Columbia to conservatives: &*^% off

Ross Kaminsky's important piece from RealClearPolitics about the crushing of free speech at Columbia University has now been picked up by OpinionJournal. Either way, you need to read it.

Columbia's recent track record on free speech is deplorable. The home base of Nicholas "Million Mogadishus" De Genova can't seem to stomach the expression of conservative ideas. Jim Gilchrist can now add his name to a list that includes (at least) Ward Connerly and Dinesh D'Souza. I'm sure there are others. Here's a sample:

Everything you really need to know about the protesters is contained in this sentence: "Shame on the College Republicans for inviting this fascist thug and provoking such outrage on our campus." In other words, the act of inviting a controversial speaker is worse than violence against that speaker . . . oh, and the speaker must be a "fascist thug" because he doesn't agree with the writer's left-wing sensibilities which are typical of Columbia students.

It's the "we wuz provoked" defense.

Inappropriate for who?

Drudge linked the following video from YouTube:

The video was done by David Zucker, of Top Secret!, Airplane!, Police Squad! (what's with all the exclamation points in the titles?), and the Naked Gun movies, among other things. The spot is well done--funny, factual, and disturbing all at the same time. It's well worth watching.

But here's where things get strange. When you embed a YouTube video (as I have done here), clicking on the video after it starts playing will open a new browser window that goes to the video's page on YouTube. Except in this case, it doesn't quite.

Before you get there, you run into the dire warning that would normally preceed a video containing bad language, nudity, or other "mature" material:

(Click the image for a larger version)

In case you think I'm making this up, check out the URL in the screencap of the browser. It ends in "7h3GPc_yMCE". That's part of the unique URL for the YouTube page that hosts the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?eurl=&v=7h3GPc_yMCE

Whom are they trying to protect, and from what? Or could it be about the stifling of dissent?

Laugh

Hat tip: Fark

Defining Terrorism Down

I sometimes listen to Mike Gallagher in the evenings, and I have been listening to him discuss the reaction to his turning over an hour of his show to the lunatics from Westboro Baptist Church in order to keep them away from the funerals of the Amish girls in Pennsylvania. I caught the last 15 minutes or so of their appearance, and it was surreal. The two ladies who appeared on the show were humorless, joyless, and angry.

I think Mr. Gallagher did a good and decent and noble thing. Others disagree. One of those is Richard Roeper, who referred to the Westboro idiots in his column as "spiritual terrorists".

I have a problem with Roeper's use of the word "terrorist". Let's be clear: the members of the Westboro Baptist Church are vile, hateful, and despicable. Anyone who would even consider demonstrating at the funeral of a murdered child is monstrous.

But let's also be clear about what they are not: they are not strapping suicide belts to themselves and blowing themselves up in restaurants and bus stations; they are not flying airplanes into buildings; they are not beheading people in front of a video camera and posting the video on the web. Call them what you want, but they are not terrorists. And this is where the problem comes in.

Language is important. Language matters. Words, as they say, mean things. To call someone a "terrorist" because they espouse a despicable point of view is to cheapen the definition a terrorist. When "terrorist" becomes the latest easy pejorative for the intellecutally lazy writer, then we are on our way to losing sight of what a real terrorist is.

The what?

Inveterate. Peripatetic.

Yes, it's a mouthful. It's a bit awkward. But, it's the best name I could come up with, and it describes me. I don't sit still very well. I fidget, I pace, I tap.

I also teach--or have, in the past. I'm not teaching right now, but I might again in the future. College-level technology courses, mostly. I always paced around ferociously while lecturing. I later found out that the Peripatetics were one school of Aristotle's followers, so named because he would walk about while discoursing with them.

Welcome!

This is my blog. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Wecome to the Inveterate Peripatetic. Look around, see if you like it. If not, go read something else. No sense torturing yourself.