Dense poets society

By Thomas Lifson
American Thinker | March 21, 2005

Poetry is a window on the human soul.

Sad to say, American poetry has fallen on hard times. At least that branch of it represented by the dozen or so poets recently outraged by an article we published which dared to criticize anti-Israel poet Ammiel Alcalay. Judging by the communications we have received, and by the ‘guerilla’ tactics employed against us, these poets, many of whom teach at respectable universities and colleges, are a pathetic lot. Incapable of reasoned argument, spewing epithets, pretentious, paranoid, and stupid enough to conspire and provide cause for legal action right in public, they embody, in James Taranto‘s phrase, a ‘toxic mix of self-pity and thuggery… characteristic of an alienated political minority.’

We were happy to publish immediately the first two letters of complaint which we received on the article. The first one came from Lisa Jarnot, ‘assistant professor, Brooklyn College, Dept of Creative Writing,’ whose only approximation of substantive criticism was ‘you are totally out to lunch.’ The second letter came from someone claiming to be ‘M. Arnone,’ and employed sarcasm, as well as the adjectival form of a vulgar word for sexual intercourse which we duly censored in publishing it. Our contributor Herb Meyer even wrote us a letter about Professor Jarnot’s communication, which we also published. Continue reading “Dense poets society” →

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Another U.N. Scandal

By Alyssa A. Lappen
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 16, 2005

Given the oil-for-food and peace-keepers-for-sex scandals in the United Nations of late, one might expect the press corps covering that international body to conduct their own business in the most scrupulous manner. But recent reports and complaints suggest that even the United Nations Correspondents Association is not whistle-clean.

From the outside, the UNCA and the doings of its officers may seem insignificant. The group has no more than 180 members, and its annual dues — after a 30 percent increase to $65 — will generate little more than $11,000 in 2005, according to several members. Donations from outside organizations bring the total annual budget to some $30,000, they say. In short, the UNCA hardly compares — in size or import — to, say, the National Press Club.

The UNCA is a not-for-profit membership organization, insiders say, whose associates represent most major U.S. and international newspapers and, of course, broadcast networks. Journalists centered at the United Nations are presumably assigned to cover the General Assembly, Security Council and all ancillary U.N. departments and organizations with an impartial eye.

“Journalists lynch every public official caught in any impropriety, so we should hold ourselves to the highest of standards,” says one UNCA member, explaining his benchmark for professional conduct. “At our paper, if you accept work or free trips [from sources], you’re fired.”

The UNCA leadership and some of its members, on the other hand, seem mired in such conflicts of interest. The group fails to censure members who work for the United Nations or member states. Its members go on all-expense-paid junkets. The group takes funding from from political activists and outside organizations that could also affect UN coverage. And in perhaps the biggest blunder of all, the UNCA hired as its “office administrator” one member who just happened to lack appropriate U.S. working papers. Continue reading “Another U.N. Scandal” →

Poetry, terror and political narcissism

By Alyssa A. Lappen

AmericanThinker.com | March 4, 2005

Poetry is a window on the human soul. But the politics of American poetry, in recent years have veered into more and more radical territory, as an increasing number of poets openly declare their allegiance with ‘Palestine,’ and implicitly, with terror. Academics with one foot in Middle Eastern Studies and another in literature and poetry are the prime conduits of this degrading development. A few names that come to mind are Tom Paulin[1], a literature lecturer at Oxford University, former New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka[2], Marylin Hacker[3], and Alicia Ostriker[4] at Rutgers University.

A prime example is Ammiel Alcalay, a tenured professor and former chair of Classical, Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures at City University of New York’s Queens College[5]. The author, editor or translator of at least nine literary, essay and poetry volumes[6], Alcalay has established himself as a fixture on the college speaking and poetry circuits, both realms that he vigorously exploits to disseminate sharply antiâ€”American, anti-Israel and pro-Palestine views[7].

Born and raised in Boston, Alcalay, 48, is the son of Sephardic Jews from Bosnia[8]. But his family background seems to have taught Alcalay nothing about the deficiencies of previous eras or the evils of communism. Not only does Alcalay seek a return to pre-democratic times[9], he wishes for a revolution such as outlined by French Marxist and anti-colonialist Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), author of Wretched of the Earth.[10]

Nominally literary in discipline, Alcalay is, like his idol Edward Said, better described as a political narcissist, preoccupied with his own role as arbiter of radical politics and the arts[11]. As such, he is the true interpreter and defender of ‘memory.’ ”Terrorists’ hijack planes but ‘ideologues,’ in the form of states and other acceptably licensed power structures, hijack a people’s collective memory, or at least make the attempt,’ Alcalay writes in a review of Said’s After the Last Sky, in his own vainglorious attempt to nullify Israel’s independence and statehood[12].

But the converse is actually true: intellectual hijacking is Alcalay’s specialty. In November 2002, for example, he discussed political poetry and the ‘politicization of studies’ at Cornell University–within the context of a shameless diatribe against ‘the normative narrative of Israel and Zionism,…remarkable, remarkable…[American] ignorance’ and ‘lack of any sense of empathy, solidarity, sympathy’ with the Arab Middle East[13]. For Alcalay, as it was for Said, the intellectual’s true role is opposing all forms of power and every status quo, unless those have to do with the favored ‘Other.’ Continue reading “Poetry, terror and political narcissism” →

Witless for Peace

By Alyssa A. Lappen
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 3, 2005

Did you know that the U.S. (not Castro) has impoverished Cuba through its 40-year embargo, has waged war with Colombia, and has perpetuated an “epidemic” of unfair trade practices via the North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (which put the Western Hemisphere up “for sale“)? Thanks to the Witness for Peace program, students at Ohio’s Miami University do.

Miami University — a public state-funded college located in Oxford, Ohio, near Cincinnati — doesn’t have a “Peace Studies” program, but it compensates for that by giving students academic credit to take anti-American trips sponsored by WFP. Think of WFP as a university version of Global Exchange, taking college students to see the “horrors” of American foreign policy and the supposed glories of socialism firsthand. From Wellesley College, to the University of Minnesota, to Harvard University, student groups nationwide send dozens of WFP “delegations” to South America and the Caribbean annually. Regional WFP chapters and campus-based programs draw hundreds of students who travel for $600 to $1,200 a head on programs where they are indoctrinated in Hate America rhetoric.
Last March, Miami University senior Ross Meyer won widespread acclaim for leading 13 students to Mexico as part of Witness for Peace (WFP), a national group that claims to support “peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas — through publications, work-and-travel “opportunities” and “action tools.” A WFP brochure explains that the group was founded in 1983 “by people of faith and conscience [in] response to U.S. funding of the Contra War.” But neither WFP nor Meyer are simple peace-loving activists or students; they indoctrinate students that America is an international aggressor, systematically impoverishing other nations for political and economic advantage. Continue reading “Witless for Peace” →