Gotta chuckle at this news from Columbia:
An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties 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 Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.
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.
This is just a more-than-perfect example of what a joke the modern university has become. Where are the delegations that have gone to apologize to [invited] conservative speakers who have been shouted down, and even physically attacked at universities? Where is the delegation from Duke, say -- that so-called "Group of 88" professors -- that will apologize to those lacrosse players?
Don't hold your breath. In the mind of the modern "progressive" radical, American conservatives -- especially white, male ones -- are more dangerous than radical Muslim fundamentalists who (as Iranian President Ahmadinejad unintentionally comically stated), don't "have gays" in their country (gee, wonder why), treat women as virtual slaves, and wish to annihilate the state of Israel. Just like during the Cold War, when these same "progressives" touted the "superiority" of the "great socialist states," we're witnessing that all the degrees in the world doesn't necessarily mean one has any common sense.
UPDATE: Some Columbia profs deny the above report. Ironically, one of the profs noted, Gary Sick, wrote a book about the supposed 1980 "October Surprise" which stated that Ronald Reagan won that year's election because GOP operatives had a secret deal with Iran: Iran would release the long-held American hostages until after Reagan was sworn in.