From the WSJ Opinion Archives
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Columbia's
Priorities
Next week Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's Holocaust-denying president, who has said
that "Israel must be wiped off the map," will be in New York for the
U.N. General Assembly session. As the titular leader of a U.N. member state,
Ahmadinejad is entitled to visit the city for this reason. But he is not entitled
to something else he received, namely an appearance to speak at Columbia University,
where he will be introduced by none other than Lee Bollinger, Columbia's president.
Yesterday Bollinger put out a statement defending his decision to authorize the event, and it was filled with high-minded rhetoric:
Columbia, as a community dedicated to learning and scholarship, is committed to confronting ideas--to understand the world as it is and as it might be. To fulfill this mission we must respect and defend the rights of our schools, our deans and our faculty to create programming for academic purposes. Necessarily, on occasion this will bring us into contact with beliefs many, most or even all of us will find offensive and even odious. We trust our community, including our students, to be fully capable of dealing with these occasions, through the powers of dialogue and reason.
But there is one little problem here. As Bill Kristol points out:
As Columbia welcomes Ahmadinejad to campus, Columbia students who want to serve their country cannot enroll in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) at Columbia. Columbia students who want to enroll in ROTC must travel to other universities to fulfill their obligations. ROTC has been banned from the Columbia campus since 1969. In 2003, a majority of polled Columbia students supported reinstating ROTC on campus. But in 2005, when the Columbia faculty senate debated the issue, President Bollinger joined the opponents in defeating the effort to invite ROTC back on campus.
The original decision to kick ROTC off campus was the product of 1960s anti-Americanism, but the ostensible reason the policy continues is objection to the law, signed by President Clinton, that prohibits open homosexuals from serving in the military. Apparently some ideas are so odious that they are unworthy of answering "through the powers of dialogue and reason."
So, what is Ahmadinejad's regime's policy on homosexuals in the military? We don't know, but according to Human Rights Watch, Iran is not a terribly friendly place for gay civilians:
On Sunday, November 13, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported that the Iranian government publicly hung [sic] two men, Mokhtar N. (24 years old) and Ali A. (25 years old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of Gorgan.
The government reportedly executed the two men for the crime of "lavat." Iran's shari'a-based penal code defines lavat as penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death penalty. Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are punished with death. Sexual acts between women, which are defined differently, are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are also punished with death.
If the U.S. military executed homosexuals instead of merely discharging them, perhaps Bollinger would welcome ROTC back to Columbia.
Nut
Sues Net
A disgruntled former employee has filed a lawsuit against CBS News, alleging
a bizarre conspiracy involving the White House. National Review's Byron York
reports that the employee, Daniel Irvin Rather Jr., is demanding $70 million
in damages, enough to buy Belgium
four times over. Rather played a role in a discredited "60 Minutes"
story raising questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service:
In the suit, Rather alleges that he was forced to apologize for the Bush story as part of a conspiracy by top CBS management to ensure that no further damaging revelations about the president's time in the Texas Air National Guard would become public. Rather also alleges that CBS hired a private investigator to re-report the original story--after Rather threatened to hire his own private eye to do the same thing--and that the investigator found the story to be accurate, only to have his findings suppressed by CBS as part of an effort to curry favor with the Bush White House. Finally, Rather alleges that CBS fired him over the story the day after Bush was reelected, despite his later claims that his departure was separate from the Bush story. . . .
Rather says the cover-up was part of CBS's "plan to pacify the White House" and to "appease angry government officials" by offering up Rather as the "scapegoat for CBS management's bungling of the entire episode."
One can only sigh, shake one's head, and hope for Rather's sake that he has a better lawyer than this guy.
The
Daily Krug
This week the New York Times ended its two-year TimesSelect experiment in which
it charged an annual fee to read op-ed columns online. Our view of this has
long been that the Times made a strategic miscalculation: It assumed that because
its columnists drew the biggest numbers of readers, their offerings were financially
the most valuable thing the Times had to offer. What the Times didn't count
on was that in the age of the blogosphere, Angry Left opinion is essentially
a commodity. Why buy Dowd when you can get her ilk for free?
