Being a Leftie terrorist-murderer-bomber with connections has its perks:
Tale of two terrorists
Columbia job for Boston bomber?
By JOHN M. MURTAGHSomewhere near Boston early Monday morning, he packed a bomb in a bag. It was by all accounts relatively crude — a pressure cooker, explosives, some wires, ball bearings and nails . . . nails which, hours later, doctors would struggle to remove from the flesh of bleeding victims.
His motive is unclear. His intent is not: It was to maximize injury, suffering, pain, trauma and, yes, death.
Perhaps Monday’s bomber will be caught, perhaps not.
Perhaps Monday’s bomber will be offered a teaching job at Columbia University.
Forty-three years ago last month, Kathy Boudin, now a professor at Columbia but then a member of the Weather Underground, escaped an explosion at a bomb factory operated in a townhouse in Greenwich Village. The story is familiar to people of a certain age.Three weeks earlier, Boudin’s Weathermen had firebombed a private home in Upper Manhattan with Molotov cocktails. Their target was my father, a New York state Supreme Court justice. The rest of the family, was presumably, an afterthought. I was 9 at the time, only a year older than the youngest victim in Boston.
One of Boudin’s colleagues, Cathy Wilkerson, related in her memoir that the Weathermen were disappointed with the minimal effects of the bombs at my home. They decided to use dynamite the next time and bought a large quantity along with fuses, metal pipes and, yes, nails. The group designated as its next target a dance at an Officer’s Club at Fort Dix, NJ.
Despite the misgivings of some, it is reported that Kathy Boudin urged the use of “anti-personnel bombs.” In other words, she wanted to kill people not just damage property. Before they could act, her fellows were killed in the townhouse explosion. The townhouse itself collapsed; Boudin fled.
She reappeared over a decade later driving the getaway car for the rag tag mix of Weathermen and Black Panthers who held up a Rockland County bank in 1981, murdering three in the process. Survivors of the ambush along the New York State Thruway recount how Boudin emerged from the driver’s door, arms raised in surrender, asking the police to lower their guns. When they did, her accomplices burst from the back of the van guns blazing.
As I said, people of a certain age remember this history. For those that don’t, Robert Redford is kindly about to release a movie recounting the Rockland robbery (albeit relocated to Michigan). By all accounts, the film lionizes the Weather Underground terrorists, Boudin and her accomplices.
Perhaps to bring it full circle, Professor Boudin can soon guest-lecture at a film class at Columbia when the Redford movie is screened.
Other than the passage of time, one can find no real distinction between the cowardly actions of last Monday’s Boston murderer and the terror carried out by Boudin and her accomplices. Yet today we live in a country where our leading educational institutions see fit to trust our children’s education to murderers and Hollywood sees fit to celebrate terrorists.
The Web site of Columbia’s School of Social Work sums up Boudin’s past thus: “Dr. Kathy Boudin has been an educator and counselor with experience in program development since 1964, working within communities with limited resources to solve social problems.”
“Since 1964” — that would include the bombing of my house, it would include the anti-personnel devices intended for Fort Dix and it would include the dead policeman on the side of the Thruway in 1981.
Maybe, if he is caught, Monday’s bomber can explain that, like Boudin, he was merely working within the community to solve social problems.
Perhaps Monday’s bomber will be caught, perhaps not. Perhaps, some day, Monday’s bomber will be offered tenure at Columbia University.
John M. Murtagh is Of Counsel to the White Plains law firm of Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick, LLP. He lives in Westchester.
Professor Boudin has the right pedigree-- rich, white, connected, leftist. She is a cold-blooded murderer, terrorist, communist.
That's good for your c.v, in modern academia.
We are naive to the evil around us, the evil ensconced in academia, the press, and our government.
Gramsci prevails.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Don’t be afraid Dr. It’s all part of God’s great plan. We know it will end in the horrible suffering of Armageddon, the “Good Book” tells us so.
ReplyDeleteGreat job of anti-intellectual propaganda. Uneducated people are more likely to believe in God, so make education evil, I Love it. Of course the people who believe your crap are already quite stupid, but perhaps you can talk them out of supporting their children’s higher education ambitions. Every little bit of stupefying helps.
