Michael Savage on Autism

Last week shock jock Michael Savage lived up to his name and his occupation by saying that autism was a "fraud" and a "racket" and that 99% of autistic children were actually just brats.

Here's what he said

Now, you want me to tell you my opinion on autism, since I'm not talking about autism? A fraud, a racket. For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden — why 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. That was number one.

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.

Savage has since backtracked slightly and said that his 99% figure was “a little high” and "hyperbole.”

I wonder if by a "little high" he meant it was only 90% of autistic kids were just brats.

According to Savage he stands by his remarks

My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community's attempt to label too many children or adults as "autistic."

Yep, he wants to wake up those "autistic" children and make them realize they just need to "Straighten up. Act like a man."  That'll fix 'em.

This whole thing starts as a rant against minority children and asthma.  Obviously Savage doesn't know how asthma is diagnosed by a doctor.  I can say from experience it's not diagnosed by just coughing a little bit.  Nor is a child diagnosed with Autism because he eats his Skittles by color but otherwise does nothing else as one commentor at this site claimed.

Autism is not just the kid who sits in the corner rocking back and forth and flapping his hands.  There's a range of severity and diagnosis that falls under Autism Spectrum Disorder.  I've worked with children at all levels of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  It has been my experience that there are more non-minority children labeled ASD than minority children.  Lower socioeconomic minority children tend to be severely Autistic even though I've worked with several lower socioeconomic children that I thought might be Autistic but had never been diagnosed.

In other words, among poor minority children the tendency is to under diagnose rather than over diagnose.

Also, most of the children that I've worked with that were ASD did have a father figure around.  Yes, many lived with one parent but several of those students lived with their father not their mother.  Most of the ASD children I have worked with had both parents, either biological or step.

Back in Martin Luther's time, autistic children were thought to be possessed by the devil and were killed.  In the mid-1900s mothers of Autistic children were blamed for their condition for being frigid during pregnancy and the child's first few months of life and beyond.

Savage's remarks seem to indicate that the mother is to blame for their child's condition.  This actually doesn't surprise me since Savage was born in 1942 and grew up during the time when "refrigerator mothers" were blamed for Autism.

Am I going to call for Savage to be fired?  No.  The man has the right of free speech even if it is mean, hateful and makes him sound like an idiot (something Savage's father told him not to do).  Savage was hired to say mean, hateful and shocking things to gain ratings for the stations that air his show.  He's just doing his job, as dispicable as it might be.

The stations and advertisers have to decide if they want Savage to represent them.    So far 7 stations in Mississippi have decided to drop Savage's sydicated show from their programming.  The Aflac insurace company (you know, the one with the irritating duck in its commercials) has also decided to pull its advertising.

I won't be surprised if more stations and advertisers follow their example.

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McCain shows his expertise on foreign policy

Not!!!

Once again McCain has opened his mouth and proved that he is far from being an expert on foreign policy.

Today on the "Good Morning America" show, McCain downplayed conditions in Afghanistan.  He then went on to say

We have a lot of work to do.  It's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.

In case you don't know how the borders are drawn in that region of the world, here's a map I got off of Crooks and Liars.

border

Looks to me like the Iraq Pakistan border has a very large cushion named Iran.

This isn't the first time McCain has opened his mouth and shown that he doesn't know what he is talking about.  During a GOP debate in October 2007, McCain said

The first thing I would do is make sure that we have a missile defense system in place in Czechoslovakia and Poland, and I don't care what his objections are to it.

On July 14, 2008, he said

I was concerned about a couple of steps that the Russian government took in the last several days. One was reducing the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia. Apparently that is in reaction to the Czech's agreement with us concerning missile defense, and again some of the Russian now announcement they are now retargeting new targets, something they abandoned at the end of the Cold War, is also a concern.

Three months before he said that he told Don Imus that he would "work closely with Czechoslovakia and Poland and other countries."

