Physician, Heal Thyself. I guess that doesn't apply because she's not really a doctor.
Dr. Laura, who you will recall is the offensive radio personality with a PhD in physiology, once told 20 million listeners in her North American audience that she believes that being gay or lesbian is an "a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex." That position spawned an anti-Dr. Laura movement that included a boycott, and resulted in the cancellation of her television show by Paramount Television.
Ironically, good old-fashioned traditional-values-Dr. Laura has never been bashful about her son, and has referred to her self in recent weeks as a "warrior's son" (while chewing out what she referred to as whining military wives). As the L.A. Times reports, "[t]he talk-show host is perhaps best known for her trademark chirp, "I'm my kid's mom!" and her advice to mothers to stay at home with their young children. Deryk's tour of duty is well known to listeners: Many callers seeking out Dr. Laura's advice begin by thanking her for her son's service."
Dr. Laura has taken a break from writing her column, and is asking for privacy during the investigation. According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, which broke the story, "the Web page, which has since been taken down, included a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee, accounts of illicit drug use and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets."
Dr. Laura continues to inspire controversy with her remarks. The latest mess started when she was quoted in the Salt Lake City Tribune earlier this month as "blasting soldiers' wives for "whining," and declaring that "warriors need warrior wives." After the story appeared, a horrified Dr. Laura remarked on her blog and on media outlets like Bill O'Reilly that her comments were taken out of context." That's interesting because, according to the transcript of the O'Reilly Factor (where she went to defend herself, big surprise): "The paper quotes Dr. Laura as saying, "He could come back without arms, legs and eyeballs, and you're bitching?" Dr. Laura has subsequently attempted a brave, though tenuous spin: "Well that's a correct quote, but it's out of context. And the context is about the fact that, when you're the warrior's wife or the warrior's mom, as I am, because my son's deployed in combat in the Middle East, you can bitch and whine and moan to each other — but never to the warrior, because that distracts them. It demoralizes them, and that puts them more in harm's way."(EMediaWire and FOX News)
See also: The Advocate.