You are right ! And our own appeasement and lack of facing reality may be our own downfall. I am afraid it will take a devastating event her on our soil to wake the general US population up to the real,dire threat that is at our door. The hatred of the West and the Jews is a demonically inspired hatred. May we wake and stand up for all that is right and just !

http://highmindedlunacy.townhall.com/

Carole:

One would have thought that 9-11 would have been the devastating attack on our own soil that would have wakened the general population, but apparently even that is not enough. Many Americans have come to believe that it was the work of, surprise! President Bush and or the Mossad.

It has been said that Jews are the canaries in the coal mine. In other words, anti-Semitism is the harbinger of coming evil.

So your post scares me.

I never followed the UN closely, but I do associate it closely with American Communist spy Alger Hiss who played an instrumental role in founding it. (Incidentally, a brief introduction to this is available at the ... Jeremiah Project web site.

Kent:

As always, good to hear from you.

Our fear extends to Israel where an incompetent government is still in power and still pursues policies that are bankrupt and dangerous to Israel's national existence. The illusion of "a peace process" with the jihadist Palistenians still holds sway over a great portion of the Israeli population, for they still believe that the conflict is about land. An illusion utterly divorced from reality. But I have come to the conclusuion that Jews are capable of being just as stupid as anyone else on planet earth.

This conflict is about what it has always been about: the right of Jews to live in their Biblical homeland. The right of Jews to live freely anywhere on the face of this earth.

Apparently, Muslims and liberals find this notion odious.

Decent people eveywhere should be very afraid for anti-Jewish hatred and anti-Christian hatred is being mainstreamed.

Jeremiah:

Thanks so much for the invaluable information about the origins of the UN.

We believe that America should stop contributing financially to the UN, and withdraw from membership in this rogues gallery of thugs, killers and enablers of genocidiers.

Today the dictator Hugo Chavez suggested that the UN be moved to his nation of Venezuela. We completely agree. Let the UN delegates get a taste of living in Chavez's communist paradise.

I think the darkness is rising again. It's probably not that violent people any less rare than they ever were, but the response of ordinary, fair-minded people has become crippled and muted and uncertain. But that's all it ever seems takes for a bunch of killers to temporarily get the upper hand and do damage it takes centuries to heal.
They scare me. They scare me when I hear what they want to do to me and mine. They scare me while - slowly, slowly - I come to terms with what they are prepared to do to themselves and their own. I don't like the changes they make in me and that scares me too.
However, I didn't create this situation and one is beholdened to rise to the occassion. So I believe a stiff upper lip is called for whilst we weather the storm etc. etc. Needless to say if they touch my kids I'll have their eyes out (however they dress up the politics) before I fall off my perch.

Jayne

Jayne:

Would that a majority of your countrymen felt as you do.

A return to Churchill's confrontational policies is desperately needed, instead we see a strong drift towards Chamberlain's suicidal pacts of accomodation and appeasement. This can only end in death and slavery for the non-Muslims of Europe. All else is delusion.

As for the "moderate Muslims," we hear so much about in Europe, well they are as vocal and useful as the "good Germans" who supposedly populated Germany during Hitler's rise to power.

The more I read and listen to on talk radio, the more worried I become. I'm currently reading "Why I Left Jihad" by Walid Shoebat, and I just ordered his DVD. The thing that just amazes me is that our (the West's) enemies speak very plainly about their intentions, but nobody seems to believe they are serious.

What are we to do?

Ah, Robert, the "peace-loving" diplomats of the U.N. would never move to the Sudan...no good restaurants. And who would appreciate the multi-thousand dollar suits there? No, NYC is THE high life for these parasitic whores of diplomacy, wheree they live like princes and get to rub our noses in it with impunity. What could be better?

This is the same UN that should have been converted to condos back in the 70s, the very first time they let the arch-terrorist-murderer Arafat get up to the same podium and speak...with a pistol strapped to his hip. That's the day, I think it was already in '74, that WE, the United States, should have revoked the UN's lease and booted it out of Turtle Bay and the United States.

It is frightening that our own government acquieses to this. There is no reason to let it continue.

