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September 25, 2007
William F Buckley on inviting tyrants to speak at universities
UPDATE: Noah's post was discussed further at the Corner - I am adding some of their comments at the bottom.
Noah Pollak points us to a speech by William F Buckley from 1963. The Yale Political Union had invited Gus Hall, the secretary of the Communist Party of the United States, to speak. Buckley made a case that Hall should not be invited, which eloquently rebuts arguments for inviting Ahmadinejad to Columbia, such as these:
"You at least have to let the guy speak . . . Why should just one world leader be denied that chance? There will be questions. If I had been alive in the 1930s I would have wanted to hear what Hitler was saying. There's no point just covering your ears."
. . . Defending the decision to issue the invitation, Mr Bollinger said that it represented the "best of America" — "Faith in freedom has been and remains our nation's most potent weapon against repressive regimes everywhere," he said.
President George W Bush said Mr Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia "speaks volumes about really the greatness of America".
The original article is a pdf. Read the whole thing. I am reposting Noah's transcription of some excerpts, below. But read the whole thing, especially if you felt there was something wrong about the Columbia invitation, but you can't put your finger on it.
I never thought, ten years ago, that I would ever speak approvingly of William F Buckley. . . .
Excerpts from "On Inviting a Communist Speaker to Yale":
Continue reading "William F Buckley on inviting tyrants to speak at universities"
Judith | 09/25/07 at 11:54 AM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Wackademia
September 24, 2007
Scenes from a Demonstration
UPDATE from Judith: Links to other blogs moved here, because that's the post getting the visitors. Another sign from the UN protest above.
Van says:
I dashed over to the big demonstration today and got some exclusive Kesher Talk photos. I got there just in time to her Curtis Sliwa speak.
Continue reading "Scenes from a Demonstration"
Van | 09/24/07 at 08:30 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Doing Jewish
Connecting the Dots
Shiri Negari was one of the early victims of the 2nd Intifada, blown up on a bus in 2002. We were reminded of her today (photo by Michelle Malkin):
Judith | 09/24/07 at 06:13 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
NYC anti-Ahmadinejad Protests
Welcome, visitors from Hot Air. And LGF. And Michelle Malkin. Actually, Allahpundit got it wrong, the photos below are all from this morning. (Go here for photos from the protest at the National Press Club in DC. And lots and lots and lots of great photos and video from Pamela, especially from Ground Zero. The first photo from this post is a poster Mary tried to photograph and hers didn't come out, so I'm glad Pamela caught it.)
UPDATE: Irene at LGF:
The security guys at all the gates down at the World Trade Center this morning said that they had been given instructions not to allow Ahmadenijad in if he showed up. They were told to say it was too big of a security risk. The smile on the guys face when he told me this said it all.
UPDATE: Mary finally wrote her own post, which begins with the protests but goes on to Columbia's suppression of other speakers, its Saudi funding, and much more.
Photos below courtesy of Mary. You can see all her protest photos here. These are from Ground Zero, before the Port Authority moved them out. UN photos after the jump. The woman in the first three photos is Desiree, of whom Kevin McCullough says:
My listeners (about 160) in total were hustled away from the primary elevator shaft on the north side of the PATH train stop (the primary spot at Ground Zero on street level.)The woman who was given the most grief was Desiree (Jones?) from Brooklyn a long time listener/reader AND a 911 family member. She had tasteful signs that were rested neatly along the outer fencing of the area where we were and was giving a talk to those in attendance about the dangers Ahamdinejad presented to the free world.
Her sobering question - she repeatedly asked those who were passing by and gathered to hear her was, “what if we knew enough to stop another one of these from happening?”
Continue reading "NYC anti-Ahmadinejad Protests"
Judith | 09/24/07 at 03:33 PM | 11 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
Ahmadinejad protest info - DC and NYC
UPDATE: Protests started today - CBS News video.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Ahmadinejad to speak at luncheon at National Press Club by videolink
When: Protesters needed from 11:00-2:00. Come for however long you can.
Where: Washington, DC: National Press Club, 529 14th Street NW
Please note: Attendance inside is limited to NPC members, their guests and accredited media only.