-KW
How did he make education evil? Considering the fact that he's spent most of his life in an academic environment, I'd say that he's simply a critic. That's fine. Academia needs some criticism.
DeleteTRISH
Criticism is one thing. Blathering about "the evil ensconced in academia, the press, and our government" is another. It's just elitism porn for the right-wing nuts gathering here. No coherent discussion will follow. Just some mud slinging.
DeleteHoo
The fact that educated people are less likely to believe in God tells us little about educated people and a lot about our education system.
DeleteIts product--minds--believe what they are taught. If they were taught the ideas and ideals of Sir Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and Ludwig von Mises, for example, they would have a very different outlook than if they were taught (as most are today) the ideas and ideals of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Max Horkheimer.
Atheist minds are not the natural product of education, and they aren't the only possible result. Atheist minds are the result of atheist education.
The fact that God is not permitted in the classroom of most universities ought to tell you something.
Little John
No, Hoo. It's criticism, it's simply criticism that you don't want to hear because you're an academic. The fact that a known terrorist can be hired at Columbia University tells us something. I'd call that evil ensconced in academia.
DeleteWho's next? Are they going to hire Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?
No coherent discussion will follow? In that case it's kind of like college--no coherent discussion about anything because only one side is allowed to talk.
You like academia just the way it is. There's an in-group/out-group dichotomy at work in academia. People who see nothing wrong with the dominant paradigm are always in the in-group. That's you. You have all the right politics and (I assume) tenure, so everything is fine.
TRISH
Hoo, draw for me the line between criticism and blathering. I want to know the difference. Objective criteria, please.
DeleteTRISH
TRISH,
DeleteIf you don't know the difference between criticism and blather then a dictionary might help.
A parallel between Boudin and Tsarnaev does not quite work. She had served 30 years in jail, during which time she had been a highly visible social worker. She had worked with AIDS patients and educated adults serving time alongside her. It was that work, and not her terrorism past, that got her an adjunct position at Columbia. You wouldn't know any of that from Egnor's post (or from whatever source he used to enlighten himself).
If you wish to draw a better parallel, try comparing Boudin to Chuck Colson, a member of the Nixon administration, a convicted felon, a born-again Christian, and a political activist. That analogy isn't perfect, either, but perhaps it will clarify a few points that you would miss by reading Egnor's stupid rants alone.
As to tenure, both Egnor and I have it. So there.
Hoo
@Hoo:
DeleteThe apt analogy isn't between Boudin and Colson. Colson wasn't a violent criminal. Nor was he offered a professorship at Columbia,although his qualifications far exceed those of Boudin.
The proper analogy is between Boudin and Eric Rudolph. One serial bomber-murderer is in prison (where he belongs), and one serial bomber-murderer is in the Ivy League.
You don't see a problem with that?
Colson died recently without ever being offered a professorship from Columbia. He also didn't kill people.
DeleteOther than that, great analogy!
After Tsarnaev serves his jail time he too will be offered a professorship at Columbia, provided, of course, that he works with AIDS patients.
Joey
Joey,
DeleteDo you have the courage to admit that Egnor has omitted an important part of Boudin's biography? The technical term is a lie by omission.
Hoo
@Hoo:
Delete[She has done some amazing social work while she was in jail and you completely omit that fact from your screed. That work was the reason she has an adjunct position at Columbia, not her terrorist activities. Admit that, you dumb fuck.]
How much social work does Eric Rudolph need to do before he can get a job as an Ivy League professor?
First Rudolph needs to finish serving time, which isn't happening in his lifetime. So no professorship, I guess.
DeleteBut perhaps as a faithful Catholic he can be declared a saint.
Hoo
@Hoo:
DeleteOnly left-wing terrorists "finish serving time".
Why aren't Ayers, Dorhn, Boudin, Wilkerson, et al serving multiple consecutive life sentences for bombings, murder, conspiracy, etc?
