Media personality and talk show host Michael Savage is known for being a bit of a loose cannon (read:douchebag). It’s his job to make controversial statements, offend the masses and be somewhat of a fire-starter in order to drum up ratings. This however, does not give him the right to ignore facts, medical professionals, historical data and general perceptions of reality.

Savage, whose show appears on the TalkRadioNetwork has mostly conservative views and is listed as the third most popular conservative radio host in the country. Savage is also a major homophobe and was fired from MSNBC for making some very insensitive comments to caller who was pranking the host. Who had the last laugh there?!

So what’s Micahel Savage done now? Oh, not much, just bash a bunch of physiologically challenged children and their parents. Savage, had the audacity to call autism a “fraud, a racket” as well as stating the following about the children diagnosed with autism and the parents of these afflicted children:

“Now the illness du jour is autism,” Savage said. “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?” Savage added. “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.’ ”

Now you don’t have to be a bleeding heart liberal or even a person with 3rd grade education to see the issue with the above statement from Savage. Clearly the guy is an ignorant, unread, unsophisticated, lazy-ass rabble-rouser. Having witnessed children with autism first hand and the parents who are desperate to try and help these children, it floors me that someone would make such a statement.

When you compare a “normal” kid’s behavior, to a child with autism, the differences are marked and disconcerting. Autistic children are hyper-sensitive to a variety of outside influences such as noise, smell, light, as well as, foods, textures and the moods of others. Handling these children so as to ease their emotions and sensitivities requires a lot of love, patience and hand-ons parenting.

I am all for disciplining one’s children, but there’s a huge difference between behavioral issues with “normal” kids and those with bona fide emotional issues stemming from a disability. I have tremendous respect for parents of children who must dig deep for reserves of understanding and compassion for the special needs of their kids.

So, essentially, because Michael Savage spends his time looking down on anyone and everyone whom he deems beneath him and raging on them through jaded eyes of ignorance, he has essentially cast doubt into the minds of millions of listeners of his show of the existence of a very real illness and the inherent struggles and difficulties of dealing with children with autism.

Great job Michael, what’s next? Punching a litter of kittens, slapping babies for pooping, spitting on Alzheimer’s patients? How about you shut yer cakehole assface and do some research before you go spouting off a the mouth. Go to the library, volunteer at a children’s hospital, feed the needy, do something useful you cancer on society.

For more on autism, go here. It’s real and it can be heartbreaking for anyone who knows a child who suffers.

The above video is of COS leader, David Miscavige, addressing his ”flock’ as to how the organization plans to “obliterate psychiatry” in what can only be described as hate-filled sermon against an entire community of people who have dedicated themselves to helping people lead relatively normal lives in spite of chemical imbalances, emotional trauma, abuse, and personality disorders. A community of people mind you, who are accredited from real schools of higher learning and given certificates to practice medicine based on years of real scientific studies in the arts of psychology and psychiatry.

So yeah, I guess I can see Miscavige’s point, why trust those with degrees in the field of psychology, when I can put my life in the hands of an organization whose very foundation was built on the philosophy that the best way to make money was to start your own religions? That sounds ethical, moral and sincere.

If you can wade your way through the COS double-speak and pseudo-sciency sounding lexicon, what Miscavige is saying is COS is waging a war on psychiatry (and winning of course) by publicly discrediting those who practice the medicinal art. On top of that, he also elaborates on how COS has distributed over 70+ million pamphlets worldwide on their literature titled “Way to Happiness” to help those people who are vulnerable, lost or confused and in need of spiritual guidance. Since COS is single-handedly putting the evil psychiatrists out of business, this leaves COS to help pick of the pieces of the shattered remains of the psyches of those who are no longer able to get the medical help they need. However, he failed to mention once COS is done sucking these people dry of both their money and their will, they are indiscriminately tossed on their collective asses to fend for themselves.

I paraphrase here, because I don’t speak Xenu.

While we’re on the subject of David Miscavige, I should mention a recent news story about his niece Jenna Hill Miscavige and her bravery for speaking out against COS and her uncle.

In a NYP article, Jenna gives some insight as to what she endured during her times with the COS.

Jenna left the COS in 2005 because she was virtually unable to visit or see her parents since their defection from COS in 2000:

Jenna let loose on Scientology last month when she posted an open letter to a senior sect official, which was later posted on the Web, praising the Morton book and slamming the church. Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw responded to her: “I am absolutely shocked at how vehemently you insist upon not only denying the truths that have been stated about the church in that biography, but then take it a step further and tell outright lies.”

Pouw did not respond to our call for further comment by press time yesterday.

But Jenna is not backing down. Her mother and father left Scientology in 2000, but she stayed in until 2005, during which time she says she was kept in a boarding school, only allowed to see her parents once a year and subjected to a bizarre daily regimen.

“If you flunked your uniform inspection, sometimes if you were late . . . you would be dumped with a five-gallon bucket of ice water,” she tells Recchia, a former Post reporter.

“We were also required to write down all transgressions . . . similar to a sin in the Catholic religion. After writing them all down, we would receive a meter check on the Electropsychometer to make sure we weren’t hiding anything, and you would have to keep writing until you came up clean. This is from the age of 5 until I was 12.”

Wow, and I thought Catholic school sounded scary.

I hope Jenna has some kind of security detail. I give her credit for coming forward, it must be very frightening for her to go up against an organization as powerful as the COS. Maybe this will give courage to others to leave.