First, another great post Melissa!
I have both personal and professional reasons to be sympathetic to anyone who does, in fact, have a mental illness. I also do not believe that anyone should be judged on these forums based on anything other than the quality of their written contributions. I don't care how old someone is, their gender, race, occupation, education, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, etc.
This is
not political correctness. (I happen to
hate that whole PC, "Newspeak", "thought police" thing!) I simply respect human beings to much to discount what they say based on same lame prejudice.
Which leads me to my main point.
I don't care what kind or even if Dr. Steve is a "real" doctor. At least from the stand point of respecting his ideas and recognizing his contributions to the movement.
I obviously don't place too much stock on credentials, or I would not have waited until my 200th post to mention that fact that I am a doctor.
When I made my original post about narcissistic personality disorder, I intentionally did a cut and paste so people would
not have to rely on unverified credentials or a degree. I honestly did not think too much about the fact that I was "outing" myself as a physician. In retrospect I can see how naive I was to think that this was not going to be a "big deal". I can see now how much stock these "Dr. Steveites" place on his professional status. I guess in their minds being a doctor gave him some type of special status within the movement; a link to Dr. Paul that transcended the average supporter. I can honestly say that it never occurred to me that people like "Sandra" would question
my professional status. Again, I can see now that I was inadvertently encroaching onto the sacred (and to that point, unique) territory of her guru.
Now to the man.
I won't claim any special love for Dr. Steve. Since I first saw his posts on Daily Paul I will admit that I was more than a little put off by his "IF YOU CARE ANYTHING ABOUT FREEDOM AND THE FATE OF OUR REPUBLIC YOU WILL KEEP THIS BUMPED EVERY DAY AND IF YOU DON'T YOU ARE ALL SCUM THAT DESERVE TO LIVE IN CHAINS" hyperbolic style. I didn't mind so much that he called himself "Doctor" Steve. I guess I assumed that he had a PhD in Early Aztec Basket Weaving and was one of those guys that got off on being called "Doctor". And I don't think any less of someone if they don't happen to feel like me that it kind of goes against the egalitarian atmosphere of this movement.
Within the last couple of days, I will admit he got me ticked off when he and his sycophantic groupies on DailPaul accused me of fabricating an email from a national campaign staff member advising RP delegates that they probably should not expect to be able to vote for Ron Paul at the RNC.
Wowee, talk about shooting the messenger. Within minutes I was called everything from a troll to a CFR infiltrator to a liar. I reposted adding even more chunks of the email, explaining meticulously and as clearly as possible that I WAS NOT ENDORSING OR CONDONING THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE EMAIL but that I thought it was worth knowing what some within the campaign were advising.
That made them even madder.
I was a liar. I made the whole thing up.
I had my wife come on to confirm that she had in fact received the email.
Either they ignored her or thought she was a CFR plant (I honestly don't know what is going on inside that gelatinous mass they use for brains.)
But at least I could count on the good doctor to add a note of dignity, right?
He came on and without commenting at all on the changes, clarifications, replies, and added comments by my wife asked, "Why hasn't this post been flagged?"
"Sorry, Your Highness. We'll get on it right away! We won't let it happen again!", said his lapdog fanboys, as they scurried to do his bidding.
I offered to forward the email in question to Steve if he would promise me not to divulge the author's name or post excerpts out of context.
Nada. No rebuttal. No acknowledgment. No apology and no retraction.
No, Steve is strictly a hit and run kind of guy.
So now that he has thoroughly befouled the atmosphere over at DailyPaul, Steve announces grandly (everything he does is always done in dramatic fashion) that he is going to come over to the RonPaul Forums to root out the infidels and could he have some of his groupies come with him? (They almost always travel in packs, safer that way.)
And this thread was the result.
And still I would have given him some benefit of the doubt. That maybe he has actually helped some of the people that he says he has helped. And maybe some of the people that think
he has helped
them, actually aren't deluded or suffering from intellectual Stockholm Syndrome.
And then he gave THIS quote above.
When I first read his smear about the "glorified massage therapist" I was actually amused. I am used to some lay people confusing DO's (Doctor of Osteopathy) with chiropractors or whatever simply because in
addition to
all of the courses that any MD medical student has to take the Osteopathic medical student
also must learn manipulative therapy. True, in the early 20th century there was a sometimes not all that friendly rivalry between the two schools of medicine. But by the time I entered medical school that was all ancient history. Today's DO's and MD's share residency programs and populate every specialty from Pediatrics to Neurosurgery and sometimes work with a doctor for a years before they realize which one he is.
All doctors know this. Patients may not, especially if they come from some areas of the country where DO's aren't as numerous. But ALL
doctors know this.
So it never occurred to me that Steve was anything but a PhD taking a cheap shot out of ignorance.
That's when I made this response:
" BTW, Dr. Steve, if you happen to be driving through southwest Iowa in a couple of weeks be very careful not to get in a car accident.
I hear that the local hospital is going to have a "glorified massage therapist" staffing their emergency room! 
I hear they even have him supervising all three of the Physician Assistants who cover the emergency room full time.
But what would you expect from a hospital that would let that same "glorified massage therapist" be their Chief of Staff last year?
And while he isn't a psychiatrist (and does NOT claim to be one) he was the medical director for the geriatric psychiatry unit for a couple of years.
And if you are interested, he does know some excellent psychiatrists.
(Personally, I just think you need to cut down on your caffeine.
)"
More out of amusement than anger.
A little sarcastic? Sure. A little condescending? Guilty.
But you can see why I might have been a little fed up with this self-righteous stuffed shirt.
But then I stumbled back across his note and noticed for the first time his claim to be a
physician --
As far as my medical background and license or license number is none of your business or anyone elses ana has no bearing on what i have done or is willing to continue to do.
Wait a minute, I had been cutting him some slack because I thought he was just ignorant. Spiteful, self-promoting, conceited, deluded, and petty, sure, but not malevolent.
But now all of a sudden my view of "Doctor" Steve made a paradigm shift. He was claiming to be a medical doctor. All of this grandstanding and posturing was coming from an MD, not some PhD with an inferiority complex?!? All of this childish, unprofessional behavior from a colleague?
Now he no longer had an excuse. I have practiced medicine and trained in states from Nevada to Pennsylvania; Iowa to Virginia. I have worked with DO's and MD's trained everywhere from Botswana to the Mayo Clinic; but I have never, NEVER met a doctor who would debase himself to call a DO colleague a "glorified massage therapist". I know you may not understand this but, this just isn't done. Not on our worst days. Not even in gest. And Steve was most certainly NOT joking. He wasn't calling me a liar this time, he was insulting my profession (actually OUR profession) and taking advantage of YOUR ignorance to take a cheap shot at someone he KNEW really WAS a doctor.
Now all the misspelled, ungrammatical, disjointed posts were more sinister. This is a guy that will stop at nothing, will stoop to anything to win his point. I know now that whatever else he is, he is not the dedicated servant to this movement that he claims to be. I don't care how many hours he spends talking to delegates or how many phone bills he racks up; Steve Parent cares about only one thing -- Steve Parent.
I don't know, nor do I care if he is a doctor or not. Either he is a bold-faced liar, or a professional who has lost any semblance of ethical or professional dignity.
I now know that I have only heard him say one thing that is absolutely true,
"i really do not care. "
How true. How true.