Oh my gosh, Robert. I had the same thoughts cross my mind just this morning. However,my faith in G-d, no matter how shaky at times, still allows me the optimism that we will survive this latest threat to our freedom.

It may be dark now, but it was still darker 70 years ago. Somehow,someway,I have to believe the American left will finally realize the error of their ways before it is too late.

Regardless of what Hugo Chavez claims, the enemy is still the weaker link. While crunch time is approaching, I'm confident that most middle Americans will keep the left to continue to exist on the outside fringe.

At least I certainly hope so.

I am certainly concerned, but on the whole I don't spend much worrying about it.

A while back I blogged about how when my son started kindergarten I realized that four generations of my family started kindergarten during or immediately after wars. FWIW, that includes both World Wars and Vietnam.

My grandparents lived during a time in which they watched many family and friends die from diseases that we now consider to be virtually harmless. They lived through the Depression, fought their way through WWII, lived through Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis (really the whole Cold War) Vietnam , the first Gulf War and now the current war.

I have to believe that we will find a way out of this current state of affairs.

That doesn't relieve us of the responsibility of being vigilant and doing what we can to move the process along, but the historical perspective does give me some comfort.

It is a long winded way of saying that I know that I could be very frightened, but I choose to be more of a pragmatic optimist.

Joannah:

What to do?

Vote Republican.

The Democrats cannot be trusted with national security. The Republicans are not perfect, they make mistakes, but most Republicans understand that we are in a very long war, and they are prepared to fight, and fight hard. And Republicans support Israel--in overwhelming numbers.

Regarding Iraq: the Democrats want to... well, who knows, they certainly have no coherent position save attacking President Bush and the war in Iraq.

Look at poor Joe Lieberman, he was for the war in Iraq and the Dems drummed him out of the party. This is a man who voted 90% with his party, a man who was a candidate for Vice President of the United States. As for Israel, well, the Democrats no longer support Israel in great numbers. Every single poll shows that it is Republicans who support Israel in far greater numbers. Those who claim otherwise are detached from reality, living in the past--which is the norm for most Jewish Democrats.

As for those who say that both parties are the same corrupt machine, well, that kind of non-thinking nihilism just throws your vote to the jihadists.

Maurice:

You are quite right, the career UN whore/diplomat/spies adore their digs in NY. But we should not accomodate them. We should expel them.

Yes, the day the terrorist Arafat addressed the UN was the beginning of a new Dark Age.

Shayne:

Faith in HaShem is never enough. We must act with the intelligence He endowed us with.

The left will never realize their errors, that is the definition of being on the left. It is a fevered ideology that never admits that it is utterly wrong and corrupt. Look at how they blame Israel for, well, everything. The left is the home to the most virulent Jew hatred in America.

Meanwhile the left is no longer on the fringe. Michael Moore was seated next to Jimmy Carter at the last DNC. Jimmy Carter speaks of Hizbullah as freedom fighters. Is Carter fringe?

No, we face a whole new political calculas.

Jack:

I see your point, however, the Russians understood deterrence. They did not want to die. They wanted to hang on to power. They wanted to live. We are faced with a whole new enemy, jihadists who tell the truth when they claim that they love death more than life. Even the Nazis did not want to die. Even the Japanese did not love death as much as these Muslims.

We are fighting a new enemy, a new war. And make no mistake about it, it will be a long and messy war.

And do keep in mind that behind Iran's rhetoric is a looming mushroom cloud.

If this doesn't scare you, well, I don't know what else will.

Robert,

Oh, I do! I'm a fourth generation Orange Countian, and died-in-the-wool Republican. I'm just afraid we're becoming outnumbered.

Kipling's "Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919) seems appropriate now.

Jayne's remark "the darkness is rising again" probably summarizes it best. It won't be permanent, and there will always be Americans willing to fight it. I just hope we don't have to pay too much before we all of us realize it's a needed fight.

Courage!
Virgil

1) Sudan? I'd rather send the UN to Mars. But I'll take Sudan just as well.