Our protest will be held outside of the NPC Building at the corner of 14th and F Streets NW which is close to the Metro Center metro station.
For More info: Contact Meagan Buren at 202-230-7389 or Brandon Gray at 202-857-6627
MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally led by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Community Relations in cooperation with United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York and Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Speakers include Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame, III, (Capt., USNR, Ret.), pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.
When: 12 p.m. (rain or shine)
Where: NYC: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 2nd Ave. at 47th St.(across the street from the UN)
For more info: Conference of Presidents, 212-318-6111 or info@conferenceofpresidents.org or the JCRC, 212-983-4800, ext. 161 or info@jcrcny.org
UPDATE:
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will use both a megaphone outside the UN and a microphone from the podium inside the General Assembly in the coming week to warn the world of the dangers of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a nuclear Iran. Livni, who arrived in New York Sunday to take part in the annual UN General Assembly meeting, is scheduled to address and take part in a demonstration against Ahmadinejad in front of the UN on Monday being organized by a coalition of Jewish groups.. . . . An aide to Livni explained her participation in the demonstration, a rare step for diplomats at her level, by saying that she felt very strongly that the world was not taking tough enough action against the Iranian nuclear program, and that this was an opportunity to sound the alarm.
MONDAY, SEPT. 24:
What: Rally by students from Columbia and dozens of other organizations.
When: 12:30 - 3 p.m.
Where: NYC: Outside Columbia University at W. 116th St. and Broadway- only people with Columbia student IDs will be allowed on campus. The main protest will happen on Broadway on public space next to the building where Ahmadenijad is speaking, so even non Columbia people can protest at this event.
Also Liberty and Broadway 9:30 AM. Just in case Dinner Jacket shows up. More here. Even if he doesn't, it'll be a nice party.
Judith | 09/24/07 at 08:55 AM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
September 23, 2007
Ahmadinejad in NYC odds and ends
John Podhoretz constructs a fantasy dialogue in which Ahmadinejad quotes back to Bollinger all his Middle East Studies professors, starting with Said and working his way down to Nadia al-Haj. A must read. Very funny.
The Nose on Your Face blog has a list of the Top 9 Happenings That Could Prevent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad From Speaking At Columbia University.
The Columbia Coalition Against the War says about what you think it would.
Posters up all over Columbia U (via here)
Judith | 09/23/07 at 11:35 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
Letter to Bollinger from a fellow academic
I got this email with instructions to disseminate. The author brings up more crimes of the Iranian regime that I had forgotten about, like the persecution of the Bahais.
UPDATE: I just searched Juan Cole's blog for any mention of Ahmedinejad's visit. I thought since Cole is a Bahai he might have some thoughts on the matter. Didn't find anything. (Why we care.)
UPDATE: I googled Cole and Bahai and apparently he's an ex-Bahai, or at least at odds with the community in some way. in any case, he's shilling for the latest Iranian regime to oppress them.
So here's the letter from Dr. Denis MacEoin of Newcastle University:
Dear President Bollinger,
I write as an outsider to your university, but as a British academic with a background in Persian, Arabic, and Islamic Studies, and as someone versed in the complexities of the current Iranian regime. I have been advised that it is Columbia's purpose to invite the egregious President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak to its staff students, and that, despite pleas for you to reconsider this invitation, it is your intention to go ahead.
I must say that I find this regrettable on several grounds. Ahmadinejad has surely been described to you (and with much accuracy) as an opponent of the best values of Western society, not least the academic values that you and Columbia uphold. He does not care for freedom of speech, indeed he has done much to suppress it during the short time he has been in power. It may not have been made clear to you that, during the last year, he has instituted a major clampdown on Iranian universities, dismissing lecturers and imposing on all institutions of higher education in the country a severe discipline of censorship and political and religious acceptability. . . .
