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Dr. Laura son linked to lurid Web page
Salt Lake Tribues ^ | 05/19/2007 | Matthew D. LaPlante

Posted on 05/19/2007 5:23:46 PM PDT by Lorianne

Site contained violent, sex-oriented images one official called 'repulsive' ___ 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.

Military leaders have long grappled with how to balance positive publicity and operational security with technological opportunities for troops to tell their personal stories.

The Pentagon last week shut down access to a variety of video-sharing and social networking Internet sites, including MySpace, on its computer systems worldwide. Officials said the change was made to enhance security and protect a strained bandwidth, but critics worried that it might close a public window into the lives of deployed U.S. troops, some of which can be raw, frightening, violent and revealing.

"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."

Deryk Schlessinger joined the Army in 2004, telling a crowd of Santa Barbara, Calif., Army reservists gathered for an appearance by his mother that he resented the way Americans criticize the war without recognizing soldiers' sacrifices.

"Real people were fighting, and I wanted to be part of that," the younger Schlessinger said, according to The Associated Press.

Since Deryk Schlessinger deployed earlier this year, his mother's talk show increasingly has been focused on the battles being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan and the wars' effects on families back home. Meanwhile, the radio host has taken to referring to herself as "the proud mother of a deployed American paratrooper" and speaks frequently about her soldier son before military audiences nationwide.

Deryk Schlessinger did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment from The Tribune.

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.

That was a contention echoed by Army spokesman Robert Tallman, who said "it may be possible that our enemies are actually behind this.

"Our enemies are adaptive, technologically sophisticated, and truly understand the importance of the information battlespace," Tallman continued. "Sadly, they will use that space to promulgate and disseminate untrue propaganda."

MySpace is an online social network in which users link pages together through like interests and shared friendships. The Deryk Schlessinger page included nearly a dozen "friends," including a number of soldiers in Afghanistan, several of whom were linked back to Schlessinger's page and some of whom had additional photos of, and comments from, Schlessinger on their sites.

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.

It's unclear who created the cartoons, but Army spokesman Robert Tallman said the drawings "are repulsive and not anywhere near being acceptable," for a soldier's personal Web page.

The Tribune learned of the Web page earlier this week from a former schoolmate of Deryk Schlessinger. Army officials said they were unaware of the site until alerted to its presence by the newspaper Thursday.

David Accetta, public affairs director for the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, said the Army "will investigate thoroughly and impartially."

In an e-mail to 82nd commanders, Accetta asked to see "how the site is being administered and if we can shut it down." By Friday morning the site was offline, but officials didn't immediately respond to questions about who took it down.

Accetta said the pictures and writings he reviewed from the site were inconsistent with the values of Army special forces soldiers.

J.P. Borda, who administers an online index of thousands of personal military Web pages, said military guidelines and common decency are respected by "the overwhelming majority of military bloggers in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"There are a few bad apples and they have soured the whole bunch," said Borda, who began his site - www.milblogging.com - during his first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2004.

Laura Schlessinger's appearance in Utah last week included a visit with Army families at Fort Douglas. In an interview with The Tribune, she said, "We raised our son to be a warrior."

After her Utah visit, Schlessinger received criticism for telling The Tribune that she didn't want to hear the complaints of military wives whose husbands are deployed. "He could come back without arms, legs or eyeballs, and you're bitching?" Schlessinger said. "You're not dodging bullets, so I don't want to hear any whining."

Schlessinger later wrote on her Web site - www.drlaura.com - that she was trying to communicate her belief that military spouses shouldn't complain to war-deployed family members, who have more pressing concerns. "I never whine to my son when he is able to call between missions," she wrote.


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To: Michamilton
though it remains unclear whether the two situations are related.

I'll wait to make a decision until the military investigation is done. Something tells me the family is being attacked from inside and out of our country.
81 posted on 05/25/2007 9:29:45 AM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie
Don’t know why you (Recovering Ex-hippie) insisted on attacking Dr. Laura in 8 of the first 64 posts on this topic.

Most of what you said could be applied to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingram, or almost any other luminary.

So, I thought it would be interesting to apply your attacks on Dr. Laura to Rush. So if it were Rush you had been attacking it would read something like the following, spread over 8 separate posts.

