Sanity in exile!

Watch this video and

Watch this video and weep:

//youtube.com/watch?v=9cIrymEv8xI

Re: Fair enough, However,

Anonymousee, my objectivity I believe is motivated by the fact that I believe objectivity is good. That is because I truly believe that there is truth. As far as reconciliation, yes my tone is for sure motivated by the fact that I would love for reconciliation by as many as possible as long as truth is not sacrificed (i.e. I would not lie to reconcile). Firstly, I would other wise be hopping around a circle with no allies and friends and many enemies. It is self interest. Secondly, why would I want to constantly pick a fight with my own countrymen if I I like Iran?

He is not a coward, he is an idiot

In this introductory remarks, Bollinger managed to make the guest feel insulted. Whether the guest should have felt insulted or not is not the point, the point is that he felt insulted. Bollinger then proceeds to offer a job to Kian Tajbaksh, a Columbia alumni who is a political prisoner in Iran and demanded his release.
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Now, did this imbecile of Columbia U think that by insulting the prison guard he is improving the chances of the prisoner's release to come and and start his new job at the institution that has insulted the man in charge of the prisoner?
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What an idiot. He just ruined Kian Tajbaksh's chances of getting released.
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Look for Kian Tajbaksh to condemn Bollinger's actions in the next few day. Under duress no doubt.

Thanks Bollinger.....!

President Bollinger said exactly what I would have said to Ahmadinejad. He was tough, elequent, and direct. I couldn't have said it any better myself. Thanks Bollinger!

Typo Alert

Eds: Typo Alert

It should read, You Can't eliminate hate with more hate.

EDS: Fair enough. However,

EDS: Fair enough. However, as human beings we are always going to be motivated by something intrinsically formed by our experience. It is a philosophical debate that we don't need to start on this thread. I can easily argue you that your objectivity and semanic cursade is also motivated by your desire to seek reconciliation, which for you is a priority and might not be for others. But in the final analysis, I agree, there is too much hate and you can eliminate hate with more hate.

re: EDS petty curel dictator

EDS, chum,
dictionary.com returned the following result for "petty cruel dictator"
"There are no dictionary entries for petty cruel dictator, but petty, cruel, dictator are spelled correctly."
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But let us assume that your definition of a Roman magistrate is correct. This makes this phrase a highly technical one and not something a good majority of people would be familiar with. Bollinger's use of of it therefore, assumes that the audience, the translator and the recipient of the term are familiar with it. It also assumes that there is direct translation or equivalent for it in Farsi. This is an unlikely scenario. This negates your claim that the phrase was chosen carefully. I have no doubt that Bollinger did not mean to use this term in its technical context. That would defeat the purpose of getting his message across because the recipient would never get it because the translator would not be able to translate it on the fly. He meant the phrase as is commonly understood and you can try to justify it until the cow come home.

Wrong definition of a dictator

Pishi jaan there is a significant difference between calling one a petty cruel dictator and saying that he is showing all the signs of one. When he posed the challenges he did and called Ahmadinejad on his actions as he did then the saying you show all the signs of a petty cruel dictator is not name calling rather it is simply summing up what was explained with evidence and reason.

Second, your entire post centered around the fact that a dictator cannot be put in office temporarily. I think you may not be familiar with the phrase "petty cruel dictator." The original word dictator comes from this, and you can check it on the online dictonary:

"An ancient Roman magistrate appointed temporarily to deal with an immediate crisis or emergency."

As you can see the phrase chosen very accurately describes Ahmadinejad.

Re: All you IR worshiper iranian

What a typical US-centric jerk you are.
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Once you stop foaming at the mouth, remember that not everyone on this board is in the US and as such your nonsensical rant of "get the F--- out of US" makes no sense. This might come as news to you but people outside of the US have access to the internet too. They can and do post comments on these boards.
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I would have expected cuckoos like you would have flown south for the winter by now. Apparently not. Must be that global warming thing extending the warm season.

Re: Ey baabaa

EDS,
I agree that not everyone criticizing Columbia U president or sympathizing with Ahmadinejad is an agent of mullahs etc. You said:
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"The President was quite careful with his choice of words. He did not call Ahmadinejad a "petty cruel dictator." Instead, he said, you show all the signs of a petty cruel dictator."
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This is pure semantics and you know it. Who are you trying to kid boy? One does not show signs of cruelty without being cruel.
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Surely the president of such a fine institution of higher learning, who accused Ahmadinejad of being uneducated, is learned enough to know that his guest's political party took a beating in the last parliamentary elections and by all accounts he will not get re-elected in 2 years time. He must know that right? Yet he says he shows signs of being a petty cruel dictator. And you say he chose his words carefully? What kind of a dictator, a cruel one at that, will not be getting back in office in the next election? One can argue that Iran's political system is dictatorial but to credit Ahmadinejad as being the dictator or even showing sings of one is a bit rich even for an "educated" Columbia president. Surely the good president of this school knows that constitutionally and practically Iran's president is at best a glorified Interior Minister who has a little bit of say in running the day to day trivial affairs of the country and not much else.
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Either he knows these things or he doesn't. If he does, then he did not choose his words carefully based on facts. And if he doesn't know these things then he has no business going on a ten minute rant about the president of another country about which he knows very little about.

