PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES

The Average Man does not like Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I don't tend to use words such as hate or loath on this blog very often, but they certainly would not be inappropriate in this case. So far, I've kept my tongue in check regarding Dr. Laura, because others like Craig Smith and George have done an outstanding job of covering her antics. However, the local blogosphere was relatively silent regarding the recent announcement that she was taking a "break" from her column in the Santa Barbara News-Press. Therefore, I thought this would be a good time to get a few things off my chest.

At the expense of stating the obvious, let me start off by telling you what I don't like about Dr. Laura ... she is a hypocrite. "So, lots of people are hypocrites?," you might say. "What makes her so special?" That's a good point, but for me, Dr. Laura takes hypocrisy to a whole other level. You see, for Dr. Laura, it's all about judgement. She stands on her podium with her extra large loudspeaker and dictates to all the little people how to live their lives. YOU are a bad person. YOU don't know how to properly raise a family. YOU don't know how to keep a spouse. And is there any room for error or youthful indiscretion in Dr. Laura's eyes? Absolutely not. Wikipidea does a nice job of detailing all the things at which Dr. Laura likes to wag her finger ...

These include sex outside of marriage ... living together in uncommitted cohabitation before marriage ... intentional single parenthood, re-marrying while living with children from a first marriage, daycare in lieu of a parent staying home to raise their children, the viewing of pornography, the allowing of a schedule arrangement in which neither parent is home when children arrive home from school, marrying too quickly or out of desperation, permissive parenting ... easy or no-fault divorce, and same-sex marriage.

Wow, someone with this many dogmatic positions about YOU sure better have her own house in order. But wait, she doesn't. In fact, she has more skeletons in her closet than Pol Pot; my favorite being the famous incident in 1998 when nude photos of Dr. Laura were posted on the Internets. And what was her excuse upon being forced to accept this embarrassing situation? Oh, I was young and had "no moral authority" at the time. Huh? It gets better ... Soon after the nudey photos controversy "reports surfaced that Schlessinger cheated on her first husband, broke up the marriage of the man who became her second husband, lived with him while unmarried and intentionally bore a child with him out of wedlock." (also from the Wikipidea entry)

Now, does The Average Man judge Dr. Laura for these things? No, I could care less. But that's not the issue. The question is how would Dr. Laura judge Dr. Laura for these things? I suppose it depends on whether she was looking in the mirror or anonymously calling into her own radio show.

This leads us to the present. As it was recently reported in The Salt Lake Tribune, Dr. Laura's son -- currently serving in Afghanistan -- was allegedly caught posting items on his MySpace page that contained the following ...

... 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.

As if that wasn't bad enough, he also allegedly wrote the following on said blog ...

Yes . . . F---ING Yes!!! ... 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.

Nice. So, what's my reaction? Well, these are clearly the rantings of a disturbed human being who needs some major help (from a real doctor of psychology). But again, that's neither here nor there. The point is what Dr. Laura would say to the mother of someone else's kid who said such things. Do you think she would hold out a sympathetic hand and offer words of comfort or encouragement? Or do you think she would harshly scold this person and blame their son's behaviour on bad parenting? I report. You decide.

So, I have a question for you, Dr. Laura ... why are you taking a break from the News-Press? Is it because you feel bad about preaching family values when your own family is in disarray. Or is it maybe because it seems a little silly defending the News-Press against Jerry Roberts in light of the content on your son's MySpace page? I, for one, was looking forward to some of those insightful News-Press columns where you would defend your son's actions and discuss the proper way to raise warriors ... right before telling us all the ills of daycare.

In the interest of full disclosure, Trekking Left is very close to someone who was fired from the News-Press because a columnist dared to say that Dr. Laura is intolerant. This statement is not entirely true, however. Dr. Laura is only intolerant to those who don't have the last name Schlessinger.