Be Excellent To Each Other

Didn't the public records office in Ireland get destroyed by fire at the start of the last century, basically wiping out all records of people born prior to that time and consequently making it just about the easiest passport to get hold of. There are >40m Irish passports in circulation, allegedly.

I agree with CG in that there is nothing necessarily inherently bad about the word 'paki' as a shortening of pakistani

Honestly, a chap can spend his whole life treating everyone of every ethncity exactly the same

Geographically speaking, certainly....

Mimi is a lady that has monkey and Zombees and likes Viva Pinata and penguins.

Funnily this is what's irritating me the most about Mercenaries 2 with the "Swede" character. "This is an emergency! A viking emergency!" he slurs in a texan(?) accent as he hijacks a vehicle. FUCK OFF! YOU ARE NOT A VIKING! YOU ARE NO MORE A VIKING THAN ME!

Hehe, I just got it. I luffed!

I should tell the story of when I was called "cracker"

I'm still upset my Barrister/Barista joke failed to get the acclaimation it deserved. I spent minutes writing that one.

What does cracker mean?

What does cracker mean?

It's allegedly a racial slur against white people, as obviously the colour is similar. Again, I'd find this more stupid than offensive.

Isn't that a compliment meaning "hottie", or there or thereabouts?

I did wonder what kind of biscuit I'd be. Jammy dodger I was hoping for

Pull your halves apart and you're all sticky in the middle?

It's allegedly a racial slur against white people, as obviously the colour is similar. Again, I'd find this more stupid than offensive.

I always assumed the 'cracker' insult was a reference to whip cracking. How wide of the mark am I?

There are various theories concerning the origin of the term "cracker".

The term "cracker" was in use during Elizabethan times to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English word crack1 meaning "entertaining conversation" (One may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the alternate spelling "craic" are still in use in Ireland and Scotland. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"

By the 1760s, this term was in use by the English in the British North American colonies to refer to Scots-Irish settlers in the south. A letter to the Earl of Dartmouth reads: "I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by Crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, who often change their places of abode". A similar usage was that of Charles Darwin in his introduction to The Origin of Species, to refer to "Virginia squatters" (illegal settlers). [1]

Spaniards in Florida called them “Quáqueros,” a corruption of the English word “Quaker,” which the Spanish used to contemptuously refer to any Protestant. [2]

Other possible origins of the term "cracker" are linked to early Florida cattle herders (Florida crackers) that traditionally used whips to herd wild Spanish cattle. These cowboys were distinct from the Spanish vaqueros of Florida. The crack of the herders' whips could be heard for great distances when they were used to round cattle in pens and to keep the cows on a given track. Also, "cracker" has historically been used to refer to those engaged in the low paying job of cracking pecans and other nuts in Georgia and throughout the southeast U.S.

According to the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, "cracker" is a term of contempt for the "poor" or "mean whites," particularly of Georgia and Florida. Britannica notes that the term dates back to the American Revolution, and is derived from the "cracked corn" which formed their staple food. [3] (Note that in British English "mean" is also a term for poverty, with no malice implied.)

Historically the word suggested poor, white rural Americans with little formal education. Historians point out the term originally referred to the strong Scots-Irish of the back country (as opposed to the English of the seacoast). Thus a sociologist reported in 1926: "As the plantations expanded these freed men (formerly bond servants) were pushed further and further back upon the more and more sterile soil. They became 'pinelanders', 'corn-crackers', or 'crackers'."

Folk Etymology

There is also an apocryphal belief that the term dates back to slavery in the antebellum South. The popular folk etymology is based on slaver foremen using bullwhips to discipline African and African American slaves, and the sound of the whip being described as 'cracking the whip'. The foremen who cracked these whips are believed to have been known as 'crackers'

Fucking hell, you cunts, stop posting so fucking quickly. I clearly know nothing about crackers and and I am one. Cracker.

I think I should stop speaking, in case I cause offense. But then I might offend those who are deaf and dumb, as I could be seen to be mocking them with my silence. But then, perhaps, I really shouldn't call them 'dumb' as this is rather offensive too.

Ultimately I think I need to kill myself to avoid any non-pc overtones, however I must take care to ensure that the manner of my death is not insensitive to those who have been affected by suicide, as I'd be mortified (ho!) to cause offense.

I think I should stop speaking, in case I cause offense. But then I might offend those who are deaf and dumb, as I could be seen to be mocking them with my silence. But then, perhaps, I really shouldn't call them 'dumb' as this is rather offensive too.

Be careful not to offend them with accidentally-offensive hand gestures too

Right, time for you honkies to shut up before I get cross.

Come on now, don't get so flaming cross.

You don't have a Klu, do you?