The Weather Underground detonated 70 bombs. They were probably America's most prolific serial terrorists.
They are all free, and highly successful.
Can you list for me the right-wing terrorists and murderers who are excused by the legal system and celebrated in academia?
Boudin wasn't "excused." She had received a sentence of twenty years to life in prison and had served 29 years. That's close to half her life.
DeleteAnd you, doc, still don't have the balls to admit your lie by omission? What a brave man!
Hoo
@Hoo:
DeleteShould the Boston bomber start doing amazing social work, so he too can get a job at Columbia in 2042?
Boudin's "amazing social work" should have earned her an extra hour each month in the exercise yard at the Supermax Prison in Colorado.
Liar, liar, pants on fire!
DeleteHoo
@Hoo:
DeleteThe "lie by omission" by the way is Columbia's omission of her terrorist-murderer background on her faculty page.
Write to them and ask them to include the omission. And in the meantime, correct your own post, doc.
DeleteHoo
Hoo, I don't really give a crap if she worked with AIDS patients. I wouldn't give a crap if this Chechan guy did either. It was "omitted" because it isn't important.
DeleteBen
You are making no sense, Ben. Boudin's social work in prison is surely relevant to her appointment in the School of Social Work at Columbia.
DeleteHoo
@Hoo:
DeleteHer far left politics are far more relevant. Leftist political violence gives her street cred.
The irony of course is that a conservative speaker like Ann Coulter or David Horowitz would incite considerable unrest if they planned to speak at Columbia. Yet a terrorist-murderer commie is welcomed on faculty, as if it were the most mundane thing in the world.
So when people are convicted, and work hard to stay out of trouble and help others while they do their time, they shouldn’t be accepted back into society? No forgiveness ever? Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what Jesus taught?
Delete-KW
no, kw, it's not. furthermore, unconvinced, unrepentant terrorists get professorships as well, like bill ayers for example.
Deleteso, if dzhokhar tsarnaev says he's sorry and serves some jail time, he can be a professor too, and we're all unchristian if we're against it?
naidoo
Hardly the right qualifications for being a faculty member, naidoo. Try again.
DeleteLol, what a bunch of idiots saying the darndest things.
Hoo
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
DeleteFor if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
Do you people even read the bible!?
-KW
yes, i read the bible. even the devil can cite scripture.
Deletenaidoo
I said: “No forgiveness ever? Isn’t that kind of the opposite of what Jesus taught?”
DeleteYou said: “No, KW, it’s not”
After providing you with the alleged words of Jesus himself, do you still maintain that Jesus does not teach forgiveness? Please explain.
-KW
KW. You seriously think this issue has never been addressed? Jeesh.
Delete"3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil"
If I am the object of a criminal assault, I can forgive the perp. I should forgive the perp. The state, however, cannot and should not. Which is why there would still be a prosecution in spite of the fact that I forgave my assailant. It is 'The State vs the Perp', not 'David vs the Perp'.
David, that’s the best you can do? Jeesh. That has absolutely nothing to do with the stubborn hatred displayed by the Christians on this blog and elsewhere. No wonder it’s called “apologetics” you should apologize for being so lame.
Delete-KW
"With the 25th Anniversary of Allan Bloom's The Closing Of The American Mind upon us, the absence of intellectual pluralism that Bloom decried is still depressingly upon us. There is an undeniable divide between the Academy and larger society; a curtain has been drawn around the academy, inside of which the protection of certain ideas has trumped intellectual exchange and a search for the truth. There should be no easy or protected answers in our schools. In the modern academy, many certainly do not know all of the ideas worthy of consideration. Minding the Campus hopes to change that by fostering a new climate of opinion that favors civil and honest engagement of all sides, offering an engaged debate for readers concerned with the state of the modern university. We provide a simple central resource, featuring fresh original content and drawing upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America's Universities is needed; look for it at Minding the Campus."
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Anon.
DeleteCheers!
"We are naive to the evil around us, the evil ensconced in academia, the press, and our government."
ReplyDeleteAnother insightful post, Doctor.