- Rush is very strange
- Rush does not have a degree in anything, much less a PH D
- Rush appears rigid
- Rush talks a lot about family values, but is twice divorced and helped his second wife start a business when the boys were still in school
- Rush – there is something phony about him
- Rush – just don’t like him
- Rush is ambitious (oh the horror – my comment. RDD)
- Rush has no training in economics, government, or politics.
- Rush does the conservative/Judeo/Christian thing very well considering all his failings.
- Rush is considered a phony all the way through
- Rush flies all over the place, economics, psychology, tradition, religion, sports, cigars
- Rush is still found to be phony
- Rush presents himself as an “expert” in economics, politics, etc.
- Rush, just don’t like him, maybe because of his phoniness or his persona
- Rush, some don’t believe he was set up (maybe, maybe not) on his pills
- Rush appeals to a conservative audience
- Rush is still thought to be a phony
- Rush is still thought to be ambitious (oh the horror – my comment again. RDD)
- Rush has not one degree – only the “fake” titles - Rush is not licensed in any state (except his driver’s license) and can never without a license practice reality therapy or any other kind of therapy, but he does so anyway
- Rush is not allowed to refer to himself as a “therapist”, but does so anyway
- Rush has abandoned his religion – rumors stated as fact - Rush was probably estranged from his family for dropping out of college, not going into law, and (horrors) going into broadcast radio
- Rush believes we should support women who make the choice to stay home with their children
- Rush quotes data showing the value to the well being of children of a stay at home mom
- Rush points out some stay at home moms have jobs from home
- Rush has a past – we all do – and believes it should be his past (most of us agree. RDD)
- Rush has a past – different time - mistakes made – now working on living a better life – (like most of us. RDD)
- Rush is still alive – so his past is not that long ago. - Rush sometimes call people who just don’t get it “idiots” or “fools” or sometimes worse …
- Rush is just not compassionate when he teaches/counsels as an expert
- Rush, oh yeah, just “gives his opinion” – often with half of his brain tied behind his back

BTW1 – For the record, I am a fan of Dr. Laura. Happened when traveling on business many years ago when a man was explaining that his soon to be wife wanted an “open marriage” where she could ‘be’ with any one she want to ‘be’ with. Dr. Laura asked, “Why would you want to marry a slut?” I became an instant fan even though MANY MORE years ago, I would have considered her remarks unfair and unkind.

BTW2 - Dr. Laura like Rush is a self-made success. Both have warts from their past. Neither one pretends to be perfect, but both are very aware of their insight into many areas of life they hold no degree/certification in. For me this is part of their appeal.

Sure Dr. Laura is boneheaded at times - so is Rush - but man oh man, they both ever get right most of the time!

Cheers!

RileyD, nwJ

82 posted on 05/25/2007 11:30:50 PM PDT by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." anon)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie
.for one thing she doesn’t have her PH D in psychology

rather odd then to be called doctor.... actually I'm not sure that calling PHDs doctors is really appropriate.... call me old school

83 posted on 05/25/2007 11:33:47 PM PDT by wardaddy (on parole)
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To: RileyD, nwj

This is perhaps the most absurd post I’ve ever seen on FreeRepublic. Absolutely absurd.


84 posted on 05/25/2007 11:37:59 PM PDT by Petronski (Fred!)
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To: Old Sarge

It is too easy for the jihadidemons to hack into then change fro propaganda a blog or website of a serving soldier. The site hets hundreds of hits and copies by Islamobastards and then passed around as proof the Americans are animal servants of deviancy for satan. The ops work is something we’re obviously behind the curve on.


85 posted on 05/25/2007 11:38:34 PM PDT by MHGinTN (You've had life support. Promote life support for others.)
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To: wardaddy

Yeah, I agree with you there.


86 posted on 05/26/2007 6:51:09 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie; yellowdoghunter; napscoordinator
Her PhD is in physiology.

She has a certificate from USC in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling - demonstrating some mastery of the subject matter. She was a family therapist for many years and uses examples from that practice on her show and in her books.

She is STILL married to her son's father. She WAS a stay at home Mom - when Deryk was little, her radio program was on after 9 pm and his father was with him when she was at work.

After she tangled with gays, hate websites about her exploded across the net. Many of those lies are being repeated on this thread.

Link to Dr. Laura info:

http://www.answers.com/topic/laura-schlessinger

87 posted on 05/26/2007 7:43:28 AM PDT by Let's Roll (As usual, following a shooting spree, libs want to take guns away from those who DIDN'T do it.)
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To: Let's Roll

Are you saying that she has never been divorce? More times than conservatives should? I would say that is a true statement.


88 posted on 05/26/2007 7:51:50 AM PDT by napscoordinator (.)
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To: Let's Roll

do not believe you are correct about her being a family therapist. She was never licensed to do that according to her bios.


89 posted on 05/26/2007 8:08:35 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
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To: napscoordinator

I so agree with you..Looks like we are the only two posters on this thread who see “DR” laura’s hypocrisy. ha.

se my post 64.

