The most recent report from the Islamic Republic News Agency still says Ahmadinejad is going to defile Ground Zero.Keeping the idea of a visit to Ground Zero in the minds of his viewing public back home is a win-win situation for Ahmadinejad. If he goes, he looks good to them; if he is blocked from going, he has made the American public seem "unwelcoming"--which is the reality of the situation, pretty much. However, those who would be inclined to "welcome" Ahmadinejad to the site of the Biggest Islamist Victory don't much care on way or the other, just as long as he is physically unable to reach the site. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg contends, however, that Ahmadinejad “[is] not going downtown.”
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's date with Columbia University is still on, but Bloomberg won't be attending. The NYC mayor mentions and condemns last year’s Jim Gilchrist incident, during which Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project and an invited speaker to the university, was forced from the stage via threat of bodily harm. In other words, it was a riot.
I suspect that the Iranian president won’t have to worry about such an occurrence, which is fine. But I wish that the majority of academia would stop pretending that it reason for being is to imbue its charges with the love of actual free speech. Even if such were true I’d say that the endeavor is a miserable failure.
