Your mother did not make the choice to estrange herself from you and other family members…not exactly a fair comparison.
If Yolanda made the choice to isolate herself from other family members…this kind of thing is one of the potential unfortunate outcomes of that kind of a choice.
God, I hate Dr. Laura as much as any of you, but some of you are being quite disgusting. Your dislike of her does not endow you with special knowledge of her private family affairs. You just don’t fucking know, so save your vitriol and name calling for another time. Jebus knows she will give you the opportunity to unleash it.
Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for your family devotion, you clearly are a marvelous person. There are plenty of good reasons why people may choose to cut off contact with their parents (forgetting that Dr. L said that the estrangement was her mother’s choice). Good to know that you haven’t had to make this painful decision. That makes you lucky, not superior. Point of fact, Dr. Laura is a bitch, but you’re acting like one, too.
***You are assuming that Dr. L’s description of the situation isaccurate * ** .
Please see my post above about what LS could mean by her mother “choosing” it. Someone else noted that she is also estranged from her sister…seems highly unllikely that two members of one family independently chose to be “estranged” from one other member of the family, and that member has no responsibility or participation in the estrangement.
Good god, the woman is unbelievably self-serving, and I can’t understand why so many people are ready to accept without question her version of events.
[sarcasm] Of course people choose to be estranged from multiple family members, it’s such a wonderful thing that I can’t imagine why everyone doesn’t do it! [/sarcasm] Seriously, even if it was her choice to be estranged from two family members, there’s a number of potentially valid reasons why that could have happened of which we are not aware.
Maybe we’re giving her the benefit of the doubt, seeing as we have yet to find any independent observation of Schlessinger family dynamics.
Thanks for the extra large type and bolding…otherwise I would not have gotten your point… :rolleyes:
Of course I’m assuming her version of the description of her relationship with her mother…as opposed to what else? Unsubstantiated guesswork based on no evidence? (and no…her general demeanor and on air persona do not provide evidence to me of her family relations)
You have noticed that other posters (bare JonScribe, Miller) have made negative assumptions about Dr Laura’s relationship with her mother…without any basis in evidence? I guess those assumptions don’t bother you?
If someone wants to provide evidence of an alternative explanation of the relationship between Dr Laura and Yolanda, I’d be the first to change my opinion of her actions (or inactions). Until that’s done…her version is the only version out there.
gosh no lel…don’t you get it?
Dr Laura = evil cunt
evil cunts don’t “deserve” the benefit of the doubt.
Apparently.
Where would the evidence issue forth from? Unfortunately, the only person in that family who gets to speak publicly for three hours a day is Laura. So I guess, in spite of her endless opinions, attitudes, declarations and proofs of the kind of person she is, we have no choice but to believe her that it was all mommy’s fault. How convenient for her. And how much more disgusting it is of her to exploit that power to blame her mother for being alone when she was murdered.
Feh.
And no other family member could make a press release of Laura’s version wasn’t true? Please, Stoid, get a grip.
Just because you don’t agree with her doesn’t necessarily mean that she is lying about her relationship (or lack thereof) with her mother.
She got religious.
I think part of it is that she is an extreme person. From listening to her and reading her books and reading about her I just get the picture that she is quite over-the-top as far as the scale of reactions go. And I mean both intellectually and emotionally. Every new idea seems to permeate her entire life. Every reaction is one of overwhelming emotion, and her whole mind seems to bend to it.
I don’t know about some of the earlier things she went through (she’s rather close-mouthed about them, and anyway the things she says about her past are obviously filtered through her beliefs of today) but I know she got her tubes tied to avoid having children, then saw a PBS special about how fertilization occurs and decided to have a kid. Then later she saw part of a show about concentation camps and decided to be Jewish, and even went and immediately enrolled her son in a Jewish school.
She had called into a radio show and was invited to be a guest/co-host on the show, which started her affair with the host Bill Ballance and her career in radio. When he sold the pics he took of her he said it was because she snubbed him at an awards dinner, as well as not acknowledging him as her mentor. My guess is she snubbed him because it didn’t fit the picture of her life in her head, if you know what I mean- a religious woman of strong family values shouldn’t talk about an ex-lover and how he helped her career.
Her reaction to the publication of the pictures was extreme also- she denied they were her and claimed they were her property.
The whole homosexual thing is not just from her religious beliefs- she also is into propaganda about homosexuality from religious sources. (Things like the whole abomination of God thing, children raised by gay parents grow up somehow warped by it, gay men tend to be pedaphiles, and all the other outrageous religious right bullshit lies.)
