Savage Comments on Autism

[Switchbeam 9]

Doesn't surprise me. Chalk that up with the 32324245324 other asshole and ignorant things he has said. I was passing through the AM band one evening a couple of years ago and caught him at his best. There was a quake in Iran which destroyed an entire city. He said it was punishment from God and that they deserved it.

Many innocent people, including small children and babies, were killed with some of them suffering in the debris of fallen buildings. I guess their death is okay as long as America has a political disagreement with a country's government.

He's a shock jock and nothing more. He's an airhead and makes terrible arguments based, at best, on arbitrary assumptions. Not surprising I haven't touched the AM band in about 2 years IIRC.

[BRWombat]

Michael Weiner Savage is another wingnut in the Rush Limbaugh/Bill O'Reily/Sean Hannity ...

Love ya, hobie -- and I really don't want this board to turn political -- but from this I figure you don't listen to Rush or Hannity. They are nothing like Savage. Can't speak to O'Reilly, since I the few times I've tried to watch/listen to him, he just hasn't held my interest. But Savage is a loon. Rush and Hannity may be hardcore conservatives, but for the most part they're polite and thoughtful.

Can we get back to bashing SGs now? :D:

[DisneyMom]

Anybody remember when some people had claimed that the shooter of the Virginia Tech students was supposed to have some form of "autisim" due to his supposed insensitivity of others? Almost, it seems, as if he should be forgiven for his actions because of it. Yes that is a very steep example but I see this often in lesser ways. Like the family who got kicked off a flight cause of their Autistic kids "bothering" people. They kinda play the "Autistic card" as one would play a "race card".

Example: If a child with Autism breaks another's child's toy in a fit, would the parents simply argue, "It's not his fault! He has autism and you know he can't help it! How dare you make us replace Katie's doll! Do you even REALIZE what WE have to go though...." or would they apologize for their child's behavior and kindly buy a new doll?

It's just that when such a person does something wrong, it seems that they should automatically be forgiven because they have Autism.

Not saying I agree with the guy, but I can understand why one would get frustrated from the way they are often portrayed in the public spotlight.

Autism does not get you automatically forgiven for doing the wrong thing- if, for example, any of my kids went out and broke something of someone else's for any reason, not replacing it would just make me or them a big jerk. And there are lots of people out there who are big jerks whether or not they have disabled kids.
It does bother me that some people seem to suddenly develop autism after commiting murder or vandalism. If somebody does have Autism BEFORE doing the same thing, it will CERTAINLY be in the news, despite the fact that we have murders,etc. being commited by non-autistics that go unnoticed by the media. Just more sensational that way.
Like I said, he should have to do research and spend time with the 100 families with kids with autism, just to back up his claims. He could start with mine, because we are polite enough to deal with most anyone.

[hobie16]

Rush and Hannity may be hardcore conservatives, but for the most part they're polite and thoughtful.

I have to respectively disagree. How about Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox? His statement that white liberal racists in the Senate were after Alberto Gonzales? His made up statement from Barack Obama saying he was a "Halfrican-American?" Or out and out lying about his drug addiction and doctor shopping?

Hannity? He looks like the sales guy who is trying to convince everyone Hummer's are still a great deal with the current gas prices. He also looks like the guy who sits in the Jacuzzi and lets the bubbles inflate his swimsuit.

This has nothing to do with politics. These guys pander to the lowest common denominator. They preach hate and intolerance and make millions doing so.

[Kwahati]

...I really don't want this board to turn political...Rush and Hannity [are] polite and thoughtful...

Point Number One: No fair giving yourself the moral high-ground of "I don't want to talk about this" and then going on to talk about it.

Point Number Two: Polite and thoughtful my @$$! :p:

"Why should Blacks be heard? They're 12% of the population.
Who the hell cares." -Rush Limbaugh

"And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." -Rush Limbaugh [several weeks before confessing to obtaining OxyContin for illegal use]

Sean Hannity is a little snarkier, so he's harder to get in the obvious ways like we can do with that blow-hard Limbaugh, but he certainly does say things and then regret or "forget" them later.

Most notably, he was all for the war in Iraq even without a goal or defined end-state for success. Anyone able to guess what he said about going to war with Clinton as president?

"No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it."

or even better:

"Congressman Moran, a couple of things that are in my mind. Number one is the president has really failed to lay out before the American people the reasons why we need to be involved militarily. That's number one.

And then we go back to Henry Kissinger's test, which is number one, is there a vital U.S. national interest? And do we have a plan to disengage? What's the exit strategy? I don't see that we've met that test either. And why does it have to happen this second, this hour? Why don't we have a national debate first?"

Big Wallaby: People like us can disagree and still be polite and thoughtful. People like these talking heads on TV have absolved themselves of that responsibility. They pay no attention to what they say so they can deny it when it suits them later. That's not polite or thoughtful, it's misleading and deceptive and implies that they think very little of their listening/viewing audience.

My lessons learned from this thread:
If you're in it for entertainment, then great, shock jocks and talking heads definitely have a niche to fill. If, however, you're taking what they're telling you with anything less than an ENTIRE SHAKER of salt, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

[BRWombat]

Well, at the risk of being further accused of being unfair -- because I really don't come here for politics -- I'll just respectfully disagree. I've listened to these guys for years, and to my perception this portrayal is not correct. Your mileage may vary. :)

[hobie16]

Fair enough. We agree to disagree.

[felinefan]

I hate talk radio. I grew up listening to the radio for music, news and weather. I have a radio, but since I spend so much time online, it's been quite a while since I last used it. I think the last time I used it was when mom was watching something on T.V.--I don't remember what--and I thought it was so boring and stupid I turned my radio on to drown it out. Not loud, just enough to cover up the stupidity in the next room. Radio and T.V. were originally intended for education, information and entertainment; I see very little in what is labeled as such nowadays that actually fits that description.

[hobie16]

You don't hinge your life on every Britney/Lindsey/Paris/Brad/George sighting?!?! Why, that's Un-American!!!

[Shorty82]

You don't hinge your life on every Britney/Lindsey/Paris/Brad/George sighting?!?! Why, that's Un-American!!!

Should I mention I don't have cable nor an antenna for my TV nor do I even turn a radio on except in the car? I keep the radio on mostly for background noise and tuned to one station that plays primarily music and turn it off if they talk to long.

Cable's to expensive and I'm happy without it though I'll probably be getting an antenna soon but not to keep track of the lives of stars.