The Last-Minute Swerve
By Mitch Berg
Gisleson from Norwegianity starts out on the beam…:
The Strib is doing an instant (i.e., bullshit) poll on “Can campuses reject some speakers and still respect free speech and academic freedom? Desmond Tutu was not invited to speak at the University of St. Thomas, apparently because of some past statements.”
Because, of course, matters of integrity and principle are best decided by unscientific polls, which is why the vote is currently deadlocked even though this is, morally, and open and shut case.
True. Although I don’t know that anyone, even the Strib, is pretending to “decide” this issue so much as “troll public opinion”.
But then he swerves into the bridge abutment:
Desmond Tutu is not a terrorist. He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Yes. And as we all know, being a Nobel Peace Prize winner means you could never be a terrorist (or even a worthless dictator-coddling thug, or merely utterly useless).
And seriously – who’s called Tutu a terrorist? Anyone?
Or is this just another straw-peace-prize-winning-man?
October 10th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Yes, when Arafat wins it, you know the prize is a joke. And if I recall correctly, Jimmy “Israel is just like South Africa” Carter won it as a way to attack President Bush.
By the way, Hitler was nominated for the prize in the late 1930’s. It was done as a protest to show that even back then the Nobel peace prize was a joke.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:24 am
“Desmond Tutu is not a terrorist. He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. If you have problems with Desmond Tutu, it’s only because you have problems with freedom.”
Please. How about If you have problems with George Bush, it’s only because you have problems with freedom.” Think they would print that? Tutu has said a number of things over the years that I disagree with and would have problems with. He’s just a man, not a God. I could find things ANYONE has said in their lifetime that I would disagree with. To frame it such that I have a problem with freedom if I dare disagree with something someone has said is idiotic. Who writes this stuff?
October 11th, 2007 at 5:30 am
buzzkill said: “If you have problems with George Bush, it’s only because you have problems with freedom.”
If you don’t believe that, buzzkill, you’re the only one of the Mitchketeers who doesn’t.