2) There is a great essay in the Jpost today that analyzes all the negative ramifications of a strike on Iran. But it concludes by analyzing why a stike is still needed.

3)Going back to our old disucssion on the Neture Karta mamzerim: they were out in full force at the UN rally today. They carried signs stating that Jews must remain under gentile domination, whether in the US or in Iran. Can we send them to Sudan along with the UN?

Robert,

I am in complete agreement with you regarding the Russian and Japanese position on death. But I am sure that you will agree with me that the Japanese were as bloodthirsty and brutal as any people we have seen.

And the Russians rank right up there. Even to this day if we watch what they have done in Chechnya and to those they were truly upset with.

It is not that I am not concerned about the Iranians. It is not that I am not worried about what could happen. I am.

But I won't allow them to make me anymore concerned about how and what I do. I don't give in to bullying or terror tactics.

You have a few years on me, but I remember many discussions in school about what could happen if someone dropped a nuke on us. Movies like Wargames and Red Dawn are a part of my school memory bank.

We will deal with this. Ani Maamin. I have to believe that we will deal with this. I say that not from a position of naivete, but fully confident that we will.

In spite of those that fail to understood that the jihadists are not motivated by policy but by ideology, we will handle it.

Now that the founders of the state are all gone we are left with their successors. It remains to be seen if there are real statesmen to be found among them.

Fear for our children, darkness rising, a country without men....

If anyone who remembers cares to share, did any of these bone-dwelling ruminations arise, among you or your elders, during the Cuban Missile Crisis? And how to did the wise and the brave respond then?

(btw, Karen: you always say more with less. This time I think you said it all with less.)

Karen:

It isn't just the politicians in Israel. We are facing it here in the U.S., and from both parties in equal measure.

My U.S. Representative from Long Island is Peter King, a Republican. The same Peter King who has been a strong voice against Islamic terror. The same Peter King who was lauded for courageously breaking with President Bush to oppose the Dubai Ports deal. The same Peter King who has been bashing his Democratic opponent for taking donations from Muslim groups in this election. Well guess what? It turns out that this wonderful Republican ally in the war on terror has BEEN TAKING DONATIONS FROM THE SAME MUSLIM GROUPS... EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. THEM! (check it out: http://www.newsday.com/ny-liking0920,0,7740521.story)

The moral of this story and the story of what's happening in Israel is that politicians cannot be trusted, and those of us who support any of them from either party in the U.S. or any of the dozens of parties in Israel need to remind ourselves that we probably like individual candidates because of lip service. And lip service is cheap.

Those of us who live in democratic countries HAVE to find a way to make our elected leaders more accountable. Term limits are one good idea, another is a law that would require every campaign donation to be listed in a press release and made available to newspapers and the Internet. In Israel, regional elections might help to keep the same elite political class from getting elected time after time.

And deciding to throw our support to any one party is pure suicide. Look what it's done to the black people in America. The Dems know they have 90-95% of their vote every time in return for simple lip service and then they get screwed over and over. Republicans recently did the same thing to the religious right over a gay marriage ban they will make no real effort to enact.

So if you want lip service on terror for the next 2 years, by all means vote for the incumbents, vote for the Peter Kings, vote for the Kadima and Likud regulars who have been around for years and will bring none of the fresh thought and ACTION we need in government.

Another suicidal tactic is to become so obsessed with lip service that it becomes the sum total of all of one's political activity. We've become more angry about editorials in the New York Times than the actual acts of violence themselves. We've decided that it's more important to bash the other party on how strong or weak they are on terrorism than constructing ways to defeat the actual terrorists. Democrats have forgotten that if they really believe in liberal values, they're going to have to defeat the Islamists who threaten every single one of them a Hell of a lot more than President Bush. Republicans are going to have to admit that this terror costs money, and we're basically bankrolling terrorism with oil spending and that their party is owned lock stock and barrel by the oil companies.

Politicians stink... all of them... and the incumbents stink the most. There is no use in pretending otherwise. The only thing worth arguing about are the ideas and strategies themselves, and then maybe we can shame some of the worthless politicians into enacting them for a short time before we vote them out too.