You are right

I do need to count my blessings. And I am sure that is largely because thank God I have had the luxury to. I mean that others may have been more badly or more recently hurt by IR and if I were in their shoes I also probably would have a harder time controlling my anger. Still, at the end of the day, it is better to leave comments about the motivation of people aside, because that is guess work at best, and it inflames people, turning friends into enemies, something that would not serve Iranians. As you can see, there is enough hate to go around even without it.

All you IR worshiper iranian

All you IR worshiper iranian wussies, get the fuck out of U.S. it is about time that an uncivilized bastard like Ahmadinejad is treated the way he deserves to be treated. You fucking iranians make me sick to my stomach. As much as Antarinejad has insulted the U.S, can you imagine if an American with the same credentials would have gone to Iran? he would have been executed on spot! And than bunch of you assholes here seem to be from the same close minded blood line of mullahs, always talking about jews, and zionist, and how they are controlling NY, and etc. Bunch of fuckin iranian racist who look like sand nigger themselves, now talk about other races as if they are superior. Good for jews if they control the whole world, why can you fucking assholes not do it? can you imagine if you fuckers had the same power, being iranians, you would have ass fucked everyone in the ass 10 times, may be jews are doing it 2 times. Just look at the fucking mullahs, and how they treat their own countrymen. Do you see jews do that? do you see Americans do that? you fucking iranians deserve that shit. now shut the fuck up, appreciate all that US has given to you fucking dahatee uncivilized, put gel in your hairs, have your women put fucking fake blond dye in their hair, drive your mercedes, and stop bashing jews for your problem...

To Mr self proclaimed informed EDS

The problem is not that Bollinger challenged MA or that the topics were not announced in advance. So what if there was a press release and he said he was going to cover those topics and MA agreed? That is not the problem. The problem is that in a session where there is an introduction, a speech followed by a Q&A period, you don't attack the guest in the introductory part. You wait to present your challenges in the Q and A period. A self proclaimed informed person like yourself should know that.
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He could have given a civilized, short intro as is customary and waited like everyone else at the end to challenge the speaker. To attack the speaker in the intro to the point that the speaker feels insulted (rightly or wrongly) only has one purpose and that is to prejudice the mind of the audience against the speaker, a task well done I might add. Furthermore, his tone and use of language was far more aggressive than simply a challenge in an academic setting.
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Regardless of the rules, Bollinger's act was thuggish and shameless and reflects badly on the university, the country and the culture. Seeing such behavior from a politician is one thing but seeing it from an academic in a so called "elite" school is quite another.
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Also offering Kian Tajbaksh a job during the introduction was absurd. A laughable display of charlatan behavior only worthy of a political opportunist hack and not a university president.

Tazinejad is not a dictator, but merely a monkey

I think Bollinger gave Tazinejad too much credit by comparing him to a petty dictator. He's nothing more than Khamenei's pet monkey; when he is no longer useful, he will be tossed back into his cage and given a banana to suck on. However, it's also interesting to see how quickly these IRI-apologist moftkhors came to his rescue on this site. These people are nothing but shameless traitors, and worse, they are the bitches of a monkey like Ahmadinejad.

Boy, you'er lucky to have

Boy, you'er lucky to have the luxry of staying objective and wax pedantic... Count your blessings.

To Mastaneh

Hello Mastaneh,

You seem to be disturbed by how Iranians "thugs" treated US hostages 27 year ago. I am curious to know how you think Iranian diplomats being held hostage by the US are being treated.

The were abducted in January of this year and continue to be prisoners.

//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&si...

If you are thinking about dismissing the fact that they are diplomats and just IR thugs, don't even think about it. That determination is not up to you but up to the host country, in this case Iraq. Iraqi officials have said they are diplomats and have demanded their releases. To no avail of course.

Ahmadinejad is not the President of Iran!

Stop suggesting that the handpicked puppet of the council and Supreme Leader, suddenly represents the free choice of free Iranians! Look it up and admit that this piece of shit, is nothing. Not only are his words meaningless, they are worth even less than the power he has as the president of Iran! Meaning 0! Stop feigning pride. We have nothing but shame to show the world with this stupid person. Calling a donkey wagon an automobile does not make it equivalent to a Cadillac! And yes, GW is an idiot too.

