Posted on 07/21/2008 11:23:49 AM PDT by camerakid400
Michael Savage, the incendiary radio host who last week characterized nearly every autistic child as “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” said in a telephone interview Monday morning that he stood by his remarks and had no intention of apologizing to those advocates and parents who have called for his firing over the matter.
“My main point remains true,” Mr. Savage, whose radio audience ranks in size behind only those of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, said in an interview on Monday. “It is an overdiagnosed medical condition. In my readings, there is no definitive medical diagnosis for autism.”
On his program lastWednesday, Mr. Savage suggested that “99 percent of the cases” of autism were a result of lax parenting. He told his audience: “They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life.“ He added, “Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ ”
Asked Monday if he actually believed that 99 out every 100 cases of autism was misdiagnosed, Mr. Savage conceded that figure was “a little high.” “It was hyperbole,” he said.
But he said he was proud to have prodded discussion on the subject, and planned to give over his entire show on Monday — broadcast live from northern California from 3 to 6 p.m. Pacific time — to parents and other callers who wished to disagree with him, and to educate him.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The “autism spectrum” is a fraud, IMO. Real autistic children would never be able to function in a school at all.
The judge said that she would reject his lawsuit if he didn’t ammend it. I believe he resubmitted the lawsuit and is waiting to hear back from the same judge. If she rejects it a second time, he is taking it to the appeals court which unfortunately the 9th circuit court of schlemiels in SF.
My autism Haiku:
Autistic or not
In public, don’t allow kid
To disturb the peace
About mid-90s, folks from all over the area were contacting me. I met with one family who's son had been on retilin since he was 5. He was now 11. The boy gave the appearance of being a zombie; and his meds had been routinely dosed accordingly through the years. His parents felt they'd done wrong by their son.
I'd been through this before with other children, and yes, I have seen what I consider permanent damage done to children. So, I recommended they contact a few people I know, and get their doctor's permission to incrementally reduce his doses to nothing; WHILE simultaneously working with a behavioral specialist. The boy had missed out on learning some integral socializing behavioral life-lessons due to his being drugged; and his behavior would seem very out of control, the more his drugs were reduced.
They then asked me to chat with their son. I did. I told him I saw him "in there". The boy just grabbed me around the waist, and hung on, crying. Just about broke my heart. But he did get helped. And a year or so later, I met with him again to help him understand why his parents had been led down this path. What were the reasons, and of the fact they loved him overmuch, that they'd been terrified into accepting an "expert" opinion. And in his case, it was the wrong diagnoses. He and his parents, then went into counselling so they could rebond and learn together, a newer way of interacting, sans his "misdiagnosed affliction". I had to go way undernet to find such a counselor for them. And no - no HMO would cover such a procedure.
Before I left CA, a last bit of finishing business was to check on this young man. He's doing very well; still has some residuals from the unnecessary drugs to his system; but he's very functional; and has found academic and physical passions to pursue, which means, to me, he's gotten "normalized".
Wow, I’m so sorry to hear about all that mess you and your son were put through. Thankfully, our family never had to deal with that kind of government intrusion ... just a few whispering family members. They said him not talking and flapping his arms a lot were classic signs. What child doesn’t run and move their arms a lot? He still doesn’t feel the need to jabber a lot, but is intelligent, well-mannered, tenderhearted (and still athletic), well liked by teachers and students.
I don’t see why it’s so difficult for some people to understand not all children are alike. Just because they’re different, not “typical”, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong them. God made us all different for a reason. It sounds like your son is just extraordinarily talented, and unusually so when a young boy. I’m glad to hear you both made it through those tough circumstances. Stories like that make me even more wary of government, if that’s possible.
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I can disagree with his 99%. The reasons why children may seem to exhibit these “off normal” behaviors is myriad.
I agree with you 100 percent. Savage is brilliant and is responsible for transforming me into a conservative, but sometimes he acts like a putz.
Thank you. You've obviously seen the same genuinely austic children, that I've seen. These are few and far between and there's NO mistaking them. There's no wiggle room. It's obvious.
“ADHD - Absent Dad/Husband Disorder”
People like you simply amaze me. Do you know how many people you insult with your glib statement?
Savage has an easy out. He should just claim he has Tourette syndrome and that makes him say things like that.
I'll be sure to inform my husband that our daughter's ADHD is due to his being absent..oh wait, he wasn't! He's been here the whole time supporting his daughter!
So, oh wise one, what was the cause of our daughter's ADHD? I'd love to know
You are simply ignorant of the facts. The autism spectrum is real. Some can function in school with an aid like my son. Those more affected can not. The difference is IQ. My son would have never made it through school without lots of help. He is now in the 5th year of a doctor of pharmacy program. He will be specializing in neurological medicine.
There are no medications for autism.
Savage exaggerates to make a point, but he’s basically correct. There’s no shortage of “medical experts” who can come up with handy excuses for lazy parents who need to explain to themselves and others why their children are undisciplined failures. And, of course, pharmaceutical companies gotta absolutely adore lazy moms.
