Those are words which may or may not have been written by Dr. Laura's son Deryk, who is in the Army and stationed in Afghanistan.
Matthew D. LaPlante, the Tribune reporter who broke the story about the Army investigation, had drawn a rebuke from Schlessinger for an earlier article in which he quoted her as saying Army wives should stop "whining."Here's LaPlante's story about the whining wives:
She posted a reply on her website stating that her position was taken out of context. As a "military mom," she added, she whines to her husband about how scared she is for her son, but "I never whine to my son when he is able to call between missions" for fear of distracting him from his life-and-death duties.
Raging radio human relations 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.What a tangled mass of hostility.
"He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching?" 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."
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.
ADDED: What did I mean by "What a tangled mass of hostility"? Well, Dr. Laura was hostile to the military wife, and LaPlante was hostile to Dr. Laura and her son. As for the son, there is an ongoing investigation, and it's unfair to say much about what was written at a website that may not be his. But the website expresses hostility, and if it really is Deryk's, then there are some deep things in that mother-son relationship. She has built a public persona around her grandiose vision of her excellent motherhood. This gives him awesome power to hurt her if he is so motivated.
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I have to admit I kind of agree with her. I have a friend who should never have married a soldier. She's useless! My husband has to mow her lawn, she can't cook so her kid eats nothing but pigs in a blanket and McDonald's, her husband pays the bills FROM IRAQ and has to give her an allowance to keep her from spending all their money, I could go on...
And yet every time he calls, she spends her time whining about how lonely she is and when is he going to come hooooome and blah blah blah.
Poor guy.
Dr Laura is right. So is Jennifer.
What people don't think about is the enormous strain the prolonged separation puts on relationships and how some women and men can't handle it. There are alot of immature people who get married only to get divorced when the "in bad times" come along, because they don't hold to their vows and indeed, are selfish people who cannot handle the separation.
While hubbys(or wifey)is getting shot at, they whine about being lonely, find some hometown studmuffin to screw and pay them attention and kick their spouse to the curb all the while living in the comforts of home with their friends and the rest of their family.
My wife is a gem; she understood the stress and even kept me from knowing some truly horrendous things that happened to her so that I would be able to keep my head in the game and stay safer as a result.
There are truly women who are warior wifes and those who aren't or cannot be. My wife is a warrior wife.
The bit about the wives who should not marry is so true. I still remember when I was in the service we had a neighbor whose husband was overseas. She used to send the kid out to play so she could talk to "Uncle so-and-so" - what a sterling example for the kid. That kid had so many uncles while her dad was overseas!
Listen, with a name like "Deryk" it figures.
Any mother who names her kid "Deryk", or "Dirk" or ....."Veda"
--gets exactly what she deserves !
Love, Maxine
She has built a public persona around her grandiose vision of her excellent motherhood. This gives him awesome power to hurt her if he is so motivated.
Which is probably at least part of the reason she's SO extra super supportive of him, publicly. I wonder if it would even phase her, though. She's also built her public persona around marriage - and the strict idea of no divorce with children still in the home - and she's divorced herself. She's also built her public persona around morality and modesty and she's had nude pictures of her young self published by an ex. Seems like she's untouchable.
Gosh, Maxine! Very thoughtful comment. Thanks; that added some needed depth to the post.
Wondering what YOUR mother thought she deserved.
Dr. Laura might be right about military wives, but she is unrelentingly--and often unnecessarily--rude to callers. From what I've heard of her show, I am always baffled that anyone calls in! And I am even more baffled at how she has managed to remain so "untouchable," as Jennifer put it.
I don't really know much about Dr. Laura, but I would think a person who had been exposed in such a way (naked pictures published by a vengeful ex?) and had been a single mother would be very well equipped to speak of the problems associated with both.
By the way, the implication that her support for her son, even if only "extra", is a sort of PR stunt--that's horrifying.
This lady must really piss people off.
Blake said...."This lady must really piss people off."
Yes, she most certainly does! And that is one of the things I like about her. I used to be a semi regular listener (helped pass the time at work) and it never ceased to amaze me how certain people could hate her guts simply because she "preached" about self reliance, individual responsibilty, the power of reason and "doing the right thing". Even when she lost patience and became bitchy towards callers, her advice was more often than not, sound and logical. She was/is not very fond of homosexuality though... and her views caused some bad feelings in the gay comunity. But hey, nobodys perfcet.
Yeah, while it isn't necessarily a good thing to piss people off, it seems to be an inevitable consequence of saying or doing anything of importance.
I suppose that should be obvious to anyone familiar with the story of Jesus but it took me a while to get it....
I am reminded of the exchange in the movie "300" between the Spartan queen and Xerxes' messenger.
Messenger: Who does this woman think she is that she can speak among men?
Queen Gorgo: Because only Spartan women give birth to real men.
Quite a good picture, actually. Beautifully bloody.
I actually generally like Dr. Laura. So, my post had nothing to do with her "pissing people off". But, as proud as I am of my husband and what he does, I don't feel the need to shout it to the rooftops as she does. I think my "implication" was legit.
I used to listen to Dr. Laura sometimes but stopped a while back after she raked some poor woman over the coals because the woman wanted to go back to work -- part-time, mind you -- to help her husband cover the bills during a tough economic patch. The problem was that the woman had young kids. Dr. Laura harangued her at length about the irresponsibility of putting the kids in day care and "letting somebody else raise them."
Meanwhile, of course, Deryk was still a young child himself, and Dr. Laura was smugly introducing herself at the start of every show as "my kid's mom." She was making millions working while somebody else, presumably, watched him. That was fine for her, but not, apparently, for anyone else.
Dr. Laura is also the one who preaches family values but whose mother died alone. Police found the mother's body in her condominium weeks or months later.
I am not going to express any opinions about poor Deryk, who didn't choose to grow up in the public eye. But I doubt very much that Dr. Laura's mothering was anything close to "glorious." Being a parent has a merciless tendency to expose hypocrisy.
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