Most people with good sense know that Michael Wiener (Savage) is a dumbass. His latest tirade probably won't cost him, any more than his previous ones. Still, Media Matters is giving it a go. They report, you decide if anything can actually be done about it.
On July 16, the No. 3 syndicated radio talk show host in the country, Michael Savage, made the following statement on autism:
"Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism? ... A fraud, a racket."
Savage went on to say:
Now, the illness du jour is autism. You know what autism is? 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."
Autism -- everybody has an illness. If I behaved like a fool, my father called me a fool. And he said to me, "Don't behave like a fool." The worst thing he said -- "Don't behave like a fool. Don't be anybody's dummy. Don't sound like an idiot. Don't act like a girl. Don't cry." That's what I was raised with. That's what you should raise your children with. Stop with the sensitivity training. You're turning your son into a girl, and you're turning your nation into a nation of losers and beaten men. That's why we have the politicians we have.
During the same broadcast, Savage also attacked those in "the minority community" who suffer from asthma. He stated: "[W]hy was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], 'When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], "I don't know, the dust got me." ' See, everyone had asthma from the minority community."
I find it amazing that anyone can listen to this guy. He literally screams into the microphone, and I suppose he appeals to the angriest of the Angry White Men. It's more than likely that his hyperbolic rants are part of an act, the way Rush Limbaugh's seems to be. But while I can listen to Limbaugh and laugh at him, including his glaring factual errors and stupid voice timber, Savage is literally unlistenable. Literally. Anyhoo, if you want to give complaining to your local station a go, here's the link.
Oh, and did I mention that his son's middle name is Goldencloud?
By the way, I wonder what John McCain thinks about the Wiener's commentary? (Hat tip to Political Byline, which discovered this little gem in April.)
I mean in today's political climate, you ARE judged by the company you keep...
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%>
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%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788