The Ghost of Snapped Shot

Remember that study we were talking about earlier today on the general leftward tilt of the academic world? Yeah, I don't think we've even begun to scratch the surface:

Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn't want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Romirowsky, who holds joint American/Israeli citizenship and lives in Philadelphia, had been invited to join Khan, his colleague in political science, Stuart Kaufman, a staff member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, and a graduate student to discuss anti-Americanism in the Middle East. [Ed.:—I know how this is going to end already: It's America's Fault.™ Now where's my $200,000 consulting fee?] The program was organized by the College Republicans, the College Democrats, and the Students of Western Civilization Club. The Leadership Institute provided the funds for the panel, which met on the University of Delaware campus on Wednesday evening. The students offered Romirowsky the opportunity to come to campus next week and speak alone, with no other panel members who might object to his presence.

If Khan was just an academic, that would be one thing. But he also straddles the policy world: Khan is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Pentagon consultant. According to an e-mail he sent to the University, he gave a workshop at the Pentagon yesterday afternoon.

Academics should embrace intellectual challenge; not flee from it.

Can you imagine for one second the outrage that would be generated if a white man were to demand that a panel remove a black woman from the lineup due to the fact that he would be "uncomfortable" around her, and that "some people see" her race as being disproportionately responsible for crime in inner cities? Or a Christian that insisted that he would not speak on the same panel as a terror-supporting Muslim?

Yeah, I can see the headlines, too.

I'm sure that this little incident won't even rate a tenth of a column in the advertising section of the New York Slimes, and I definitely don't expect any of the news networks to cover this (other than Fox, that is).

Of course, it's also no surprise to see that the politically-correct ninnies at the Pentagon are starting to utilize "advisors" like this. No wonder we're having such a hard time defining exactly what the war on "terror" is.

Be sure to click over and read Mr. Khan's e-mail regarding the incident—the guy just reeks of an arrogance afforded by being coddled in the academic wasteland for way too long. When in the world are we going to start making our academics work for a living again, anyway? Is it too late for us to fire all of them and start over?

See-Also:

Atlas Shrugs, Boker Tov, Boulder, Israel Matzav, Al Salibiyyah

  #TROP