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Columbia's Conceit. Exactly what would it have accomplished to "engage in a debate" with Hitler?
opinionjournal.com ^ | September 25, 2007 | BRET STEPHENS

Posted on 09/25/2007 5:54:36 AM PDT by Tolik

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To: Congressman Billybob
I'm glad I took your advice, and I found the following paragraph particularly compelling:

In a March 1952 essay in Commentary magazine on "George Orwell and the Politics of Truth," Trilling observed that "the gist of Orwell's criticism of the liberal intelligentsia was that they refused to understand the conditioned way of life." Orwell, he wrote, really knew what it was like to live under a totalitarian regime--unlike, say, George Bernard Shaw, who had "insisted upon remaining sublimely unaware of the Russian actuality," or H.G. Wells, who had "pooh-poohed the threat of Hitler." By contrast, Orwell "had the simple courage to point out that the pacifists preached their doctrine under condition of the protection of the British navy, and that, against Germany and Russia, Gandhi's passive resistance would have been to no avail."

How true that rings today. Far be it for the president of Columbia to realize that he enjoys the ability to host the president of a country overtly hostile to the United States because of the very people he demands be kept off his campus---the United States military. Were it not for the very thing the president of Columbia loathes, he would have never had the opportunity to make such an "academic examination" of Ahmadinejad.

41 posted on 09/25/2007 7:12:18 AM PDT by 54-46 Was My Number (Right now, somebody else got that number)
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To: IronJack
Frankly, I think this argues more strongly for getting the UN out of America. As long as that festering cesspool of vipers occupies American soil, other vermin will come to visit, and pollute our shores when they do.

Agreed...and we could have started that ball rolling by either disallowing his visit entirely, or arresting him the second he set foot here.

A clear and unequivocal statement would have been sent to the other vipers at the UN to that end.

The man came here, his hands figuratively dripping with the blood of our sons and daughters...and we granted him a visa (official status) to thumb his nose at us and our lost heroes.

Oh yes, he will make hay of this. He and the other tinhorns and henchmen around the world will be laughing at our stupidity and emboldening themselves to push us all the further in their ultimate desire to be our complete undoing.

42 posted on 09/25/2007 7:18:05 AM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: Tolik

The irony of yesterday’s ludicrous farce is that it revealed more about the duplicity of Bollinger than it did about Ahmadinajad.


43 posted on 09/25/2007 7:31:33 AM PDT by Wil H (Turning $1000 into $100,000 through cattle futures requires the "willing suspension of disbelief")
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To: IronJack; Jeff Head
"...getting the UN out of America. As long as that festering cesspool of vipers occupies American soil, other vermin will come to visit, and pollute our shores when they do."

I see the UN as a useless bureaucracy dominated by the 3-rd world undemocratic states pretending playing a democracy game. I'd rather see a real coalition of free countries. But, as long as we are still members of the UN, there is no need for UN to be located in the NYC. It can't be any more anti-American if it relocates to Brussels, or Geneva, for example. Or let them go to Iceland: enough civilization to be quite comfortable, but quiet to provide a good background for that hard diplomatic work away from a media circus.
44 posted on 09/25/2007 8:00:46 AM PDT by Tolik
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To: Southack

You have to remember, his visit was not for the US consumption so we could all hear his crazy views and mock him (which of course we did).

It was to reinforce the notion to his Islamic Revolutionary Guard now getting their asses kicked in Iraq that he is still in control and allah is blessing him. How else could the Great Satan allow the prophet of allah to come and teach the truth to the infidels?

Columbia just made our inevitable war with Iran that much more difficult and militant Islamist shooting our people that more emboldened throughout the ME. How stupid and irresponsible! This is obviously an indicatation of the collective intelligence of the university. My kids are 3-4 years away from college. Scratch CU of the list, permanently.


45 posted on 09/25/2007 7:11:45 PM PDT by quant5
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To: Jeff Head

Amen Jeff.


46 posted on 09/25/2007 7:14:27 PM PDT by quant5
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To: Jeff Head

You think their hate has caused them to become deranged? I submit that it is actually the other way around: their derangment has caused an unreasonable hatred of President Bush.


47 posted on 09/25/2007 7:17:16 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: Tolik

Yeah riggghhhhttt: In just a few years, some of these men will be rushing a beach at Normandy or caught in a firefight in the Ardennes. And the fact that their ideas were finer and better than Hitler’s will have done nothing to keep them and millions of their countrymen from harm, and nothing to get them out of its way.


48 posted on 09/25/2007 7:18:34 PM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Chicken or the egg?

Fact is, they are both full of hate and deranged and they have turned into the abettors of animal enemies of this nation who would kill us all...them included.

