I Slept On It

A few “final” words on Ahmadinejad and his appearance yesterday at Columbia… I immediately thought “never say never” after typing those words, but here goes, anyway. First of all, let me apologize for being “All Ahmadinejad, all the time” yesterday. All three of you long-time readers know I’m trying to break myself of being so danged political, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. There was something about this issue that grabbed me, and I’m still not quite sure what it is. I didn’t blog about Dr. Bollinger’s Columbia's decision to invite Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia when the initial furor broke and that was by design, i.e., part of my effort to be less political. The same goes for the Ahmadinejad – Ground Zero brouhaha. There were plenty of people voicing opposition or otherwise chiming in on both those issues; my voice would have been superfluous, at best. I did, however make a decision to watch Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia yesterday after hearing the event would be televised. Little did I know what I was in for, or just how much I would be “taken” by the event.

So. After much listening, watching, and reading of comments, critiques, criticism, praise, bitches, complaints, posturing, and what-have-you about Columbia, its World Leaders Forum, and Ahmadinejad, my bottom line is this:

Columbia did the right thing.

I note with some (if not a lot) dismay that my opinion is in the minority on the right side of the ‘sphere. Some of my daily reads… people whose opinion I respect and often quote… disagree. I expected disagreement from some quarters, but that doesn’t surprise me given the usual and customary tone of the discourse there (if you want to call it that…to me those guys are just right-wing variations on the KosKidz theme). Thankfully, there are also at least two folks— and I’ll name names here: Jules Crittenden and Gerard van der Leun — who think Columbia did the right thing. Those guys put it in words a lot better than I do, so give them a read.

And finally (almost)… the New York Sun has an article on this subject that’s worth your time: “Bollinger Stuns Ahmadinejad With Blunt Rebuke.” And speaking of Dr. Bollinger, spare a moment to view the two vids below. They’re keepers.

Dr. Bollinger’s Remarks, Part I

Dr. Bollinger’s Remarks, Part II

(h/t: Hot Air) The full text of Dr. Bollinger’s remarks is here.

And now I have to hit the shower. I have to be over in the Big(ger) City^TM at 0830 this morning. The ‘Zuki has a doctor’s appointment…

I’ll be back later.