PJ Media

PJ Mediahttps://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2006/10/05/aristophanes-in-gitmo/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usThu, 11 Jun 2026 15:52:14 -0400Aristophanes in Gitmo<![CDATA[In yesterday’s post, I mentioned how I saw the Foley affair (yes, I am the culprit who invented Masturgate but was too embarrassed to admit it ) more as Aristophanes than Shakespeare (farce, not tragedy). After reading Claudia’s report on the “dreadful” US prison in Guantanamo, which dovetails nicely with Rich Miniter’s, I thought once again that the Greek dramatist is the perfect artist for our times. Who better to describe a trip to Gitmo than the man who did such a brilliant job lampooning Dionsysus’ descent into Hades to bring home Euripides? Too bad he’s not alive now to satirize the villainous riffraff surrounding the Guantanamo story – the Newsweek “virtuosi” who made up the tale of Koran flushing (where they don’t even have flush toilets) and the greedy nabobs of so-called human rights organizations who enrich their coffers by pretending we are torturing Islamic inmates when, apparently, they are growing fat on international cuisine. Dr. Strangelove or even Aristophanes’ own The Frogs had nothing on this. Yet too bad indeed the great Greek is not with us today to decapitate the self-satisfied smirk of modern liberalism. Can you imagine what he would have done with a tour of Gitmo by, say, Streisand and Penn?]]>Thu, 05 Oct 2006 17:03:48 -0400<![CDATA[Roger L. Simon]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-l-simon/2006/10/05/aristophanes-in-gitmo-n213086