Irritating.

My oldest brother has this great habit. He likes to say, "No offense, but [insert highly offensive phrase here]." "No offense, but the Catholic Church is stupid and all priests are child abusers." "No offense, Mom, but this soup [that you spent hours making for Christmas dinner] sucks." Do people really think that saying "no offense" makes what follows inoffensive? That this little clause instantly voids the rules of politeness and charity? That it's a free ticket to say whatever you want, no matter how hurtful, because hey, you said "no offense" first? Sheesh. Next time he bashes Catholics, instead of vaguely protesting while trying not to tick off anti-Catholic Dad, maybe I'll ask him what Pastor Bob says about certain of his life choices. "No offense, E, but does being Evangelical mean you get to pick and choose which bits of Christ's teachings you want to follow?" "No offense, E, but it's patently obvious that the only reason you're the sole white male parishioner of the Chinese Evangelical Church of Canada is that you dig Asian girls." "No offense, E, but smuggling guns across the border in Mom and Dad's van and selling them to drug dealers was stupid and wrong." This could be fun. Bitchy, but fun. On the other hand, he gave me $5 in a red-and-gold envelope for Kung Hei Fat Choy, so maybe I should hold off. And as Wavelet says, don't feed the monsters. Good advice.