Frank Rich Rants: Schiavo's Supporters Are Like the Taliban

Arts editor and columnist Frank Rich, soon to make his debut on the Sunday opinion page, equates people who support Congress's intervention in the Terri Schiavo case to the Taliban.

Rich's column appears in the Sunday paper, but is posted to the Times website on Thursday. In his latest, "The God Racket, From DeMille to DeLay," he argues: "�an ABC News survey last weekend found that only 27 percent of Americans thought it was 'appropriate' for Congress to 'get involved' in the Schiavo case and only 16 percent said it would want to be kept alive in her condition. But a majority of American colonists didn't believe in witches during the Salem trials either -- any more than the Taliban reflected the views of a majority of Afghans. At a certain point -- and we seem to be at that point -- fear takes over, allowing a mob to bully the majority over the short term."

Taking Rich's bizarre conflation seriously, one could point out that while women were being put to death in Salem and Afghanistan, the people he's so afraid of are trying to save a woman's life.

For the rest of Rich's rant, click here:



Starving Terri Schiavo? No Worries

Reporter John Schwartz delivers another soothing, "nothing to see here, folks" story about the imminent death by induced starvation of Terri Schiavo. His story is complete with another blandishment of a headline: "Neither 'Starvation' Nor the Suffering It Connotes Applies to Schiavo, Doctors Say."

Schwartz writes: "The battle over Terri Schiavo is about life and death, but it is also a war of words -- and one of the words most at issue is 'starvation.' Ms. Schiavo's parents have repeatedly used the word, as have politicians like the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee. Commentators have compared Ms. Schiavo's situation to that of starving children in Africa and abandoned animals in shelters. That kind of language disturbs Dr. Douglas Nelson, a geriatrician in Hickory, N.C. 'That is a gross medical error,' Dr. Nelson said. He argues that when a feeding tube is removed, death is caused by dehydration, not loss of nutrition."

Death by dehydration? Well, that's all right then.

For more from Schwartz on Schiavo's worry-free imminent death, click here:



Haven't Brought Up Abu Ghraib In a While

Friday's Arts section features a review by theatre critic Charles Isherwood of the warhorse of a war play "Mister Roberts," in revival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Isherwood scrounges for parallels between the play and controversies that reflect poorly on the modern military: "Later, when the sailors return from a hard-won shore leave on a nearby isle, boasting of the women they have assaulted and the destruction they have caused (to the French consul's house, wouldn't you know), you may be inclined to reflect on our evolved perspective on such roistering behavior. Again, Mr. Longbottom's production doesn't project any contemporary attitudinizing onto the writing -- clearly we are meant to delight in their antics as the messy but innocuous behavior of good guys letting loose -- but it's impossible to watch the scene, post-Tailhook, without a glimmer of ambivalence. Indeed, carry the thought a step further and the sailors' aggressive raillery takes on even more ominous overtones. Some of the outrages of Abu Ghraib were also perpetrated by soldiers who seemed to think they were just getting up to some harmless fun, too."

For the rest of Isherwood's review, click here: