dick armey 's slip and correction i was curious if anyone was actually interested in verifying whether armey 's slip was actually a slip . but since someone has asked what the time delay between the utterance of " barney fag " and his correction : having heard a replay , i would say the delay was less than a second . imo , the utterance was definitely a slip and not a slur . other factors would support this conclusion , apart from the delay , phonology , etc . , primary among them the fact that armey is n't stupid . he 's a ph . d . in economics , and has the political savvy to get himself elected majority whip . only the politically ( or linguistically ) tendentious would be likely to assert that someone of his political skills would think it to his advantage to make such an utterance . what a shame it was to see members of this list anxious to use their professional skills ( or to abuse them ) in order to make a political point . two weeks into this discussion and only now does anyone actually inquire into the data . it makes one wonder how much linguistic research is driven by other agendas , and what the quality of that research is . . . dave wharton