Editors and contributors for a faculty bioethics journal at Northwestern University’s medical school say the administration tried to take editorial control and bury an essay in the winter issue by a prominent disabled professor graphically describing how a nurse helped him rediscover his sexuality.

A Southern California man was beaten, Tasered and burned by local cops who thought he was threatening them and didn't realize he was gesturing that he was deaf, according to a discrimination lawsuit he's filed in federal court.

Iowa is giving gun permits to people who are legally or completely blind that will let these residents acquire guns and carry these firearms in public. Officials from Polk Country report that at least three people who can't legally drive and weren't able to read the application forms have been given permits to carry firearms.

A heartbreaking photo of a second grader with spinal muscular atrophy who was forced to "sit out" his class photo went viral over the weekend, sparking accusations of discrimination directed toward the school photography company Lifetouch Canada Inc.

A family that was trying to fly from New Jersey to Los Angeles claims they were kicked off an American Airlines flight because their 16-year-old son has Down syndrome.

Too much Holiday Family Time arousing feelings of hopelessness and despair? Here's a feelgood story to get you through the weekend: a woman who spent much of her life as a paraplegic has just become pro racing cyclist. And she's not even Lance Armstrong's cyborg sister.

For the past 11 years, Paul Harman has happily hummed around his council flat without incident. Recently, however, a new neighbor moved into his South London building and complained to the council that Harman hums too much. Now he faces eviction.

Let us take a break, now, from our daily diet of sarcasm and filth for a heartwarming tale: Nicholas Maxim, a boy born with arms that end at the elbow, won educational publisher Zaner-Bloser's annual National Handwriting Contest this year. A fifth grader at Readfield Elementary School in Readfield, Maine, he beat out 200,000 other grade schoolers for the quality of penmanship he produces by pinching a writing utensil between his arms.

After two consecutive close calls, The Dark Knight's stunning box-office reign faces
another formidable challenger this week with Tropic Thunder. Not that Ben Stiller's film is necessarily favored to knock the blockbuster off — at least not with its R-rating, its meta-Vietnam theme, and definitely not with Tropic Thunder RetardGate threatening to capsize the film on its maiden voyage.

Well, that was fast: Mere days after first drawing attention on a disability issues blog (and eventually going under magnifying glasses at the NY Times and here at Defamer HQ), DreamWorks's mock Web site for Simple Jack is gone. The site had been part of the studio's complex interweaving of Tropic Thunder tie-ins, with its "Once upon a time... there was a retard" tagline tipping the story of a disabled farmhand whom Ben Stiller's character portrays in pursuit of an Oscar. But activist Patricia Bauer's vigil continued, culminating late Monday with a handy restitution checklist for Stiller, DreamWorks and their distribution partners at Paramount:

Several months ago, the red-band trailer for Tropic Thunder suggested that not only could Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire be summer's most surefire gutbuster, but also that its trailer-within-a-trailer — featuring Stiller as the developmentally disabled title character of the Oscar-bait drama Simple Jack — portended perhaps the best movie never made. (And look! It even has its own Web site!) But having seen Thunder and thus the degree to which Simple Jack plays a role in the story, we think we got our fill: "You went full retard, man" Robert Downey Jr.'s Method actor (in blackface!) tells Stiller's slumping action hero. "Never go full retard." His logic is crystalline, but alas, its political incorrectness is drawing even deeper consideration this morning as disability advocates wage war on the R-Word:

We remember an old bit from some comedian (we want to say Jeffrey Ross) that questioned the challenges involved in being a toll collector: How difficult, he asked, could your job be if when you called in sick they replaced you with a basket? Well, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority apparently takes the rigors of the role quite seriously: They're being sued by one Juliana Medina, who says the TBTA wouldn't let her make change because she walks with a cane. While not as familiar with the intricacies of disabilities law as we should be, we're pretty sure that this is an open-and-shut case. What's more interesting to us here is the subhead The Post used in its report on the story: "Gimpy Gal vs. TBTA."

The third paragraph of Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s speech to the Times Co.'s annual shareholders meeting, as delivered two weeks ago and noted to us just the other day:

Playboy. In Braille. [Banterist]