Continue reading "Letter to Bollinger from a fellow academic"
Judith | 09/23/07 at 11:08 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
NYT's Handy Talking Points for Ahmadinejad
Friday's NY Times review of Ken Burns' "The War" qualifies as the most unhinged art review I've ever read. It starts not as a review but a cry from a panicked soul angered that the artist did not hew to the reviewer's (and the reviewer's employer's) world view. Get a load of Alessandra Stanley's painful meltdown :
The war was necessary, but is this approach?The tone and look of Mr. Burns’s series, which begins Sunday on PBS, is as elegiac and compelling as any of his previous works, but particularly now, as the conflict in Iraq unravels, this degree of insularity — at such length and detail — is disconcerting. Many a “Frontline” documentary has made a convincing case that the Bush administration’s mistakes were compounded by the blinkered thinking of leaders who rushed to war without sufficient support around the world or understanding of the religious and sectarian strains on the ground. Examining a global war from the perspective of only one belligerent is rarely a good idea.
Campaign debates, standardized tests and game-show questions all suggest that as the global economy expands, Americans are growing more hidebound and parochial. And now comes a beautifully made telecourse on wartime America under the definitive title “The War.”
Somebody really likes this line of thinking. According to this Little Green Footballs posting, it sounds like Iran's Lider Maximo is picking up some great talking points for Stanley and her pals:
Continue reading "NYT's Handy Talking Points for Ahmadinejad"
Van | 09/23/07 at 11:00 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Useful idiots
Academia too smart for its own good
UPDATE: Glenn suggests a guerilla action for creating the kind of discrediting which "tough questions" won't accomplish.
In case you were wondering how his Columbia U visit was going to be spun by Ahmadinejad:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that the American people are eager for different opinions about the world, and he is looking forward to providing them with "correct and clear information," state media reported.You would think a university president would be smart enough to forsee how he would be manipulated. Oh I forgot - this is academia we are talking about.. . . . "The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions," Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying.
More mind-messing from the Dinner Jacket:
Continue reading "Academia too smart for its own good"
Judith | 09/23/07 at 02:20 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Wackademia
Reliquary of Technology: IBM-Compatible
Perhaps an approaching major birthday has me reflecting on the past. In recent days the antique phrase "IBM-compatible" stormed into my randomly accessed memory. It happened when I saw a magazine headline about Acer challenging Lenovo.
Lenovo is the Chinese company that bought IBM's personal computer business. So, I wondered, will anybody ever think in terms of "Lenovo-compatible" computers? I doubt it. Would the younger users of computers have even the vaguest idea of what IBM-compatible once meant in all its shades of meaning and techno-fury at Big Blue?
I feel old.
Van | 09/23/07 at 11:36 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Tedious details
September 21, 2007
Im ha-avaryonim
More High Holiday posts from last year, with music from both the Mizrachi and Ashkenazi traditions. (Click on the blue arrow for the mp3s.)
The common sentiment of Shma Koli
("hear my cries") has text from a 17th c. Yemenite rabbi.
Shlomo and Eitan Katz sing "HaNeshama Lach" ("The soul is yours")
written for Robert Avrech's son Ariel, who died of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of 22. You can learn more about Ariel here. The text is from the Maariv service on Yom Kippur, after Kol Nidre (words at the end of this post).
I've been posting Rabbi Alan Lew's High Holiday sermons here for the past few years. They never fail to move me. Below are two about Kol Nidre. (Other Yamin Noraim posts here.)
Continue reading "Im ha-avaryonim"
Judith | 09/21/07 at 04:21 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Yamim Noraim
More scenes from my iTunes library: God
Apropos for Yom Kippur. Sort of.
God Bless the Child - Asleep at the Wheel
God Give Me Strength - Elvis Costello
God is a Real Estate Developer - Michelle Shocked
God is Not Sleeping (live) - Mavis Staples
God Loves a Drunk - Norma Waterson
God Made an Angel - Timbuk 3
God Song - Beth Orton
God Child - Sonny Landreth
Goddess of Death - Carly
Judith | 09/21/07 at 04:06 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures
September 20, 2007
Giuliani on rogue dictators roaming NYC
Rudy on Iran, in CNN video interview. And other foreign policy questions about which he is very blunt. There is no mistaking, no wishy-washiness, abouty his foreign policy positions. And he's still polling ahead of, or head-to-head at least, with Hillary.
The guy asks him about putting the Emergency Response HQ in the building he did, he points out that the CIA and the Secret Service also had their HQ in that building. Has anyone else brought that up before?
