Free Republic

“President Biden says the public need more exposure to this. “I’m not questioning Mulvaney, Mulvaney should be free to do as he pleases, but you’ve got to ask why the President of the United States wants a cut of the action."

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) apologized Monday for using the word “retarded” to describe disabled children during a podcast appearance over the weekend. Schumer was a guest Sunday on the “1 NYCHA” podcast, which examines public housing and related issues, when the topic turned to historic opposition to low-income and other forms of public housing. When I first was an assemblyman, they wanted to build a congregate living place for retarded children,” recalled Schumer, who represented parts of Brooklyn in Albany between 1975 and 1980. “The whole neighborhood was against it! These are harmless kids. They just needed some...

David Chipman, the gun control activist who President Biden nominated today to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) claimed last year that members of the Branch Davidian sect shot down two helicopters during a standoff with federal agents in Waco in 1993. That is certainly an odd statement considering it didn’t happen and Chipman served 25 years with the ATF. Chipman posted the comments as part of a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event and even posted a photograph on the Reddit thread to confirm his identity. In response to a comment about the Waco siege from...

Newsmax TV has scored a historic, first-ever ratings victory over Fox News Channel, according to a CNN Business report. The notable win came this week in the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic prized by advertisers, when the “Greg Kelly Reports” show topped Fox’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum.” Kelly’s show averaged 229,000 viewers compared to MacCallum’s which averaged 203,000. “Before the election, Newsmax was not regarded as a formidable competitor to Fox; it was mostly dismissed as one of a handful of wannabe challengers,” the CNN writeup states. “But President Trump’s loss on November 3 changed the cable TV calculus.”...

The far-left magazine Teen Vogue ran a column this week suggesting white people need to go after their racist relatives at the holiday dinner table. Because in the era of Biden, diversity of thought will not be tolerated. Or something. The column, written by Jenn M. Jackson, laments that all too often white people are willing to allow their relatives to speak their “generally ugly ideas” at the dinner table over the holidays – be it Thanksgiving, Christmas, or the New Years. “Often, during the holidays, the dinner table feels so safe that many family members are comfortable uttering their...

It’s been a while since I’ve thought about Sarah Palin, except for the increasingly rare instances where someone says, “You know, with those glasses and that square jaw you look a lot like ...” The ex-Alaska governor/GOP veep candidate/Fox News commentator has fallen off of my radar screen, even though I have absolutely nothing against her and am flattered to be mistaken for a woman who can kill and skin a moose. But every now and then, Sarah re-emerges as a cultural lightning rod, someone whose simple existence still drives feminists to bitter tears and the men who want to...

For parents of a child with Down syndrome, their children figuring out a solution to any problem is a tremendous triumph.My sister stood around the corner and deliberately out of sight, curious to see what her then-14-month-old son, Chaim, was up to. He sat on the kitchen floor, legs spread around the dog’s dish. With a devilish smile, Chaim looked around a couple of times before plunging his bare hands into the bowl and extending it as an offering to his closest friend, Sammy, the family’s poodle mix. My sister, Sheryl, couldn’t have been more delighted. No, she wasn’t fond...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, AUGUST 4TH, 2009 AT 6:55 AM Facts Are Stubborn Things Posted by Macon Phillips Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things." Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions. In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to...

I can’t believe I agree with Sarah Palin. But she’s right. Kids of public figures should be off limits to media scrutiny, mockery and savaging. Especially if a child lives with a disability. That in-your-face “Family Guy” bit (which doesn’t deserve repeating) was disgusting and a$$hole-y, as Palin might say. Remember the nasty remarks said about Amy Carter and Chelsea during their awkward adolescence? And how outraged we were? Raise your hand if you think you looked your best in junior high. Didn’t think so. Imagine how you’d feel if your child was born with Down syndrome. And comedians thought...

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Monday called for President Obama to fire his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, because of an offensive comment he reportedly made. At an August strategy session of liberal groups and White House aides, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Emanuel told liberals they were "F-ing retarded" for planning to air attack ads against conservative Democrats opposed to health care reform. Palin, whose youngest child has Down Syndrome, said in a Facebook note that "our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm's recent sick and offensive tactic." "I would...

