Shame on Him.

Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia University, boldly portrayed himself as an educated fool and the U.S. in general as a nation of uncivilized, knuckle dragging, infidels. How else could we be viewed by the international community when the head of an acclaimed institute of higher learning spewed such hair raising insults about his invited guest, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, when introducing him to the student body. I'm not sure if Mr. Bollinger behaved this way because he believes what has been reported about Ahmadinejad or if he willfully participated in the distribution of misinformation. I do know the remarks revealed more about Bollingers' character than that of President Ahmedinejad.

I was foolish enough to believe the academic setting of Columbia University would induce a somewhat relaxed, less guarded conversation on current issues. Instead, it was a venue to bolster the lies and misconceptions about Iran's president and the Middle East in general. Denying the Holocaust ever happened and the threat to destroy Israel,"wiping it off of the map" are the two lies the media will not miss an opportunity to repeat whenever a variation of the phrase,"Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the President of Iran," is spoken into a microphone. The slightest effort to fact check will show that what the media reports as the truth is undoubtedly false, except the part about Mr. Amedinejad being Iran's President,which by the way, is a position in Iran with very little power. The Ayatollah Khomeini tells Iran's President to jump and Mr. A. will ask,"how high?" In the U.S. our President is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces in Iran the Ayatollah controls their Armed Forces. I think these are points worth driving home to the public every once in a while.

I planned on commenting on the reaction to the "dearth of gays" in Iran but it will have to wait until later, there was an article I wanted to link to but can't find it.

Winning Friends and Influencing People, This Is How We Do It.

Chalk up another text book example of our foreign diplomacy skills. The Iranian president's request to place a wreath at ground zero while in New York, has been denied. Supposedly, the city of New York was outraged at this request. I'll just say it's a response from an ignorant mind set. Accept the gesture whether it is sincere or not.

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A Mentor by Example

Steve Gilliard of "The News Blog,"passed away last Saturday June 2, 2007. He had been ill for a few months but I was convinced he would be back to blogging within the year. He was 42 years old, his age made me confident that he would recuperate. Studying maniacally over the past week or so preparing for a State examination my "first thing in the morning" ritual of going to the computer to catch up on the news was put on hold. (This is for the two people who read my blog), I know you didn't know who he was but he truly inspired me. I read his blog first thing in the morning every day and would go back to his blog at least once more, but usually twice, before the day was over.

Clicking a link from some other website four years ago led me to The News Blog. I can't recall the topic now but how he said what he said, and that he said it told me he was Black. It shouldn't have mattered but it did. For me, it was like seeing that first black television show, my first was "Julia" starring Dianne Carroll, except it was a blog, but it had the same effect. Actually, it was better because it was in a voice that was familiar to my ear. Steve would dissect a given news item cutting away all the fat, aka bullshit. He would then hold it up so you could see it through his eyes. Well to make it short, my going straight to his blog every day sort of made him the first person I interacted with most days of the week. This past Monday when I went to his site to see if Jen, his close friend, had an update on his condition, even though a few weeks earlier his family had asked her not give anymore updates, it was like a kick in the stomach to see that he had died two days earlier. He was a brilliant man who made a difference. I'll miss him.

A Passing Thought

So many appalling events have happened recently. Each one triggers the urge to sit down and blog a blue streak but it doesn't happen, well it happens on other blogs but not this one. According to me, a discussion about Don Imus does not include a critique of rap or hip hop music they are separate and not equal. By the way, Imus comfortably fits under the appalling events umbrella. Instead of an umbrella it should be a circus tent so there will be plenty of room for the hoopla that surrounds our Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his seemingly "unremarkable" contributions, unremarkable based on the forty-something times he told the congressional committee "I don't recall," when questioned about the nuts and bolts behind firing the eight federal prosecutors.

There just seems to be too many cameras focused in on a possible misuse of one of the president's legitimate applications of authority. Maybe my priorities are wrong but didn't this administration lose, misplace, squander 9 billion dollars in Iraq? When asked to account for the money all they come up with is "Don't know, can't say" while shrugging their shoulders. Now the administration is asking Congress for more money, without accountability strings attached. Hasn't a top white house staff member(Mr. I. Scooter Libby) been found guilty of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice? Weren't these crimes committed during an investigation to find out who publicly revealed the identity of a C.I.A. agent? At the risk of sounding a bit melodramatic, isn't exposing an international spy called treason? A camera or two could be focused on that congressional committee investigation. Is there a congressional committee investigating this? This list, of what I see as more important issues could go on but you get the point.

An Update: CBS Radio Minus Imus.

They've decided to let him go and I'm glad about it. I've donned my rose tinted glasses so it will appear to be a significant shift, for the better, in confronting American style sexism and racism.

Imus Minus Simulcast

Well...No more looking at radio host Don Imus while he works. That'll teach him! MSNBC has removed their cameras. No cameras for a radio show. Gee I don't know..well it's a start.

Zip Code Restricted Diet.

Rat poison was found to be the killer ingredient in the nationally distributed pet food. Again, one company creating most of the pet food, under various popular and not so popular brand names, 95 million cans and pouches have been recalled. They are acknowledging 15 deaths because of this contamination and we know they're low balling the number of fatalities. I do remember the e. coli tainted spinach that found it's way to the dinner tables nation wide. Sadly, I just found out this morning that the tainted spinach was from a farm here in California. This too was from one company serving the masses. If I'm not mistaken, Taco Bell had some sort of national bacteria scare because of centralized distribution of ingredients. If you squint your eyes and tilt your head a little to the right you might see a pattern. These types of mishaps are becoming more frequent and I suspect a major loss of human life will have to happen before improved quality control procedures are put in place. Local farmer's markets are looking more appealing. Well, if you don't count the above mentioned "E. coli Farms" in central California.