The site for this conference at Columbia seems to be down right now (here’s the Google Cache)
The line up of speakers includes:
# 11 am – Natan Sharansky, Human Rights Activist, Minister for Diaspora Affairs of the State of Israel (via interactive web cast)
# 12 pm – Martin Kramer, Wexler-Fromer Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Author: “Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America”, Columbia ‘s Crisis: A Turning Point for Middle Eastern Studies?
# 1 pm – Documentary film: Columbia Unbecoming, plus Q & A with the producers
# 2 pm – Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard University, Academic Freedom and the Controversy on the American Campus (via video)
And there’s a lot more! I’m really considering taking a trip into the city to attend the event, as it sound really interesting.
I hate bureaucracies and red tape
This morning’s “Thought of the morning” comes from Cafe Hayek
I’ve decided to take Frank J’s “Who the Hell Do You Think You Bloggers Are?” quiz just for kicks.
My answers are below:
(more…)
Some people are whimps. Just the mere threat of a little snow makes them get into a whole tizzy!
I was planning to attend the SCYR meeting tomorrow night. Partially because I wanted something to do, and I’d like to meet new people. However, the big draw was going to be that the event was being held at Dave & Busters. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Dave and Busters and it looks really cool as well, and I was looking forward to going to it.
But what did I just get an email saying? The meeting for the month has been cancelled because of the fear of snow. Bah! Whimps!
Oh well then….
This time it’s in New Jersey
From Gay Patriot we hear of the following story from Rutgers University:
Students Split on Grease Truck Names – The Daily Targum (hat tip: GP Reader Keith)
The controversy erupted last week over the names of certain sandwiches served at the Grease Trucks on the College Avenue campus. The University community is varied in its response to the incident, when the Department of Parking and Transportation Services demanded the trucks cover up sandwich names such as “Fat Dyke” and “Fat Bitch” because they violate their contract.
Now the reader of Gay Patriot who tipped that blog off to the story had the following to say:
Has no one told people like these crybabies, to choose their battles carefully. The tone of the “activist-victims” was very negative, and from remarks made, it isn’t clear that they people who were “offended” ever talked to the owners of the grease trucks. They also made claims of not feeling “included.”
This is yet another example of the hyper-PC attitudes that seem to pervade colleges this day and age. It’s a sandwich for goodness sakes people! A food item!
And from what it sounds like, there are other sandwiches named after different groups (which have not been covered up) such as the “Fat Filipino”. It sounds like at least the proprietors of the “Grease Truck” (an aside: what is a “Grease Truck?” The name of a restaurant? Or is it a NJ Term?).
But the biggest double standard that I’m struck by, is for the past four years having seen students from the GBLTQQSA activist groups freely throwing around terms like “dyke” and “bitch” to describe themselves. It really seems to smack of hypocracy.
Okay, I think I’m officially join the chorus of people who for some reason or another have decided to consider NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be an idiot.
What did the mayor do to win such respect?
Bloomberg Defends Troop-Trashing Letters
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending letters sent to an Iraq-bound GI by a sixth grade class in Brooklyn that trashed America’s military heros as war criminals.
Asked about the letters on Tuesday, the liberal Republican explained, “Well, look, we have freedom of speech and you certainly cannot go around censoring what people want to write.”
Bloomberg argued that the GIs would actually appreciate the derogatory screeds, explaining: “Most of them believe that the freedoms that we have, like the freedoms to write critical letters, are protected by them putting their lives at risk.”
Has Bloomberg perhaps been hanging out with the Columbia MELAC faculty recently? Where else would he get such a pervrse idea?
Does the mayor even understand the idea of what is and isn’t appropriate to send?
Got a call from the Brother this evening. Apparently he and the mom wern’t able to connect to the internet back at The Home.
The brother said neither of the computers in use were working on the Internet.
So naturally…when you’re doing some sort of tech support…what’s the first question that you ask?
(more…)
Anyone out there got any recommendations for good (free) picture hosting websites?
I used to use Webshots.com but I didn’t like the fact that I had to download and use their “special” software package to upload my photos.
However, I’m now looking for suggestions, so I can upload my pictures and share them with family and friends.
Al-Queda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video tape which aired on Al-Jazeera this past weekend.
Over at the Counter Terrorism Blog, contributor Daveed Gartenstein-Ross has a post up titled: Al-Zawahiri Continues Appeal to Gullible Westerners
Looking at Gartenstein-Ross’ dissection and examination of al-Zawahiri’s tape, one question which comes to mind is: Are the terrorists trying to play to political elements of the left* in order to advance their agenda?
