Savage and his apologists on the attack...again!

The other day I wrote a diary on Mike Savage's vile and repulsive statements regarding children with Autism.  You can find my diary here:  http://www.dailykos.com/...

As the mother of a child with Autism I took action and wrote a letter to the management of the local station which airs Mr. Savage's disgusting show.

Just when you think that Mike Savage has sunk to his lowest, he manages to skim a few more inches out of the pool.

He's now claiming that autism is a fraud.  On July 16 Savage claimed that autism is a fraud and a racket and that children with autism where nothing more than brats with parents who didn't know how to discipline them.  

As a mother of a child with autism I'm appalled, and I am pleading for all of you to help to remove this vile person from the airwaves.  

Dear Markos,

While I am addressing this letter to you, it is also intended for John Amato, Arianna Huffington, Digby, John Aravosis and all the other powerhouse players in the Netroots Nation.

We have seen over the last few years the power and influence of the blogosphere grow exponentially. You, and others like you, have influenced the direction of political campaigns, made or broke candidates for high office, impacted public opinion, and even forced some mighty big corporations to come to heel. But now I am asking you to harness that power once again and direct it against a single person.

I have a great but challenging life. I am a single mother with two boys on the autism spectrum. My oldest, has full blown autism, mental retardation and also suffers from epilepsy. My youngest is higher functioning but he had speech delay until five years of age and it has greatly improved through early intensive behavioural intervention. He is still behind his typical peers and still has many outbursts. Just the every day mundane things that we all take for granted is a major challenge for us. Several months ago, when we went to the grocery store, my youngest got excited when he saw watermelon on display and screamed "Watermelons"! I didn't think it was any big deal, it was a major improvement since my oldest son enjoys smashing eggs on the floor (we always avoid that aisle). Well, an old man jumped and screamed "Those children should be at home and not taken into public!" I can't even count the number of times people have reprimanded me for not discipling my children.

One Parent Begs To Differ...

Yesterday on his radio show, right wing talker Michael Savage said that autism is "a fraud" and "a racket" and that "in 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out." Savage then asserted that all these "brat[s]" need as a father to tell them to "stop acting like a putz":

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.

thinkprogress.com

Trolls on your marks.  Get Set.  Counting down: 3, 2, 1.  Go.

John Ashcroft thinks it's okay to torture members of the United States Armed Forces.  However, Mr. Ashcroft sometimes has problems with facts and reality.  It seems unlikely that he would approve of the use of waterboarding on his own person.  Perhaps waterboarding would help change his mind.

A special shout out to Michael Savage.  The "brats" aren't faking autism.  In Michael's case I'd say he's not faking stupidity either.

Just for the record, in case anyone gets confused, I'm voting for the candidate who works out (That's bad, Nutz?).  He's a strong man, both physically and of character.  You may have heard of him.  His name is Barack.

Number of times I wanted Ron Paul to run the show: -1000
Number of insane things Congress has done:  I lost count.
Keep your head down, this bazooka has a hair trigger.
Onward.

You need to eat differently from males -- and probably from your usual diet.  This may also be applicable to human females.

There seems to be a genetic reason why Sub-Saharan Africans have high HIV rates.

And other science news simplified for reporters, not yet dumbed down by news editors.

Tomorrow, Federal health officials are convening leading experts to conduct a workshop on "triggers for neurological deterioration," including the relationship between autism and  mitochrondrial disease, an issue which first gained recognition when the parents of Hannah Poling went public as the US government conceded that Hannah's "autistic encephalopathy" was triggered by vaccines.

As it turns out, those skeptical of the latest Autism Speaks controversy may have actually been right.

First, some background:  Recently a blogger designed a shirt with the slogan "Autism Speaks can go away", referring to the autism charity which is not held in high esteem amongst the autistic community, and posted it to the online T-shirt store Zazzle.  The shirt was pulled from the catalog not long after, due to an alleged intellectual property complaint. I covered this all in my previous diary here on DKos.

But as it turns out, Autism Speaks did not specifically target that shirt with its trademark complaint; that was a mistake on Zazzle's part.