If he's a foreign relations expert, McCain should know that Czechoslovakia was split into two countries January 1, 1993.  Neither is called Czechoslovakia.  Instead their names are the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

At a news conference in Jordan on March 18, 2008, McCain said

Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran.

Here's the problem with that statement:  Iran's population is mostly Shiite Muslim.  Al Qaeda is Sunni Muslim.  Iran views The Sunni's in Al Qaeda as a threat to their country and have worked very hard to close their borders to Al Qaeda fighters.  Iran has also accused the United State of funding, training and arming Iraqi Shiite militants.

If McCain or anyone else wants to claim that they are an expert on foreign policy, then they can't keep making stupid mistakes like these.  They definitely shouldn't be making them over and over and over again (I'm talking to John "Czechoslovakia is still a country" McCain).

If you want me to believe that you're an expert on anything, you need to actually know what you're talking about.  John McCain just continues to prove that he is no expert on foreign policy.

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Act III is up!!!

Act III of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is up!  This is the longest act at over 15 minutes long.  It's worth the watch.

Act III is both funny and sad.  It and the other two acts will only be up until midnight tomorrow.  You've been warned.

If you haven't seen the other two acts, I suggest you watch them first.  You can find them at Dr. Horrible.

The whole production is by Joss Whedon, the man who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity.  I'll admit, I was never a big fan of Buffy and I only watched Angel until two episodes after Whedon killed off Doyle.  I am, though, a fan of Firefly and its related movie Serenity.

Now I can add that I'm a big fan of Doctor Horrible.  I wouldn't mind seeing more some day.

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Doctor Horrible — Act II

Act II is up! Don't miss it!

If you liked Act I of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, you'll love Act II.

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Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

No matter what you think of superheros, I recommend watching this show.  It's on the internet for only one week before being taken down.

According to Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog fan site

“It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to.” says Whedon.

“Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” will star Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer, Felicia Day as Penny and a cast of dozens.”

Act I went up today and almost immediately crashed the show's web site.  It's back up now.  It's very amusing.

Neil Patrick Harris is the "low-rent super-villain" Doctor Horrible while Nathan Fillion plays his nemesis Captain Hammer.  Unlike most super hero stories, Captain Hammer is a conceited jerk and Doctor Horrible is the super-villain you want to root for.

You can click here and catch Act I now (it's just under 14 minutes long).  Act II will go up on July 17th and Act III will go up on July 19th.  The whole show comes down on July 20th at midnight.  After that you'll have to download it from iTunes.  Eventually the show will be put out on DVD with "with the finest and bravest extras in all the land."

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Sunday Funnies

Carlin

iranmissle

IraqAfghan

McCainGramm

McCaindeficits

rove

wikipedia

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Another "vishing" e-mail

Last time I wrote about this I X'ed out the name of the legitimate company that the fraudulent e-mail claimed to represent. This time I'm including the name since it's the second one I've received supposedly from this company.

Be aware, I don't blame the company at all for these e-mails. This company's reputation is basically being attacked by these jerks. I'm including it so that if anyone else gets a similar e-mail they'll know that it's junk and delete it.

I'm also posting this because the fraudulent asses are really pressing the "Danger! Fraud!" angle to try to legitimize their pitch.

The subject for this e-mail was "IMPORTANT NOTICE! PLEASE READ! "PHISHING" ALERT"

This is the e-mail

IMPORTANT NOTICE! PLEASE READ! "PHISHING" ALERT

Recently, members of the Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. received a phony email which looks as if it was sent by Susquehanna, and directing them to a web site that is a counterfeit copy of the real Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. web site. There, members were asked to input their credit card numbers and PIN. DO NOT DIVULGE THIS INFORMATION!

We will never send you an email asking for this sensitive information, which, by the way, we already have. The email itself is not harmful, and can safely be deleted like any other piece of junk email. Authorities are currently working to shut down the counterfeit site, which is located overseas. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter!

