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FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MUST HAVE BEEN ON MARS OR ELSEWHERE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM OF LATE, YOU MAY NOT BE AWARE OF these rather tasteless remarks of Mchael "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" Savage off his show of the 16th inst., as has since prompted ten stations to cancel his show and two national advertisers to abandon him:

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.

And for those of you readers who have some class of (in Savage's words) "a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out" who they can get rid of cheaply and cheerfully, if only for awhile--the Federal Trade Commission has some questions you should ask those running such dumping-grounds disguised as "boot camps" or "corrective schools."

BEFORE you essentially dispose of such basket cases and try to play the Pilate act (as in washing your hands of any culpability for dealing with such a basket case, as Pilate washed his hands to absolve himself of responsibility for sending the Christus to His Crucifixion).

And if you can't afford it ... well, there's always the advice to have him or her leave the house after breakfast and not expect them back home until the supper hour, based on the misguided perception you must have of their only "wasting space" and "not making wise use of their time" and hoping that a bus pass and a pre-loaded debit card (or even a season pass to some local theme or water park, come to think of it) will snap them out of it. Unaware all along of the prospect that:

• security guards, ride attendants and lifeguards might start asking questions about the continued presence of such juveniles without parental accompaiment, and on a repeated basis;
• police likewise, with the prospect of your being referred to the Child Welfare Agency and the courts likely declaring you "unfit" and having to give the children up; and
• the possibility that your asking the kids to leave during the day is nothing but an excuse to surf the Information Stuporbahn for child pornography without attracting the suspicions of prying eyes that could translate into cries of "Privacy invasion! Privacy invasion!" (in the key of "Ring around the collar!") in case the police get involved.

Is this any way of "healthy development of children" just for the sake of not letting down dear Michael Savage (so long as he's still on air)?

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A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE POLLS AS APPEAR IN ROTATION OFF THE SIDE OF THE PAGE in this blog:

As these polls are conducted on a purely "opt-in" basis, I should point out @ this time that said polls are not scientific samplings, but rather a way to "take the pulse," as it were, of blog readers on certain interesting topics.

Now you know.