The time may well come when the enemy is here amongst us in numbers, hiding behind such abettors and in order to get at the invadors we will have to go through the likes of these.

49 posted on 09/25/2007 7:20:23 PM PDT by Jeff Head (Freedom is not free...never has been, never will be. (www.dragonsfuryseries.com))
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To: RetiredArmy

Nah, only half of us are stupid or mad.Those of us with the sane mind will of course finish off the enemies at home and abroad and will clean up the massive damage to our country the stupid, self-centered and maniacle caused.

Then, like after WWII and your generation we’ll have a nice long break of peace through accountable, patriotic Americans willing to once again serve each other then the gods of self. The left of course will never apologize afterwards for being stupid or outright traitorous. Instead, I am sure it was these same people that became college professors that started the 60’s cultural revolution.

Their mirage of a socialist utopia will end with one big bang as a nuclear terrorist event. Our intelligence agencies say it is a ‘when and not a if’. Is that the best they can do and say?!?!?!

I bet your generation never even said to themselves that the Soviets or Chinese would eventually nuke our cities, it’s a when and not and if’!!! In your generation, the leadership was ready to use all weapons, nukes, firebombing, torture. All of these things by themselves are heinous but sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. And besides, they seem to always be stupid enough to attack us first.

Imagine after Pearl Harbor we attacked Midway but then Congress said they want to cut off funds for our troops? Do you think Emperor Hirohito would have stopped his assault because we were being ‘sensitive’ to his feelings? No! I believe it was the Japanese Admiral Tojo that advised Hirohito to not attack America and awaken the sleeping eagle. Now our generation just had it’s own Pearl Harbor and we have stopped at Midway to consider being sensitve and compassionate. Do any of us in the sane crowd really think Almadhadanajad will really stop his ambitions because the left is being sensitive? How about Assad? The Chinese? The Russians smell weakness again, the bear is resurfacing and paranoid. Think if we’re sensitive to them they will stop funding Iran and other terror proxies?


50 posted on 09/25/2007 7:27:55 PM PDT by quant5
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To: Congressman Billybob

I mirror your sentiment. I never went to college. Folks got divorced at just the wrong time. Such is life. However, I do own a successful business and work with the Boston VC community. I have learned of the Ivy League code of ethics and it’s is about accountability and honor. You do what you say and protect the investment. The sad part Congressman is that the Ivy Leagues at the top are part of a generational breed of shunting all accountability and selling out America on immigration, China, financial sector, energy, military secrets, manufacturing. Heck, just about every key sector of our entire country, sold to the highest bidder. Very tough position to change but we can’t stop trying.

When our intelligence agencies say nuclear terror is a ‘when and not if’ it’s somewhat too late. You of all people know big paradigm shifts of thought can take a decade. I don’t think we have this kind of time now.

These people will get millions of us killed and when that happens they will all sit down and dissapear, leaving the mess to the rest of us.


51 posted on 09/25/2007 7:38:25 PM PDT by quant5
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To: Tolik

Hitler? How about David Koresh or Jim Jones!


52 posted on 09/26/2007 5:49:42 AM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: tioga
Well they kill homosexuals when they find them, unless it is somebody ‘important’. A Mullah was found in relations with a young boy, so they forced a sex change on the boy to make him a ‘girl’ to retroactively make it A.O.K..

And vice is discouraged to such a degree that any ‘hot’ looking women are snapped up and taken to the mullahs harem/brothels.

Much like the view in much of the Muslim world that only the ‘catcher’ is actually gay, they think grabbing a woman who had ankle showing off the street and turning her into your whore makes her the immoral one.

What kind of mind could praise Hitler for killing Jews with one breath, then deny the Holocaust with the next; and praise Osama Bin Lauden for 9-11 with one breath, then say it was a Zionist conspiracy with the next?

I am so glad he was not able to lay a wreath with 19 roses (symbolically at least) at ground zero. We did at least one thing right. The price we pay for hosting the U.N.. When do they leave?

53 posted on 09/26/2007 6:18:44 AM PDT by allmendream (A Lyger is pretty much my favorite animal. (Hunter08))
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To: Tolik

Most analysis center on the “useful idiots” who wanted Ahmadinejad to speak. However there is a loud and forceful Fifth Column at Columbia, among both students and faculty, who support Ahamdinutjob’s agenda. The MEALAC Department (formerly headed by Edward Said) is full of them. They cheered him.

And they are the ones who pushed for him to speak in the first place.

Hofstra Law School is having Lynn Stewart speak at a legal ehtics conference.

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/09/25/convicted-disbarred-disgraced-jihad-lawyer-lynne-stewart-to-teach-ethics-class/


54 posted on 09/28/2007 9:36:05 AM PDT by dervish
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