With Dinnerjacket still threatening to visit Ground Zero, some of us long for the days when Rudy was mayor.
More Rudy on foreign policy below:
Continue reading "Giuliani on rogue dictators roaming NYC"
Judith | 09/20/07 at 10:57 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
Jonathan Pollard's Letter from Prison
Via my good friend Rabbi Baruch Melman, here is the text of a letter from Jonathan Pollard, written in 1990:
Continue reading "Jonathan Pollard's Letter from Prison"
Asher Abrams | 09/20/07 at 09:06 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Israel vs. the world
Buh bye, fascist troll
I just wanted to let everyone know that my long-time regular commenter, Scottish Leftist Rob, finally went too far, and I banned him. Some will say I should have banned him before, but I don't mind giving fools a lot of rope, Rob and I like a lot of the same music, and usually he was nice. I thought he was someone you could have a friendly political debate with. (Although he hated Cinnamon and Benjamin, for some reason, maybe because they could run rhetorical rings around him without breaking a sweat.)
If you want to know what pushed me over the edge, it was when he smugly advocated genocide. A real George Galloway clone, that one.
(I know the word "fascist" is way overused, but he defends Ahmedinijad and Assad and advocates eradicating half the word's Jews, more than Hitler murdered. So I think in this case the designation is apropos.)
Judith | 09/20/07 at 08:55 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Useful idiots
September 20, 2007
Bolton on rogue dictators roaming NYC
Stephen Spruiell at The Corner: Even though the NYPD has rejected Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero, one local TV station is reporting that he might try to visit anyway, and that if he did, he would be "accompanied by . . . more »Judith | 09/20/07 at 01:36 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
Double standards for military commanders
RELATED: Who owns the Democratic Party. Via Michelle Malkin's comments: Interesting commentary on this the from the left, courtesy of Jane Hamsher; The MoveOn ad said what Democrats could not and survive politically — Petraeus is acting as a politician, . . . more »Judith | 09/20/07 at 01:02 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Useful idiots
Israel, Syria, and Iran
Two weeks after an Israeli airstrike against something or other in Syria, Israeli President Shimon Peres suddenly feels all warm and fuzzy toward the Syrians. Here's Ha'Aretz "I do believe the nervousness in the relationship between Syria and ourselves is . . . more »Asher Abrams | 09/20/07 at 10:57 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Israel vs. the world
September 18, 2007
The Times spins for Nadia Abu al-Haj - my response
We wrote about the Nadia Abu al-Haj tenure case here. Solomonia has been following it more thoroughly, most recently here, and now the case has broken the surface of the mainstream media and been reported in the NY Times. I . . . more »Judith | 09/18/07 at 01:37 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Wackademia
The Times spins for Nadia al-Haj
We wrote about the Nadia Abu al-Haj tenure case here. Solomonia has been following it more thoroughly, most recently here. His commenter Joanne fisks the recent NY Times article: This article in the Times is nothing but an accolade to . . . more »Judith | 09/18/07 at 12:45 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - The Fourth Estate
September 17, 2007
How to get from Israel to Iran
Department of "Things that make you go hmmmmm." 4-Mile Creek says, "If I were going to attack Iran . . . . " . . . . If the Israelis were to disguise their airplanes, and fly in there sometime . . . more »Judith | 09/17/07 at 09:46 PM | 17 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Iran
September 16, 2007
The Al Queda Reader
Email from a friend: There's an interview on CSPAN BookTV of Raymond Ibrahim, the editor and translator of The Al Qaeda Reader. Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower, is the interviewer. I don't know if he was just doing . . . more »Judith | 09/16/07 at 11:50 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Comparative Religion
"The current biggest provider of snuff pornography is the Muslim extremist movement."
