Though they speak of lofty ideals and with high-minded self righteousness, the administration and faculty of Columbia University have welcomed the devil, himself, to their campus in the name of so-called academic freedom.

The devil is most amused.

The applause that members of the audience mounted loudly and often for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will echo through the annals of history in perpetuity alongside the anguished cries of Ahmadinejad's victims.

The deed is done.

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger and Acting Dean John H. Coatsworth have sealed their fates, too.  Regardless of what they have done before or may yet achieve in their careers, they will never -- never -- be able to wash this stain from their souls.

What fools!  What dupes! 

To think that an American University should ignore the victims of Ahmadinejad's tyranny and the threat he poses to world peace to offer him a platform to spout his lies and rhetoric is folly.

Bollinger proclaimed that his students and the world would learn valuable lessons from Ahmadinejad's appearance.  And I think they did.

They learned that scholars such as Bollinger and Coatsworth can be colasally stupid.  Even my non-college educated parents know full well that anyone who does the devil's bidding is no better than Satan himself.

I do hope that the souls of those who have been and will be terrorized by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come to haunt Bollinger and Coatsworth at night. 

If anyone deserves the right to speak freely, it is they!