The Benefits of Flirting

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I got a wonderful email from Sylvia, which I want to share with you all:
 
Dr. Laura:
 
This is a lesson my mother taught me, but I thought you would approve of her very good advice.
 
I am a southern “belle.”  Though I have lived all over the world and do not possess the characteristic lilting southern drawl, I am, in fact, a belle through and through.  When raised as a girl in the south, you learn (amongst other things) a true appreciation of the beauty and power of words.  We southern girls are thoroughly schooled in the art and craft of words.  We learn, very young, how to paint a picture with words.  We learn to exploit the rhythm and cadence of language.  We speak softly in order to draw in our listener (thus focusing all attention on ourselves).  Really - who doesn’t like a whisper?  We speak slowly, because anticipation makes everything more enjoyable.  Really - who doesn’t like to be made to wait…just a little?
 
I will often send my husband an email designed to make the air around him stand still.  I can still make his mouth water with just words.  I can make his mind linger and dwell on me all day, with just a softly spoken sentence as he leaves for work in the morning.  Sometimes, in the afternoon, I’ll call him up just to say “I was daydreaming about you just now.  I was remembering how sweet you are and how you still make my heart beat faster.”  This is not just some idle exercise.  This is the ultimate investment in my family.  This is what makes my husband anxious to get home to me, even after fifteen years.
 
Through flirting, I reap a harvest of sweetness, kindness, gentleness and playfulness.  Flirting is a gift we give to each other. It keeps alive the sweetness and excitement of our early dating days.  Flirting is like a gentle touch.  It is stroking the ego of the one you love.  It is titillation pure and simple.  It is foreplay with words and humor.  Flirting is the secret that all other women know.  Flirting is the difference between “ho-hum” and “hot!”  It is something you miss when it’s lacking and you often don’t even realize it.  Flirting captures the mind, and where the mind goes, the body soon follows.
 
So ladies, flirt with your husband.  Here, let me help you out:  send an email to the one you love today and simply say “I thought of you today.  I thought that if you were a book, then I would like to read you and re-read you, over and over again.”
 
You see, when you give sweetness, you get so much more back.

British Airways Takes A Stand for Safety

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British Airways passengers who refuse to submit to what is an astonishingly controversial full body scan will be barred from boarding their flights.  FANTASTIC!  And they also eliminated the ban on scanning children under the age of 18.  FANTASTIC!  Wow.  To know you’re not going to have to worry about the guy next to you lighting up a bomb in his private parts is a blessing.
 
Now why would anyone be against this?  Well think of conspiracy nuts, “big brother” nuts, and people who are anti-Western civilization, as well as those who are anarchists.  As far as I’m concerned, they can all ride a bus or get some exercise on their bicycle or rent a little boat and cross the ocean on their own.
 
Oh, and by the way, the image generated by the body scanner can’t be stored or captured, nor can security officers recognize individuals from viewing the images.
 
This is not (as some naysayers proclaim) an indication that the “bad guys” have won.  It’s a technology which thwarts their means of killing us.  Issues of life and death take precedence over silly sentiments of “modesty” when our media has elevated immodesty to a perverted art.

Is This Too Much Eyeliner?

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It’s teen girl vs. Mom this week - and the subject is makeup!  Take a look:

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Read transcript here.

The Most Romantic Movie of All Time

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Cruising through the news sites, I recently came across a list of the Top 25 Most Romantic Movies.  I was amazed at a number of the choices:  adult male dancer in cheap resort “doing” a teenage girl (like they have a future together!); a woman having sex with her fiancé’s younger brother; people who meet while on a European excursion and immediately become intimate, and on and on.
 
When I was younger, I used to just “watch” movies and get caught up in the mushy emotions.  As an adult (and definitely as “Dr. Laura”), I watch movies on a much deeper level, and I’m not happy with the notion that as long as two people are swept up in fantasy and immediacy, it’s just b e a u t i f u l.
 
Maybe it’s because I spend hours each day on my radio program helping people extricate their hearts, minds, and collateral damage from their decisions to just go with the flow of erotic and romantic feelings.  I’m left trying to help them remedy the hurts done to others as well as themselves and the “accidental” children who do not typically benefit from “conception-on-the-run.”
 
