2fer: Denis LEARY "out-of-context" on autism. & Dilbert nails the CEOs.

[UTUSN]

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/10172008/gossip/pagesix/only_kidding_133926.htm

ONLY KIDDING

DENIS Leary is feeling more heat today than his smoke-eating "Rescue Me" character Tommy Gavin does in a burning building. As we reported Wednesday, Leary writes in his new book, "Why We Suck," that many kids diagnosed with autism are "just stupid. Or lazy. Or both." A new blog, denislearysucks.com, has sprung up calling for a boycott of the comic. And in a letter to Leary, retired FDNY fireman Timothy Dwyer rages: "Be a man and come to Long Island and see my son's school. Observe first-hand my fat, lazy, stupid child suffering from autism. I bet you wouldn't last 10 seconds with my son or on the fire floor." Leary insists his insults were taken out of context.



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[Ian David]

1. Knowing Dennis Leary's politics, I doubted he was guilty as charged.

But now I'm going to go read some more and see what actually happened.



Ah, here is SOME of it:

<snip>

"I thought I made my feelings about autism very clear: that I not only support the current rational approaches to the diagnoses and treatment of real autism but have witnessed it firsthand while watching very dear old friends raise a functioning autistic child.... The point of the chapter is not that autism doesn't exist -- it obviously does -- and I have nothing but admiration and respect for parents dealing with the issue, including the ones I know. The bulk of the chapter deals with grown men who are either self-diagnosing themselves with low-level offshoots of the disease or wishing they could as a way to explain their failed careers and troublesome progeny," Leary said.

More:
http://www.popeater.com/television/article/denis-leary-autism-comments/212051


I still have some minor problems with that, but I think Dennis Leary's heart was in the right place.


Compare to Michael Savage:


Savage on autism: "A fraud, a racket. ... In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out"

Summary: On his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is " fraud, a racket. ... 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.' "

More:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200807170005