Libertine: On the Prowl

Vidi, vici, veni -- I saw, I conquered, I came. _______________________________________________________________

Autism Controversy

12:23, 2008-Jul-22 .. Posted in rants .. 7 comments .. Link

Far right radio talk show host, Michael Savage, lived up to his pseudonym last Wednesday when he dismissed autism as a phony disease when he said, "In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out..."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, you idiot.'"

I'm wondering what medical school this obnoxious cretin went to to be able to pull such a harsh, absolute statement straight out of his ass? The man has a PhD, but that's not the same thing as being an MD.

You know the guy has to be a real wingnut when another right wing talk show host, Neal Boortz, htakes the time to criticize him on the air (unrelated to the autism issue). Last week, Boortz said something to the effect that he could understand why Savage would not want to use his real last name (Weiner) on the air, but one had to question the mentality of someone who would pick "Savage" as a pseudonym. Boortz went on to wonder what people in other countries must think of our country when they hear Savage refer to it as "Savage Nation".

Indeed.
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04:39, 2008-Jul-22 .. Posted by slayerbarbie
How does this man keep his show on the airwaves spewing bile like that?

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04:48, 2008-Jul-22 .. Posted by logis
Wow, luckily i know that the US is more then Bush Jr. and this idiot.

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05:48, 2008-Jul-22 .. Posted by texican
Michael Savage is a tool. I read his book and have heard his show on occasion and...yeah...he's a tool.

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01:21, 2008-Jul-23 .. Posted by etainne
What he actually said was that there are too many patients that were diagnosed with this and other problems.
In the schools here, each child that gets diagnosed with any form of Autism or any form of dyslexia or any form of ADD/ADHD is worth an additional $2500 per head to the school system. They have a vested interest in making sure that as many as possible are coded with something. Now, the Autism umbrella includes children who are speech-delayed. This includes any child who choses not to communicate.for whatever reason. There is a national push to include Gifted and Talented kids under this umbrella, as if being more able than the norm were a handicap.
What Savage was saying was that those students who are diagnosed solely for the sake of that additional funding were in all likelihood not handicapped, but simply not being asked to perform up to a standard that was required only a couple of decades ago. Remember, none of these handicaps existed in the 1960's, until the Psychiatric industry found a way to make them exist. Previous to this, your child was slow, backward, different, but still expected to find ways to cope and be successful.
I cannot stand Mr Savage, but there is a point to what he intended to say, as opposed to what others are twisting what he said into.
When you go into a class to teach, and there are 22 children and only seven are not coded with something, there is a problem. Each child who has a code gets something called an individual progress plan, and teachers are required to make individual and documented adjustments to the teaching for each child. Can you imagine how many students that is over the whole school district? How about the whole county? How about the whole state? It is a bottomless quagmire. And it is unneeded. Good teachers and good parents automatically teach to a students strengths to build on weaker areas. There has always been individualized approaches. It's just that now, with the way this is, the parents and the teachers have to document every little thing they do. And they have to have yearly or monthly meetings about how the progress is going. Yes I do think way too many students are diagnosed with Autism and with ADD/ADHD.
BTW-- There is no test or genetic marker or definitive proof for the diagnosis. It is subjective and can be pushed by teachers, parents or doctors-- the three who can suggest the diagnosis to begin with. It is self-perpetuating.

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02:00, 2008-Jul-23 .. Posted by libertine
Savage should have left out the sneering insults and ad hominems if he wanted to be taken seriously. He could have made his point without them.

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05:16, 2008-Jul-23 .. Posted by texican
Thanks for the clarification, etainne. I think you're right but have to agree with Will in that Savage could do without all the vitriol and still make his point.

Back in the late 90's, when I lived in Illinois, a friend of mine began to have problems with the school district. Apparently, his son's teacher had a problem with the kid's daydreaming and apparent lack of attention. He wasn't a disruption and made good grades, but he didn't hang on his teacher's every word. She requested that he be tested for ADD/ADHD and the school sent word to my buddy that he had to take his son to a certain doctor.

Of course, the doctor diagnosed him with ADD, and my friend disagreed. He refused to put him on Ritalin or whatever they had prescribed. The school demanded that he do so and even got the Department of Family Services involved. My friend told them that he wanted an impartial evaluation done, first.

He got the eval and the kid was fine...just bored. Turns out he was gifted and the work was too easy. He got bumped up to a more challenging program.

In light of what etainne just wrote, this story makes more sense to me. My buddy told me about the line of kids at the nurse's office for the daily Ritalin fix. I wonder how many of them were gifted but whose parents didn't bother to question or challenge the school district?

EclectaComment

08:27, 2008-Jul-25 .. Posted by Eclectablog
That guy makes me embarrassed that my middle name is Michael and my last name is Savage. Argh.