This week, talk show host Michael Savage made inaccurate and derogatory comments about autism on his radio show, calling the condition “a fraud” and the result of a lack of parental discipline. Mr. Savage’s unsubstantiated comments reflect the misconceptions of over 50 years ago, that autism was caused by “refrigerator mothers” or unemotional parenting, which have been completely disproven by the scientific community. Autism is a neurodevelopmental medical condition that requires early identification and lifelong treatment.

Last week, in a major address in the nation¹s capital, former Vice President Al Gore called for a ten-year plan to move the nation's entire energy supply to solar, wind, and other renewable sources. What he failed to address is the massive role of meat production in the global climate crisis.

Summerfest did the right thing Tuesday and asked the Army -- at the urging of Peace Action and others -- to remove a virtual urban warfare game that allowed fest-goers as young as 13 to hop into a Humvee simulator and fire machine guns at life-size people on a computer screen. Rabid radio talker Charlie Sykes devoted more than half of his morning show railing on Summerfest for asking the Army to shut down a virtual killing game, urging listeners to call those wimpy Summerfest folks and complain.

What ever happened to the good old days when the worst things we had to fear on the 4th of July were traffic jams and wayward fireworks? According to our government's Meat & Poultry Hotline, this year's top fear is food poisoning by those nasty E. coli and Salmonella bugs lurking in inadequately grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. Of course, they don't bother to mention that high-temperature grilling that kills the bugs also forms cancer-causing com-pounds.

Lisa Kaiser's article "Bush's High Crimes and Misdemeanors," June 19, should act as a trumpet call to citizens, especially because Kucinich's articles of impeachment have already been sent to committee where they are expected to die.

The last 7-1/2 years have brought me horror and heartache, as I've seen my country turn from its good principles of humanity, and jeopardize the safety of us all in its escalation of the war mentality. When the Soviet Union fell, the European Union was learning to live together peacefully and we had a chance to work with the world to catch terrorists together and yes, try them in a world court.

$2500 for an individual or $5000 per family for a year? This is laughable. $2500 is not much more than my wife and I pay per month for health insurance, not to mention the humungous deductible and copayment; and ours is considered decent insurance.

Earlier this week, more than a hundred thousand South Koreans demonstrated against newly elected president Lee Myung-bak, as his entire cabinet offered to resign. At the root of this massive protest was not a declaration of war against North Korea, a boycott of the Chinese summer Olympics, or even escalating oil prices. It was a treaty allowing U.S. beef imports.

I have to comment on the audacity of Joel McNally to not believe how horrible it was to return from Vietnam. Flower/protest people were accepting of vets who joined their cause, that's about it..... maybe a little hyperbole there, but what we faced coming home is as bad as what you hear.

The 7th grade students at Tamarack Waldorf School read aloud in class your article about the Milwaukee river revitalization efforts. Learning about the Milwaukee River Work Group and the river corridor as Milwaukee’s “Central Park” helped prepare them to undertake a community service project May 20, in which they pulled garlic mustard and planted native trees.