C'mon now it's all about the children. David Brock, the gay smear merchant that heads Media Matters founded by Hillary funded by Soros certainly cares for the 'children'.
Sodomite David Brock
Posted on 07/26/2008 12:06:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last week, radio talk-show host Michael Savage talked about autism:
I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, `Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.” I’m not an impartial observer here. My six-year-old son has high-functioning autism. He is exactly the kind of kid that Savage attacked.
Savage’s comments were wrong and harmful. Some autistic kids do learn to read and speak, which is why misinformed people may think that they are not “genuinely handicapped.” Yes, they are. Autism is a brain disorder that affects everything from social communication to physical coordination. Autistic people have multiple problems that make it hard for them to do things that the rest of us take for granted. It may take them years to learn how to toss a ball or nod their head.
And even when they can talk, they often have odd speech patterns that instantly mark them as autistic. Other kids taunt them with the very words that Savage used. If they respond verbally, their speech problems will draw even more taunting. If they respond with their fists, they run the risk that authorities will label them as “violent.”
Once in a while, parents take the approach that Savage recommends. It never works. Screaming insults at a handicapped kid is not child-rearing. It’s child abuse.
Conservatives need to speak out against Savage. Many news stories label him as “conservative” or “right-wing,” which may prompt some people to think that we agree with him. Savage has a long history of disgusting comments, which has led David Klinghoffer to speculate that his act is a giant liberal put-on, a “lefty’s cartoon mental picture of a ranting right-wing caveman.”
The liberal website Media Matters has spearheaded the backlash against Savage’s autism comments. Understandably, conservatives might be uneasy about siding with such an outfit. Savage has tried to exploit such feelings by casting his critics as PC leftists. But just because the folks at Media Matters oppose child abuse, it doesn’t follow that we conservatives should accept it just for the sake of disagreeing with them.
Besides, liberals do not have a corner on concern for autism. California’s 1969 Lanterman Act was a landmark in serving people with autism and other disabilities. Its sponsor was a Republican, as was the governor who signed it: Ronald Reagan. In 2006, President Bush signed the Combating Autism Act. Its author was Senator Rick Santorum (R., PA).
Savage has cited respectable commentators who suggest that many kids with the autistic label are merely late talkers. His defense fails on two counts. First, these commentators don’t speak in the hateful language that he has used. Second, although they make their argument in good faith, they get things backward.
When you first notice that your child has a speech delay — around his second birthday — autism is the last thing that you want to think about. Autism is devastating and frightening. It’s more comforting to think that your kid is just starting late and will catch up soon. Clutching the “late talker” security blanket, some parents wait months or years before admitting the possibility of autism.
At that point, they may indeed conclude that a formal diagnosis could be important in getting help. States and school districts often pay for the assessment. Every autism diagnosis means thousands of dollars for services that the federal government mandates but does not fully subsidize. With tight budgets, the authorities have no incentive to encourage overdiagnosis. Once in a while, a child may incorrectly get the autism label, but underdiagnosis is probably a much bigger problem.
We need more study of the causes and prevalence of autism. At the moment, though, the issue is Michael Savage’s attack. He has since claimed that he is a nice guy who wants help to go to those who truly need it. Nonsense. If he cared about autistic kids, he wouldn’t have spewed words such as “moron” and “idiot.”
And he shouldn’t claim to be a conservative. He has cheapened political discourse and hurt defenseless children. There’s nothing conservative about that.
—- John J. Pitney Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.
Heir Savage showed his ASS on this topic. And I speak from personal experience.
Yeh, sure Mike. My son is just a ‘brat’.
What a friggin clown.
He Mike, maybe YOU should go on meds so you can stay on topic more than 5 seconds a rant.
Ditto. He's all over the map and his ginned up "outrage" and inconsistency betrays his "act" (reinforced and enhanced when he's off his meds :).
This needs repeating!
I guess it is now conservative to “Make A village pay to
raise your child”.
you are a very igonorant person.
I can see the day where parents who don't medicate their children become unfit parents and the CPS will take them away.
I really take offense to the “greedy doctors” comment. I truly think the heart of the problem lies more politcally than medically, as many people have commented on already. True, some might recieve “kick-backs” but this isn’t always the case.
Igonorant person #2 so far on this thread.