The talking points put forward by al-Zawahiri will likely find sympathetic ears amongst some on the left, and one can only wonder if this is part of the terrorist’s PR strategy? I mean how much agreement would you expect to see between what al-Zawahiri said in his tape, and what will be said at the March ANSWER rally?
Note: I’ve asterisked the term “Left” in this article for a reason. When I make references to “The Left” within this piece, I am not refering to all those who itentify themselves as being left-of-center politically. Rather, I’m refering to the more marginal elements of the Left.
“It’s so difficult to find a good bagel around here”
–The Sister refering to the Upper West Side of NYC.
A follow up to this previous post: A cheap shot? Or fair game?
The Republican Jewish Coalition has not let up their attacks on the new DNC chair and his previous statements vis-a-vis Israel.
They’ve gone so far as to put out a new fact sheet and an op-ed titled “Why We Should All Be Concerned”
Even the JTA has picked up on the fight and wrote about it in a piece called: As Dean chosen to head Democrats, accusations fly on his Israel stance
So I once again pose the question–are these ads/fact sheets over the top or should Dean be fair game to such attacks?
I’ve mostly stayed on the sidelines of the whole Social Security debate, mainly because I don’t understand everything being tossed about and all the numbers floating around leave me in a doozy.
With that preface, when reading the paper today, I saw this article:
FDR kin against Bush plan
I’m sorry, but what relevance does his testimony have?
Tomorrow is President’s Day
It’s a Federal Holiday
Accordingly, wouldn’t one expect that a State University would not be holiding classes?
Well, logic doesn’t apply in this scenario…and I’ve got classes tomorrow…so I’ll be teaching biology lab then it’s Ethics class (ugh)
I’m back out here in Suffolk County, after a fun weekend in the city. The sister and I walked Central Park this morning, and we saw Christo’s gates…interesting to say the least.
I’m going to unpack now and catch up on some things, but then I’ll blog more about my experience.
So went out with the sister this evening. Took the subway for the first time….not that excitinto g to be honest.
We went out and had some really yummy Kosher Asian food for dinner–something I definitely don’t have near me on Long Island.
Then it was off to Times Square (I’d never been) and I saw all the lights. Walked few blocks, went by many a famous buildings (including the Reuters building, to which I gave the appropriate salute).
The funniest thing had to be the crowd of Lebuvitchers dancing around outside one of the stores/theaters on the other side of the street. They were dancing and singing and waving flags that said “Moshiach” (trans. messiah) in Hebrew. We tried to snap a few pix of the spectacle, since the Sister found it so entertaining.
We followed our brief walk by stopping by a restaurant for an (overpriced) birthday drink for myself.
Back uptown we went, and I accompanied my sister briefly to a frat party, as having gone to a greek-free school (Brandeis) as an undergrad, I’d never been to a frat party. Lets just say, that I didn’t miss out on anything at Brandeis by there not having been frat parties, and that I attended better parties back at Brandeis too!
Tomorrow morning, we’re going to Central Park to see “The Gates”, after which, I’ll be able to provide my educated opinion on this $20+ million piece of modern art.
But before that can happen, I need to sleep
(Preface: The sister is out getting a haircut right now, so I’m just killing time)
Being the citizen journalist that I am, I am currently looking at and keeping an eye on “Be’er Zayit On the Hudson” (a.k.a. Columbia).
And for that matter, Columbia’s wireless network doesn’t work right across the street from the campus either! Curse them!
Update: I’m staring directly at the Columbia Journalism building as well
Just a quick post–
Back in January the Sister took a trip to the Zionist-Occupied Land (Israel) and I’d asked her to bring me back some periodicals, as I like to read them to keep my Hebrew skills sharp.
I’m flipping through a copy of the Ma’ariv she brought back for me and low and behold–a full page story on Rathergate in the Israeli press!
I’m going to see if there’s a scanner at school I can use and I”ll scan the article and upload it to the web to share.
Greetings from Manhattan
I’m sitting at the desk of The Sister here on the Upper West Side.
The drive in was a pain last night, from exit 40 on the LIE things began to slow down, then getting on the Cross Bronx traffic was almost at a standstill thanks to some tie up on the GWB, then on the Henry Hudson there was an accident early on as well. Just my luck.
But The Sister cooked a good dinner and I’ve met many of her friends (but I can’t remember their names). We watched Napoleon Dynomite this afternoon–the sister is obsessed with it, I found it pointless.
And tonight we’re going out to a restaurant and then perhaps to a bar or club or somewhere. (She knows the city, I don’t). Then tomorrow, we’re going to head over to Central Park to see “The Gates” (and then we can pass judgement on them ourselves)
So that’s all for now