Teach your children well.

[brian_igo]

Or they might turn out like Dr. Laura's son.

The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called "repulsive."

The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included 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.

The site is credited to and includes many photographs of Deryk Schlessinger, the 21-year-old son of the talk radio personality known simply as Dr. Laura. Broadcast locally on 570 KNRS, "Family Values Talk Radio," the former family counselor spends three hours daily taking calls and offering advice on morals, ethics and values. She broadcast a show from Fort Douglas, in Salt Lake City, last week.

(snip)

"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."

(snip)

Deryk Schlessinger's Web site indicated the 21-year-old soldier is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where, the site's author writes, "godless crazy people like me," have become "a generation of apathetic killers."

The site indicated Schlessinger's team has survived numerous mortar, rocket and roadside bomb attacks. It also included several graphic cartoons. In one of the stick drawings, a top-hatted man laughs as he rapes a bound and bleeding woman in front of her family. In another depiction, a man forces a boy to perform oral sex at knifepoint as the child's mother pleads for her son's life.

[drmomentum[$]]

Charming.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I don't even think I have words to describe.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.


If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte

So if you live with an intolerant, know-it-all shrew, you learn to be a sociopath.

[jgibson2[$]]

I guess if you're looking for a way to make sure you don't get sent to Iraq, that would work.

[hadassahchana[$]]

This is so sad. I have wondered for years how he was going to explode. I always wondered how someone whose mum didn't have time for him because she was busy telling moms to stay at home and raise their kids could stand to be in the same house as her. Now I know. Creepy guy, but it makes me cry that when he was little he didn't get what she guilted so many other s into trying to do for their kids.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Oh, and I did not mean in any way that what he posted on his website is ok. Nasty and scary. I sure wouldn't want to be his neighbour.

[mtomm[$]]

Wow. What I can't figure out is why people would ever call Dr. Laura. I'd never call anyone just to have them talk mean to me.

[lynnzop[$]]

Okay, I have publically expressed my personal views about Dr. Laura many a time. I think she's a hypocritical shock jock in her own way, and like Margo, can't believe people would actually call her to just get yelled at.

But I guess when I first read Brian's clip (didn't have time to go read the link), my first thought was sympathy for his mother and father...how horrible to have your child, whom you have nurtured and tried to teach, behave in this manner. On the other hand, I had to snicker underneath my sympathy, because she IS such a high-faluting you-know-what that judges others based on her ridiculous standards. (And I'm not all that proud of the snickering, but I did it, and I'll admit to it.)

Then on my drive in, I wondered about the validity of the MySpace site. Anyone can be anyone they want on the internet, including Deryk Schlessinger. When I got to work, I read the link, and saw this statement:

Mike Paul, spokesman for Laura Schlessinger, released a statement which said, in part, "We hope all news media outlets will respect his privacy for his safety and the safety of those serving with him." In an interview with The Tribune, Paul suggested that the page could be a fake.

I know this guy is paid to do spin for Dr. Laura, but unless it's proven that Deryk wrote and maintained the page, I'm having a hard time believing that he snapped that far. And it's never come out before.

Just an alternate universe theory.

[theworm[$]]

I'm sort of w/ Lynn.
If the kid said these things he's a dispicable jerk, but as much as I may not be a Doc Laura fan, is it fair to blame the parents. She's probably a difficult mother, but I say that based on what....her no-it-all attitude? I don't really know her or what happened in their home, so....

Not a doc Laura fan.
Have no reason to have any respect for the kid.
Feel that maybe it was really hard for him to have her as a mom,
but not quite ready to condemn her for the jerky things her kid did.
I think we can condemn her enough on her own actions.

[brian_igo]

I know this guy is paid to do spin for Dr. Laura, but unless it's proven that Deryk wrote and maintained the page, I'm having a hard time believing that he snapped that far. And it's never come out before.

If this was sourced from a blog or something like the Page Six column of the NY Post, I probably wouldn't have posted it. But the Salt Lake Trib is a a good paper, and the article quotes an Army officer who saw the page. The source is not named, but no one from the Army has come forward to deny the story. More telling, neither has Schlessinger.

(Ask yourself, if anyone knew that the page was a fake it would be Schlessinger. Would she make such a weak denial through a spokesman if she had any evidence that was true? No way in hell. She'd be squealing like a stuck pig about she and her son being smeared.)

Before this story came ran, the same reporter covered a Schlessinger appearance at an Army base in Salt Lake City, where she told a group of military wives to suck it up. Schleshinger says the quote was taken out of context, but the explanation on her website spells out pretty much exactly the same context that the reporter cited in his story.

I don't think it is a huge leap to conclude that the two stories are connected. If I had to guess how it unfolded, the writer did the first piece which got a lot of attention, and someone in the Army who doesn't care for Schlessinger's act towards military families got a hold of the reporter and told him about her son's Myspace page.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I'm sorry... what? I didn't hear about the SLC appearance. Got a link?

[brian_igo]

pippadaisy said

I'm sorry... what? I didn't hear about the SLC appearance. Got a link?

This is the original story: Salt Lake Tribune - Dr. Laura to Army wives: Stop whining

Raging radio relationship guru Laura Schlessinger says she is 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 bitching?" Schlessinger asked before taking the stage at the Fort Douglas base theater today.

