I'm afraid I have to disagree with you Doc.
My family had a feeling with my youngest sister that something was just a little…off when she was younger. It wasn’t until we saw a newspaper article featured on Aspergers that we went and got her tested and what do you know – she had it. It explained a lot – the hoarding, the odd hobbies, the communication skills, the lack of knowledge for social practices that seemed second nature to us. So, we put her on a gluten free, casein (milk protein) free diet, had her go to speech therapy and encouraged her hobbies while making gentle reminders every now and then that sometimes, it wasn’t okay to remark on the marks on the lady’s face in front of her, much less stare, etc.
Is she mentally retarded, as you have implied Asperger’s kids are?
Hell no.
She brings home A’s and B’s in her classes, has dozens of friends and makes really interesting duct tape dresses and art. She’s a great kid that is blooming now that she is getting the help she needs.
Aspergers in itself is not an implication of mental retardation but an autism spectrum disorder where the person has trouble with socially interacting and has repetitive behavior/patterns. The things that occur to us, like knowing not to ask how much a woman weighs or what’s wrong with that man’s clothes/whatever or that person was making a joke, ha ha? Doesn’t happen for them and that is a very difficult thing to teach and understand. The kid in this article isn’t normal, but he and his clever mother are trying their best to adjust to a completely different mind frame than the rest of the world and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Also,if you are experiencing people labeling you as mentally challenged just for having some problems understanding some things socially- well, I would seek a new group of people to interact with.

Tl;Dr (god I hate doing this)
This kid isn't normal, he isn't retarded- just different and he deserves coverage. Deal.