever was on duty Friday during QP prep.)

C’mon – you don’t think Harper/Poilievre know? They’re using it on purpose to gear attention away from the government’s mess. So, Harper’s strategy is – doesn’t matter who you offend and little PP worships me so much he’s take the punches for me. I’m sorry, but this is sick.

The guy they really wanted already has a gig in Calgary West.

In the examples the PMO gave, one could simply replace “tar baby” with “sticky situation” and the sentences all sound fine, with no out of place, unwanted baby talk.

How hard can that be for a hard working MP? He had to apologize for our aboriginal citizens for his unclassy remarks.

I don’t know why CPC MPs want to fight for the right to use this term. I learned about the term as a racial slur before I knew it had a different original meaning so it sounds racist to my ears. However, one can tell when a person makes a genuine mistake and is sorry. Poilievre is not coming across as sorry.

Next…

“Is tar baby a racist term? Like most elements of language, that depends on context. Calling the Big Dig a tar baby is a lot different than calling a person one. But sensitivity is not unwarranted. Among etymologists, a slur’s validity hangs heavily on history. The concept of tar baby goes way back, according to Words@Random from Random House: “The tar baby is a form of a character widespread in African folklore. In various folktales, gum, wax or other sticky material is used to trap a person.” The term itself was popularized by the 19th-century Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, in which the character Br’er Fox makes a doll out of tar to ensnare his nemesis Br’er Rabbit. The Oxford American Dictionary defines tar baby much like Romney used it, “a difficult problem, that is only aggravated by attempts to solve it.” But the term also has had racial implications. In his book Coup, John Updike says of a white woman who prefers the company of black men, “some questing chromosome within holds her sexually fast to the tar baby.” The Oxford English Dictionary (but not the print version of its American counterpart) says that tar baby is a derogatory term used for “a black or a Maori.”

For context, what precisely was the metaphor? Was it a difficult, sticky problem that is like a doll covered in tar that ensnare passers-by? Or was it a baby who happens not to be white, but is referred to as “tar” by someone who is white? By adding the paternity references–and particularly those that raise the hint of an unwanted baby (hence the paternity test)–that’s what tips the balance, some might think.

Kind of like a PM who threatens an opposition leader with ‘tapes’.