In my opinion she uses this mantel of being a family therapist to pretend to offer mental health advice ( “but, oh gosh, I am just giving my opinion....). You can’t have it both ways. Well, yes you can, if you are a hypocrite.

I just think she is such a phony and has lots of people snowed. It just makes her listeners feel good about calling
people ( who behave badly )stupid or sluts...but that is hardly helping them therapeutically become better people. Oh, yeah, I forgot...she is not doing ‘therapy”.

She is divorcing her husband? Hmm.


90 posted on 05/26/2007 8:15:00 AM PDT by Recovering Ex-hippie (We need a troop surge in New Orleans and Philly!)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

Could be we are the only sane people when it comes to seeing who the hypocrites are. I can understand though that some of our FRiends are snowed by her. I sometimes get lost in the BS that rolls everywhere and might even test my principles. Thank God I wake up quick. lol


91 posted on 05/26/2007 9:09:17 AM PDT by napscoordinator (.)
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To: napscoordinator

I’m saying what I said - she is STILL married to her son’s father.

You need to at least look at the link I provided instead or running with every rumor on this thread.

Answer.com and wikipedia are there to look at.


92 posted on 05/26/2007 10:36:44 AM PDT by Let's Roll (As usual, following a shooting spree, libs want to take guns away from those who DIDN'T do it.)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

I’m not the one saying whether she was licensed or not.

Answers.com, which of course you didn’t bother looking at the link I provided you - it’s so much more fun spreading rumors - says she was certified by USC as a MF and CC - also said she was a family therapist for years.

Answers.com and wikipedia are there for anyone to look at. I mean rather than using the gay authored sites that are dedicated to bashing her.

http://www.answers.com/topic/laura-schlessinger


93 posted on 05/26/2007 10:43:49 AM PDT by Let's Roll (As usual, following a shooting spree, libs want to take guns away from those who DIDN'T do it.)
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To: Let's Roll
LH, You are wasting your time ...

Recovering Ex-hippie & napscoordinator are not interested in facts. Their minds are already made up.

When I posted (#82) to show just how silly (odd?) all of Recovering Ex-hippie's posts were by applying them to another personality the ONLY reply was "This is perhaps the most absurd post I’ve ever seen on FreeRepublic. Absolutely absurd." by napscoordinator.

Of course Recovering Ex-hippie chimed in with, "Yeah, I agree with you there."

Then they let us know they are the only ones with revealed knowledge via Recovering Ex-hippie's reply to napscoordinator saying, "Looks like we are the only two posters on this thread who see “DR” laura’s hypocrisy. ha."

This was followed by more of the same from napscoordinator to Recovering Ex-hippie when he/she said, "Could be we are the only sane people when it comes to seeing who the hypocrites are. ... Thank God I wake up quick. Lol"

So don't expect any polite replies or any reasoned refutations from them. They are simply not interested. Their minds are already locked down on this subject no matter - if you will excuse the phrase - just how absurb they sound to the rest of us.

Cheers!

RileyD, nwJ

94 posted on 05/26/2007 11:08:15 AM PDT by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." anon)
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To: RileyD, nwj

Good post.


95 posted on 05/26/2007 11:13:24 AM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
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To: rmlew
I agree.

An small article about somebody I know appeared on the Internet, might still be on it. It obviously was of her since it had not only her name but her address of twenty years ago, college attended and degree earned. But it also contained stuff that was totally false. A visit to Paris (she has never been there), appearance on TV (again none), and quotes that she never made. Fortunately there was nothing bad but it did make her seem like a bragger to those who know her. She apparently cannot sue because she had something on MySpace

96 posted on 05/26/2007 11:25:24 AM PDT by Jane Austen
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To: RileyD, nwj
My humble apologies ...

It was Petronski (Fred!) who said, "This is perhaps the most absurd post [#82] I’ve ever seen on FreeRepublic. Absolutely absurd."

And it was wardaddy, Recovering Ex-hippie replied to with, "Yeah, I agree with you there."

All other comments stand as posted.

RileyD, nwJ

97 posted on 05/26/2007 11:30:42 AM PDT by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." anon)
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To: Lorianne
but critics worried that it might close a public window into the lives of deployed U.S. troops, some of which can be raw, frightening, violent and revealing.

Seems that the military were not supposed to send information in or out without a filter of some kind. I would think the kind of access CRITICS want would help the enemy.

98 posted on 05/26/2007 11:41:09 AM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Lorianne

My guess is that this is a fake....and hijacked by some radical gay!!


99 posted on 05/26/2007 11:43:31 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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To: Recovering Ex-hippie

She never said her PhD was in Pshycology.


100 posted on 05/26/2007 11:44:27 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her Phoniness is Genuine!!!)
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