“Autism” has become the latest catch-all. (You know - - “medical experts” are continually expanding the definition of “autism” as they find “previously unknown manifestations” of the “disability”. Hang onto your wallets.) I guess those other recently discovered bogus excuses, ADD and ADHD, have lost some of their shine.
Ritalin for all children, yippee!
They said him not talking and flapping his arms a lot were classic signs. What child doesn’t run and move their arms a lot? He still doesn’t feel the need to jabber a lot, but is intelligent, well-mannered, tenderhearted (and still athletic), well liked by teachers and students.
He sounds perfectly wonderful to me. Please give your son an extra cuddle for me.
There's been a war on, specifically, against boys (and males) for many years. All of it led by Democrats and the groups who "love 'em".
I don’t see why it’s so difficult for some people to understand not all children are alike. Just because they’re different, not “typical”, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong them.
I'll be blunt here: Liberals cannot accept diversity in children, unless it is "diversity" as THEY DEFINE it.
God made us all different for a reason.Amen. Amen. Another anecdote. Snowpacking with my girlscout troop and all families in Yosemite. My son, the "late talker" is simply doing his "autistic thing" of observing and exploring. Everyone else is yakking and hamming it up having a good time. I hear a "momma!" yell; and I know it's my son's voice. I run, I look, I can't see him. I'm running around people and snow and buildings, and I see him: he's flat on the ice of a creek, with his arms pulling out one of our own troop girls who'd fallen through the ice and was nearly fully submerged in the icy water. He was six or 7 at the time.
Yep, my late talker, saw what everyone else was too busy talking to see. End of anecdote.
I’m glad to hear you both made it through those tough circumstances.
Thank you. Yes, even after all these years, thank you.
Stories like that make me even more wary of government, if that’s possible.
It's always wise to be wary of government, ipso our Constitution and BofR. But to me, and after so many years of hell, I'm wary of those who are in CHARGE of running the bureacracies. Frankly, if they are Democrat, I avoid government interaction, run, if I can away from it. Why? Anyone who can see a baby as a blob of tissues, can also see a grown-up as a blob of tissues, and thereby a usable blob of tissues.
There are plenty of medications but no curative medication. They have now lowered many of the age restrictions on those medications that deal with very limited regions of affliction.
How do you explain a 10 fold increase in diagnosis in the past few years?
Take your pick:
1. 9 in 10 are misdiagnosis meant to open up new pharmaceutical markets and specialized school funding.
2. 9 in 10 cases were previously misdiagnosed.
3. We have an epidemic of vast proportions
In this camper population, I guess I don't see many misdiagnosed children. The autistic children I see at camp are the real deal. You can't talk them out of being autistic. It would like trying to talk a stone into being a frog.
That's why I consider Savage's remarks about the 99% so completely asinine. I'm sure there are kids with lesser disabilities being diagnosed with "autistic spectrum" for a variety of reasons. If that was his point, I wouldn't disagree.
But his contention is that 99% of autistic children can be snapped out of it by yelling at them. What an idiot.
Regarding the explosion in autistic diagnosis, I don't really know the exact reasons for it, but I can speculate. One reason is that they are correctly identifying it more now, rather than just calling autistic children retarded or crazy. And of course there are false diagnosis and fraud, but I don't think the number is enormous.
In the years I've worked at the camp I work at, the percentage of male campers with autism has gone from about 5% to about 85%. Again, these are not kids with mere attention deficits or behavior problems. These are kids who will rock in place for three hours and recite the dialog to "The Emperor's New Groove" complete with sound effects from the opening frame to the end. Or a kid who will cut intricate snowflake patterns in construction paper for six hours straight and be happy about it. That sort of behavior. All the time.
Another major reason that the percentages at my camp have moved so strongly towards autism is the fact that so many Downs Syndrome kids are aborted, they've almost disappeared from the camper population. They used to be the vast majority 25 years ago. But that's a whole nuther issue.
Precisely, but it is not necessarily the move for Ritalin, it is existing drugs being pushed like Valium, Haldol, and Prozac. They lowered the age acceptance and need a catchy fashionable conduit to distribute and boost lagging sales. Oldies but Goodies.
“It would like trying to talk a stone into being a frog.”
Is it the endless prescriptions creating the effect? Is the chicken before the egg or after?
How do you explain a 10 fold increase in a few mere years?
There are no medications for autism. medications developed for other purposes are sometimes used to treat symptoms.
Partially 2 and partially 3. I know the condition is real because I can pick even adults with aspergers out of a crowd. I also follow the research literature, there is little doubt that it is a genetic disorder. The incidence has increased. I knew no one with these symptoms when I was a child. I personally know of 4 on our street now.
The increase in incidence led to problems in the schools. That led to more attention being paid to the problem and more diagnoses.
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