Roger L. Simon

December 13th, 2005 8:13 am

“Fight Fiercely, Harvard!” (You’re financed by the Saudis)

I wish Tom Lehrer were around to write new lyrics to his amusing song about our most distinguished university, whose Islamic Studies department is now the recipient of a multimillion dollar donation from Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal. This is the supposedly-progressive prince who, you might recall, has also bought heavily into Fox News. Of course the absolute racist nature of his regime (where, among many other Medieval laws and traditions, including institutionalized misogyny, religions other than Islam are banned) is conveniently overlooked by these companies and insitutions. Of course, for Harvard this is particularly… what would Tom Lehrer call it?… “unseemly”?… I would call it reactionary.

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11 Comments

1. David Thomson:

This is nothing new. Harvard University is something of an intellectual whore house. Mediocrities such as John Kenneth Galbraith and John Rawls have taught there. Slutting on behalf of the Democratic Party seems to be the normal requirement for tenure. Yes, only the very brightest and hard working of students enter Harvard. Dummies donít get into this school. Even those who get in via its affirmative action policies are above average. How do they get so messed up? The person who really wants to succeed is tempted to put a wet finger into the air and see which way the wind blows.

Dec 13, 2005 - 8:57 am 2. Jeff:

So let me get this straight. It’s OK to take money from a member of a racist regime but those dreaded military recruiters must not show their faces on campus.

The facts are in both cases (the Saudis and the military) they are too greedy to turn down what they should otherwise consider tainted money.

Dec 13, 2005 - 9:00 am 3. Mike_Nargizian:

PA OFFICIALLY FUNDING SHAHID’S FAMILIES

after the same day “condemning” Netanya Suicide Bombing

Does this officially end the farce of the PA “wanting peace” in the NY Times, CNN and the like? Does this officially constitute a violation to the State Dept’s “Roadmap to Peace”?

Enacting a special law to financially support terrorists will ensure that this kind of activity continues. Each shahid?s family will receive a monthly stipend of at least $250. The family of a married shahid will receive an additional $50. Parents will receive an additional $25, and each additional child and/or brother or sister will get another $15.

And why did Abbas sign this you pick?

1) He believes in terror?

2) He is ambivalent but needs this to maintain power?

3) The dominant ideology in the PA territories is violence, terrorism and martyrdom?

4) He knows Europe and even the US won’t do a dam thing about it and can easily play both sides to enable the US to save face.

5) He knows that if he doesn’t Hamas and Islamic Jihad will take over the will of the people because they are strident, irredentist and much less corrupt than the PA?

Dec 13, 2005 - 9:18 am 4. David Thomson:

ìSo let me get this straight. It’s OK to take money from a member of a racist regime but those dreaded military recruiters must not show their faces on campus.î

Racist regime? According to the liberal Harvard mindset—only white people can be racists. An Arab prince is a victim of western imperialism. Those military recruiters represent the white male power structure. Didnít you take Political Correctness 101 in school?

Dec 13, 2005 - 9:36 am 5. HA:

No blood for endowments!!!

Dec 13, 2005 - 9:58 am 6. maurice:

How much of that money would be accepted if Rudy were prez of the institution(s)?

Dec 13, 2005 - 10:07 am 7. Daniel in Brookline:

Well, in Saddam’s heyday, blood-money payments to the survivors of Palestinian suicide bombers were $10,000 and up.

Should we be grateful that the market value on a mass murderer’s life has gone down so drastically? Or should we, perhaps, be grateful that Abbas has shown his true colors, once again, and maybe this time people will actually pay attention? Or should we be grateful that these numbers show just what dire economic straits the Palestinian Authority is in, when all they can pay to a terrorist’s family is the equivalent of a week’s paycheck from McDonald’s?

I’m sure we should be grateful for something, but I’m not sure what.

respectfully,

Daniel in Brookline

Dec 13, 2005 - 10:24 am 8. John Lynch:

These are the same people who feel faint and leave the room at the mere mention of potential gender differences? Do they know the theory and practice of gender differences in Saudi Arabia?

Dec 13, 2005 - 11:38 am 9. neo-neocon:

Oh dear, Roger, I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you that Lehrer (although he is still “around”), is probably not going to take on that particular task. He seems to be suffering from a fairly advanced case of BDS.

See this for more information.

Dec 13, 2005 - 12:04 pm 10. Ed Poinsett:

Rudy Guliani had the class to turn this mysogynist Prinz down. Harvard, Yale and Cynthia McKinney whored for his wallet. Sad.

Dear Prinz Alaweed, I hereby designate the left seat in my two holer the Prinz Alaweed Chair of Islamic Studies. Islam doesn’t need any more studies, it is a twisted ideology with no redeeming attributes. So, the studies are now complete. Prinz, please forward 1 million dollars to my special bank account in Nigeria. I want to include your money with that of my new friend there who is trying to transfer my windfall out of Lagos.

There, I just saved you 39 million dollars you can invest in other needy New England institutions.

Dec 13, 2005 - 1:02 pm 11. rightnumberone:

Roger, Roger, Roger. For Shame.

Buying shares in a public company can hardly be compared to Harvard University accepting bribes from terrorist financiers.

You cannot “buy Fox News” anymore than you can “buy CBS News.” You can purchase the stock of News Corp (which is the publically-traded company which airs Fox News), however you cannot “buy” Fox News.

Fox News employees cannot control who purchases News Corp. stock.

However, a private educational institution such as Harvard can control who it accepts blood money from.

Shameful post.

Dec 14, 2005 - 1:08 pm

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