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Michael Savage

Michael SavageAKA Michael Alan Weiner

Born: 31-Mar-1942
Birthplace: Bronx, NY

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Matter of Dispute
Occupation: Radio Personality, Author

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Savage Nation

Michael Savage is far right talk show host, broadcasting from San Francisco, and syndicated nationwide. He was born Michael Weiner, and lived most of his adult life as a closeted conservative in generally liberal circles. Weiner's father was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. A perpetual student through the 1960s and 70s, he collected four degrees: biology, anthropology, ethnobotany, and nutritional ethnomedicine. Before becoming Michael Savage, he authored more than a dozen books.

One of his books was a work of fiction called Vital Signs, in which the protagonist wrestles with his attraction to masculine beauty. "I choose to override my desires for men when they swell in me", Weiner wrote, "waiting out the passions like a storm, below decks." At one time, Weiner self-published his own zines featuring inflammatory pieces about gay sex at San Francisco bathhouses. He was apparently opposed to such things. But he was a friend of beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the very, very out gay author of Howl. In a 1970 letter to Ginsberg, someone signed Michael Weiner described a semi-erotic encounter he had had with another man in Fiji. Weiner says he did not write the letter, though the return address was in Honolulu, where Weiner resided at the time. Savage now describes his one-time friend Ginsberg as "latrine slime," and says that upon hearing of his death, "I clasped my hands together and prayed to God. I said, 'Thank you, God, for answering my prayers. One of the blights of the human race is gone.'"

Other friends of Weiner from the 1970s remember him as "this hip guy who'd been traveling in the South Seas, finding ways to use tropical plants to help end diseases." But eventually Weiner un-mellowed. He started carrying a gun, and he would unexpectedly engage acquaintances in loud, rude arguments. In short, he was a natural to become a talk show host.

In 1994, Weiner was hired to do evening and spot-shift fill-in work at KGO in San Francisco, where he went on the air as the abrasive "Michael Savage". His show quickly proved popular on the mostly-liberal station. His fans think Savage is brilliant, and Savage agrees.

On the air, he says that Latinos "breed like rabbits", and that America's public schools are "teaching kids in the third grade how to put a condom on a cucumber." He explains that civil rights are a "racket" that is "used to steal only from the white male -- no one else pays the price." He is worried about "degenerates on the left who want to sell Americans on the idea that homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality, even sex with animals is normal." He demonizes pot smokers, refers to third-world nations as "turd world nations", and strongly opposes abortion (although his first wife had two while they were married)[1]. After the Dixie Chicks spoke ill of President George W. Bush, Savage inexplicably suggested they should be jailed as traitors. "We've all been warned about the dangers of a theocracy", says Savage, "where religious zealots rule. Today in America, we have a she-ocracy where a minority of feminist zealots rule the culture."

Savage or his syndicators have sued website publishers who criticize him or call for sponsor boycotts, claiming the sites like SavageStupidity.com are "confusingly similar" to the "Michael Savage" trademark, have caused him irreparable economic harm, improperly used excerpts from his radio show, and misappropriated his image.

In addition to his radio show, Savage briefly had a TV show on MSNBC, until on 5 July 2003 a crank caller criticized his teeth. Savage replied:

SAVAGE: Alright, so you're one of those sodomists? Are you a sodomite?
CALLER: Yes, I am.
SAVAGE: Oh, you're one of the sodomites! You should only get AIDS and die, you pig! How's that? [off-screen crew can be heard shouting 'Whoa!'] Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig? You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get trichinosis. OK, do we have another nice caller who's busy and didn't have a nice night in the bathhouses, angry at me today? Huh? Get me another one, put another sodomite on! No more calls? I don't care. Let's go to the next scene. I don't care about these bums, they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages. Next scene; onto the next scene on the 'Savage Nation'.

"His comments were extremely inappropriate and the decision to cancel the program was an easy one", said MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines. Talking about the incident on his radio show, Savage seemed to see important free speech issues in his TV firing over sodomites and sausages. "When they came for Michael Savage, if you did not stand up for Michael Savage because you were not Michael Savage, and I warn you, if you don't, there will be nobody left."

Savage is the head of the self-styled Paul Revere Society, a group that says "The United States is threatened" and "stands for the reassertion of our borders, our language, and our traditional culture." When asked about the apparent dichotomy between early Weiner and late Savage, Savage replies, "I was once a child; I am now a man."

Savage's wife and son own Rockstar Beverage Corp, makers of Rockstar Energy Drinks. Savage himself is, they say, not involved in that company in any way, though Rockstar and Savage Productions do share the same mailing address and street address.


[1] Ron Russell, "Savage Hate", East Bay Express, 19 July 2006. Russell interviewed Savage's ex-wife, Carol Ely: "Weiner's fascination with the counterculture scarcely abated after he settled into his first marriage, to Carol Ely, in 1964. The whirlwind union lasted less than four years and was marked by 'Michael's incessant dreaming and his impulsiveness', says Ely, a retired advertising copywriter who lives in Florida. She volunteers that she had two abortions during the marriage."

Father: Benjamin Weiner (antiques dealer, d. 1970)
Mother: Rae Weiner (d. 2003)
Sister: Sheila Weiner-Rozzo
Brother: Jerome Weiner (d.)
Wife: Carol Ely (m. 1964, div. 1967)
Wife: Janet A. Weiner (CFO, Rockstar Energy Drink)
Son: Russell Goldencloud Weiner (CEO, Rockstar Energy Drink, b. 1970)
Daughter: Rebecca Lin Weiner Yops (school teacher, b. circa 1977)

    High School: Jamaica High School, Queens, NY (1959)
    University:
BS Biology, Queens College New York (1963)
    University: MS Anthropology, University of Hawaii (1970)
    University: MS Ethnobotany, University of Hawaii (1972)
    University: PhD Nutritional Ethnomedicine, University of California at Berkeley (1978)

    KGO Talk Show Host (former)
    Bush-Cheney '04
    John McCain 2008
    Birther Movement
    Global Warming Skeptics
    Russian Ancestry
    Jewish Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Homophobia

Official Website:
http://www.michaelsavage.com/

Author of books:
Plant a Tree: A Working Guide to Regreening America (1975)
Bugs in the Peanut Butter: Dangers in Everyday Food (1976)
Man's Useful Plants (1976)
The Taster's Guide to Beer: Brews and Breweries of the World (1977)
Earth Medicine, Earth Food: Plant Remedies, Drugs, and Natural Foods of the North American Indians (1980)
Weiner's Herbal: The Guide to Herb Medicine (1980)
The Way of the Skeptical Nutritionist: A Strategy for Designing Your Own Nutritional Profile (1981)
The Art of Feeding Children Well (1982, with Kathleen Goss)
Vital Signs (1983)
Nutrition Against Aging (1983)
Secrets of Fijian Medicine (1983)
Getting Off Cocaine (1984)
The People's Herbal: A Family Guide to Herbal Home Remedies (1984)
The Complete Book of Homeopathy (1986, with Kathleen Goss)
Maximum Immunity (1986)
Reducing the Risk of Alzheimer's (1989)
Earth Medicine, Earth Food (1990)
The Herbal Bible: A Family Guide to Herbal Home Remedies (1992)
Healing Children Naturally (1993, with Kathleen Goss)
Herbs That Heal: Prescription for Herbal Healing (1994, with Janet Weiner)
The Antioxidant Cookbook (1995)
The Savage Nation: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Borders, Language and Culture (2003)
The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military (2004)
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder (2005)
The Political Zoo (2006)
Psychological Nudity: Savage Radio Stories (2008)


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