The Senate Voted To Remove The Word "Retard" From All Federal Laws

It's funny how the only bills that manage to get bi-partisan support are the ones that have no impact whatsoever on our daily lives. Here's what I mean . . .

--On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to remove the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded individual" from all federal laws.

--Instead, they'll be replaced with the terms "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability."

--The bill is called Rosa's Law after an "individual with an intellectual disorder" named Rosa Marcellino. It was introduced last November by a Democratic senator from Maryland named Barbara Mikulski.

--In a press release, Senator Mikulski says she introduced the bill because, quote, "what you call people is how you treat them" . . . whatever that's supposed to mean.

--By the way, according to Wikipedia, the first recorded use of the word "retarded" in relation to being mentally slow was in 1895. Originally, it was meant to replace terms like "idiot," "moron" and "imbecile" because it WASN'T considered derogatory.

--In other words, in another hundred years, we'll probably be changing the wording all over again because it'll be considered offensive to say someone has a "mental disability."