By Debbie Schlussel
In its rush to properly criticize Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Charles Rangel, and other public figures who’ve improperly used the Holocaust in comparisons between us and the Nazis, the Holocaust, etc., the Denver Post improperly lumped me in.
In an editorial, last Saturday, the Denver Post, wrote:
“Even cultural commentary is tainted by this lazy habit. Conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel, in calling the film ‘Million Dollar Baby’ a ‘million dollar lie,’ said the movie delivered a ‘left-wing diatribe’ indistinguishable from the message sent by the Nazis when they ‘murdered the handicapped and infirm.'”
Well, at least the Post got my name right. That’s about the only thing they got right about I wrote about “Million Dollar Baby.” I did NOT compare the movie to the Nazis. I merely said that the Nazis practiced and supported euthanasia, a major issue endorsed by the movie. I discussed euthanasia, describing the Nazis’ practice, as well as that currently practiced in the Netherlands, today.
Has it come to the point that, because Durbin and Rangel utter extreme idiocy in comparing our brave troops to the Nazis, that I cannot now discuss the ACTUAL Nazis and their euthanasia practice? Again, the Nazis did, in fact, practice euthanasia. Our courageous troops (in Gitmo, Iraq, and elsewhere), on the other hand, bear NO resemblance to the Nazis. To lump me in with those who claim that is just plain wrong.
One would think the fact that my grandparents, Holocaust survivors, endured the ACTUAL Holocaust and the REAL Nazis–and that my mother was born in Bergen Belsen CAMP–would have earned me the right to write about this evil era in history, without evoking the ire and false analogies of the lazy Denver Post editorial writers (Julia Martinez and her editor, Todd Engdahl)–too busy to read what I ACTUALLY wrote.
Even the liberal reporters and writers at The New York Times (twice–including the Times’ famed columnist Frank Rich), Telegraph of London, and USA Today (twice–here and here)–all of whom quoted from that identical “Million Dollar Baby” column–characterized my writing correctly. Why is it that, months afterward, the “conservatives” at the Denver Post editorial board failed?
Thanks, Denver Post, for spelling my name correctly.