Ari:

Sudan is worse than Mars, and by all means let us send the NC there.

No question, there will be hell to pay when Israel strikes at Iran. The consequences of not striking Iran are, however, beyond imagination.

Jake:

If you believe that the presidencies of, say, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were the same, if you believe that the policies of the Dems and Republicans in regards to Israel were the same from the Clinton to the current Bush administration, well then, you are simply detached from reality. As I said earlier, your position is nihilistic.

And let's be frank, ultimately you seek a justification to defend a weak position: a lover of Israel who insists on voting for the Democrats.

I don't insist on voting for Democrats. In fact, I have voted for almost as many Republicans as Democrats since 1988. I never voted for Bill Clinton, for example, because he was a liar, and while all politicians are liars, he lied with impunity.

Ronald Reagan was of course different than Jimmy Carter on many issues, but he also pulled out troops out of Beirut in 1983 and emboldended Hezbollah in a way more than any other President has. He traded arms for hostages with Iran in another empowering move. He deserves great credit for pushing the Soviet Union to its own destruction in a way Carter and most other Republicans every would. Other than that, he was another worthless politician.

Let me go at this another way. What kind of person not only leaves his family for a job but also takes a job that puts them, including young children, in an unfair spotlight? A narcissitic maniac that's who. I don't trust anyone who would do that to his or her family simply so they can go to a bunch of rubber chicken dinners 4 nights a week. Neither should you.

And I would hardly say advocating for term limits and more sunshine laws on campaign finance, (we don't need to cap donations, just make them more public... believe me that will stop the slush funds in a hurry), is a nihilistic approach. It is in fact the only realistic approach. There is no man or woman who can be trusted with the tremendous temptations of political office for more than a short period. This is human nature. Just like you don't put teenage boys in charge of the girls shower room.

Our government was set up to be filled with part-time elected leaders. Now we have career politicians at every level. Disgusting.

Jake:

My apologies. From our conversations you have always given the impression of being a Democrat. Ronald made some greivous political blunders. No question. But I live in the real world. I do not seek perfection. I also separate private life from public function.

Jimmy Carter pursued a policy of detente with the Soviets. He abandoned the Shah, setting the stage for Khomeini, thus ushering in the modern Jihadist age we now live in. Carter may lead a blameless personal life--but he was ruinous to American foreign policy.

Reagan rejected detente, confronted and then brought down the Soviet Empire. In the final analysis, this is what makes history.

Yes, I am basically, a liberal, not a Democrat. I say basically, because I support capital punishment, smart military spending, (even when it seems exhorbitant), along with left wing stuff like public education, gay rights/marriage, corporate responsibility, etc.

These beliefs usually lead me to vote for Democrats, but not always, especially when I perceive one candidate is really standing up for something I believe in, (like Eliot Spitzer in NY on corp. responsibility) or Rudy Giuliani in the 1990's in NYC, (not sure about him as a national candidate), etc. I also vote for republicans when I perceive the Dem candidate is just devoted to lip service, (so I voted for Rick Lazio and not Hillary Clinton in 2000 in New York).

I think you would agree that it's always good to be a free agent. The fact that most Jews are too locked into the Dem party is a problem that should be solved with free agency, not a en masse migration to the GOP.

Robert,

seriously, can we start a campaign to have certain individuals/groups exiled to sudan? i nominate that columbia u. be added to the list (see http://agmk.blogspot.com/2006/09/ahmadinejad-at-columbia-u.html)

a shanah tovah umtukah and ketivah vehatimah tovah t you and the family!

I think Columbia will wriggle out of this one as the Prez is using the "we don't have enough time to provide security" excuse to not allow it.

It's much more important that people go to the football games at Baker Field and support the 1-0 Columbia Lions! Roar Lion Roar!

jake,

i don't want to see columbia wiggle out of this. i want bollinger to come clean and unquevically rescind the invitation on the grounds that a monster is not welcome in columbia.

Well, so would I, but it ain't gonna happen. Bolinger has pinned his whole career on defending free speech, and like all people who deal in absolutes, he has ended up getting burned by the worst that free speech has to offer.

