Left: Michael Savage's book, THE SAVAGE NATION, which I have no intention of reading, or even touching.~*~
Conservative talk-radio pit-bull Michael Savage is a very interesting person. He used to be a heavy in MY profession, if you can believe it. Yes! Michael Savage, as Michael Weiner, was a flaky lefty herbalist and nutritionist, the author of several well-known homeopathic books. I was stunned when I discovered Weiner was actually Savage. In addition, he used to hang with famous Beats and GAY people (a minority group he now openly despises) like Allen Ginsberg.
He was once a decent person, apparently, or maybe he was just a groupie. Wikipedia informs us:
Savage introduced himself to certain writers in the North Beach area of San Francisco in the early 1970s. He befriended and traveled with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Stephen Schwartz, also an acquaintance of Savage from this time, reported Savage possessed a photograph of himself and Ginsberg swimming naked in Hawaii and used the photograph as sort of a "calling card." Savage maintained a correspondence with Ginsberg consisting of ten letters and a trio of postcards across four years, which is maintained with Ginsberg's papers at Stanford University. One letter asked for Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti to come do a poetry reading, so others could "hear and see and know why I adore your public image." One postcard mentions his desire to photograph Ginsberg in a provocative way, though Savage states that this correspondence is actually a forgery created by gay detractors.As I said, interesting. In his 1980 book Weiner's Herbal: The Guide to Herb Medicine, he unequivocally stated marijuana had medical benefits, but as a reborn conservative android, dutifully renounced this position, as he has also robotically and predictably turned into a rabid, crazed homophobe.
And now, he hates autistic children, too. 99% of autism is simply SPOILED BRATS, Savage proclaims. Newsday's Carol Polsky reports:
Conservative radio talk show jock Michael Savage used his nationally syndicated show Monday to defend his controversial remarks on autism, even as outraged parents protested outside the Manhattan offices of his broadcaster, calling for his firing.I hope they tar and feather his right-wing, hateful ass.
"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,' Savage wrote on his Web site and read on his broadcast Monday. "Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an "illness" which may not exist in all cases. ... Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free."
The original remarks that stirred the backlash aired on the July 16 broadcast of his show "The Savage Nation," which typically targets the likes of liberals, undocumented immigrants and feminists and has more than 8 million listeners.
On his broadcast, Savage called autism "a fraud, a racket ... In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. ... They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. ... Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.' "
His controversial remarks drove several dozen parents and advocates Monday to protest outside the WOR-710 in Manhattan.
"That isn't just freedom of speech, it is hateful speech when you say 99 percent of children with autism are brats," said Evelyn Ain, whose 8-year-old son has been diagnosed with autism and who organized the demonstration. "I'll tell you, I wish I had a brat."
Moral of the story: hate and prejudice never stop with just one group. It always, always, always extends to others. If it's okay to hate people for some arbitrary characteristic, then it's okay to hate them all.
Even children. And yes, even those unfortunate kids who don't/can't say anything to anyone.
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Listening to: Foo Fighters - Erase/Replace
via FoxyTunes