Letters to the Editor
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Ten Questions from Iran Chancellors to Bollinger: Carpe Diem!
Carpe Diem!
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what an ass
What a demagogue. This guy doesn't give a damn about free speech; he was forced to invite Ahmadinejad after refusing to allow him on campus before. He was forced by his own faculty who are still seething over his behavior a few years back when he permitted an off campus, political organization of right wing Zionist thugs called the David Project to conduct a witchhunt of an untenured faculty member. What a disgusting chapter in Columbia's history with the faculty member "investigated," for what turned out to be lies perpetrated by a student working with another student who worked himself into the status of celebrity using Columbia as his launching pad for a political career.
So Bollinger, already tarred and feathered nationally and internationally for his allowing a faculty member to hang in the wind to placate local donors, alumni, politicians and the gutter press of the NY Post and NY Daily News in the city, had to bow to pressure on campus this time to actually support academic freedom.
What does he do? He acts like a sleazy politician rather than a university president. If you watched Charlie Rose's interview with the Iranian President, you know that it is possible to actually be a more forceful and effective interlocutor by exhibiting self-control. Bollinger behaved like a buffoon. The academic internet is a buzz with the fact that he made Ahmadinejad look good. I mean how stupid do you have to be to make Ahmadinejad look more civilized than you!
Columbia's reputation has turned into a joke under Bollinger, although it's not all his responsibility. The politicians in New York city, including Silver who wants to see convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard freed, and at the state level exhibited hysteria that was an embarrassment to New York.
So Bollinger, like the mainstream media, helped demonize Ahmadinejad at a time when even U.S. military officials have said all the overblown rhetoric about Iran is not helpful. Way to go Bollinger. Sis boom bah.