Media priorities, stem cell research, and Dick Durbin

Why do celebrity break-ups, a single runaway bride, and the Downing Street memo receive more media attention than 1,000 deaths a day in the Congo? HT: Random Ravings

Jonah Goldberg's most recent column is on embryonic stem cell research.

Dick Durbin is getting blasted all over the blog arena for his recent comments comparing the techniques used at Guantanamo Bay to the techniques of the Nazis, Soviet gulags, and Pol Pot.

"'On one occasion the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. On another occasion the air conditioner had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor."

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

Only someone barely gripping reality or having no idea of what happened in Nazi concentration camps or Soviet gulags would compare playing loud rap music (I'm often submitted to this "torture" when I'm stopped a red light in my neighborhood) or dealing with cold temperature (I submit my wife and myself to this "torture" during the winter when we keep our house temperature at 60 degrees) and heat over 100 degrees (the residents of Arizona typically endure this "torture" every week when they step outside in the summer). Howard Dean may just have some competition when it comes to which Democrat can say the most ridiculous things.