"I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry - some special interest group deciding this is a time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates and sponsors." — Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
Where have I heard these distressful cries of victimhood mixed with an unfortunate misinterpretation of the First Amendment before? I remember now. It was from California beauty queen Carrie Prejean in May 2009 during the flap over her beauty pageant comments on gay marriage.
What I said about Miss Prejean then applies to Dr. Laura now, but let me summarize. Your free speech rights have not been violated. You haven't been squelched by the big, bad government; you've been told to shut up by the free market. It's not free speech you're seeking; it's freedom from criticism you're seeking. And you rarely find that around here!
But it's okay. Dr. Laura can quit her nationally syndicated radio show in exchange for, I predict, a multi-media blitz of books, FOX appearances, and twitterific political rants just like that other queen quitter, Sarah Palin.
By the way, are Palin and Dr. Laura soul sisters now?
I wonder how Palin would have reacted if Dr. Laura had used the "R-word" instead?
But I don't think this whole controversy boils down to individual word choices. It's Dr. Laura's genuine bigotry and racism that got her into trouble. The "haven't we done enough for you people" attitude and the implication that a black woman consents to racism when she marries a white man is so archaic it should be left to the Old Testament... I'm sure it's all written in there somewhere.
I don't know how Dr. Laura was able to position herself as the victim in this story, but she sure plays the part well.
Of all the batshit insane people you can seek advice from, Dr. Laura Schlessinger is the batshit insaniest! Why, oh why, do people still listen to this fundamentalist harpy?
Earlier this week, one of Dr. Laura's masochistic listeners called and asked for advice on inter-racial marriage. I refer to the caller as "masochistic" because any "long-time listener" should know that every call ends with Dr. Laura telling the advice seeker what a horrible, irresponsible, selfish, sinful person they are. However, Tuesday's admonishments included multiple uses of the "n-word," and a racially-charged political rant against people who voted for Obama. What a treat:
Gee, am I being hypersensitive, or does Dr. Laura have a chip on her shoulder about race? Somebody ought to inform the non-psychologist that racism is bad for your health. And also inform her that her non-apology is crap.
So why don't I tell you how I really feel about Dr. Laura? Here is my recycled post from April 2008 titled Fundamentalist Psychopath:
Dr. Laura Schlessinger -- love her or hate her -- oh hell, you can probably tell I hate her right from the title, huh? Well, she's going to be given a new pulpit on Fox New's Hannity's America. Thanks Fox!
For those who don't know, Dr. Laura (as she is commonly called) is an American radio host, author, and commentator. Her views are conservative to put it mildly. From about 1996 to 2003 she was an Orthodox Jew. Before that she was an atheist. Currently, I'm not certain what she is, but she sure is self-righteous about it!
On a typical day of her radio show, masochistic callers will air their problems about parenting, work, and relationships. Dr. Laura dishes out some harsh advice often invoking "God's Law" and other canned responses that sound like they were written by the religious right. Funny thing is she is not a medical doctor nor accredited in a discipline such as divinity, psychology or sociology. Her Ph.D. is actually in physiology.
Whatever her education or religion, she believes homosexuality is a "biological error." I never understood how this belief is compatible with any kind of religion. God creates errors? Sounds like blasphemy to me! Despite these stupid ideas, in 2000 somebody at Paramount thought it was a good idea to give Dr. Laura a TV show. Outraged activists launched StopDrLaura.com and quickly succeeded. Paramount dropped the show like a fiery brimstone.
Dr. Laura has also taken on the families of children with Tourette's syndrome. According to non-expert Dr. Laura, "[The child's mother] can punish the whole world because of this affliction of her son. She can punish everybody who doesn't want to call this normal. But it's not normal. And it's not nice."
Damn! As I read her sanctimonious bullshit, I keep spewing random curse words. Maybe I'm developing Tourette's too?
Do I have any right to spew bad words or express my opinion? Not according to Dr. Laura. She criticised a 14-year-old's award-winning essay defending free speech on the Internet. Dr. Laura said the eighth-grader's support of the First Amendment was "stupid" and "dangerous." Oh the irony when a radio talk show host does not support free speech!