Interview with film director David Cronenberg. Amy Taubin: I want to ask you about "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World" [Cronenberg’s four-minute film for Chacun son cinéma, the compilation . . . more »Judith | 09/16/07 at 07:18 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Antisemitism watch
September 15, 2007
On the Mall with A.N.S.W.E.R. and Friends
Scenes from the protests today, courtesy of the WaPo, which is estimating about 7000 attendees by 3 PM. As a man walked by carrying a sign saying "9-11 Truth Now" a man on the corner asked, "I'm just wondering, what . . . more »Judith | 09/15/07 at 09:29 PM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Useful idiots
Scenes from my iTunes library: Ballad
Ballad - the Four Bags Ballad Of A Thin Man - Bob Dylan Ballad Of Alfie Hinds - Martin Carthy The Ballad of Easy Rider - Fairport Convention The Ballad Of Horselover Fat - The Court and Spark The Ballad . . . more »Judith | 09/15/07 at 09:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Sensual pleasures
September 12, 2007
The Birthday of the World
This was one of my Rosh Hashanah posts from last year. Teshuva contemplations from 2006, every day until Yom Kippur here. Each entry includes an mp3 of a Jewish song related to the theme. As Asher noted in his contemplation . . . more »Judith | 09/12/07 at 02:55 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Yamim Noraim
Unetaneh Tokef
A post from last year's Yamim Noraim series. Rosh Hashanah starts this evening, and once again we wrestle with the thorny theology of Unetaneh Tokef. It reverberates in our hearts throughout the 10 days of teshuvah, and we also recite . . . more »Judith | 09/12/07 at 12:11 PM | 2 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Yamim Noraim
September 11, 2007
My 9-11 story
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was working from home on an instructional design project. I got up late and moseyed over to my computer in the office. I glanced at the local paper, the mediocre Austin-American Statesman, but it . . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 07:28 PM | 3 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
9-11 around the blogosphere (will be updated throughout the day)
Rick Rescorla, Vietnam hero, head of security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, killed on September 11, 2001, helping employees escape the towers. This interview is from 1998. (Via Mudville Gazette) He's espousing the blow-back theory. AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny . . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 01:17 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
A post-punk 9-11 story
Remember Blogs of War? One of the best post-9-11 blogs, which doesn't exist anymore.This is the original link for this story, but it doesn't point to it anymore. But I copied it. I don't know this person, but I know . . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 12:56 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
And she called
It has been pointed out that this guy doesn't mention Jews in his list of American ethnic groups. That is not okay. But it's a good rap. . . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 12:53 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
A remembrance of September 11th
My friend "Brazilian Neocon" writes: This morning I intentionally woke up early in order to follow all the coverage of the comemorations of the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Then approximately half and hour before the first plane hit, Fox News . . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 12:19 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
Never Again
. . . more »Judith | 09/11/07 at 10:44 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - 9-11 and its ilk
September 10, 2007
Polling the Surge
Ben in NYC says: What is the damned point of asking opinions as to how well the Surge is going? What good is the opinion of the average American? Thank God we never saw... As you may have heard, Patton's . . . more »Judith | 09/10/07 at 10:02 PM | 1 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - The Fourth Estate
September 07, 2007
A1c0r
Pardon me while I geek out. OMG. The creator of Quicksilver comes out of the shadows. He's American. He's totally cute. He works for Google. I thought he was a misanthropic obese aging code geek with stringy hair who lives . . . more »Judith | 09/07/07 at 11:45 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Life and how to live it
September 05, 2007
Release the Mohammed al-Dura tapes!
Would you like to find out what really happened here? Richard Landes, who has been doggedly pursuing the truth of this incident for years, writes: Please sign the petition and send it to everyone. Philippe Karsenty’s appeal trial is coming . . . more »Judith | 09/05/07 at 10:29 PM | 4 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: - Media as Theater of War
September 04, 2007
When Worlds Collide: Fancy Footwork in the Men's Room
All these years I viewed men's rooms as supremely utilitarian facilities. They utterly lacked what I imagined women's rooms to hold: drama, tears, sharing of lipstick, whispered confessions, straightened seams, silvery laughter. Boy, was I clueless! It turns out that . . . more »Van | 09/04/07 at 08:23 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Life and how to live it
September 03, 2007
Bush Derangement Syndrome Runs Wild on JDate
As an occasional reader of JDate profiles (for a "friend," of course), I occasionally come across examples of BDS -- Bush Derangement Syndrome. I suppose some women think this is an attractive personality trait to display, along with beach walking . . . more »Van | 09/03/07 at 08:04 AM | 6 Comments | 0 TrackBacks | Categories: Life and how to live it