But let's remember not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I don't accuse you of doing this, but just because one person in a large organization or institution like Columbia does something wrong, it doesn't mean the whole place is bad for Jews or anyone else. In my four years at Columbia I studied along with very religious Jews, even some hassidim, who never were tainted by anything unsavory that occurred around them. I was proud to tell my parents that I went to a school where very religious Jews could join me in class and social events without every feeling uncomfortable.

Ari, Jake:

Well the truth is the Iranian thug absolutely belongs in Columbia. There he will find his kind of people, get a warm welcome, and engage in meaningful dialogue. Let's face it, the Ivy League is the new home for jihadist tyrants and throat-slitters. It's a new kind of sophistication, something we yeshiva people are just too vulgar and ignorant to understand.

That is a ridiculous genralization that spreads calumny to the vast majority of people at CU. There are bad people at Columbia, there are bad people everywhere. Academics at CU are mostly wonderful people. To think otherwise is to either 1) Engage in an act of denial in order to further a political agenda, thus risking that agenda, which in this case is a good one, or 2) to be a perfectionist to a degree that everyone in a massive organization must meet a certain standard and when they don't, everyone is indicted.

When I was at Columbia, the Black Student Organization invited the anti-Semite "Professor Griff" to speak at the school and hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish students, faculty members, and the dean of the college stood outside the hall and protested. That protest said a lot more about Columbia and its community than an administration-forced "dis-invite" would have said. (Had Griff been a convicted murderer, I think the situation would have called for a "dis-invite" mandated by the school, but he was not).

How would anyone like it if we took the actions of some of the Rabbis out there in the day school and Yeshiva world and immediately assumed that those schools support pedophilia and physical abuse? It's the same thing. No, it really is. Think about it.

Furthermore, it's distressing that whenever I or anyone else brings up other reasons to be angry at our schools, (like say, $40k tuitions and their profit, not-educational focus, we are criticized for not disliking the universities for the RIGHT REASON! Call me crazy, but I think universities can be criticized for hiring 1-2 outrageous professors while we also attack them for gouging students and other employees with high tuitions and low salaries, respectively. I don't think one argument is exclusive of another or detracts from the other either.

To take it one step furhter and imply that all this somehow is a criticism or a snub of those who choose to get a Yeshiva education is beyond the pale. My best friend in the world went to Y.U. and he literally made $100 million dollars last year and is a great person and father, etc. And even if he made $100 last year, I wouldn't think I was better than him because I went to a great school. In fact, I routinely point to my own less than great financial situation as an example of why people shouldn't be duped into thinking you have to go to an Ivy to be a success. Anyone who goes to an Ivy League school and would think otherwise or look down on someone else's education is a jerk, and I suspect was a jerk well before he came to college.

I would bet people like the Iranian president would actually get the most warm welcome in the board rooms or America's oil companies and places like Halliburton. But those guys keep their meetings and agendas private and they get a pass.

Jake:

Yes Jake, the Ivy League is on the whole warm to Israel and to Conservatives.

As I keep saying, disconnected from reality.

Haliburton. Oil companies. Oh Jake, that's so beneath you. You now sound like one of those fevered loons from the Daily Kos.

Religious Jews at Columbia have it very, very good. If not, why did so many of our friends from Y.U. and Stern rush to spend Shabbat with us every week? Perhaps Dartmouth is an exception, but I suspect life is equally nice at the other Ivies for religious Jews.

I realize political conservatives take a lot of heat at these schools. And I was dubbed a "crazed conservative" a number of times at CU where anywhere else I would be labeled the Liberal I am. But are right-wingers hunted down and harassed? I doubt it. I know I never was, even by the unstable people who thought I was a facist for supporting CU's decision to make a medical lab out of the bldg. where Malcom X was shot.

In fact, every Ivy has an alternative conservative newspaper or website like the Dartmouth Review. I used to write a column for the one at CU as a "moderate voice."