Ey baabaa

Anonymousee (funny name by the way!) no I do not know if everyone who has been sympathetic to Ahmadinejad in his comments here are propagandaist or lobbyist for the Islamic Republic. In fact I am quite sure that is not the case. There is a plurality of views for all sorts of reasons. Regardless I do not need to know their motive. I know what is true and what is false.

me1, thanks for the choice words :). First, you need to be accurate. The President was quite careful with his choice of words. He did not call Ahmadinejad a "petty cruel dictator." Instead, he said, you show all the signs of a petty cruel dictator. And that is absolutely accurate and precise and exactly in line with the published sharp challenges put out to him.

it's like....

It's like when your kid does something wrong you'd want to discipline him yourself. If a neighbour punishes your kid you get offended. In this case the neighbours are unsavory characters too!

So much for diplomatic manners.

Bollinger should definitely have grilled him on the issues, but calling him names was simply juvenile and unprofessional. If the protesters outside yelled those things at him, that is also justifiable. But, even as hated as GWB is around the world, nobody would invite him to travel across the world and then call him cruel or stupid. It's called diplomatic manners: you let the man's words speak for themselves in terms of how stupid and horrible he is. America isn't stupid and neither are CU students. They can make that judgment call for themselves. This was just Bollinger's claim to fame.

My friend...

Isn't it sad history of our land? Always has to choose between domestic despot and foreign adversary?!

FUCK Ahmadi nut job and his rats on this board

FUCK Ahmadi nut job and his rats on this board

me1: so let me get this,

me1: so let me get this, Ahmadinejad is not a cruel and petty dictator? How would you describe Ahmadinejad or the Islamic Republic, if you please?

"EDS" or "EBS" effectively Bull Sh**!

No one questions a civil discussion no matter how frank. The questions raised here are about double standards and name calling! "Pitty cruel dictator"! You are Informed but ignorant. Seeing the tree missing the forest!!

EDS: Unfortunately, most of

EDS: Unfortunately, most of the uninformed posters here are propagndists and lobbyists for the Islamic regime who have plenty to lose if the regime is toppled. They are just doing their job because their livelihood literally depends on this. They don't have the interest of Iran or the Iranians in their heart; only their pocketbooks and the massive wealth they've accumulated, courtesy of the Islamic Republic. They are not interested in facts or evidence.

Sadly uninformed post with no interest in reality

The rules for this particular meeting that was spelled out on Columiba's web site long before the speech and agreed to specifically by Ahmadinejad was that this forum would take place only on the condition that Columbia's president would do the introduction in which he would sharply challenge Ahmadinejad on specific topics that were even spelled out in detail on the website. In fact he went through those topics one by one and did not deviate from them. This was even put out on a press release two days before the event by Bollinger himself as I have listed below. How utterly uninformed are most here who wish to rush to post without the least information.

"I also wanted to be sure the
Iranians understood that I would myself introduce the event with a
series of sharp challenges to the President on issues including:

* the Iranian President's denial of the Holocaust;

* his public call for the destruction of the state of Israel;

* his reported support for international terrorism that targets
innocent civilians and American troops;

* Iran's pursuit of nuclear ambitions in opposition to international
sanction;

* his government's widely documented suppression of civil society and
particularly of women's rights; and

* his government's imprisoning of journalists and scholars, including
one of Columbia's own alumni, Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh.

....

Brilliant. Too bad too few

Brilliant. Too bad too few understand.

He deserved everything he

He deserved everything he got. Only Islamist (paid and upaid) would be offended by Bollinger's talk of truth to power. Thank you Mr. Bollinger. You've restored our faith to America.

An Insult to all Iranians

Mr. Bollinger's remarks were inappropriate and insulting not only to President Ahmadinejad but to the Office of the Presidency, to Iran and to the Iranian people. The double standard applied by Western media, political figures and now apparently by the so-called objective open-minded university professors has reached nauseating levels. If anyone knows of an Iranian organization or group that is planning to write a letter of protest to Columbia for its hideous behavior, please kindly post the information on these pages.

Let's Be Honest With Ourselves

While I found Bollinger very direct and inhospitable, I find myself re-reading the transcript and thinking that his arguments are right. While Ahmadinejad sprinkles lofty ideals that are compelling to us all, the actions of the Iranian government betray the spirit of what is communicated.
Let's be real about this. I got Ahmadinejad's points on the power of knowledge, freedom of the mind, and learning. However, this is inconsistent with the outright human rights abuses and lack of freedom in our motherland. It makes Ahmadinejad's word completely meaningless. I don't think he has guts to stand in front of the Columbia students. Ahmadinejad would show courage if he was honest about all the violations he executes. Instead of invoking God, let him be honest about his betrayal to the spirit of Islam.
If we want to do something positive, let's hold Ahmadinejad accountable to his violations against bloggers, academics, sufis, bahais, women, minorities... the dignity of all of us.
Let us show courage in our character and the verbal defense of all that is beautiful about Iran. If not, I fear that everything wonderful will be suffocated by the Iranian government and in the end all that will be left will be shallow and empty spirits only remembering a bygone glory.