Are Ivy League idiots useful?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Columbia University yesterday. The president of that august institution, Lee Bollinger called Mahmoud a “petty and cruel dictator.” Of Mahmoud’s denial that the Holocaust ever occurred Bollinger told the Iranian dictator that he was "brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated."

First, I’m surprised that Bollinger would take such a hard line with a fellow Bush hater. Second, Lee if you think the guy is a petty dictator who is brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated, why give him legitimacy by bringing him on campus? And how does this fit into something called a “distinguished lecture series?” Who’s next Larry the Cable Guy? And don’t give me that “free speech” BS. Nobody has the right to come onto Columbia University to address the students. That right was conferred to a petty dictator who is brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated by you. Why? Were all the other astonishing uneducated people like Rosie & Sean Penn too busy?

The Soviets (the real ones RC Durbin not our soldiers) talked of useful idiots. Mahmoud’s speech identifies several idiots. The king of the idiots in this case is Lee Bollinger. While he talks, muffled as it is because of where his head is firmly planted, about free speech and a an open exchange of ideas with a lying madman this is how the Islamic Republic News Agency spins the story,

“On second day of his entry in New York, and amid standing ovation of the audience that had attended the hall where the Iranian President was to give his lecture as of early hours of the day, Ahmadinejad said that Iran is not going to attack any country in the world.”

Way to go Lee. That was useful

And how about the gay community that was so vocal about getting ROTC booted from campus. Where were the gay activists yesterday when we learned that there were no gay people in Iran? ‘Ol Mahmoud, in his lie filled rant yesterday, probably stumbled upon a grain of truth in that proclamation. There are no gay in Iran because they are executed. The gay community's comparative silence in this case was very useful.

Where were the women’s rights activists yesterday? They were able to get an Ivy League presidents fired for pointing out that men and women are different. Their acquiescence to allow this misogynistic petty dictator on campus was also very useful.

And where were the students yesterday? Not long ago they were so concerned about "free speech" that they rushed the stage to shut up the Minutemen? But yesterday they sat quietly and listened to an astonishingly uneducated petty dictator and madman. Then they gave him several standing ovations. That was very useful.

Sometimes it’s great to know that your kid will never attend an Ivy League school run by these useful idiots.