Free Republic

NEW YORK - To the untrained eye, the man looked like any other traveler as he waited in line at Kennedy Airport. But something about the way he was acting caught the attention of two security screeners. For 16 minutes, they questioned him, scanned every inch of his body twice with a metal-detecting wand and emptied his carry-on bag onto a table. Out came a car stereo with wires dangling from it. The man was eventually found to have done nothing wrong — he said he had pulled the stereo out of his car because he was afraid it would...

On a drizzly Tuesday night in late January, 200 people came out to hear a psychiatrist talk rhapsodically about play — not just the intense, joyous play of children, but play for all people, at all ages, at all times. (All species too; the lecture featured touching photos of a polar bear and a husky engaging playfully at a snowy outpost in northern Canada.) Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library’s main branch on 42nd Street. He created the institute in 1996, after more than 20 years of psychiatric practice...

to antibiotics, is now spreading among homosexual males in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles, according to a new report in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Due to liberal political correctness, which insists on treating aberrant – even deadly – behaviors and lifestyles as a 'civil right,' we as a society don't seem to have learned much from the AIDS pandemic," he said. He called it an "eerie reminder" of the first stories about AIDS. "It is unfathomable that after that plague, disease specialists and the media are now surprised at the correlation of a new infection with...

In this undated photo released by Tokyo University's Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry Graduate School of Science, a genetically modified mouse approaches a cat in Tokyo. Using genetic engineering, scientists at Tokyo University say they have successfully switched off the rodents' instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats, showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not leaned through experience, as commonly believed. (AP Photo/Ko and Reiko Kobayakawa, Tokyo University Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry Graduate School of Science, HO) Cat and mouse may never be the same. Japanese scientists say they've used genetic engineering to create...

Associated Press Government health regulators recommended adding label precautions about neurological problems seen in children who have taken flu drugs made by Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. The Food and Drug Administration on Friday released its safety review of Roche's Tamiflu and Glaxo's Relenza. Next week, an outside group of pediatric experts is scheduled to review the safety of several such drugs when used in children. FDA began reviewing Tamiflu's safety in 2005 after receiving reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Twenty-five patients under age 21 have died while taking the drug, most of them in Japan. Five...

A CONVENT in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows. Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior's authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now. Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had "clearly lost their religious vocation'' and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent. Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista moved to...

VANCOUVER, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thoughts related to God cultivate cooperative behaviour and generosity, according to University of British Columbia psychology researchers. In a study to be published in the September issue of Psychological Science journal, researchers investigated how thinking about God and notions of a higher power influenced positive social behaviour, specifically cooperation with others and generosity to strangers. UBC PhD graduate Azim Shariff and UBC Assoc. Prof. Ara Norenzayan found that priming people with 'god concepts' - by activating subconscious thoughts through word games - promoted altruism. In addition, the researchers found that this effect was consistent...

The execution-style murder of three African-American college students in Newark, N.J., forced to kneel and shot in the head – allegedly by an illegal alien from Peru who was out on bail for the serial rape of a 5-year-old – has the makings of a Willie Horton issue in 2008. Newark, like New York, is a “sanctuary city,” where cops are not to ask criminal suspects if they are in the country legally. Mitt Romney has been hammering Rudy Giuliani on the issue, trashing his tough-cop resume by painting the mayor as den mother of the Big Apple’s playpen...

Judge dismisses sexual harassment charges against 2 Ore. teens 08/20/2007 By WILLIAM McCALL / Associated Press Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized on Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention. The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal. Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison. Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so on Monday, saying it was...

Albert Ellis, whose innovative straight-talk approach to psychotherapy made him one of the most influential and provocative figures in modern psychology, died yesterday at his home above the institute he founded in Manhattan. He was 93. The cause, after extended illness, was kidney and heart failure, said a friend and spokeswoman, Gayle Rosellini. Dr. Ellis (he had a doctorate but not a medical degree) called his approach rational emotive behavior therapy, or R.E.B.T. Developed in the 1950s, it challenged the deliberate, slow-moving methodology of Sigmund Freud, the prevailing psychotherapeutic treatment at the time. Where the Freudians maintained that a painstaking...

Ancient Human Behavior Uncovered Article Date: 24 Jun 2007 - 4:00 PDT A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern" One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of...

