Blah blah blah

Ahmadinejad gets a platform to work his “plain folks” propaganda shtick, but gets uptight after Columbia President Bollinger hits him with, “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator…” Fine, the counterpunching is peachy, but until free speech extends to military recruiters and Minutemen at Columbia, I’m not buying it.

Ill-Mannered Children

The History News Network remembers the days when people used finger bowls and Columbia presidents hosted real Nazis:

Seventy years before this week’s invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia rolled out the red carpet for a senior official of Adolf Hitler’s regime. The invitation to Iran’s leader may seem less surprising, but no less disturbing, when one recalls that in 1933, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler invited Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. Luther represented "the government of a friendly people," Butler insisted. He was "entitled to be received ... with the greatest courtesy and respect." Ambassador Luther's speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler's peaceful intentions. Students who criticized the Luther invitation were derided as “ill-mannered children” by the director of Columbia’s Institute of Arts and Sciences.

In fairness to Butler, Luther’s “greatest courtesy and respect” trip to Columbia was 1933, but Ahmadinejad’s is every bit 1938.

Horrible Language

Linus Torvalds:

C++ is a horrible language. It’s made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it’s much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it. Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C.

Tipping Point Dead Ahead

Rejected by the networks, a pair of big-deal television producers have inked a deal with MySpace.com to host 36 episodes of their 8-minute show. Eisner had the first series last year, but this is the first with “television production values.” Hey, even if it proves unwatchable, this is where the networks are headed.

Pew

George Will compares the launch of the Thompson brand to that of New Coke and wonders how the now-candidate can “fill some supposed piety void in the Republican field” if he is by his own admission AWOL on Sunday mornings:

Is there, however, a huge cash value in the role for which he is auditioning - darling of religious conservatives? Perhaps. But their aspiring darling recently said in South Carolina, "I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now. I don't attend regularly when I'm up there."

Yikes, guys. Yes, democrats can skate through with their show Bibles and pandering accents, but don't kid yourselves: Republicans must actually go to church.

Keep up the good work

Dean Barnett got a letter from a MoveOn.org member who “contributed to that highly effective NYT ad.” Barnett observes, “Here we have fresh evidence that the people at Moveon.org have created the world’s most soundproof echo chamber.” Read the whole letter and marvel at how these people think.

Hillary’s Base

A new Zogby International poll conducted for 911truth.org finds that 31 percent of Americans do not accept that "19 Arab fundamentalists executed a surprise attack which caught U.S. intelligence and military forces off guard" on September 11, 2001. It gets worse. Nearly 5 percent think U.S. officials "actively planned or assisted some aspects of the attack."

Another Bad Dye on the Job

Sporting what appears to be shoe polish in his hair, Dennis Kucinich goes on Syrian television to praise Syria and “His Excellency” Bashar Assad. He trots out “Halliburton dishonest cheating” for the folks back home and suggests paying reparations to the people of Iraq.

Appeasy Way Out

Mark Finkelstein: “If you're the Boston Globe, there's no day like 9-11 to suggest negotiating with terrorists.”

What The

Click...click...another abandoned blog, and...whoa, hey, wait a minute. That’s not an abandoned blog. That’s my blog. Note to self: Update blog.