rubik's
My friend sent me a link to the <a href="http://dev.rubiks.com"> Rubik's </a> website.  Apparently they're like iPods or something now.  (WARNING: this will open a noisy Flash animation once you reach the site).

More Columbia nonsense -- I am writing this here to avoid a lengthy listserv discussion.  This morning I forwarded a note calling for a meeting to defend the <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mealac/faculty/massad/"> embattled Columbia professors</a> I've been writing about.  Now, I do believe that these guys are the victims of a McCarthyite witch hunt, but the fact that people continue to believe the story that they are intimidating students speaks not only to the right-wing PR machine but to the naive, fiery rhetoric of the pro-Palestinian left.  

Most of the discussion was refreshingly civil -- the list in question was Against War, so there's a general sense of agreement about most issues.  And I do admit that the email I sent out was full of college-student-pretending-to-be-third-world-revolutionary posturing -- the dark forces are gathering, we must defend the right of the Palestinains to defend against the racist state of Israel, that sort of thing.  I guess I should have revised it, or written my own version.

But it wasn't my email to rewrite.  I'm not a member of the group, and I won't be attending the meeting. I'm getting sick of meetings.

And the usual array of arguments -- China is worse, the US decimated our native population much more effectively, Columbia has a right to investigate this -- all fall short.  Just because China's (and Russia's, and Indonesia's, and on and on) occupation is brutal, just because our own country (and Canada, and Australia, and on and on) has been so relentlessly shitty to the Indians (or Aborigines), doesn't mean that one country gets a free pass.

The fact is, free speech is under attack, on PBS, in the arts, in universities, and elsewhere.  Perhaps I should devote more energy to defending <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200502170007"> Postcards from Buster </a>, or do more work for <a href="http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/index.php"> Students for a Free Tibet</a> (who I have worked with, by the way), but being American, and Jewish, and progressive and a teacher, I feel a special responsibility here.   And, in fact, Massad et al are not just being investigated by the University (which goes with the job) but are being tried in the media, under the auspices of extreme right-wing groups.

That said, I wish the left would stop shooting itself in the foot.  I mean, we're supposed to be humanists, for Christ's sake.