The Times is now taking an if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em approach to the Angry Left blogosphere. Its angriest columnist, former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, has now joined the ranks of the pajamaed. And he's really getting into the contentious spirit of blogging:
Warning: this is a bit (actually, more than a bit) of a rant.
One of my pet peeves about political reporting is the fact that some of my journalistic colleagues seem to want to be in another business--namely, theater criticism.
Me-ow, Kruggles! We can hardly wait to read Frank Rich's riposte.
Takes
One to Know One
A very entertaining Washington
Monthly story on New York Times columnist Bob Herbert brings this comment
from Andrew Sullivan:
My two cents: once I know the topic of a Herbert column, I can predict every single self-satisfied, self-righteous platitude that is about to come. He's also a terrible writer--there's no character to his prose, never a felicitous turn of phrase. He's the kind of columnist who gets journalism awards. Even when he's right he's so insufferably self-righteous and humorless it's a pain to read him. So I don't.
Aside from the bit about journalism awards, has there ever been a better example of the pot denigrating the kettle?
FEC-less
No More
The American Conservative Union has filed a complaint with the Federal Election
Commission against MoveOn.org and the New York Times, alleging that the favorable
rate the latter gave the former for its McCarthyite attack on Gen. David Petraeus
is an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. We'd say the likelihood of the
FEC finding a violation is not high, but the case does raise some interesting
questions, as we discussed last
Thursday, Friday
and yesterday.
As we noted yesterday, Rudy Giuliani's campaign got the same rate as MoveOn for a rebuttal ad, and reader Brian Hildreth has a cheeky suggestion:
In order to sink the chokehold even tighter on the issue of the Times making nonmonetary contributions, Mayor Giuliani should report on his FEC campaign finance disclosure statements that he in fact received said in-kind contribution from the Times. Federal law requires disclosure of monetary and non-monetary political contributions. And besides, it would turn-up the heat on the Times (and also would help shield the mayor from any cross-fire on the matter).
The trouble with this is that it is also illegal for a campaign to accept a corporate campaign contribution. So what Giuliani would actually have to do is "return" the putative contribution, which would mean writing a six-figure check to the Times. That's an expensive way to make a point.
Another reader has some further fun with the Times's situation:
The New York Times is missing an obvious defense against accusations it gave favorable rates to MoveOn.org--they didn't know it was a politically oriented organization!
Remember that improbable claim that worked for the "Ethicist" columnist when it was disclosed that, against Times rules, he contributed to MoveOn.org? If Times employees don't even know who they are giving their own money to, imagine how much less discriminating they are when taking money from others.
(If you use this, please don't use my name as I am occasionally quoted by the Times.)
Heh. Actually, Cohen's claim was that "he thought of MoveOn.org as nonpartisan." While that is improbable, for the Times to claim that it thought of MoveOn.org Political Action as something other than a political action committee would be close to impossible.
Hippie
History Buffs
Reader Kim Sommer has an excellent insight prompted by our video yesterday on
the phony "antiwar" movement:
I have a friend. Several times a year he goes out and dresses in funny clothes and participates with other like-minded people who believe in the the things he believes. And they act on their beliefs. And talk about them. And get younger folks involved, who will carry on their traditions.
They are Civil War re-enactors. These peace protesters are just peace protest re-enactors if you think about it.
Our main criticism, though, was of the journalists who cover these putative protests. A reporter's job is to describe today's world, not relive yesterday's.
Slow
Lerners
Oh, isn't this lovely: Barack Obama's campaign Web site is featuring an article
called "The Israel Lobby--Bad for the U.S., Bad for Israel, Bad for the
Jews" by the far-left Michael Lerner. In fairness, this appears on a "community
blog," which we assume is an unmoderated forum for Obama fans.
And it may not even reflect Obama's views. We're pretty sure he thinks the real danger isn't the Israel lobby but cynicism.
