But since it's been posed, I'll answer it:

No, the student was not "asking" to be Tasered.

I'm so fucking sick of the police brutality in this country, and the weird reluctance of people across the political spectrum to criticize police officers and insist that these public servants use force with the greatest reluctance. Policemen, apparently, are "heroes," and, like generals and Rudy Giuliani, are to be treated with the greatest reverence.

After spending time in Europe and Asia, I have to say: the contrast between our police culture and the police culture of most of the rest of the developed world is really stunning.

Amazingly, police in most of the countries I've lived in don't seem to think that they're entitled to menace, terrorize, and silence civilians (or flirt w/strangers in public bathrooms in order to arrest and humiliate them). And none of the countries where police brutality is commonplace are ones that we should be striving to emulate. (Indeed, the cops are corrupt and violent in Russia and Zimbabwe . . . and criminal punishments are severe in Singapore. Uh . . . what's the point?)

Cops shouldn't even be allowed to carry Tasers. It's ridiculous.

After the Seattle police riots, the NYC Republican Convention, and the spate of "Tasings" we've seen in recent months, I don't know how anyone could seriously doubt that the police have too much power in this country. In Denver, the cops gassed innocuous crowds of celebrants when the Broncos won the Super Bowl; they were like kids with new toys they couldn't wait to try out. When is this going to be a legitimate political issue?

If this is what the cops are doing to spoiled white kids, just imagine how they're treating people of color.

And I'm on this kid's side, by the way. There's way too much "civility" in our political discourse. Bring in the ranters and the troublemakers! Pierce the bubbles these drowsy hacks live in!

And the "crazy" kid is right: Kerry may have won Ohio. Why aren't these other kids up in arms, then?

My bad.

Bush still hasn't lost his power to shock me.

How grotesque that the electorate and media brought this guy to power -- and then kept him there, even after he'd revealed what he was. How embarrassing, also, that the establishment media allows itself to be treated this way. I'm reminded of that excellent Sidney Blumenthal article posted today; it's like Bush is ritually humiliating these clowns. (I haven't seen the video, but I feel strangely certain that the press corps was giggling in a sycophantic way throughout the conference.)

PS: From a purely selfish perspective -- my favorite perspective, as it happens -- this news today about the dollar falling so sharply against the Euro and other international currencies is deeply depressing.

Obama was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review. He taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He's written two (surprisingly decent) books.

This is not "an instance of the pot calling the kettle black"; it's more like the pot calling the refrigerator black.

The Republicans and Bush in particular have legitimized homophobia and make gay bashing a central theme for political power. Would the Dean at Columbia University have the same guts to trash Bush and his cohorts as he did Ahmedanijad? Oh, it is so heroic to show such disdain for an invited guest when you have a hall full of people who support the Israeli apartheid against the Palestinians. The Dean is no hero in my book. Were he as critical of American foreign policy and the demonization of Iran that has spawned the likes of Ahmedanijad, although I do not find him as repulsive as George Bush.

-- chhabili

I tend to agree with chhabili's point; Bollinger was making an elaborate display of "speaking truth to power," but was he really? He -- and the "elite world" of universities and intellectuals -- would have been excoriated if he'd introduced Bush, or Cheney, or even Karl Rove like that. And Bush, if only in terms of the breadth of his impact on the world, is much closer to Hitler than the ridiculous Ahmadinejad.

I also doubt, frankly, that Bollinger would have had the courage to blast the Premier of China in that way. Even Hugo Chavez wouldn't get that kind of introduction. Part of the reason, I think, is that the university would be wary of being called racist -- a concern that doesn't have as much force when the target is of Arab or Persian descent.

Iran's institutionalized homophobia and misogyny terrify me, by the way. I'm not even sure that Bollinger was wrong to violate the elementary rule of hospitality that says you shouldn't shit all over your invited speaker before giving him the floor (especially when the speaker is a Head of State). Frankly, I think people -- liberals, especially -- are way too "polite" about politics in this country, and human rights abuses home and abroad. If I ever got a chance to introduce Bush at a speaking event, I'd probably say the kinds of things that Bollinger did. What's exasperating is the double-standard, the smugness in the face of glaring hypocrisy.

I selfishly hope that your struggle with Peyronie's continues for many years, if the upshot (no pun intended) is more terrific pieces like this. Thanks for the wit and candor.

Dude, you're not making a very appealing case for the endurance of the human race.