Some people should just ...

... shut the hell up sometimes.
OK peeps, consider this a warning, I am a little more irritable than normal so this post may seem a little like I'm extra pissed off.
So, I was doing my daily rounds on CNN and I happened to see a video about a "shock jock" making downright dumb assessments about children with autism.
In case you opt not to follow the link, radio host Michael Savage made this comment:
"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 ... 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' ..."
I'm not sure how familiar you guys are with autism but, according to the Autism Society of America, autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others.
It is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is what is called a "spectrum disorder" that affects each person differently and to different degrees. There isn't a known single cause but a lot of mother suspect, and I do too, that it has something to do with all these vaccinations they're shooting kids up with now.
To my knowledge, there aren't any kids in my family on the spectrum and for that I'm thankful because I wouldn't want them to have to deal with the ignorance being spewed by Savage and a whole lot of other folks who don't recognize the seriousness of autism.
A blogger buddy of mine, Kim Stagliano has three girls who are all on the spectrum. She is the managing editor of the blog "Age of Autism" and writes on her self-titled blog. There's a wealth of information about the disease on the first blog and in the second one she shares a lot about her person experiences and what she endures daily as the mother of three children on the spectrum.
While autism is certainly not new, we've been hearing a lot about it because more and more kids are being diagnosed as on the spectrum. To my recollection, Oprah has done a couple of shows about parents who have children with autism. Two stick out because I remember a black man who looked drained and frustrated because of what he and his wife are going through with his son.
I also remember the show where Oprah talked to celebrities who have children who are on the spectrum. You guys probably know that Jenny McCarthy, Holly Robinson Peete and Toni Braxton all have children with autism. Toni Braxton sticks out in my mind because her son had recently been diagnosed and she spent a large part of the show in tears.
There are symptoms that kids on the spectrum show. Check out this video for some of those symptoms:


I do hope you all take a few minutes and do a little research to find out about autism. It's high time we all become aware.