September 24, 2007 by DKShideler |
910 Group | 23:37:30 | |
The big discussion across the blogosphere seems to be whether President Bollinger’s bash of the Iranian dictator (Hotair) was a redeeming move. Deb from Right Truth says:
I just finished listening to Columbia President Lee Bollinger’s speech, prior to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The man was wonderful. I will post a transcript of his comments here as soon as they are available. He did in fact challenge Ahmadinejad on everything I would have wanted. I was against Ahmadinejad appearing at Columbia, but now, it may be a good thing. I was also surprised at the huge applause Bollinger’s comments received. Good for those students and others in the audience.
She also links to those left who were ashamed of Bollinger’s performance: (From DailyKos)
Bollinger’s behavior was inappropriate. It presented to the world the face of an ugly and bullying America. I am utterly humiliated that Bollinger should have behaved this way.
That’s a dhimmi for you. How embarrassing that an American express his opinion about the practices of an Islamist country?
Spree from Wake Up America (who had great coverage today) says Bollinger isn’t off the hook:
If Bollinger thinks his little speech gets him off the hook for inviting this monster to speak at Columbia, he has a surprise coming. He should step down, he has embarrassed the school, he has betrayed every single soldier and Marine that has died from an Iranian weapon, he is a disgrace and should be forced to leave Columbia.
The parents of the students, the alumni, those that contribute to that school should stop and think about whether they want Americas children in the presence of terror sponsoring, murdering thug.
I watched the speech live, and Ahmadinejad started of with a lot of rambling nonsense about science and God (Perhaps it was simply an inadequate translation, but I don’t think so). It was easy to see that the majority of the applause Ahmadinejad did get came from comments on Palestine, unfortunately not surprising. From Atlas:
His lies, his narrative, his Zionist oppressor bile, his contention that the woman of Iran are the free-est in the world, his despicable homophobic assertion that there are no gays in Iran (no such phenomena) was all to be expected. The really sick part was the uproarious applause of the morally ill in the audience. Columbia is a complete and utter failure.
John Bolton spoke after the evil midget made his speech and was dead to rights when he said of Ahmadinejad, “he got exactly what he wanted.”
Perhaps the final determiner of whether Ahmadinejad had a win today is the dictator himself. LGF has video of his wrap-up where he seems quite pleased with himself and where he gets a disturbing amount of applause from the audience.
Win, Lose or Draw today in the battle for civilization? Let us know what you think.
11 Comments
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Thanks for the link. In answer to your question I think it was a loss for civilization today.
In Iran, the state owns the television and the people only see what he allows.
Columbia, despite Bollingers words gave the lunatic pig a forum to make a speech and gave him the credibility of that speech coming from Columbia University. None of Bollingers questions were answered, so the loon got to make a speech to the American public, all thanks to Bollinger.
I was at the protest outside Lerner Hall today and I have to say - it was a great show of disgust for the Iranian midget except for the small group of Jewhating muslims and Sheehanites, and the predictable presence of the Neturei Karta.
I have to respectfully disagree with you regarding Bollinger. Read today’s Daily News and Bollinger’s comments about being willing to host Hitler (and the fact that the Nazi Germany Ambassador to the US was given a cocktail party by then Columbia University President). Also, the fact that Lerner Hall is named after a Jewish philanthropist/US Marine built from his $25 million donation is also an insult. If Columbia was so invested in this “free speech” bs - why were the Minutemen prohibited from speaking? Since you were privy to the Q&A, did the Iranian midget answer any of the questions posed to him in a direct manner? I heard he cracked jokes and deflected the whole time (gee, what a surprise).
Bollinger is a fool and Columbia will now miss out on millions of alumni dollars as a result of this stupidity. Perhaps Iran or the Saudis will kick in a few bucks to make up the difference.
I have to wonder if Bollinger said what he said because of the possibility of losing funds from Columbia’s alumni, many of whom strenuously objected to his having been invited to speak at Columbia.
If Ahmadinejad did not answer questions directly and instead chose to “cut up,” then he thinks he won this round, IMO.
I am hoping that any who can be objective will see Ahmadinejad’s antics yesterday for what they were–the actions and attitude of a dangerous megalomaniac.
I haven’t yet read today’s WaPo, but I see the headline “Ahmdinejad’s Day One in New York: A Hostile Reception, a Rambling Talk.” I also see that Anne Applebaum has a commentary in today’s WaPo: “Playing Democrat at Columbia.” Both the aforementioned articles are available at the WaPo’s web site at http://www.washingtonpost.com/
I personally believe that people like Ahmadinejad should be exposed for what they are. Denying them a platform simply means that their “ideas” are never exposed to critical thought.
i got the impression that Ahmadinejad was not there to answer critics. instead, he stood there as a witness [daa'i]. he came there to assert before the great minds of the land the islamic concept of SCIENCE. that concept must uphold the divine unity, particularly, that existence and essence are not to be distiquishable in the deity. scientific fact cannot limit this deity, or even explain it.
our science, our physics, are misdirected in his mind. he sought to begin a reformation.
he was speaking to the Arab street. as he was insulted, he gained all the more reason to continue the jihad. the audience (i.e. “we”) proved ourselves to be deficient (perhaps incapable) in understanding the great mysteries he’d come to explain.
frankly, i’m glad Bollinger said what he did. i do not wish legitimate use of the scientific method limited by this leader’s cosmology. unfortunately, for us, there is confusion about whose cosomology is best to be followed thanks to our academy, particularly those who remain silent.
“the audience (i.e. “we”) proved ourselves to be deficient (perhaps incapable) in understanding the great mysteries he’d come to explain”
That may well be. Still, Western secular scientific thought has a much better track record than epistemologies that cannot distinguish between evidence-based knowledge and faith based knowledge. I rather think his physicists are leaning more heavily on Einstein than in Allah in assembling Iranian reactors, don’t you?
i agree, balbulican. however, speaking to the Arab street … insulted … laughed at by the rowdy crowd (i.e. jew, christian, pagan > we) proving ourselves daft IN THEIR MIND, not listening to such a teacher, he has a reason to proceed with jihad, even if it means using an atomic prod to bring us to our senses.
… could be cynical, of course, as to his intent ….
Hmm. I’m not sure he needs that kind of validation from the hometown crowd.
Columbia should have made the invitation conditional upon him ordering the broadcast, uncensored, of the entire occasion on Iranian public television. They can’t deploy the free speech defence while turning a blind eye to the censorship within Iran, which leaves the most directly affected folk ignorant of the facts. Freedom to hear all opinions is as important as freedom to voice them.
You’re right Monty, because clearly the Iranians could never agree to that.
John Bolton on Fox News rightly called this the fallacy of “mirror imaging.” In America he may have looked like a clown, but it doesn’t play the same way in Iran (if they got to see the whole thing, which of course they did not.)
Transcript is here. Looks like a born classic on how to address evil despots:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/07/09/lcbopeningremarks.html
On the issue of homosexuals, here’s enough to prove Ahmadinejad a liar:
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/sunday/030407_1.wmv
When we can’t trust him on something as simple as this, what can we say about the Iranian nuclear programme?
The only thing I trust him on is his intention to exterminate all Jews on the planet 