I did listen to Michael Savage's whole show and did a little research before passing judgment. He spoke from the heart with facts, his basic premise was hard edged but sound. He had plenty of experts on that supported his points.
My family is been down this road. Those who classify the kids and cheer-lead/demand funding the programs should not be ones paid to treat them.
A percentage of kids diagnosed with autism are probably not autistic.
Is it 99% ... no. That is an exaggeration.
Maybe its 30% .. or maybe 50% .. or maybe less.
But Savage's larger point is well taken, which is that more and more kids are being diagnosed with autism in todays' world, and there must be some reason.
Exactly right.
Autism is a specifically diagnosable disease. It first long before a child's age reason. It is highlighted by a disconnection from society and surroundings, but it also often brings with it other “skills” that non-autistic children cannot learn or develop.
Examples are the pianist who can play a 30 piano piece with no music sheets (he is blind) after hearing it once. The young man who can remember the models, colors and license plate numbers of the last 1000 cars passing him on the highway, or the various examples of talents of autistic children shown in “Rainman.” The movie was fictional but the abilities of autistics were not.
On the other hand, ADD or now often called ADHD is all too often a case of lack or imposed parental/adult controls. Children learn that they can get away with anything, and then do.
Example: a flight from Orlando to New York. An eleven year old boy would not stop running up and down the aisle, shouting, cursing, hitting people, etc. He ignored the seat bely sign and the stewardess’ semi-polite instructions repeatedly. The father's constant (whining )response was “What can I dooooo?”
Finally a man across the aisle from my wife gently grabbed the kid as he ran by. When the kid tried to squirm away, the gentleman discretely tightened his grip and whispered to the kid, “Listen you little brat, sit down, shut up, or I'm going to rip off your head and s**t down your throat.”
The kid sat down and was quiet the rest of the flight.
And I’ll list you as IGNORANT person #3.
Yeh, buddy, you know ALL about ADHD/Autism/Aspergers Syndrom.
just a bunch a brats huh?
fu.
Savage is finished... He has 5 or 6 major advertisers pull the plug on his show... This DOLT, instead of apologizing this week, spends 3 whole days on his show, defending what he said was an attempt to show how it’s over-diagnosed... No one’s buying it... He should have apologized righr off the bat... Being that he’s hitting our side harder than Air America the past few years, sounding like an abslolute looney liberal with his visceral hate of Bush and all of his policies, including Iraq... And all of his outrageous kook conspiracy theories... Good riddance to bad rubbish
This is being blown up as a problem as a way to explain away scientifically children who have problems in schools.
I’ve noticed the liberals promoting this cause in the last year and think they want to use it to suck more tax dollars out of our wallets for “education and treatment.”
C'mon now it's all about the children. David Brock, the gay smear merchant that heads Media Matters founded by Hillary funded by Soros certainly cares for the 'children'.
Sodomite David Brock
I am offended by Michael Savage and the people on this thread who have no empathy for families dealing with autism.
YES, government schools, state entities, lawyers, and the entire Autism Cottage Industry are profiting. And some of that is DEAD wrong. There is very little to be done for high-functioning autism, and the best things that can be done, can be done for free (or the cost of a parent’s full time duty).
But autism is very real, and probably caused by more than only genetics. There is SOMETHING different in our nutrition, environment, vaccines, that is acting as a neurotoxin to our children. Autism is NOT the only epidemic hitting us. Many auto-immune chronic conditions are also more prevalent and deadly than before — asthma, just to name one.
Autistic kids might be the canaries in the coal mine for the health of our nervous systems (including our brains).
Autism is very serious and families dealing with it need empathy and moral support, not accusations of bad parenting.
A person who can not or will not control their children
want others people's money.
If they were conservative, they would depend on family,
friends or church to help instead of tax money for their
problem.
What is new is the lowered age of prescribe for drugs like Prozac. With existing drugs flatlining in sales, the new market opportunities come with treating the symptoms of Autism in specific categories with drugs such as this. Follow the money, and the new SSI opportunities for parents and funding for schools. The age now is 7 where it can be prescribed. Also, look at Haldol and Valium. Autism is not old, it is the new fashionable badge that used to be ADD and ADHD. Ritalin has gotten a bad name and you should check the CDC because they can’t even answer the question as to the exponential increase in diagnosis. I bet one could correlate the increase in Autism to a decrease in ADD and ADHD.
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