Thursday, January 11, 2007

Idiots to Vote?

Idiots from New Jersey may soon have the right to vote, Reuters reports:



State Senate President Richard Codey introduced a bill on Monday that would remove language from the New Jersey constitution that was designed more than 150 years ago to prevent people suffering from mental illness or handicap from casting their vote in national, state or local elections.



Codey wants to eliminate a section that says "no idiot or insane person should enjoy the right of suffrage" and substitute with a reference to "a person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting."



Codey, a Democrat who was previously acting governor of New Jersey, said in a statement the term "idiot" is "outdated, vague, offensive to many and may be subject to misinterpretation."



He said individuals with cognitive or emotional disabilities may be capable of making decisions in a voting booth, and those people should not be discriminated against.



Idiot was actually once a clinical term that referred to someone on the FAR LEFT (of the bell curve). It was the lowest grade of "mental deficiency," as a table we found on this page shows the IQ range Classification:

  • 70-80 Borderline deficiency
  • 50-69 Moron
  • 20-49 Imbecile
  • Below 20 Idiot



Today "deficiency" is called "retardation," and the IQ range Classification are as follows:

  • 50-69 Mild
  • 35-49 Moderate
  • 20-34 Severe
  • Below 20 Profound



So once the law is brought up to date, the only New Jerseyites who will be ineligible to vote are those who are profound.

1 comment:

angela said...

It's funny how terms get used in one time period and then later it is offensive...

This is very good though. You ought to think about wirting for money...what does Dave Barry have that you don't?