Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Columbia Speaks Out

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A quick follow-up to my earlier post about the visit today to Columbia by Iranian President Ahmadinejad. So far, so good as far as freedom of speech advocates are concerned. Inside the campus, student groups have voiced a variety of positions to an audience of several hundred. Outside the campus, a crowd of several more hundred is making their own views known — including a group of men dressed in kilts playing, apparently, “God Bless America,” on bagpipes. The media is out in force, to ensure that a profit is turned from the entire adventure. I’ve posted some photos below that show some of the (traditional) posters that blanket the campus, some wide shots that you might not see in the traditional semi-hysterical reports from the TV media. You can watch a stream of the talk, which runs from 1.30-2.30, on Columbia’s student-run TV station CTV here. For breaking updates, those who are interested should check out the Bwog, a student blog, or the Ahmadineblog, produced by the Daily Spectator, the student newspaper. The official press release from the university about the event is here.

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      • I love the pipes (good % Scottish blood here), but there are just certain tunes that shouldn’t be played on them.

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        Then again “Johnny Cope” would probably be lost on most people….

      • I’ve always liked Charles Ives “Variations on America” as a protest piece.  It is usually billed as a highly patriotic homage, and for all I know it was so intended.  However, because he ran the theme variously through disjointed discordance and circus-like treatments, I have found that it really ticks some people off!  How dare anyone do that to our America.  You know, innovate, with humor.  That really cracks me up, especially since the tune itself was English in origin, not American.  No patriot had to feverishly dash down these notes before his bosom full of fatherland love burst with swelling pride.  At least, not an American one.

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        Anyhow, have a listen.  I prefer E. Power Biggs’s performances, but couldn’t find any video on the net.  Here’s an old Virgil Fox rendition.  If you’re hooked, you can find other people’s variations on Ives’s Variations.  Fun stuff.

  2. Ahjminidad on why homosexuals are executed in Iran –

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    In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that like in your country. … In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who’s told you that we have this.

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    Has he reached his final solution already?

    • who believe we should compromise and adopt some sort of common meeting point with folks who hang those who are GLBT’s. Where do people draw the line with others who mean them ill will?

      • Iraqi stability would benefit from Iranian cooperation. Heck, the Iraqi government is filled with people very close to Iran. Maliki was just in Tehran in August. Not negotiating with the Iranians on this is just lunacy.

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        On the other hand, no liberal anywhere is a fan of strict Islamic law.

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        Iranian moderates (really moderate conservatives) are in a fragile place. Again, no liberal would want an Iranian moderate conservative to be governor of Massachusetts. On the other hand, those moderates would be a huge improvement regionally and for Iranian democracy. The Bush Administration veers from trying to “support” the moderates — a support which certainly does not help them — over to threatening to bomb parts of Iran. The moderates are not strengthened by the U.S. threatening to bomb Iran, either.

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        In short the Bush Administration policy of threatening without negotiating “accomplishes” the following:

        • It ensures more instability in Iraq.
        • It strengthens the hand of the fanatical conservatives in Iran.
        • It gives Iranians an incentive to develop a nuclear deterrent.

    • “In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country”

      Gee Ahjminidad, where did they all go?

       

    • that is, of course, the official line.  much like bush’s press secretary tony snow saying that racism is “no longer a big deal“.

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      The CBC recently did a series on being LGBT in Iran, called “Out of Iran”.  You can watch the videos here.  Here is part 1:

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