"Extremism in the defense of Liberty is NO VICE... moderation in the pursuit of justice is NO VIRTUE."
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
MORE TRAITORS IN HIGH PLACES
Just when you thought that the Left in our university system were at the beginning stages of growing a pair thanks to Dr. Bollinger's crispy introduction of the Iranian president last fall, an academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties announces its plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at the rather ridiculous Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.
To refresh our memories of Mr. Bollinger's rather courageous anti-dhimmi remarks, courageous, given the tenor of our decadent times, he is recorded as having said to Ahmadinejad: "Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator, and so I ask you, why have women, members of the Bahá'í Faith, homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?"
"Why do you support well-documented terrorist organizations that continue to strike at peace and democracy in the Middle East, destroying lives and the civil society of the region? Frankly, and in all candor Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions, but your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mind-set that characterizes what you say and do."
Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy, and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad.
A member of the delegation, who requested anonymity, said the main goal of the visit is to meet the Iranian president and officially apologize to him.
It is our opinion that these professors should be jailed, lose their passports, and be stripped of their teaching credentials. There is no gray area here.
In a surprise turnaround, given the usual dhimmitude exhibited by our liberal university power structure, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was repeatedly tested as he questioned the official version of the September 11 attacks and defended the right to cast doubt on the Holocaust in a tense appearance at Columbia University, whose president accused the hard-line leader of behaving like "a petty and cruel dictator."
Ahmadinejad smiled at first but appeared increasingly agitated, decrying the "insults" and "unfriendly treatment." Columbia President Lee Bollinger and audience members took him to task over Iran's human-rights record and foreign policy, as well as Ahmadinejad's statements denying the Holocaust and calling for the disappearance of Israel.
"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said, to loud applause. He said Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust might fool the illiterate and ignorant.
"When you come to a place like this it makes you simply ridiculous," Bollinger said. "The truth is that the Holocaust is the most documented event in human history." Ahmadinejad rose, also to applause, and after a religious invocation, said Bollinger's opening was "an insult to information and the knowledge of the audience here."
"There were insults and claims that were incorrect, regretfully," Ahmadinejad said, accusing Bollinger of falling under the influence of the hostile U.S. press and politicians. "I should not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment."
During a question and answer session, Ahmadinejad appeared tense and unsmiling, in contrast to more relaxed interviews and appearances earlier in the day. And thus a banner day in American intellectual toughness has been witnessed. May this event at Columbia signal the end of the political correctness era, and the beginning of a true intellectual analysis on our campuses and in our think thanks. But don't count on it.There are still many who realize that the propaganda war is always a surgical composure. Columbia students did applaud this man. This clip will be used by our enemies.
And you can bet the tone of both the guest speaker Ahmadeinejad and his audience wiil be skewed in his favor today when the Iranian president speaks at the "Islamic" United Nations.
Moving along, here's another sweet plum from the mindful tree of Hugh Fitzgerald:
Qur'an, passim. Hadith, passim. Sira, passim. Take them seriously, take them to heart, do not ignore what they tell you, and the duty of Jihad becomes clear. Follow the logic of Jihad, and the instruments available to Muslims at this moment in history: qitaal as terrorism, the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, demographic conquest. Now choose one or more. Al Qaeda chose the first, but is also delighted with those who employ the second, and the third, and the fourth methods for spreading Islam, and removing all obstacles to Islam, whether this is accomplished by terrorizing, or buying off, or misleading, or simply outbreeding, the Infidel enemy.
That is the answer to "why did this happen." No one would have sought to find the "root causes" of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in anything other than Kodo, the blend of emperor-worship and extreme Japanese militarism that all through the 1920s began spreading throughout the ruling class, both military and civilian, in Japan. No one would think to find the "root causes" for Hitler's attack on Poland that led Britain and France to finally declare war, in anything other than the doctrine promulgated by Hitler that the "Aryans" of Germany needed, and were entitled to, Lebensraum by seizing lands belonging to all non-Aryan and therefore inferior peoples.
No one should seek to find the "root causes" of Muslim terrorism, carried out entirely by Muslims, for reasons clearly articulated by the most truthful terrorists (including Bin Laden and many of his aides), that constantly relate back to the doctrines of Islam, to passages to be found in Qur'an and Hadith, and in the details of Muhammad's life found in the Sira.
The "root cause" of Muslim terrorism at Ground Zero, as of Muslim terrorism directed at civilians in southern Thailand, or in India, or in Israel, or in the southern Sudan, or in Amsterdam, Madrid, London, and a thousand other places, is Islam. The "root cause" of Muslim terrorism is Islam.
Report: Four score and seven (or a few million years) ago—an idea
of freedom took root in this American soil. Knowing life is crisis, punctuated by brief periods of solace,
we also know that after all is said and done, we shall never cheat infinity, nor extinguish the mark of a
single thought. Like this mathematical pun, strong and fiercely sought, we engage this nation, its myths,
its memories, its magnanimous messengers, and its monstrosities as we seek a more perfect union. But
as always in America, we must rebuke an enemy with both fists on the wheel driving for success and justice
for all. An enemy that is always changing is an enemy that never changes. We must engage that enemy on
the ancient battleground where art and politics beat each other up and few are they who seem the wiser.
We must reject roving wild-eyed policy now weakening our nation, to live again as one nation under truth,
both as strategy, and as reality on the ground, certain of the age in which we struggle and from which we
must engage the enemies that threaten our existence as a nation of liberty. A vigorous new morality must
replace the old farces found frothing along the same profane beachheads as those which defiled the hopes
of our ancestors. In renouncing our petty grievances must all stand together as one to rebuke our mortal
and spiritual enemies who care not for our struggles, and even less for our feelings. We are at war, people.
"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice...moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." —Barry Goldwater
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” —Johann Wolfgang Goethe
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." —George Orwell
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it
to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on
for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children
and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." —Ronald Reagan
"I have been made victorious through terror." —Muhammad, founder of Islam
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort,
to protect themselves against tyranny in government. —Thomas Jefferson
"Think about it folks. Capitalism is the most effective and purest form of Communism ever practiced." —Gabriel Thy
"Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties,
from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful
and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." —George Orwell
"Exaggerated self-criticism would be a harmless luxury of civilization if there
were no enemy at the gate condemning democracy's very existence. But it
becomes dangerous when it portrays its mortal enemy as always being in the right.
Extravagant criticism is a good propaganda device in internal politics. But if it is
repeated often enough, it is finally believed. And where will the citizens of
democratic societies find reasons to resist the enemy outside if they are persuaded
from childhood that their civilization is merely an accumulation of failures and a monstrous imposture?" —Jean Francois Revel
“Never ascribe to malice that which may be ascribed to stupidity.” —Napoleon Bonaparte
"A communist is someone who reads Marx & Lenin. An anti-communist is someone who understands them." —Ronald Reagan
"The world is far more complex than the concentrated cool of some flippant rock star." —Dunaway Ka