As for the oil companies and Halliburton, they do a lot more than invite a president to speak, they bankroll these these maniacs. Corporations are not inherently evil, and they do a lot of good, but oil dollars are absolutely funding most of the world's terror and enabling these dictators much more than invites to speak at Universities. They also know that the political winds they directly and indirectly support are indefensible, and that is why they spend so much on greasing our politicians, or better yet, just bring them on as execs before and after they're in office. Too bad the whale blubber guys didn't live in an age of indirect graft like today, they'd still be in business.

How can anyone think otherwise? Well, the Bill O'Reillys and Rush Limbaughs of the world wouldn't get very far if they tried to take coporations to task. Outrageous communist liberals also aren't interested in coporate responsibility, they just want their destruction. So we're left with two extremes and a loop hole the size of Greenland for the corp.s to drive through year after year. I have to say it's more than a little distressing to hear Dick Cheney call most Democrats traitors and then also hear him snigger at people who want to cut down on oil consumption. Yes, this is just one aspect of the war on terror, but it's a big one. And because it's not in his personal interest, suddenly he's not so gung ho about it.

Forget the Daily Kos, the new Sec. of the Treasury Harry Paulson, formerly of Goldman Sachs agrees with me. The war on terror will need to be won with ideology and real action on the ground and in the wallet. It would be nice if the people supporting any one of these tactics could get along and work together.

Again, somehow bringing up the oil-financing aspect of world terror makes me a bad guy because it apparently takes away from bashing the New York Times. Call me crazy, but the New York Times didn't send Hezbollah $100 million last year.

When did Dick Cheney ever call any Democrat a traitor? Please send me the link.

First, let me say that I apologize if this is getting too heated... I just don't want it to get that way or for anyone to think I'm angry at anyone other than the real bad guys out there.

Second, I see now that Cheney never used the word "traitor," but he did say that most Democrats who are war critics were aiding and abetting the enemy. Here: http://www.jregrassroots.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18420

That's basically calling them traitors, but I can be called on that.

Apology accepted. We are friends. Now let me ask you another question: what would you say about an institution that invited, oh say David Duke, as a featured speaker?

I'd probably just say they were a stupid institution. But if it turned out this was a large multi-layered institution like a University, (and not say, Bob Jones college in SC where dissent, and interracial dating, are not allowed), I'd like to find out if the invite was from the administration, a student group, or some other individual. I'd also want to know if there was a protest peopled by folks from that institution or just outsiders.

I'd also want to know if that institution was PAYING A SPEAKERS FEE, and whether members of said inst. had a right to withhold tuition, activity fees, etc. in protest.

I would call the institution stupid and racist.

Look, on every team there are people in different roles. I do love the sports analogies.

I think someone who is willing to be the ideology mayven in the War on Islamofacism should be the point guard, the military is the 7-foot center and guys like me who also like to stop the oil funding can be the power forward who mixes it up under the boards.

I promise not to cast aspersions on the guy who scores the 25 pts. a game as long as he doesn't quibble with my obsession for rebounding and taking the charge.

We need each other in this thing and woe to us if we loss the war because we couldn't stomach the other guy getting the credit, (and this is a bigger sin of Dems nowadays, but not exclusive to them).

Who's with me?!?!?!

Go team!

jake,

so much to say, but i only came in for a second to get the laundry. the mrs. is waiting in the car. maybe later.

Carter may lead a blameless personal life...

Carter certainly appears to think so.

It was once said of Woodrow Wilson that he had a conviction of his own moral rectitude so strong that it bordered on the pathological. When I saw that statement, I immediately thought of Jimmy Carter.

That's why Carter bugs me more than any other actor in our political scene -- much more than Bill Clinton, more even than the memory of FDR. It's bad enough to engage in moral preening when you are, in fact, in the right. Far worse when you are not.

I have no interest in Jimmy Carter's personal moral record. But as a man who ran for president while he had an 8-year-old daughter, I tend to think he was personally not so moral then or now.

As was recently explained by a professor in one of my unversity classes,"He was only expressing his cultural perspective."
Tell me again about the merits of multiculturalism.

