John Leo excoriates everyone involved in your least favorite March 2005 news story. Of particular note to me was what Leo asserted that mainstream media failed to cover (e.g. "it was hard to find news that Michael Schiavo had provided no therapy or rehabilitation for his wife since 1994 and even blocked the use of antibiotics when Terri developed a urinary infection.").
In general it's none of my business how a husband treats his wife in a situation like that, just as in general it's none of my business how a parent raises a child. Even so, some decisions are so strikingly inhumane that even if it's none of your business you can't fail to notice -- this is analogous being in a public place and seeing someone who's obviously clueless about parenting give some poor kid severe verbal abuse. It's still none of your business, nor is there really anything productive to do about it, and yet...
Meanwhile, have you heard about this book? I was unaware of it myself until Slate's review, though I have a serious bone to pick with one particular sentence from that review.
Serious journalists spent serious time debunking the claims set forth in the Swift Boat book,[...]
Bullshit. Serious journalists spent a perfunctory amount of time (but serious faces) dismissing the claims set forth in the Swift Boat book, without ever bothering to do the legwork either way.
It's also easy to interpret the sentence above uncharitably, and suggest that the author actually thinks that (begging the question) the thing to do with the Swift Boat charges was no more and no less to "debunk" them, as opposed to beginning your investigation with an open mind and seeing where it leads.
I'd have a much easier time giving that sentence the benefit of the doubt it deserves were it not so factually dubious to begin with.
Posted by Matt Bruce at April 4, 2005 02:44 PM