I’m an “evil librarian” and loathe every cheap, facile, greedy and opportunistic aspect of Laura the Nude Pinup Agains Porn Schlessinger. She has tried her feeble best to muster hate, venom and mindless, conscienceless evil on everything I’ve ever worked for.
And I’ll got the wall fighting to keep her “heard” and available. Know why? Because I’ll win.
This is NOT intended as a discussion stopper; it is a quite precise, intented analogy that relates to this thread. Nazism gained support and credibility because it clothed hate in popular appeal, marketed it in attractive terms and ruthlessly eliminated opposing thought.
Wrap not yourselves in sanctimony, guys. Hate and “simple answers” (w/ conveninet scapegoats and lots of glitz) is human and not limited by country or background. And it can have huge appeal.
But that appeal withers very quickly when exposed to the clean light and air of open thought and debate. When books burn and voices are silenced, cowardice and cheap choices follow.
So…yeah, you bet I’m one of those evil librarians. And I’ll do whatever I legally can to make sure that the loathesome Dr. Laura retains her full measure of “time in the public eye”. I buy her books for the public, w/ public money. But I’ll be dead in pain and damned before I’ll permit her, or anyone else, to silence opposing voices.
She cast this in the public sphere. Well, I am honored to work in a thousand-plus year profession that relentlessly places HER voice in juxtaposition w/ all other voices.
“Truth is the daughter of time.” She chose the venue; I’m just the caretaker of the time depth.
Geez Satan, like duh, is this really the pit? How stupid of you to think I didn’t know that. Do you have a hard time finding your backside with two hands, a flashlight and a map? You must surprise yourself each morning when you wake up and remember how to find your way to this board. It must hurt to be you, smegma breath.
Uh, guys? Have you no respect for the dead? Didn’t you notice that Veb killed this thread a few posts ago? Y’know, the old N-word across the jugular approach? Kills 'em dead every time. RIP
So you are admitting that every point I made was valid then, right? And your point was as vapid and trasparent as a cartoon Casper?
Good. As long as we’re clear…
The thing is, you can use all of the neato words you and the rest of the 7th graders in your class giggle over during recess about me, but when YOU ARE WRONG and I AM RIGHT, I’d say you just about flamed out there, buddy!
Mojo: absolutely her suit against the skate shop is censorship. She is presuming her values and discernment are so superior that she will prevent other people from reading anthing she personally disapproves of.
Aren’t we just so lucky to have someone so wise, all-knowing and superior that we can just leave all decisions and judgments to her? Why would you, or any other poor schmuck, assume that you could make your own decisions? Dr. Laura, and other censors, arrogantly take upon themselves exactly that: your right to make up your mind.
If I sound a bit angry about this, I am. I’m in the middle of a book challenge right now, where a woman wants me to pull Howard Stern’s biography “Private Parts” from the shelves. Oh, she hasn’t READ it, you understand, because “she doesn’t read filth”.
So she assumes that her opinions are so superior that she has can detect “filth” without even reading it and prevent anyone else from reading it either.
Y’know, I’d boycott all of the items that are advertised by her sponsors, but I’d have to listen to her show to find out what they are, and I’m not going to do that.
She’s got the right to say what she wants. Thankfully, I have the right to change the channel.
TVeblen: I agree with all you say in re: censorship by and of Dr. Laura. And not just because you belong to my chosen profession. I’d offer this quotation:
TVeblen–
What do you think about the fact that service members can no longer by pornography on base anymore?..While this isn’t readily apparent as censorship here in the US (you can find it off-base) If you’re stationed overseas, that isn’t an option…
Yea, such as the general who captured Paris, but refused to burn it to the ground as ordered. Or the other general in Italy who destroyed every bridge over the Arno, except for the Ponte Vecchio out of respect for its antiquity.
Marilyn Beck mentioned the protest concerning the Doctor’s new talk show from Paramount in her Hollywood column today in the paper. (It’s not online, though.)
What struck me the most was not gay-related, but her reaction to a Connecticut eighth grader who won an award for an essay in favor of free speech on the Internet. According to the Newsweek article, Dr. Laura “suggested the girl be ‘sacrificed,’ Inca style.”
I’m sorry, but the only word I can think of to describe Dr. Laura is “cunt”, and even that reviled word is not strong enough. Not by a long shot.
Militant gay fascists? Aside from being a good band name, does this make sense to anyone? She is right- I have to get off my duff and head over to www.stopdrlaura.comnow.
Never mind, it’s okay, I just went to the Newsweek.com site.
I’d rather not be redundant so I’ll just say that I agree with every obscenity that has been said.
plus: SHE MADE ME ILL!
:::throwing up into garbage can:::
I am a fire whose flames lick and spit at the boundless sky forever desiring wonderous consummation
-me
This is so distressing. I used to listen to Dr. Laura. At my old job, we listened to her all the time. Dr. Laura helped me get through the afternoon. That was a year ago - I haven’t had the opportunity to listen to her recently. Since then, apparently, she has changed her stance about gays, and started the library thing.
When I listened to her, she could be rather conservative, and she could get on a PMS bitchy mood (which prompted me to tune out for a few days until she got over it.) She wasn’t all sweetness, but I found a lot of the advice she gave was sound. Some of it helped me pinpoint problems I’d had with my friends, and with my life. I didn’t always agree with her, but I found much of what she had to say had a streak of common sense to it.
I also heard her “live and let live” attitude about gays - she often cut short some uptight person who had their knickers in a bunch about some gay person they knew. Dr. Laura asked why did they care what someone else did behind closed doors. I even heard her give love advice to gay people, without preaching to them, or telling them they were “bad”. So this change of heart she apparently has had in the last year seems really bizarre.
I do have to wonder, though, how much of the critical information about her is accurate. When I was listening to her, I often heard her critics make claims about her (and the things she said) that I knew were untrue. She was being misquoted - I heard what she had said, and how she had meant it, and yet later I’d hear (or read) someone misrepresent her statements, and her intentions. So - I’d like more information about all this. It just seems too bizarre, like she’s gone off the deep end.