I actually read an online review of the propaganda techniques she employs in the rhetoric of her program, but it didn’t really surprise me- she is an extremist after all.
**
Gee, I didn’t realize that I was boasting, No, I don’t deserve a “pat on the back” for not allowing my parents to die alone, it’s a given.
**
**
I agree and I said as much in my earlier post.
**
**
Yes, I am incredibly lucky and no, I do not feel superior.
**
I fully admit to being uncharacteristically bitchy in this thread. I suppose my dislike for Dr. Laura is clouding my otherwise good judgement. I just can’t imagine dying alone and unloved, I can’t think of anything sadder.
If you would be so kind beagledave, would you please show me where I have made negative assumptions about Dr. Laura?
I asked what the public is going to think about the circumstances and what might become of her show. I also mentioned how sad the situation was.
Sure…you said
Ignoring the notion (later pointed out by several others) that someone who makes the choice to be estranged from all family members would not want any connection to said family members (including friends or “hired” company). You implied negligence on the part of Dr. Laura.
I can separate my opinion of Dr Laura as a radio personality (or “therapist”) from my opinion about this sad situation…I’m not sure that others are doing the same.
The vitriol and hatred fueled blame towards Dr Laura by some posters in this thread (not you, bare) seems weirdly like the Vince Foster situation in an ironic fashion. Lack of facts did not prevent people who really hated Clinton from musing about his possible involvement (directly or indirectly) in Foster’s suicide.
** No, it’s not. If you admit that some people have reason to cut off members of their family, you have to realize that those family members are gonna die eventually, maybe alone. If, say, my mother is so evil and abusive that I refuse to have her in my life, am I morally justified only up until the point of her death?*
It seems like you feel superior to Dr. Laura in this regard. I understand KP235 mentioned your parents first (I think his point was that he doesn’t know anything about your family dynamic, and would be wrong to judge, just like you don’t know anything about Dr. Laura’s family dynamic), but why bring up your devotion unless you are distancing yourself from the scorn you have for her?
Yeah, you also said:
How is shutting out an abusive family member for the sake of yourself and other members of your family automatically inconsistant with “family values” and personal responsibility? (I don’t know if that’s what happened in this case, but you don’t know that it didn’t. Please also note Schlessinger’s version of “family values” is repugnant and dangerous, IMO, but that’s rather beside the point here.)
I admit to being quite characteristically bitchy. Ah, well. I don’t think you mean to be dismissive of folks who may have reason to be estranged from their parents, but like you said, your distaste for her is getting in the way of your judgement, and you risk painting a lot of people with that “fuck yourself!” brush.
[sub]*Disclaimer: my mommy’s not evil! Just occasionally annoying.[/sub]
**
If, in the course of my ranting about Dr. Laura, I hurt the feelings of anyone on this board, then I sincerely apologize. It certainly was never intended.
My mom annoys me at times as well. I’m sure I will carry on the tradition with Little Honey, and so on and so on…
I know what you mean. I remember listening to her show and homosexuals, even transexuals, calling and her giving them advice and treating them just as any other caller.
I don’t think that there ever was any particular thing that caused her to become more critical of homosexuals. I think that she was just "chosen’ to be the new focus of homosexual groups who then hunted for any and all statements they could to demonize her.
Adam Schlesinger? 
"He’s got his arm around every man’s dream
no drops on his mustache from the cocktail special
Davey please, leave the Biker,
Break his heart :D"
Fair 'nuff.
She Was Murdered.
http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/entertainment/1850149/detail.html
Statisticaly, the victim of a murder is usually well acquainted with his or her killer.
Who’s for a suspect list, then?
Stoid,
I have a really fucking simple question for you. You claim that Dr. L was “estranged” from her Mom and her sister. You insinuate that Dr. L caused this “estrangement”. My question is this: Why in the fuck did no one else in the family, including the sister, check on their Mom? The answer is simple, she pushed everyone away.
Even if Dr. L caused the problem with her mother do you think her mother would forsake friends out of some sort of spite? The woman died and no friends checked on her. No family checked on her. Her neighbors took months to realize that something was wrong.
You ask why people believe that Dr. Ls version of events is correct. The reason is simple, there is no proof to doubt her claim.
As sad as it seems, this woman had no regular contact with other people, whether family or friends. That is a hard thing to do unless you choose to do it.
I don’t like Dr. L but blaiming her for this is just stupid.
Slee