Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
There are few people on the planet I find more annoying than the preening prig Dr. Laura. This article only reminds me why.
Radio relationship guru Laura Schlessinger, in Salt Lake City on Friday to speak to Army families at Fort Douglas, said she was tired of hearing the complaints of lonely and overwhelmed military wives whose husbands are deployed."He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're (whining)?" Schlessinger asked before taking the stage at the base theater to host her daily program on ethics, morals and values. "You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining -- that's my message to them."
A word comes immediately to mind. It starts with a C. I hear drano goes well with orange juice, Dr. Laura - that's my message to you.
Comments
"He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're (whining)?"
Well, yeah, maybe that's one of the things those wives are whining about. People who care about losing those they love do tend to whine a bit. (Which is probably why Dr. Laura shouldn't go to Iraq -- they've got even MORE reasons to whine over there, and she wouldn't approve at all.)
So what more important concerns does Dr. Laura have to whine about? Other than military wives' whining, that is.
Maybe someone really needs to give her something to whine about...
Posted by: Raging Bee | May 17, 2007 9:11 AM
Nothing can hurt her. She's armored in moral superiority.
Posted by: Mark | May 17, 2007 9:22 AM
Dr. Schlessinger is apparently rapidly descending to the level of Ms. (Mr.) Ann Coulter.
Posted by: SLC | May 17, 2007 10:57 AM
Yeah, there are very few things more annoying than preening prigs. One of them is preening self-righteous prigs who have both the intelligence and the experience to know better.
The SLT reporter said one thing. Schlessinger tells the story a very different way. Will you have the decency to consider her version, or will you simply assume that because she's a conservative she must be lying?
Posted by: wolfwalker | May 17, 2007 11:35 AM
How do you know Ed didn't read Dr. Laura's version? She admits to whining in her version you know.
Posted by: Flying Fox | May 17, 2007 12:09 PM
Reading wolfwalker's link, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she was specifically talking about whining during calls to their husbands.
I don't know that I agree with it in all cases. Sometimes sympathy starts with recognizing the fears someone has and validating them.
Anyway, in my mind, that reduces the number of callous, horrible things she's said by one.
Posted by: itchy | May 17, 2007 12:31 PM
Reading wolfwalker's link, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she was specifically talking about whining during calls to their husbands.
I call BS. "I don't want to hear any whining" and "don't whine to your husband" are two different statements, and she chose the former, not the latter. I don't think she was being imprecise then -- I think she's being disingenuous now.
Posted by: Phillip J. Birmingham | May 17, 2007 12:59 PM
This is Deryk Schlessinger's myspace account. She keeps doing interviews about he is such a hero...more like a homicidal maniac.
Look at the disgusting pictures he draws.
The government should not be supplying him with guns.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=183888912
Posted by: Randy | May 17, 2007 4:31 PM
This is Deryk Schlessinger's myspace account. She keeps doing interviews about he is such a hero...more like a homicidal maniac.
Look at the disgusting pictures he draws.
The government should not be supplying him with guns.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=183888912
Posted by: Randy | May 17, 2007 4:31 PM
I am a former soldier and the wife of a current soldier who has deployed twice to Iraq. After reading Dr. Laura's explanation I take no offence. There are so many other things to discuss and debate about the war - but this is not one of them.
Posted by: Silke | May 17, 2007 6:32 PM
How do you know Ed didn't read Dr. Laura's version?
The answer I'd like to give: if he had, Ed would've realized that neither account was really trustworthy -- the SLT article reads like a hit piece and her blog-entry reads like a CYA. In which case he would have posted either nothing at all, or something rather different.
The answer I believe: Ed has a long history of treating all conservatives the way he treats creationists: he automatically believes and regurgitates any negative claim about any conservative public figure without bothering to see if there are in fact other sides to the story. To be sure, that's a perfectly valid way to treat creationists in an argument about evolution. Many years of experience show conclusively that there is no doubt to give a creationist the benefit of, unless the creationist in question is a newcomer who doesn't really know how empty the creationist arguments are. But not all arguments are as clear-cut as the C/E debate, and not all conservatives are as mendacious about all subjects as creationists are about evolution.
Posted by: wolfwalker | May 17, 2007 10:54 PM
Randy.. How are you sure that's Deryk writing? I thought he couldn't spell? What happened to Megan Moldovan, they were to marry. The photos are him. Do you know him?
Posted by: stan | May 17, 2007 10:58 PM
LaPlante and DL said basically the same thing. He writes about military families, read his work. She talks her crap to her choir, they are use to the abuse. When others hear it she sounds vile. He mostly quoted her.
She used O'Reilly to discredit LaPlante so she could look nicer. It was disgusting.
Posted by: Nicole | May 17, 2007 11:16 PM
wolfwalker wrote:
That's quite amusing. Perhaps you just skipped over all the times I've defended Clarence Thomas against the near-ubiquitous (and ridiculous) myth that he is Scalia's lapdog. Or when I've blasted liberal interest groups for their overly simplistic presentations of rulings by conservative court nominees, where they pretend that pointing out that a nominee ruled for a corporation and against an individual some % of the time has any meaning. Or the times I've defended school voucher programs and those who advocate them. Or the times I've defended conservatives like Herb Titus against accusations of being a Christian Reconstructionist. Or perhaps, just maybe, you're attacking a straw man.
Here's the truth: No, I did not see Dr. Laura's defense of what she said prior to writing the post. After seeing it, I have pretty much the same reaction that others had - even if her defense is correct (and it doesn't really fit the words she used), then that's one less heinous thing out of many heinous things she's said. But since you provided a link, my readers can all reach their own conclusions. It's funny, whenever I slam the Democrats here (and I've done it often), I get accused of being unfair to them and just trying to balance out my criticism by seeking out and exaggerating their faults. Then I get people like you, who ignore all of those times and pretend that I'm just biased against conservatives. It just makes me laugh at the simple-minded partisanship on both sides.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | May 18, 2007 12:10 AM
Amazing! The - KingOf*Hearts*'s - is canceled and deleted so soon. How many people saw that? Any downloads? DISTURBING writing, photos and cartoons. Is that usual in the Army? If it was in college someone would do an intervention and try to keep others safe. The Army will send him out to kill more people. Has anyone talked to his college peers? He was the same. When he gets home he'll be able to have guns. If his parents don't care about others, you'd think it would matter that he's suicidal. He needs an intervention. He's asking for help.
Posted by: mystery | May 18, 2007 5:11 PM