"You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining - that's my message to them," she added.

Schlessinger was in Salt Lake City to host her nationally syndicated radio program, a program that focuses on ethics, morals and values.

Schlessinger boasted that she once talked a young woman out of marrying a soldier, noting that "warriors need warrior wives" and that she felt the girl was unprepared.

"It's very unwise to be married young when you're going to be alone - everybody has to grow up first to know who they are," said Schlessinger, whose own first marriage ended in divorce.

Schlessinger, whose soldier son Deryk is in the Army, railed against Congress, saying that her son's tour of duty overseas - she declined to say where he is stationed, noting that would put him at risk "like Prince Harry" - had been extended because of recent arguments over war funding. She said Americans who do not believe that the war in Iraq is directly related to a larger battle against terrorism "need eye drops." And she praised fathers who have the courage to leave their families to fight for the nation.

"When you're in the military, that comes first," Schlessinger said.

"You don't want to not have gone and find out your wife has to wear a Burka."

The radio host known simply as Dr. Laura - Schlessinger's doctorate is in physiology but she is a former marriage, family and child counselor in California - declined to say how she felt about women who leave their families to serve at war.

"I'm going to leave that alone," she said.

Schlessinger did acknowledge having "a problem" with families in which both parents are service members, saying it was "unconscionable" to put children in a position where both parents might be deployed.

During the pre-show interview, Schlessinger advocated two years of obligatory military training for all Americans, suggesting that such a program could have limited the bloodshed at Virginia Tech, last month, when a gunman killed 32 people. She said she was not advocating a draft, however, saying only people who want to go to combat should actually go.

Schlessinger's publicist said the controversial talk show host's visit to Fort Douglas is one of several visits she's made to bases across the country, with more planned later this year.

The radio host said she hoped to help military families through their troubles faced during wartime.

"People listen to me," Schlessinger said. "I'm trusted and respected."

The Trib's ombudswoman responds to reader complaints: Salt Lake Tribune - Reader Advocate: Dr. Laura fans take issue with story on SLC event

When I get several e-mails or phone calls about a reporter's coverage of an event, I take a serious look at what was reported, the tone of the article and how the public reacted.

But when I get a tsunami of phone calls and e-mails - all using similar language of complaint - as I did this past week about an article by Matthew D. LaPlante on Dr. Laura Schlessinger's visit to Salt Lake City, I raise an eyebrow and wonder who sparked such an outpouring.

Individual readers who take umbrage at coverage tend to use distinct language that reflects their way of communicating when they speak. If I get a clot of protest in individual voices, I sit up and pay attention.

If, however, I get a glut of e-mails and voice mails in what appears to be "group-speak" - a common thread of language, sentences containing similar phrasing - I look to see what could be the source.

One representative e-mail on LaPlante's story contained this language:

"Mr. LaPlante seems to not care much for Dr. Laura. He has every right to his opinion on this. But, if he chooses to interview her and present her ideas to the public, as a legitimate reporter he should be held to a standard that shows her ideas as truthfully and clearly as possible. He failed miserably on this. . . . And as for 'Dr. Laura's Army,' we stand strong and saddened by an unfair representation of what Dr. Laura is all about. Shame on you all."

Other phone calls, voice mails and e-mails contained similar language. This smells of a campaign - and I had no idea Dr. Laura had an army.

Dr. Laura created a whole blog on LaPlante's story this week. In part, it read:

"Although this interview went over one-half hour, and I covered a wide range of subjects pertinent to military families and the war, [LaPlante] chose a comment, one that I've made before many times on the air, to make the primary focus of his article - and, he took it out of the entire context of my remarks.

"I am so deeply sad and disappointed that this out of context comment appears to have caused hurt and pain to military spouses - people that I've spent so much time helping. I am frustrated that people who haven't heard my program would be misled as to my attitude and intent.

"I am a military mom. I whine to my husband every day about how scared I am for my son and how helpless I feel to protect his body and soul. However, I never whine to my son when he is able to call between missions."

The blog goes on to detail how much money Dr. Laura has raised and how sympathetic she is to military families.

Oh, come on.

Dr. Laura has made a career out of talking. And, she made herself famous by using blunt language to express her opinions.

As LaPlante pointed out on his blog:

"The quote in question was the good doctor's answer to my question about what advice she most often gives military spouses who call into her show.

"Her answer? 'Stop whining.'

" 'He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching?' Schlessinger said before taking the stage at the Fort Douglas 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.' "

"Schlessinger now says the quote was taken out of context. She is, of course, entitled to have her say."

On Wednesday night, Schlessinger took to the TV waves with an appearance on Fox News' "The Bill O'Reilly Show." She repeated what she wrote on her blog.

O'Reilly, who said the name of our paper was "the Salt Lake City Tribune," castigated LaPlante and basically said the reporter did not know how to do his job.

I beg to differ.

LaPlante not only keeps a close eye on military affairs of interest to Utahns, he also has been to Iraq twice, where he traveled and told the stories of Utahns on the war's fronts. He took risks equal to many troops in the theater and has the helmet and body armor to prove it.

To those Utahns who regularly read The Salt Lake Tribune, I am sure you understand how fair and detailed LaPlante is in his reporting.

[pippadaisy[$]]