The contrast between the reality of what is entrenched about us is often too uncomfortable for many people to face. They do not want to risk the anaesthetized bliss of their cocoon-like life by observing and reconciling with evil.
Some are superstitious cowards who fear evil will be drawn to them, if they 'interfere' or speak out.
Others have rationalized it away. Convinced themselves it is only a subjective illusion of an illusory consciousness in an accidentally lucky being, and not worth risking the greater illusion (their life) for.
Then there are those that are complicit. These complicit souls are far fewer, but tend to hold great influence/exert and power over those about them.
This person's experience as a child having their home firebombed is profoundly formative one. It has made him sensitive and aware of certain facts that most of normal observers of events would never connect. He has watched these events unfold in the first person.
But, all that said - No tenure here, methinks.
This idiot will be thrown to the mob. He is already convicted, we only await the sentence.
The bombing itself used to justify yet more extraordinary measures and powers. More controls and more limits on privacy.
Never waste a good crisis.
Anyway - a happy St George's to you, Mike... and all the Christian's that observe the Saints.
To the good folks of England, Newfoundland, and all the other localities and regions that make a festival of it.
And most especially to those of you who have served, no matter the land of your origin.
St George is the patron of the soldier.
He is a very appropriate saint for our age.
It is a shame St George's day is not greeted with more reverence by the faithful as a whole.
Bachfiend, if you're out there...
ReplyDeleteDo Australians say "mum" for mother, or "mom", or something else?
Also, have you ever heard the saying, "Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" We say that in America. I don't know if you say that there as well.
Ben
Ben,
DeletePerhaps it will be better to email me at bachfiend0@gmail.com with your questions. It's tedious reading long threads of abuse. '0' as in 'zero'.
Oh, thank you. I thought to ask for your email address but I didn't think you would post it here.
DeleteBen
they'll have kermitt gosnell teaching medicine soon enough. they're just that sick.
ReplyDeletenaidoo
naidoo,
DeleteIf this is how you imagine liberals, no wonder you have lost the last round of elections. You, guys, are seriously deluded.
Oh well, couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.
Hoo
that's all you got? libs won the last election? i fail to see the difference between hiring a terrorist named gosnell to teach medicine and a terrorist named ayers, boudin, or dohrn. please explain why one should be hired and the other not.
Deletenaidoo
naidoo,
DeleteYou are really foaming at the mouth, aren't you?
For starters, Gosnell isn't a terrorist. He has been charged with murders but not with terrorism and he certainly does not fit the description of a terrorist.
The conservatives certainly lost the last election. If you are only now waking up from hybernation, here is Michele Malkin saying "We lost this election."
What an adorable dork!
Hoo
oh, okay, it's okay to hire a terrorist like dohrn, boudin, or ayers, but not a murderer. seeing as how all terrorists are also murderers, i don't see your point at all.
Deleteyes. conservatives lost the last election, which seems to be your only comeback. it's not much of an argument as it is an excuse not to provide a coherent argument.
naidoo
boudin went to jail for being an accomplice to murder. gosnell is charged with murdering infants. if one is being hired, why not the other?
Deletenaidoo
naidoo,
DeleteIf you have a vestigial organ called brain (in normal people), try to use it for thinking. Hint: not every doctor gets hired to teach at an Ivy-league university.
Hoo
P.S. The conservatives' loss in the election was not a comeback. I remarked that your complete lack of understanding the world at large explains why the conservatives lost the election. In other words, I am saying that I am not surprised at your idiocy.
@naidoo:
ReplyDeleteProfessor of Pediatric Spinal Surgery.
Believe me, there are schools who would hire Gosnell to teach.
And which schools exactly would those be? Or are you lying again?
DeleteHoo
Well, Columbia hired a terrorist-murderer. Gosnell is an abortionist-murderer. Surely the folks at Columbia believe that abortionists are better than terrorists.
DeleteQED.
Is Hoo, Oleg?
ReplyDeleteHoo seems a bit more polished.
DeleteAnd if oleg came back under a pseudonym, it would be "gelo", so we wouldn't know.
Delete