Jake:

It’s late and I’m tired, so just let me ramble.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: hassidim at Columbia. Are you sure? Are you using the word with the modern conventional meaning in mind? Maybe in the law school or some professional program, but even there I doubt it. And in the college itself? I admit I never went to Columbia, but as a researcher from JTS I used the CU libraries regularly from 1999 to 2004, often daily. I never saw a male Hasidic student on campus. Maybe you were a student when the Jewish demographics there were different.

“but just because one person in a large organization or institution like Columbia does something wrong, it doesn't mean the whole place is bad for Jews or anyone else.”

And besides, I’m not sure why you bring up the CU Jewish students at all. I never said there is rampant and blatant anti-Semitism on campus that would keep Jews away. (Though at one time anti-Semitic quotas and other things did just that.) But this does not mean that there is not an undercurrent tolerance for anti-Semitic (or if you prefer anti-Zionist) attitudes that the faculty and administration turn a blind eye to. And as far as how Jewish students feel on campus, from what I read in the Jewish press (lower case “p”) over the past few years, complaints about feeling uncomfortable with certain professors have been increasing.

“just because one person in a large organization or institution like Columbia does something wrong . . .”

I can live with one person doing something wrong. My problem is when the rest of the university community defends or perpetuates that wrong. I’ve already written what can be done to right this wrong: put simply, rescind the invitation and discipline whoever invited him to begin with. But Bollinger has refused to do this. Fine, this is just one more “individual” with his own agenda. But how many professors do you think will bear on him to do the responsible thing and veto the invitation. And how many, on the other hand, will urge him to resist “those who don’t value free speech.”

If you are not sure, remember Edward Said, who stoned an Israeli post on the Lebanese border but was not censured by CU because this would have violated his right to free expression. (I will put the quotes on my blog.)

“There are bad people at Columbia, there are bad people everywhere. Academics at CU are mostly wonderful people.”

Then they will call on Bollinger to step down for not disinviting Ahmadinejad, correct?

From a freedom of speech perspective, I’m not a lawyer, but I really don’t understand how his constitutional rights would be violated if Bollinger disinvited him. And I really hate it when liberals invoke free speech, as they are the first to stifle open discourse when it disagrees with them (witness Lawrence Summers at Harvard).

Since we will disagree as to the hospitality of the CU campus to differing positions, I propose a little experiment. I walk across campus wearing a t-shirt that says “No one spreads democracy like Bush does” and you wear a t-shirt that reads “No one helps the people like Chavez does.” Do you think we will both get the same reception? We could try this with a few variations. “Liberate Greater Palestine” and “Liberate Greater Israel.” “I Love Ariel Sharon” and “I Love Fidel Castro.” “Jesus Lives in Me: Follow Us or Be Damned” and “Che Guevara Lives in Me: Follow Us or Be Damned.” “Overturn Roe v. Wade” and “Protect Roe v. Wade.” This will be the real test to see if CU is committed to free speech and expression.

Ari:

Yes, the Hassidic student I knew was in a grad school. He was not an undergrad living in a dorm that's for sure.

Are there A LOT more people sympathetic to our enemies in the CU administration than anywhere else in the world? Of course not, but there are plenty and that is very sad, but also to be expected to a great degree.

Don't forget the leading movement by University professors to support Israel was founded by a Columbia Prof.

Also don't forget that the labeling of domestic enemies has somehow become more important than fighting our true enemies abroad. This has a lot to do with grandstanding and the simple fact that schmoes like us here in the U.S. can do little to fight terror, so we obsess over verbally attacking our peers. It's a lot safer anyway.

As for the t-shirt deal, 99.9% of the people at CU on college walk would ignore you even if your t-shirt was pornographic or written full of profane language. Who cares what the reaction to a t-shirt would be? Have we really gotten so bored that we're worried about this?

I'll say it again, if we think CU or even the NY Times is the real problem in a world filled with brutal killers, than we're in denial.

Oh geez, and I forgot something more important:

TO EVERYONE HERE AT SERAPHIC SECRET: HAVE SHANA TOVA AND A GOOD INSCRIPTION IN THE BOOK OF LIFE!

This has been a tough year in the news, but hopefully it was sweet on a personal level for us and may it be sweet on every level next year!