There is a very interesting opinion piece today from the political website politico.com. The piece is written by Gary Bauer and Daniel Allott. Bauer is a former Reagan administration official, the former head of the Family Research Council, and a former candidate for President in 2000. Allott works with Bauer at American Values and has worked as a former community support provider for people with disabilities. There is probably no more polarizing figure in American politics today than Sarah Palin. A recent poll of Republicans showed that she has a 72% favorability rating within her own party - higher than...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is using her public profile to draw attention to the needs of those with autism and other developmental disabilities in the New York metropolitan area. The former Republican vice presidential candidate is scheduled to join a fundraising walk for the group Autism Speaks in Westchester County on Sunday morning. Then she is to be honored on Long Island later Sunday at an anniversary celebration for Independent Group Home Living Inc. Palin's youngest son, Trig, has Down syndrome.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Travelers to Africa and Asia all have their favorite forms of foreign aid to "make a difference." One of mine is a miracle substance that is cheap and actually makes people smarter. Unfortunately, it has one appalling side effect. No, it doesn't make you sterile, but it is just about the least sexy substance in the world. Indeed, because it's so numbingly boring, few people pay attention to it or invest in it. (Or dare write about it!) It's iodized salt. Almost one-third of the world's people don't get enough iodine from food and water. The result...

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first drug to treat a rare genetic disorder that can lead to mental retardation, possibly allowing some people to relax a regimented diet now used to control the disease. All babies born in the United States are screened for the disease, called phenylketonuria, or PKU. To avoid damage to the brain, people with the disease must adhere to a strict low-protein diet, particularly in childhood but also later in life. The new drug, called Kuvan, “will be life-changing for some patients,” said Dr. Stephen D. Cederbaum, a professor at the University...

Scrutinizing the first days of development in abnormal embryonic stem cells, researchers have uncovered a basic mechanism underlying fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation in boys. "It could have important implications for treatment," says W. Ted Brown, cochair of the scientific committee of the National Fragile X Foundation, which helped fund the work. The research also highlights the value of embryonic stem cells for studying genetic diseases, says Yang Xu, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, San Diego. Fragile X syndrome is caused by a mutation in a gene called fmr1. By...

Background News "This is very exciting because it suggests that PAK inhibitors could be used for therapeutic purposes to reverse already established mental impairments in Fragile X children." FOUNDING EDITOR'S NOTE [Breaking Christian News]: We don't often post fulfillments of prophetic words. But some words are so very specific, and the fulfillment may also be specific, that to NOT post [it], would be a disservice to our readers. Kim Clement spoke of Autism in a word we posted on December 23rd from a December 8th session given in Portland, Oregon. We've included the portions of Kim's word—specific to autism—below. You...

Three independent research groups have identified a large genetic deletion that causes mental retardation. "They've broken open a bubble of something that's going to lead to a lot of follow up," comments William Dobyns, a developmental neurogeneticist at the University of Chicago, who was not affiliated with any of the studies. Mental retardation comes in a baffling diversity of conditions and could be caused by hundreds of underlying genetic triggers, only a few of which have been identified. One glimmer of hope is the advent of detailed scans of individuals' genomes, which are powerful tools in the search for mutations....

http://www.rettsyndrome.org/ My daughter Gabriella was diagnosed with Rett syndrome today. The two links explain what it is technically better than I can. The symptoms are regressive. They begin rapidly regressing at age 2 my daughter is 20 months. After regression their is little to no motor skills and communication along with severe retardation. This all seems to be caused by lack of a protein called mecp2. They are beginning to experiment on mice. Knowing the FDA that means many years till treatment comes out. Can anyone answer these questions. Is it true that protein we eat is broken down into...

Today my daughter was diagnosed with Rhetts syndrome. The symptoms are ataxia (a stumbling walk), hand wringing and little use of the hands, and severe mental retardation. She will begin regressing at the age of 2 she is 20 months now. The link explains it if you want to get into the technical part of it. My wife and I are devastated please pray for us.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --President Bush marked the 13th anniversary Saturday of the Americans With Disabilities Act with a name change for a committee and a push to promote equality for people suffering from mental illness.</p> <p>Bush changed the name of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities the same week that a commission he created recommended a campaign to bring the mentally ill more into the mainstream.</p>