For your security, your account has been temporarily locked out of the system. You will not be able to make purchases with your card while this lock is in place. Please call customer service line at 1-800-643-1651 for further assistance.

Copyright © 2008 Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. |
Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. 26 N. Cedar Street Lititz, PA 17543-7000

The address and the company both are legitimate. They are the only things in the e-mail that are legitimate. The phone number is not a Susquehanna Bancshares, In. number. That was easily verified by going to the company's website.

The website has a warning about phishing attempts and actually provides a good deal of information about various ways people might try to steal your identity. Susquehanna also asks that if you get any e-mails claiming to be from them to forward them to reportfraud@susquehanna.net.

If you get an e-mail like this from a company that you do business with, don't call the number in the e-mail. Find a statement from the company and get the number from the statement. That way you know the number is legitimate. If you get a phone call making a similar claim don't give the caller any information. Once again, you want to get a bill and get the number from there to call back.

Sadly, we can't trust anyone these days. Too many assholes are out there trying to steal other people's identities.

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WP-SpamFree

I installed a new plug-in a few days ago and it seems to be working great.  I've tried various plug-ins over the years to block spam of all types with mixed results.

SpamKarma 2 and Askimet both seemed to work pretty well but I was still having to go through and verify if blocked items were really spam.  They both worked pretty well for comments but trackback spams would sometimes slip through.

Lately, the only spam I've been getting has been the trackback kind.  I was getting tired of looking at the various drug and porn trackbacks so I went looking for a plugin that would block it completely.

WP-SpamFree looked like it could do the job I wanted.  According to the plug-in author's description

Comment spam has been a problem for bloggers since the inception of blogs, and it just doesn’t seem to go away. The worst kind, and most prolific, is automated spam that comes from bots. Well, finally there is an effective solution, without CAPTCHA’s, challenge questions, or other inconvenience to site visitors. The WP-SpamFree plugin virtually eliminates automated comment spam from bots, including trackback and pingback spam.

It seems to be doing the trick.  So far it's blocked 33 spam bots according to the information it puts in my dashboard.

There's only one problem.  It appears that no one has tried to leave a comment since I installed the plug-in.   Since there's no way to see just what its blocking I can't be positive that a legitimate comment has been blocked.

So I'm asking for a favor.  Please leave a comment.  Even if it's just to say hi.  I'd appreciate it.

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Not making that call

There's a type of "phishing" that's on the rise. It's called "vishing."

"Vishing" occurs when you receive a automated phone call or an e-mail that says that your account or debit card has been compromised in some way. You could be told the card will be "temporarily locked out of the system" until you resolve the problem. You're given a number to call to resolve the problem.

The number takes you to an automated answering program that asks for your account number or debit card number to verify the account.   You will probably also be asked for the same type of information requested in typical "phishing" scams.

If you receive an e-mail, it may start out like this one

We are aware that some of our members have received fraudulent e-mails stating to click on a link to address an issue with their account. Please do not respond to this e-mail. It is not from XXXXXXXXXXX.

Be warned, it has even been reported that large scale "vishing" operations may have set up a "call center" with people pretending to work for the company in question.

I received one of these e-mails today.  It was from a bank that I had never heard of and it was sent to an e-mail account that I rarely use.

By the way, it was sent to a gmail account.  I have two gmail accounts.  One I use for this blog.  The other is the one I rarely use.  Neither account is used for personal information.

I found this advice when I was looking into information about "vishing"

If you have a question concerning your account or credit/debit card, you should contact your bank using a telephone number obtained independently such as; from your statement, a telephone book, or another independent means.

It is excellent advice.  You should do that  if the questionable request comes by e-mail or phone.

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More Carlin Favorites

I just wanted to share some more of my favorite Carlin pieces

On Stuff:

On dogs and cats:

On baseball and football:

On airplanes:

On euphemisms:

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