Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["David R. Matusiak" <matusiak AT speakeasy.net>]

Bill -- and everyone for that matter --

i haven't viewed these URLs, as i haven't had much free time to waste today. 
also, i understand your right to be offended and frustrated. often ignorance 
of 
a condition will lead others to be uncomfortable; usually the outlet for this 
discomfort is humor - sometimes raunchy, sometimes innaccurate, and most 
times 
offensive. the world creates many unfortunate situations.

thank you for offering your voice and opinion on this topic, as it seems you 
are 
qualified to make such comments. i certainly don't like the idea of people 
getting genuinely upset at list content, however, in this case it may have 
been 
innocent forwarding of web URLs. i honestly cannot imagine that Joanna or 
anyone 
else would knowingly try to offend folks. i'm sorry that this bothered you 
and i 
hope you will consider not leaving the list.

we need as many voices as we can get. 
dave ;)
___  _ _____ . ....
m a h t o o z e e a c k  a t  s p e e k e e z e e  d o t  n e t
------ / / .........     . . .

On Fri, 10 May 2002, Bill Geschwind wrote:

> As a person who has been living with Tourette's Syndrome for more than
> 30 years, I cannot let this pass by without comment.
> 
> First off, when I found that Tourette Syndrome Barbie on the
> Internetworkers site a couple of weeks ago, I found it highly offensive
> and started drafting a note to the webmaster asking for it to be
> removed, but due to time constraints never got around to finishing that.
> I find that, as well as the UK version of the tourettes link below,
> about as offensive as I would imagine an African-American would find a
> racial joke offensive. These tourette jokes and ethnic jokes, which over
> the last several decades have become somewhat taboo as an overt
> expression of humor amongst the not-so-ignorant, have many things in
> common: they perpetuate false stereotypes, they poke fun at something
> that the subject of the joke has no control over, and they implicitly
> portray the subject of the joke as an inferior human being because of
> it. I hope nobody here on Internetworkers seriously believes that
> African Americans or people with Tourette Syndrome are inferior human
> beings!
> 
> The Tourette Syndrome Barbie and the tourettes.co.uk site (as well as
> other trash that pokes cheap fun at Tourette Syndrome (TS), such as the
> movie "What about Bob") perpetuate many false stereotypes about TS. For
> example, the vast majority of people who are afflicted with TS do not
> curse uncontrollably. That is a symptom called corprolalia, which often
> is associated with TS, but which only a very small percentage of TS
> sufferers ever exhibit. Do you ever remember me cursing uncontrollably
> on this forum? I didn't think so! Also, people with TS often have vocal
> tics, which some have described as "barking like dogs," however those
> vocalizations really have no resemblance at all to a dog's bark,
> regardless of what Tourette Syndrome Barbie's vocalizations sound like,
> etc., etc., etc.
> 
> There is plenty of stuff out there that is genuinely funny, and I am
> frankly shocked and very disappointed that a presumably intelligent and
> educated group like Internetworkers would choose to indulge in this
> infantile and offensive type of humor.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Bill Geschwind
> 
> 
> *********************************************************************
> Bill Geschwind
> Technical Assistance Manager
> Department of Technology and Systems Support  
> Division of Student Affairs, University of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill
> 03 Teague Hall, CB# 5510                               (919) 962-5629
> Chapel Hill, NC 27599                          geschwin AT email.unc.edu
> ********************************************************************* 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Wolfe, Joanna [mailto:wolfe AT oup-usa.org] 
> > Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 12:07 PM
> > To: InterNetWorkers
> > Subject: [internetworkers] Evil time wasting things from 
> > across the pond
> > 
> > 
> > a collegue from the UK sent me this:
> > 
> >  http://home6.inet.tele.dk/bergmann/java/P3_J.HTM
> > 
> > Which made me think of the soda constructor page.
> > 
> > So we ended up discussing the Internetworkers web toys 
> > page=20 and he supplied this comment after viewing the 
> > Tourette=20 Syndrome Barbie:
> > 
> > "Someone has recently pointed out that the difference=20 
> > between US and UK approach to Tourette's in encapsulated by
> > 
> www.tourettes.com
> 
> versus
> 
> www.tourettes.co.uk"
> 
> just a couple of time wasting URLs to brighten up your friday.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Joanna
> 
> Joanna Wolfe
> Manager, Business Technology Services
> Oxford University Press, USA
> 2001 Evans Road
> Cary, NC 27513
> v: (919) 677-0977 ext. 5242
> f: (919) 677-2654
> c: (919) 244-7696
> e: wolfe AT oup-usa.org
> w: www.oup-usa.org
> 
> Today's URL of interest:
> 
> http://www.oup-usa.org/reference