“I seriously doubt that the President of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953, Dwight D.Eisenhower, would have given a moment’s consideration to providing Josef Stalin with the propaganda opportunity that the current Columbia President offers Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

Hmmm, maybe or maybe not. When Ike was the commander of the Allied Forces, Stalin was one of his allies, and was in fact viewed favorably in the West. Even when he was President of Columbia, the Russkies hadn’t quite become the Incarnation of Evil. That didn’t happen till he was President of the US, and then the hysteria was based more on the idea that Commies in general were a threat to our way of life than on the idea that Stalin was a mass murderer.

Oh well, at least Stalin’s Russia WAS a threat to us. Iraq is a 4th rate power who couldn’t even beat Iran, whom we crushed (not once but twice) in about three weeks.

His oh-so-righteous verbal attack on Herr Ahmadinajad was a transparent attempt at pandering to folks who have some concern for civil rights. Why? His conspicuous failure to prevent his student lefty-fascists from physically attacking the Minutemen who’d been invited to speak at Columbia last year – and then his even more conspicuous failure to apply any meaningful calling to account of said fascists following their televized brutality.

Obviously, to Bollinger, ‘freedom of speech’ applies to his handpicked guests, and to himself, but not to others. By his actions, he signals that certain messages should be promoted, and others suppressed. He makes a splendid Commissar, but not a University President.

The sooner he’s replaced as President of Columbia by an ex-General who has the ability to make clear moral decisions, the better for civilization in general. And while he’s still strutting and fretting in the spotlights, let him explain why his student fascists go unpunished to this day. And let him issue an apology and re-invitation to said Minutemen – or explain why they are so horrible that even Ahmadinajad is more worthy of a public voice at Columbia.

How far we have fallen!…

I seriously doubt that the President of Columbia University from 1948 to 1953, Dwight D.Eisenhower, would have given a moment’s consideration to providing Josef Stalin with the propaganda opportunity that the current Columbia President offers Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Google searching “Columbia University Presidents” I note that Eisenhower was the last Columbia President who was not a careeer education administrator and that all since him list “additional education” either PhD or Law degrees – beyond 4 years of university.

Further on the benefits of university education, Coyote Blog (Warren Meyer in Phoenix) links to this 60- question civics survey of 50 universities:
http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
in which scores acutally dropped between freshman to senior years at:
Cal -.76%, Rutgers -.94%, Princeton -1.70%, Duke -2.25%, Yale -3.09% and Cornell -4.95%

Old saying:
Those who can, do. Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, administrate.

If what he said was meaningless, without import, no one would care, likewise with Columbia’s invitation. What I see is a drawing of lines and a clarification of the divide between academia and a large part of this country. The divide has been there for a long time but is now becoming stark and highly visible. In the long term, I think this visibility is a good thing, otherwise we might wake up some day and find ourselves in a new world that we had no idea was in the offing. The outcome of this fight still has me worried, but at least we can see where the sides are.

Chuck, you make no sense at all. Ahmadinejad is not just speaking to “400.” He gets to tell and show the world he spoke at Columbia University with media covering it everywhere. That is the point. What he says is meaningless. Think.

Frankly the fact that he only called the statements made by Ahmadinejad controversial is adding insult to injury. No those statements are not just controversial; they are hateful and offensive. Rather than challenging Ahmadinejad President Bollinger should be denouncing his vile comments. But of course he will not do that. That would be an impolite thing to do to an invited guest. I would not be surprised if at the end of the forum, President Bollinger announces that there will be peace in our time. People are being kind when they call President Bollinger a fool.

“Everyone always has two reasons for whatever they do.

“A good one — and the real one.”