Obama Imitates Monty Python
- "I think that all good, right-thinking people in this country are sick
and tired of being told that all good, right-thinking people in this country
are fed up with being told that all good, right-thinking people in this country
are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not, and I'm sick and
tired of being told that I am."--attributed to Monty
Python
- "Everybody is sick and tired of being sick and tired of George Bush."--Barack Obama, Sept. 16
Osama
Imitates Obama
"Osama bin Laden may release a new message within days calling for attacks
on Pakistan, according to a group that monitors extremist Web sites."--Bloomberg,
Sept. 20
The
Farce Is Strong With This One
The Politico reports an embarrassing moment for New York's junior senator:
"Vice President [Dick] Cheney came up to see the Republicans yesterday. You can always tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the Vice President's motorcade pulls into the Capitol, and Darth Vader emerges," Hillary Clinton said.
Oh dear, where to begin? Obviously Mrs. Clinton has never watched "Star Wars," or she wouldn't have likened her political foe to Darth Vader, who is the coolest character in the entire series. (The first two prequels are unwatchable, as is the third, except for the final 45 minutes, when Vader finally arrives on the scene.)
Worse, by raising the issue, she invites unflattering comparisons of herself to various "Star Wars" characters: Princess Leia, Senator Palpatane, Greedo, the Jawas--you can think of others.
Mrs. Clinton's advantage in the Democratic primaries is supposed to be that she is more seasoned and experienced than Barack Obama and John Edwards. Watch for them to capitalize on this Wookiee mistake.
On another sci-fi front, a pair of liberal broadcasters are fighting over a joke:
Cenk Uygur of Air America's morning show "The Young Turks" insisted on his program Wednesday that Colbert used his joke on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Uygur posted a video on YouTube comparing his joke--which he claims he first told on his Sept. 7 radio program--with a segment that aired on "The Colbert Report" four days later.
In both jokes, Uygur and Colbert suggest that the Republican presidential candidates sounded like Klingons from "Star Trek" while speaking about the value of honor.
It looks to us, though, as if they both stole the idea from Vivian Martin.
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Guess
His Faith
"A Queens teen was arrested yesterday after placing fliers in his teachers'
mailboxes asking them to convert to Islam--then made threats once he was caught,
authorities said," the New York Post reports:
Yaseen Chowdhury, 17, of Woodside, wrote the fliers himself and put them in the mailboxes at the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights, sources said.
When confronted there about the fliers, he made unspecified verbal threats, according to the sources.
Chowdhury was charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime. . . .
The student's religion was not immediately known.
Which brings us to a Best of the Web Today first: an online poll. See if you can guess Yaseen Chowdhury's religion. Vote at right, or, if you're a text email subscriber, find the poll at the following link. We'll pass on the results to New York's Finest in the hope that we can help them crack this mystery.
Thank You
for Smoking
Prohibition has its limits, even in zany Santa Cruz, Calif., as MediaNews reports:
City leaders have made an exception to the no-smoking rule at parks to allow an annual tradition to continue.
Santa Cruz will make an exception to its smoking ban in parks for the Sept. 29 WAMM festival. The smoking ban, less than two years old, will be lifted temporarily for medical marijuana users to medicate at San Lorenzo Park during next week's Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana annual festival.
If we're ever in Santa Cruz and someone tells us to put out our cigar, we're going to reply: "Dude, it's a blunt!"
'Dude,
No Wonder I Can't Inhale!'
"Sam's Joint Smoke-Free"--headline, Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, Sept. 20
Life Imitates 'The Simpsons'
- "Dear Mr. President, there are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate
three. I am not a crackpot."--Abe "Grampa" Simpson, "Old
Man Simpson," aired April 15, 1993
- "Don't forget the fact that Holocaust 'history' has never been objective. It's been written and propagated by those opposed to the Hilter [sic] regime. The fact remains that the German perspective on the issue is rarely (if ever) relayed to the American public. I'm not a Nazi nor am I a German. I'm not a Holocaust denier either."--letter to columnist Cinnamon Stillwell, SFGate.com, Sept. 19
Life Imitates the Onion
- "Beltway insiders report that since his appointment in February 2005,
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns has been preoccupied with the fact that
he is ninth in the line of presidential succession. . . . 'If you've
ever wondered what it's like to be nine heartbeats away from the presidency,
just ask Mike,' Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner said. 'He'll tell you.' . . .
