Reason Online makes the same point I made, but better -- which may be why their writers get paid. They also highlight the authoritarian urges of the base:
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) tried to juice up his bottom-tier presidential campaign by announcing he'd "introduce legislation in Congress to disqualify Columbia University from any future federal support." Another Republican contender, Mitt Romney, grandstanded even more shamelessly, proclaiming that the Iranian shouldn't have received an entry visa in the first place. If you suspected that Silver and Hunter represent just a tiny sliver of the electorate, Romney's statement should give you pause. Romney isn't an ordinary flesh-and-blood candidate, after all; he's a machine calibrated to say whatever is most likely to emerge from a focus group of Republican primary voters.
And those Republican voters don't understand that freedom is power, not weakness.
Charles Manson isn't being invited to speak at Columbia, which I think is outrageous. He's responsible for far fewer American deaths then Ahmanutjob, and the difference increases exponentially when you count all the Iranians that have been killed at the whim of their leader.
Think of all that we could learn from him. I mean, obviously the freedom to hear out someone like Manson would only enrich our culture, and help those students to understand the kind of people they may come in contact with upon leaving school. And providing him with a public forum in which to air his views will only serve to alienate him further, as the world will have the opportunity to further hear his rambling, incoherent ideas on how life should be lived.
Posted by: Frank | 09/26/2007 at 10:17 AM
Apparently you've never been in Los Angeles during television sweeps week. When ratings are what's important, Manson shows up in interviews on station after station.
Posted by: Tom | 09/26/2007 at 01:00 PM
It would be nice to believe that Columbia University holds itself to a higher standard than a local TV "if it bleeds it leads" news outfit.
Foolish, but nice. . . .
Posted by: Conrad | 09/26/2007 at 02:51 PM
Regardless of the, uh, questionable wisdom of Columbia issuing the invite in the first place, at least the president of the university called Aramalamadingdong a petty and cruel tyrant. I was shocked--was this really an American university president, criticizing an anti-American icon?
Posted by: Squidley | 09/26/2007 at 07:24 PM