Osama's Vanity

This NPR report on the capture of Osama bin Laden and the videos the Pentagon released on him, contained something really interesting. 


"In one of them [the videos..],  which runs more than a minute, bin Laden is under a rough-hewn blanket wearing a woolen cap. His beard is unkempt and streaked in gray...

In another of the clips, bin Laden appears with a very dark clipped beard. Officials said that video was part of a propaganda message bin Laden intended to send to the U.S. entitled "Message to the American People." 

They [officials] were quick to point out the vanity bin Laden must have had to dye his beard for the video. Officials had said earlier that hair dye was one of the things they found in the bin Laden compound."

While NPR might call it vanity, I think it's way more than that.  Bin Laden needed to look younger to appear strong and immortal.  It's just funny to think that our leaders do the same exact thing...  

University Politics

This post is about more local, smaller politics, which I will attempt to connect to the media, sorry if it seems like a bit of a stretch...

This week, CUNY's board of trustees decided to rescind the honorary award that they had been planning to give to Tony Kushner.

The reason? Well, apparently Jeffery Wiesenfeld, a trustee, convinced the rest of the board that Kushner was anti-Israel, and therefore his work deserved to not be honored.
I read somewhere yesterday (and now I can't find the article so maybe I'm making this up...) that Wiesenfeld was basing his decision on something that Kushner wrote online.

It will be interesting to see what happens now that the news is all over this- there are numerous facebook pages, editorials, articles crying out against this- and calling for Wiesenfeld's resignation.

YU's very own Professor Schrecker who was also honored with the same award a couple of years ago on her work on academic honesty, is mentioned in this article (she's returning her award in solidarity).