Hmmmm, isn't "Kraut" considered perjorative these days? I think it is about as offensive as, say, "wop," and not quite as offensive as, say, "slope." I guess it's only a little worse than calling a French person a "frog" or a Brit "limey," but, don't know, seems that Kraut is a titch more baddish enough to be wary about its causal use. Correlatively, I could call almost anyone a frog, limey, but when I get to a word that the people themselves use like "canuck" then I get confused as to whether I could use that word in polite company in Canada.
With my Jewish friends, I have sometimes used the word "Jew" with not quite right a tone in my voice and gotten "heat" for it. Live N Learn, eh? I'm not thinking Bob used the word with any negative intent, honest, but if a certain other person had posted with "Kraut" in the title, I'd probably be slavering about it for at least ten over-the-top demonizations, eh, but Bob gets a free pass from me. Sigh..... I wonder what the laws in Germany are regarding calling oneself a Raja? Rajas and Aryans and Master Race, oh my. Edg --- In [email protected], bob_brigante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > "The letter that Ian T. Baldwin, director of a prestigious research > institute in Jena, Germany, received on January 9 from the Thuringian > state police informed him that he was being charged with a crime. The > letter was straightforward enough, but the crime was bafflingly obscure. > > "It said I was being charged with Missbrauchs von Titeln, or misuse of > title, and that I had to appear at the police station," Mr. Baldwin > said today by telephone. "I looked up on the Web what Missbrauchs von > Titeln meant. It's used for people who impersonate police officers." If > convicted, Mr. Baldwin, who directs the Max Planck Institute for > Chemical Ecology, could face a hefty fine and as much as a year in jail. > > Mr. Baldwin's crime, under a Nazi-era law governing the use of academic > titles, was to assume that his doctorate from Cornell University > entitled him to call himself "Doctor" in Germany. The honorific, > apparently, is reserved for recipients of doctoral degrees from German > universities. > (more) > http://tinyurl.com/ypxd79 > http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=4134&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en >