The film The African Queen was, for me, one of the most romantic movies of all time.  Humphrey Bogart gives up being a surly, drunk, self-designated outcast for Katharine Hepburn, who gives up being an up-tight, prissy, self-avowed spinster, for a cause, using his little beat-up boat to sink a German war boat.  Having that joint goal (well, she had to work hard to get him out of his shell to be brave enough to re-join the world), and having to deal with deadly elements on a six-foot power skiff together, they built something really romantic.
 
Those of you who are married and struggling with illness or the economic “elements” should watch that movie together…twice!  I believe it will make you snuggle.  What brings people really close together is not just itinerant sex.  It is a joint goal, the attainment of which requires you both to become MORE.  Sometimes that goal is survival, and at other times, it may be the birth of a child, or a commitment to some effort in the world.  Great sex is the prize…it is not the substance of true love.

Quote of the Week

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Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow.  The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
               - Abraham Lincoln
                  16th President of the United States

Today, February 12th  is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

There’s No Time Like The Present

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A few months ago, I saw the movie “The Bucket List.”  It’s about these two older guys who, presumably, are terminally ill, and one of them mentions a “kick the bucket list,” meaning that you make a list of all the things you want to do before you die (and then, hopefully, go do them).  The movie is interesting and well done, and well worth seeing.  It stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson.

Since then, I’ve had some thoughts on and off about the concept, and decided that I don’t want to have a bucket list when my time comes close.  I want to do and see and say and experience the things that matter to me waaaaay before they become an almost-Last Supper moment.  So I’ve been going over in my mind what it is that I would put on that list.  And I’m happy to say……nothing.

I wanted an adventure on the high seas, so with a crew of experienced sailors, I’m going to be doing just that in mid-March, when we race from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.  It will take about four days or so, and we have to work, sleep, and eat in shifts 24 hours per day of sailing.  It will be grueling, cold, and sometimes scary at night if the winds are up.  The food will be “ucky,” and there won’t be hot showers or heated blankets.  And yet, I can’t wait, because it’s an ADVENTURE!  It pushes my limits and challenges me in new ways.  It’s good to have adventures, as long as you don’t ignore your responsibilities, and enjoy the challenges that are there.

Day-to-day experiences and routines can get monotonous - that’s just life.  So don’t wait.  Come up with your own adventure (camping with the family, training for some physical event or whatever you want) and just do it!!

The Solution to Unwanted Pregnancies

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Just when you thought web-based programs couldn’t get more depraved, we have the introduction of a fake attempt to “humanize” the discussion about abortion by having “actors” pretending to be pregnant tell their sob stories and have you, the audience, decide if the baby should live or die.

I’m not kidding.  Supposedly, the producers got this bright idea from Barack Obama’s commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, when he said he wanted “to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies.”  I thought we already came up with such a solution:  it’s called ADOPTION.

Here’s the rundown of an episode:

1. A wife of a brave, deployed military man who screws around on him gets knocked up.
2. A wife of a man who is violent, but who keeps cranking out babies with him.
3. A couple who just wants to get on the phony reality show.

Yeah, this really advances the discussion about abortion.

Just because these women were irresponsible, should an innocent human being die?  Just because a woman has created a lousy circumstance for the well-being of a child, should the innocent child die?

How about this:  The entire time the woman is whining about her life, show a split screen with a live video of the fetus moving around, sucking its thumb, doing back flips, etc.  Then we’ll vote as to whether the mother should be given the death sentence after the baby is born.  What a great idea for a reality show!

The solution to unwanted pregnancies is to take responsibility, or to give that blessing to someone else.

Why Celebrate Valentine’s Day?

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People have all sorts of reactions when Valentine’s Day comes around - some think it’s too commercialized, and others get hurt if they don’t get the traditional flowers or candy or card.  Still others don’t think it should be observed at all.  I think it’s time to recall the important reasons to celebrate:

Or watch other videos at youtube.com/DrLaura.

Read transcript here.