Free Republic

Old-fashioned terms such as imbecile, lunatic and idiot were purged Tuesday from the Ohio law books, a harbinger of national momentum to once again revisit the words that most sensitively describe mental illness. In the last century, idiotic and feeble-minded were accepted labels. Later, "mental deficiency" was deemed to be more respectful. More recently, "mental retardation" replaced that as less derisive. Today, the phrase is increasingly seen as unacceptable. It is a sentiment felt around the nation. In March, hundreds of disabled adults, their advocates and caretakers in Alabama rallied at the Statehouse in Montgomery to urge legislators to remove...

A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right? Not necessarily, according to the White House. A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard it on national security and constitutional grounds. That's the argument a Bush administration official is expected to make Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who has demanded a hearing on a practice he considers an example of the administration's abuse of power. "It's a challenge to...

A firm is paying Google an undisclosed sum to make available on its sponsored search pages some white papers that paint an upbeat picture of all things having to do with RFID technology. Companies trying to influence public opinion once shelled out big bucks for full-page advertisements in major newspapers, but today they may be as likely to spend those dollars on sponsored links on Google. One such case in point is RFID Ltd., a pro-RFID industry firm that is paying Google an undisclosed sum to publish several papers on the search engine that paint an upbeat picture of all-things...

In what is becoming a familiar scene in courtrooms nationwide, information collected from a car’s “black box” was used to convict a motorist of criminal charges. On June 30, a Peabody, Mass., District Court jury found Michelle Zimmerman guilty of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide in the death of her front seat passenger, Kenneth Carlson. The jury concluded Zimmerman was driving negligently when she skidded out of control and struck a tree on Jan. 4, 2003. Information collected from the event data recorder (EDR), or black box, in her GMC Yukon reported that Zimmerman was driving 58 mph in a 40...

Liars' brains 'are not the same'   A deceitful person's brain is different, the study suggests Habitual liars' brains differ from those of honest people, a study says.A University of Southern California team studied 49 people and found those known to be pathological liars had up to 26% more white matter than others. White matter transmits information and grey matter processes it. Having more white matter in the prefrontal cortex may aid lying, the researchers said, But the British Journal of Psychiatry said there were likely to be more differences in the brains of liars. Manipulative behaviourParticipants were volunteers...