Does freedom of speech mean that distinguished institutions of higher education are required to invite nuts and war criminals in order to support a commercially-organized event described as New Yorker magazine's "three-day cultural fest, celebrating the finest in the arts, music, fiction, poetry, journalism, and humor"?

Jeffrey Goldberg will interview Paul Wolfowitz in the New School's Tishman Auditorium at 3 pm tomorrow, Sunday, afternoon.

The possibilities of this piece de theatre sound even more delicious than that presented by the holy visit of the old lama in our own secular and public Central Park tomorrow at roughly the same time.* Numbers count, whether huge or manageable, so a disturbance near either altar might attract some attention. Creative signage can be very effective.

In any event, it seems that kind of disturbance would be very appropriate at each venue.

The West 12th Street event is certainly timely, since Goldberg is one of the most important sponsors of the fiction of Saddam Hussein's ties to September 11, Wolfowitz was one of the key architects of our invasion of Iraq, and just this week Bush has finally had to deny the connection authored by Goldberg, a connection which made the Wolfowitz-championed invasion acceptable to a frightened and gullible American public.

There will be no representation on that stage of those who either knew the truth, or who opposed our massive destruction of an entire nation - except of course for the protesters in the audience and outside the theatre. All such are welcome, at the very least to save the honor of the New School.

*
From the lama's website:

Backpacks, large purses, briefcases, bags, cameras and recording equipment will not be permitted in the Park [my emphasis]. All articles are subject to search upon entry.

Francois

Our quite wonderful new friends from Bordeaux, Francois and Nicolas, left for home Wednesday night, and we missed them immediately. They are smart. They are artists. They are charming. They are interested in everything about this city and its people. This was their first trip to the U.S., and it was Francois's first trip outside of France. They chose only to visit New York this time. Of course we wanted to see that they were happy while they were here.

There is only one reason for us to be grateful their visit did not continue into the next day: Thomas L. Friedman.

Barry has already written about what they said was their one encounter with local Francophobia, and it was a doozie. Days before they left they returned here after a visit to Times Square, very upset about having seen t-shirts for sale that read, "IRAQ FIRST, THEN FRANCE." They told us that they had heard that Americans didn't like the French, but that it was the first time they had seen the evidence. I think we were able to cheer them up again by telling them that it only meant that some miserable souls are very stupid and thoughtless, even in New York.

The day after they left Friedman showed us all just how stupid and thoughtless even appointed members of the Gotham elite can be. The NYTimes columnist (how'd he get that job, and when did the Times editorial pages start to read like The Wall Street Journal's?) declared that we were at war with France, because France wants us to fail in the occupation of Iraq.

Nicolas and Francois do not wish us ill, and the vast numbers of their countrymen are no more malevolent. The French government is not our enemy. All do join every thinking American in wanting us to stop acting like fools - and worse. The best response to an appallingly stupid Op-Ed piece which really deserves none (except for the importance of its medium) appeared the next day in a letter to the editor.

Thomas L. Friedman's assertion (column, Sept. 18) that "France wants America to fail in Iraq" is akin to saying that someone who separates a drunken driver from his car keys doesn't want him to get home.

I want us to get home, but it doesn't look like we're going to make it.

France certainly has its own problems, and Nicolas and Francois were not shy about discussing them, but at least they are home. We wish them and that home the very best.

Al Franken at Borders Books this afternoon

So I wandered downtown to Wall Street again this morning. This time the attraction was the possibility of encountering and photographing bankers and brokers screaming as Al Franken entered their neighborhood Borders Books for a signing of his latest tome, already an over-the-top (in both senses) Best Seller titled, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right."

I was disappointed, since there was not even the hint of an altercation, and the friendly Borders people were outfitted in smart "TEAM FRANKEN" t-shirts. One of the people waiting to greet the great man, a middle-aged Lefty intellectual who had already read the book, suggested that the Republicans don't read, so they had not heard what was going on just 100 feet from the Stock Exchange.

The crowd was a pretty mixed, although remarkably white, group of bookies, several hundreds of them in fact. I had missed the photo-op that I had come for, so I decided to buy the book (a totally unnecessary purchase in my case, but it was a good cause, and good for me too at a special 30% discount today) and get in line myself. Besides, the fact that a lot of them were very cute made for a pleasant market area visit. Those of us in the line unfortunately missed Franken's brief remarks delivered on another floor - bad organization on the part of the special events people at the store.

Some will have another chance tomorrow, as he will be part of a large Howard Dean event at 7 o'clock tomorrow to open the new club, Avalon, once known as The Limelight. Performers and speakers include Franken, Dean, Whoopi Goldberg and Gloria Gaynor, who will be performing "I Will Survive". Yes, that's right.

It sounds like the space is being re-consecrated in noble purpose, perhaps suggesting an attempt to exorcize the spirits of owners, promoters and club-kids past. Not a bad start, but it's not likely to determine the course of Avalon nights to follow. Nor should it.

Sounds like a certain amount of fun tomorrow night, possibly even for Dr. Dean himself.

Phew! I'm relieved, both as an atheist and as a small-"d" democrat, to find that the Tibetan political and religious leader, the Dalai Lama, has feet of clay.

Lama now says that the Iraq war may be justified, and has always said that homosexuality is not. It seems that his reputation for peace and understanding is something of an artificial creation.

On Bush's wars:

The Dalai Lama said Wednesday that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan may have been justified to win a larger peace, but that is it too soon to judge whether the Iraq war was warranted.

"I think history will tell," he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, just after he met with President Bush.

And, as for my wretchedness:

For example, the Dalai Lama explicitly condemns homosexuality, as well as all oral and anal sex. His stand is close to that of Pope John Paul II, something his Western followers find embarrassing and prefer to ignore. His American publisher even asked him to remove the injunctions against homosexuality from his book, "Ethics for the New Millennium," for fear they would offend American readers, and the Dalai Lama acquiesced.

He sounds like a not-so-moderate Republican to me.

What's the good of a lama if he won't defend truth and justice everywhere? And besides, we can even weep and fight for Tibet itself without the ministrations of a Buddhist fakir.