People have had a wide variety of reactions to the idea of politically-correct language. One of the more interesting is a series of books by James Finn Garner. A look at the contents of the volumes gives an insight into the way things are handled. The stories include such titles as the politically-correct bedtime story of "The Three Codependent Goats Gruff," and the holiday story of "Rudolph, the Nasally-Empowered Reindeer."

Under the humorous approach there lurks a problem that can cause us real difficulties. Today there are some terms which are not generally allowed in polite conversation: terms which are thought to be potentially offensive, even if there are no new terms to replace them. This leads to some concepts which are now, suddenly, more difficult to explain concisely. Like "Rud…