NOTE: See correction under the fold; turns out Autism Speaks was not responsible for the most recent takedown.

You might recall that a while back, I posted a diary criticizing some of the tactics of the autism charity Autism Speaks.

Well, let's all be thankful that they haven't (yet) forced DKos to take that post down— or, worse yet, sent a cease-and-desist notice to the hosting provider for my personal blog, at which I also posted it— because of alleged intellectual property infringement. As utterly absurd as that may sound, it is precisely what they've done to not one but two autistic bloggers an autistic parodist who have has dared to criticize that organization.

Gotta run to work, so this is a short one, and I apologize in advance.
Found this in the Guardian and, given the reversal of the gay marriage ban in CA, I thought it was relevant and interesting:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

This research appears to destroy any remaining debate over whether sexual orientation is a choice or not. As my wife just commented, anyone with a brain knows that sexual orientation is not a choice, but we all know that the mainstream in our oh-so-civilized society is completely brainless...
Please go below for snippets and commentary.

I am a bit autistic. And that goes pretty far beyond anybodies sexual inconveniences.

Yup. I posted the same damn thing over at MyDD. I have posted about 3,000 threads over here! No shit! And this is the very first time that one has been "lost!" Like a flipped vote, I guess. I should call Brad Blog right the fuck now!!!

You stupid assholes are having one hell of a hard time with this "issue," huh? Well you should! Have you not been fuckt by The Agency enough times yet??? No???

I always tell you more and more about myself. You know that I live with autism. Know yet more! I have lived with trans-sexuals. (This is not any issue at all if you are autistic, trust me on this.) See, I have many talents. I can read books about ridiculously complex mathematics, and understand them. I do lots of linguistic stuff (if only you knew). I used to live with Rock and Roll bands. Stop there.

Nancy Boyda (D-KS) has chosen a teen with Autism to be a Congressional page.

According to Boyda, Benjamin Eric Berlin, 16, will become the first person with autism to serve in the page program, which began 181 years ago in 1827.

Remember the child with Autism voted out of his Kindergarten class- here is a model from the highest levels on why inclusion is important.

More in extended...

As this diary, front-paged and recommended told us, a young five year old with Asperger's Syndrome was singled out by a Kindergarten teacher and voted out of the class, exposed to the organized ridicule of his fellow students.  Among the other things I could tell you about what happened, I can tell you, that as far as this kid was concern, This did not help.  In fact, it could not help.

I make it a policy to tell those I deal with on a regular basis that I have this disorder, because neither I nor they will be able to change it, and its better to know in advance.

One thing that never worked, and in fact made things worse for me, was the peer pressure to conform, especially when it turned nasty.  Now there will be some who ask what this diary has to do with politics.  Well, if anything else, politics is about communication, and two things will be true: we will deal with folks who have this disorder, and we will deal with situations and communications breakdowns that the conflicts we who have Asperger's Syndrome face on a regular basis, and which even regular people have their encounters with.

This past weekend, my thirteen-year-old cousin Becca put on a tallis for the first time, was called up to the Torah, and became a Bat Mitzvah.  Watching her at the pulpit, clearly and confidently delivering her d'var Torah, I almost couldn't believe that this was the same girl who, as a stubborn kindergartener, had shied away from the limelight in our family skits.  Yet here she was: a child no longer, but a full-fledged young woman, poised and proud and capable as she chanted the age-old melody of Parshat Behar.  It was truly a simcha--a joy--to witness her coming of age.  And yet, there was also sadness.  Something was missing.

You see, Becca has a twin.

As some of you may know from my previous posts, I am the father of a son who suffers from autism. One of the resources that have helped us out a great deal is Unlocking Autism. It was there that I learned about this 14 year olds project and I would like to reprint here the email I sent to my family and friends. I know this is a departure from my usual political posts and I know that this is just one boys dream but I hope you will indulge this diary.

Thanks,

LCD

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Subject: What do I do with my can tabs???

Hello,

I know that this is a problem we all confront every day ;-) (btw, this really is Jerry and not a spam/redirect, call me if you don't believe me).

If you, like me, produce a number of empty cans you can put the tabs to good use (soda or beer, its all good).