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Don’t you know he was mortified when he saw his photo on the cover of the NY Post with a girl who says she had sex in a truck? That’s priceless. The only thing better would have been a picture of Elton John smooching his boyfriend as they exchanged vows or something.
Scott Malensek
16 years ago
“We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds.”
Sure, but to what end? To support and build upon the idea that all men are endowed by the creator with inalienable rights to live, to live under governments of their own choosing, and to pursue their own happiness
OR
To promote socialist ideals at the expense of the former?
[sorry, that was rhetorical-for our right to listen, not to speak]
Sure, everyone can agree that freedom of speech is a good thing. It’s great! But when people think that they’re being forced to extend this right to dictators with well documented pasts of committing crimes against humanity, their feelings can quickly change.
Before turning to Ahmadinejad he finished on the subject, “In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self-restraint against the very natural but often counterproductive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear. In this lies the genius of the American idea of free speech.” Bollinger furthered the introduction by condemning the government of Iran for unjust imprisonment, public executions, and other violations of human rights.
I think that the subject of free speech can transcend politics. I think that debate in all forms is usually a good thing and I really think that Columbia’s prez eloquently expressed this–His thoughts on freedom of speech were the best I’ve ever heard in my life. The Bliggity No Diggity Blog-a-Log
Too bad that kind of speech was not attached to the minutemen’s speech previously. Too bad there was no outrage from Lee about the disruption and chaos that the idiots produced.
But I do agree it was a good speech. Just feels made up to me. Like he needed to do it to redeem himself for inviting him in the first place.
apologized in advance for any suffering that giving this speaker a public forum would cause.
It should never have been necessary in the first place. The moment the invitation was extended to Ahmadinejad, we lost. Doesn’t matter what kind of “hard-hitting” questions were made; doesn’t matter how ridiculous Ahmadinejad appeared to many of us. Whether Bollinger was rude and insulting or polite and respectful, anything coming out of this would have been used as fodder for propaganda, and has in fact, been used for propaganda. Ahmadinejad wasn’t speaking to us; he wasn’t trying to win over any of us; it was all about him and his constituents back at home. Reuters today, even acknowledges that he has gained more prestige out of this because he went into “the lion’s den”, and came away smelling like roses.
Don’t you know he was mortified when he saw his photo on the cover of the NY Post with a girl who says she had sex in a truck? That’s priceless. The only thing better would have been a picture of Elton John smooching his boyfriend as they exchanged vows or something.
“We cannot make war or peace. We can only make minds.”
Sure, but to what end? To support and build upon the idea that all men are endowed by the creator with inalienable rights to live, to live under governments of their own choosing, and to pursue their own happiness
OR
To promote socialist ideals at the expense of the former?
[sorry, that was rhetorical-for our right to listen, not to speak]
Sure, everyone can agree that freedom of speech is a good thing. It’s great! But when people think that they’re being forced to extend this right to dictators with well documented pasts of committing crimes against humanity, their feelings can quickly change.
The college president, Lee Bollinger prefaced Ahmadinejad by saying, “It should never be thought that merely to listen to ideas we deplore in any way implies our endorsement of those ideas, or the weakness of our resolve to resist those ideas or our naiveté about the very real dangers inherent in such ideas. It is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices.” He also cited the quotable expression about how free speech is “an experiment, as all life is an experiment.” and apologized in advance for any suffering that giving this speaker a public forum would cause.
Before turning to Ahmadinejad he finished on the subject, “In the moment, the arguments for free speech will never seem to match the power of the arguments against, but what we must remember is that this is precisely because free speech asks us to exercise extraordinary self-restraint against the very natural but often counterproductive impulses that lead us to retreat from engagement with ideas we dislike and fear. In this lies the genius of the American idea of free speech.” Bollinger furthered the introduction by condemning the government of Iran for unjust imprisonment, public executions, and other violations of human rights.
I think that the subject of free speech can transcend politics. I think that debate in all forms is usually a good thing and I really think that Columbia’s prez eloquently expressed this–His thoughts on freedom of speech were the best I’ve ever heard in my life.
The Bliggity No Diggity Blog-a-Log
Too bad that kind of speech was not attached to the minutemen’s speech previously. Too bad there was no outrage from Lee about the disruption and chaos that the idiots produced.
But I do agree it was a good speech. Just feels made up to me. Like he needed to do it to redeem himself for inviting him in the first place.
It should never have been necessary in the first place. The moment the invitation was extended to Ahmadinejad, we lost. Doesn’t matter what kind of “hard-hitting” questions were made; doesn’t matter how ridiculous Ahmadinejad appeared to many of us. Whether Bollinger was rude and insulting or polite and respectful, anything coming out of this would have been used as fodder for propaganda, and has in fact, been used for propaganda. Ahmadinejad wasn’t speaking to us; he wasn’t trying to win over any of us; it was all about him and his constituents back at home. Reuters today, even acknowledges that he has gained more prestige out of this because he went into “the lion’s den”, and came away smelling like roses.
My post.
Great boys
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