Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON - Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.</p> <p>Kennedy, the third child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy, was born mentally retarded and underwent a lobotomy when she was 23. She lived most of her life in a Jefferson, Wis., institution, the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children.</p>

.... In the article, Eunice described Rosemary, the third child of Joe Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, as "slower to crawl, slower to walk and speak than her two bright brothers." As time went by, the supposedly retarded Rosemary "couldn't keep up" in "social competition," and, by the age of 22, "was becoming increasingly irritable and difficult." Physicians, Eunice wrote, were unanimous in declaring that Rosemary would have to be institutionalized, and so, with supposed sighs all around, she was bunged up in a nice Catholic "home." The modern reader is shocked to discover that this "candid" article makes no...

A 53-year-old man in Saanich, B.C., managed to drive to safety after a grizzly bear mauled his head and tossed him to the ground in the woods near Bella Coola, about 700 kilometres north of Vancouver. The attack took place on May 3 when Brent Case was on a surveying job along the rugged Central Coast area. "He came up from behind me and started gnawing at the back of my head. It just started ripping the scalp off the head," Case told CBC News on Friday. "The pain was so excruciating that I don't know why I didn't yell...

FX and "Nip/Tuck" creator Ryan Murphy have made a deal for a new drama called "4 oz." that will follow the metamorphosis of a married sportswriter who is a transsexual. Murphy will exec produce with Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner as Pitt makes his first series foray. Murphy, who has begun writing a pilot episode he hopes to shoot early next year, told Daily Variety that he has mapped out a natural five-season arc for the series that also focuses on the gender-conflicted protag's teenage sons. FX prexy-general manager John Landgraf bought the project in the room after Murphy pitched...

Click the link below to access a video that lasts about 5 minutes of Janeane Garofalo and some Metrosexual zot bait (that visits FR frequently) give their opinion of what goes on at FR and what FReepers are all about!! Click Here then click the image of Jeanine Garafalo!

One look at you tells me all I need to know about you. I am so tired of liberals that think they are so brilliant. You are such a stupid jackass. You are so stupid you probably believe that the Bush administration orchestrated the attacks on 9/11. Every time you go on the internet, every time you make a bank transaction, or pay a bill, every time you try to email a congressman or senator they are getting so much information off of you. Of course it is all a conspiracy by the Bush administration. I have screwed around by...

Disappointing airplay for the first two singles from the new album by the Dixie Chicks exposes a deep -- and seemingly growing -- rift between the trio and the country radio market that helped turn the group into superstars. "Taking the Long Way," due out May 23, is the band's first album since singer Natalie Maines sparked a major controversy in 2003 by declaring that she was ashamed to hail from the same state as fellow Texan President George W. Bush. Radio boycotts ensued, and many fans abandoned the band. The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," peaked at...

The lobotomy, once a widely used method for treating mental illness, epilepsy and even chronic headaches, is generating fresh controversy 30 years after doctors stopped performing the procedure now viewed as barbaric. A new book and a medical historian contend the crude brain surgery actually helped roughly 10 percent of the estimated 50,000 Americans who underwent the procedure between the mid-1930s and the 1970s. But relatives of lobotomy patients want the Nobel Prize given to its inventor revoked.

Joseph Kennedy’s daughter, Rosemary, was considered shy and mentally limited, symptoms of what many thought was dyslexia. For years the family dealt with the problem by sending her away to special schools and convents. By age twenty-one she had her condition had deteriorated, giving way to tantrums, rages and violent behavior. Rosemary was beginning to understand that she would never measure up to her parent’s expectations, and the resulting frustration led to physical fights and, worse, she often disappeared at night when she would be wandering the streets. Rosemary was seen as a liability to the family's political ambitions, and...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest sister of President John F. Kennedy and the inspiration for the Special Olympics, died Friday. She was 86.

All, It is with great sorrow that I announce the passing of my appendix this past Wednesday evening at roughly 6 o'clock. We enjoyed many adventures together. It was my one and only appendix. It will be missed. Sniff....Sniff.... A private ceremony was held on Thursday morning in the pathologist's laboratory. Please send your condolences to my surviving organs at the above address. The survivors request that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to "Rockitz' Appendix Fund." One in six people will lose their appendix sometime during their life. Only you can prevent the loss of this misunderstood organ...

Despite the resounding defeat of U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney in Georgia's Democratic primary in August, some of McKinney's supporters are still battling to keep her in office. They have filed a federal lawsuit to try to get the Aug. 20 results, which showed McKinney losing to Denise Majette 58 to 42 percent, voided and McKinney declared the winner. McKinney's supporters claim Republicans engaged in a "malicious crossover" when they voted in the Democratic primary and in doing so, ensured McKinney's defeat. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, seeks to have the Republican crossover declared unconstitutional McKinney has...