Posted by panch from ? (64.79.4.3) on Friday, May 17, 2002 at 8:48AM :
Let's say I call someone a Horse's Arse. Let's say that there is a definition of what this society considers behavior that qualifies a person as a real and genuine Horse's Arse. The person so called gets angry...loses sleep over being called that name...loses so much sleep that their job is impacted negatively. Then one day they decide they aren't going to take it anymore, that they are NOT a Horse's Arse, and they get a lawyer who IS, to sue the person calling them by that colorful name.
The case winds up in court and to defend himself against the charge that he slandered the woman he called a Horse's Arse, he presents evidence a jury recognizes as proof that the woman indeed did act the part of bona fide Horse's Arse and therefore there WAS no slander...cause you can't slander someone if you just point to a name for that series of behaviors...a name the jury agreed fit the woman to a T.
You are then in the happy position of having the woman confirmed a Horse's Arse by the courts in the land...the Law recognizes and makes it official, that the woman is indeed a Horse's Arse cause she loses the case for slander....and since there was no slander...she is a you know what. Pretty neat huh?
Even if she suffered as a result of being called that name...as it might well have been the first time someone came out and said the obvious...the responsibility for having avoided the whole thing lay with the person who acted the part of a Horse's Arse...NOT the person who merely pointed out she was one. You don't HAVE to act like one...there is some choice here. What's a nice way to call a person a Horses Arse?
That's all I'm saying.
-- panch
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