And by The Boss we mean Bwog-fave Bruce Robbins, whose ruminations on Columbia's dearth of academic freedom made it into this week's edition of The Nation. Esther Kaplan's penetrating investigation of Fair Alma revealed a brewing crisis in contemporary academia: fringe right-wing groups holding controversial events on campuses. And dear God does the future look bleak.

Elsewhere, David Horowitz wrapped up this week's anti-Islamofascist carnival by offering America's complacent masses one final, terrifying anecdote:

"The Vice President of the Muslim Students Association at Columbia protested my use of the word 'jihad' during my speech, which she said meant spiritual 'struggle' rather than 'holy war' The only problem was that I hadn't used the word 'jihad' in my speech at all. It was just one of the talking points she had been given in advance of the event. When I asked her whether she would denounce the terrorist group Hamas, which along with the Muslim Brotherhood created her organization, she evaded the question."

UPDATE, 2:06 AM: Amreen Vora, Vice President of Columbia MSA, wrote to Bwog to say that she never made such a comment, and in fact was not present at the Horowitz event at all.

Also in unholy league with the Islamists is the Columbia Coalition Against the War, a group so dangerous that Horowitz surrounds its name with quotation marks, as if to suggest that they only kinda-sorta exist, but not really, because if they actually existed they wouldn't have quotation marks around their name, right?

Next controversy, please.

Just when you thought that this year's oratorical cavalcade couldn't possibly get any weirder, Friendly Fire has invited world-renowned pornographer free speech activist Larry Flynt to speak here on Thursday at 5 PM in the Lerner Party Space (the email says to get there early). No announcement yet on whether there'll be an afterparty at the Hustler Club, but Bwog is holding out hope.

One event whose after party certainly won't be held at the Hustler Club (like that transition?) is the College Republican's candlelight vigil to "remember and acknowledge the untold millions who unduly suffer under the tyranny of state-enforced Islamic extremism." In today's Spec, awesomely-named CUGOP board member Diana Lawless called the event a chance for people to "put aside their politics and differences."

And such opportunities for communal harmony abound during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. David Horowtiz, C '59 is speaking Friday afternoon (register here), and if that isn't enough to satisfy your curiosity/raging Islamophobia/hatred of Islamofascism, there's an "oppression panel" with speakers from CUNY and the American Enterprise institute on Wednesday at 8 in Math 203.

You can bet that the Progressive Jewish Alliance won't be attendance. Their Facebook group petitioning Hillel to officially condemn the week's events currently has 99 members.

And if you still want to see Natalie Portman talk about poverty reduction tomorrow at 1 in Lerner 555, Bwog recommends you email ec2454@columbia.edu as soon as possible.

-ARR

Proof from Hamilton 3 that flyering is a legitimate art form:

In completely unrelated news, Bwog saw this rather militant-looking vehicle parked outside its window this morning. Though momentarily worried that our nation had suffered an overnight descent into Soviet-style martial law, Bwog's fears were assuaged when it saw that it carried a banner reading "Elite Shooters.com." We're glad that somebody's finally cashing in on the long-dormant urban sportshooting market, although it looks like a few Morningsiders are in for a hell of an office party. Maybe the Saltzman Institute is going for a mid-semester jaunt?

Get ready for for this one: word has it that Columbia alumnus/right-wing writer David Horowitz plans to make an on-campus appearance sometime between October 22nd and 26th to spearhead "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," an event put on through the Terrorism Awareness Project. As a special treat, Horowitz plans to bring conservative talk show host Sean Hannity (who did this this little number a year ago) along with him to give us a speech all about Islamofascism. Details have been floating around here for awhile now, where a long list of speakers during the nationwide event include Rick Santorum (UPenn, Penn State, Temple) and Ann Coulter (Tulane, USC).

In a Monday blog post, Horowitz denounced the ISO's Thursday evening event "Using Racism to Sell War: The West vs. Islam?" calling the event a message from "leftwing flak-catchers for America's enemies." In his next post, Horowitz refers to the Muslim Students Association as "a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and is funded by the Saudis and is part of the Islamo-fascist jihad," generally speaking.

Brace yourselves?