Many of Dr. Laura's stupid ideas are culled from her literal interpretation of the Bible. People like that always scare me, but what really bothers me is how come these self-professed Bible scholars can't answer a simple question: Why Can't I Own a Canadian? I really want to know.
I also want to know how Dr. Laura, being such an expert in moral, societal and spiritual matters, can raise such a monster for a son? Dr. Laura has referred to herself as "the proud mother of a deployed American paratrooper." She is talking about her son Deryk who is serving in Afghanistan. It seems little Deryk had an incredibly salacious MySpace page. [Link changed from original post.] The actual MySpace page has been deleted, but those who saw it were shocked at the contents:
...cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
But wait! There's more!
"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."
I'm so glad he was raised in a household with strong family values. Just imagine how bad he could have been!
To be fair, the military investigated the situation. The conclusion was that the MySpace page was not created by al Qeada or other enemies, but "the Army will only confirm that the investigation is complete, but will not discuss whether Schlessinger was at fault or whether he was reprimanded." And then the story disappeared from the media.
And oh I wish Dr. Laura would disappear too... along with her sponsors. However, free speech lover that I am, I still believe in her right to say dumb stuff.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger -- love her or hate her -- oh hell, you can probably tell I hate her right from the title, huh? Well, she's going to be given a new pulpit on Fox New's Hannity's America. Thanks Fox!
For those who don't know, Dr. Laura (as she is commonly called) is an American radio host, author, and commentator. Her views are conservative to put it mildly. From about 1996 to 2003 she was an Orthodox Jew. Before that she was an atheist. Currently, I'm not certain what she is, but she sure is self-righteous about it!
On a typical day of her radio show, masochistic callers will air their problems about parenting, work, and relationships. Dr. Laura dishes out some harsh advice often invoking "God's Law" and other canned responses that sound like they were written by the religious right. Funny thing is she is not a medical doctor nor accredited in a discipline such as divinity, psychology or sociology. Her Ph.D. is actually in physiology.
Whatever her education or religion, she believes homosexuality is a "biological error." I never understood how this belief is compatible with any kind of religion. God creates errors? Sounds like blasphemy to me! Despite these stupid ideas, in 2000 somebody at Paramount thought it was a good idea to give Dr. Laura a TV show. Outraged activists launched StopDrLaura.com and quickly succeeded. Paramount dropped the show like a fiery brimstone.
Dr. Laura has also taken on the families of children with Tourette's syndrome. According to non-expert Dr. Laura, "[The child's mother] can punish the whole world because of this affliction of her son. She can punish everybody who doesn't want to call this normal. But it's not normal. And it's not nice."
Damn! As I read her sanctimonious bullshit, I keep spewing random curse words. Maybe I'm developing Tourette's too?
Do I have any right to spew bad words or express my opinion? Not according to Dr. Laura. She criticised a 14-year-old's award-winning essay defending free speech on the Internet. Dr. Laura said the eighth-graders support of the First Amendment was "stupid" and "dangerous." Oh the irony when a radio talk show host does not support free speech!
Many of Dr. Laura's stupid ideas are culled from her literal interpretation of the Bible. People like that always scare me, but what really bothers me is how come these self-professed Bible scholars can't answer a simple question: Why Can't I Own a Canadian? I really want to know.
I also want to know how Dr. Laura, being such an expert in moral, societal and spiritual matters, can raise such a monster for a son? Dr. Laura has referred to herself as "the proud mother of a deployed American paratrooper." She is talking about her son Deryk who is serving in Afghanistan. It seems little Deryk had an incredibly salacious MySpace page. That link goes to a news article. The actual MySpace page has been deleted, but those who saw it were shocked at the contents:
...cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned "My Sweet Little Habib"; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
But wait! There's more!
"Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!!" said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. "I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don't."
I'm so glad he was raised in a household with strong family values. Just imagine how bad he could have been!
To be fair, the military investigated the situation. The conclusion was that the MySpace page was not created by al Qeada or other enemies, but "the Army will only confirm that the investigation is complete, but will not discuss whether Schlessinger was at fault or whether he was reprimanded." And then the story disappeared from the media.
And oh I wish Dr. Laura would disappear too... along with her sponsors. However, free speech lover that I am, I still believe in her right to say dumb stuff.
I wonder how Palin would have reacted if Dr. Laura had used the "R-word" instead?