NEW YORK — Poor residents will be rewarded for good behavior — like $300 for doing well on school tests, $150 for holding a job and $200 for visiting the doctor — under an experimental anti-poverty program that city officials detailed Monday. The rewards have been used in other countries, including Brazil and Mexico, and have drawn widespread praise for changing behavior among the poor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg traveled to Mexico this spring to study the healthy lifestyle payments, also known as conditional cash transfers. In New York, the two-year pilot program with about 14,000 participants will use private funds...

SACRAMENTO - Even before her wild ride last week on Interstate 80 that ended in a collision, state Sen. Carole Migden blazed a jagged political path as a state legislator known for her fiery temper and often impertinent attitude. In one tightly wound package, Migden embodies the best and worst of liberal San Francisco politics. She is an effective lawmaker, without a doubt. But she's also a throwback emblem of political entitlement whose career has been marked with infamous moments, such as the time she pushed an opposing lawmaker's vote button - for her own bill - in the Assembly....

Rudy Giuliani has a lot to learn about campaigning outside of New York City. The former New York mayor attended a roundtable discussion with heavy-hitters at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City recently. Two of the three co-hosts were natural gas billionaires who are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. “Mayor Giuliani was doing fine until one CEO asked him what his energy policy was,” a participant said. “He gave a very detailed and lengthy answer covering every energy source imaginable, but he never once uttered the words ‘natural gas.’ Considering where he was, who he was talking to, and...

If your cell phone rings while you're riding your bicycle on any public road in New Jersey, you better not answer it while peddling! A bi-partisan bill drafted by Republican Assemblyman John Bramnick and co-sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Stender, would make biking while talking on your cell phone in New Jersey, punishable with a 100 to 250 dollar fine. There's already buzz that this is just another bill that attempts to modify behavior...and Assemblyman Bramnick admits...it is... "Its a behavior modification bill and its a safety bill, and that's exactly what government does. Government regulates people's activities. If it...

THE world's first museum exhibition about homosexuality among animals...offers documentation of gay or lesbian behaviour among giraffes, penguins, parrots, beetles, whales and dozens of other creatures [leads] the Oslo Natural History Museum [to] conclude...human homosexuality cannot be viewed as "unnatural". (snip) The museum said the exhibition, opening today despite condemnation from some Christians, was the first in the world on the subject. Mr Soeli said a Dutch zoo had once organised tours to view homosexual couples among the animals. "The sexual urge is strong in all animals. ... It's a part of life, it's fun to have sex," SMr oeli...

For Cindy Nooney's 3-year-old twin boys, playing with the Thomas the Train set at their local bookstore in Southern California is a major thrill. Jack and Sam push Thomas, Arthur and friends down the track, they run around the table, jump up and down — and, of course, they squeeeaal. Nooney expects as much in the children's section of the store. But on a recent afternoon, she was surprised by an employee who confronted her, calling her darling Jack a tyrant. "He was a little loud but this is a children's section," says Nooney. "They run a noisy, cavernous bookstore...

UCR researchers have made a major leap forward in understanding how the brain programs innate behavior. The discovery could have future applications in engineering new behaviors in animals and intelligent robots. Innate or "instinctive" behaviors are inborn and do not require learning or prior experience to be performed. Examples include courtship and sexual behaviors, escape and defensive maneuvers, and aggression. Using the common fruit fly as a model organism, the researchers found through laboratory experiments that the innate behavior is initiated by a "command" hormone that orchestrates activities in discrete groups of peptide neurons in the brain. Peptide neurons are...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – Enemy fighters in Afghanistan continue to use homemade bombs to terrorize the civilian population, a U.S. spokesman there said today. "Enemy extremists continue their destructive behavior using improvised explosive devices to spread fear and terror among the Afghan people," Army Col. Thomas Collins, a spokesman for Combined Forces Command Afghanistan said in a news briefing. A suicide car bomb struck a convoy this morning injuring two coalition soldiers. Officials did not release the soldiers' nationality. Also this morning, a suicide motorcycle bomb drew Afghan soldiers and police to an area in Farah province, where they...

The True Lover Of God Mary Lindow Jun 25 2006 06:04PM THE TRUE LOVER OF GOD DOES NOT NEED TO BE LAVISHED UPON BY MAN THE PRESENT EVILS AND PRESSURES OF OUR TIME ARE NOT NEW TO GOD OR......TO THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD! The Bride of Christ has been either over stroked with false platitudes or has been allowed to be spoiled with a gluttony of self-love, self-analysis, and self-promotion. All members of the Lord’s Body, leaders and simple followers, have all had the virus of “I WANNA BE SOMEBODY” attempt to sidetrack and infect the human nature side...