Conner added: 'Imagine me, Chuck Conner, in charge of the entire Department
of Agriculture.' "--Onion,
Jan. 25, 2006
- "Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced his intent on Thursday to hop into what is amounting to be one of the more hotly contested Senate races in 2008, the battle for an opening in Nebraska. . . . Johanns is resigning his current post, and deputy secretary Chuck Conner will serve as acting secretary."--FoxNews.com, Sept. 20, 2007
'Sorry,
We Couldn't Afford a Gold Watch'
"Retired Attorney to Get Marker"--headline, Saginaw (Mich.) News,
Sept. 20
News You Can Use
- "Drivers, Watch for Deer"--headline, Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot, Sept. 20
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Justin Timberlake Tells Oprah He Hasn't Spoken to Ex-Girlfriend Britney
Spears in Years"--headline, Associated
Press, Sept. 19
- "Senior Center Room Closed After Complaints About Gossiping"--headline,
Associated
Press, Sept. 19
- "No Conservative Rebellion Over Mukasey"--headline, Associated
Press, Sept. 19
- "Nekoosa Piggly Wiggly Not Included in Beef Recall"--headline,
Associated
Press, Sept. 19
- "Steed With No Speed Loses 125th Straight"--headline, Associated
Press, Sept. 19
- "Canada Eliminated at World Cup"--headline, CBC.ca, Sept. 20
LUST in Translation
In responses to our item
yesterday on Seattle's SLUT streetcar line, one reader wonders if, instead
of benches, the cars use Beslut
chairs. Several readers called our attention to the Environmental Protection
Agency's trust fund to clean up leaking underground storage tanks--also known
as LUST, though the state
EPA in Illinois tries to evade snickers by abbreviating it as "Leaking
UST."
Along similar lines is this true story from Snopes.com:
Some years ago, the famous San Diego Zoo opened a second, larger branch called the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The Park is built around an enormous open-field enclosure where the animals roam free. To see the animals, visitors ride on a monorail called the Wgasa Bush Line which circles the enclosure. . . .
They wanted to give the monorail a jazzy, African sounding name. So they sent out a memo to a bunch of zoo staffers saying, "What shall we call the monorail at the Wild Animal Park?" One of the memos came back with "WGASA" written on the bottom. The planners loved it and the rest is history. What the planners didn't know was that the zoo staffer had not intended to suggest a name. He was using an acronym which was popular at the time. It stood for "Who Gives A [vulgar scatological term that begins with S] Anyhow?"
It is with some trepidation that we include this item in today's column, because we really don't want to be inundated with dozens of examples, which would force us to keep this feature going for weeks until readers start writing us that they're tired of it. So if you have such an example, send it instead to the Pantagraph of Bloomington, Ill. It's perfect grist for their Weird Trivia & Facts section.
(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Ethel Fenig, Jared Silverman, Jason McInees, Paul Dyck, John Williamson, Jane Vawter, Ken Hennesay, Ed Lasky, Darren Gold, Paul Gross, Jay Povlin, Kathleen Myalls, David Gerstman, Michael Segal, Sam Alexander, Sam Schulman, David Englet, Adam Phillips, Michael Zukerman, Monty Krieger, Robert Paci, Brian O'Rourke, Glenn Taubman, Brent Gunsalus, John Neal, Chris Green, Michael Hopkovitz, Tim Willis, James Wittenbach, Michael James, Andy Hefty, Paul Boyer, Michael Fogarty, Doug Black, Peter Mul, Michael Throop, David Cooper, John Nernoff, Dan Hartnett, Daniel Foty, Philip Lindquist, Chris Fehr, Mark Shere, Mike Gannis and Curt Strubhar. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: Sarkozy takes on the welfare state.
- Dan Henninger: Mukasey can make the country a better place--if they'll let him.
- Pete du Pont: Combat global warming? There are better things we can do for the Earth.
