There Are No Homosexuals in Iran

...At least, according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This was a terrific event. Columbia President Lee Bollinger totally, and very effectively, trashed the guy in his introduction. I would have liked a sharper question on the holocaust: What specifically do you think is incomplete about the current research? Do you believe that 6 million Jews were killed? What do you think further research might reveal? And how to do you evaluate Adolf Hitler as a national leader?

Bottom line: This sort of freedom always works to our benefit. Those who screeched that an Ahmadinejad appearance would be terrible, a travesty of something or other, seem sort of silly now. (Actually, I thought they seemed sort of silly before.) The more the world sees of this guy--and hears from him--the better it will be, the more he'll have to refine his tune. Next step: We need to be more accurate about the actual power he has in Iran--which is to say, not very much. And none over the nuclear program. But I'll have more on that in my print column this week.