UCI police were well-represented. Alan Dershowitz was wrapping up his talk elsewhere in the building, though, so who knows how much security Pipes alone would have attracted.

The head of the UCI College Republicans, the head of the UCI Objectivist Club (Eric Brunner), and Reut Cohen each gave separate preambles. Cohen was introduced as working for the David Project. Another Young Republican then led the attendees (some of them) in the Pledge of Allegiance, “under god” and all.

It’s difficult to make out in this video clip, but students from the Muslim Student Union arrived wearing duct tape over their mouths. On the duct tape gags were written phrases such as “no censorship” and “free speech”. Soon after Pipes started speaking, they stood up, held up signs facing the lectern, and filed out of the room. Since the signs weren’t facing the audience, it was near-impossible to make out any of the slogans.

This cleared out about half of the room. Starting at -0:25 in the clip, notice the unaffiliated undergrads rushing in to grub better seats. Go go Anteater decorum.

The MSU released a statement and a video statement.

This clip is remarkable only for the dueling inanity.

Pipes talked only for about 35 minutes. Chancellor Drake and one of UCI’s communications officials (I think) dropped in for a few minutes, partway through. Pipes then took about 45 minutes in Q&A giving inane answers to mostly-inane student questions. Several students, including Brunner (twice) if I recall correctly, and one of his friends (who slapped him a congratulatory five after one attempt), tried vainly to get Pipes to agree with them that all of Islam, not just militant Islamism, is the enemy.

See also assorted juvenilia from Chuck DeVore and divers hands.

More throughout the day if I run across anything interesting.

Point and snicker time again. This brilliant image represents the UC Irvine College Republicans on both MySpace and Facebook.

What can I possibly say? The red, white, and black theme? The Gothic font? The grainy black-and-white stills of der Führer?

C’mon.

Now you may be thinking, “Gott in Himmel! The UCI junior GOP must be an enclave of neo-Nazism! Nobody could be that fucking clueless! Not even in Orange County!” Well, sorry to disappoint, folks, but it seems that people in Orange County really can be that fucking clueless.

Need I call attention to the irony that the UC Irvine College Republicans are co-hosting a speaking event with a Hillel- sponsored Israel-advocacy group, given that Hillel has voiced concern that Jews might not feel safe on the UCI campus?

Yes, I think I do.

See also: “California Über Alles”.

The David Project is a project of the Israel on Campus Coalition, which in turn is a PR effort designed to promote positive perceptions of the Israeli government on US college campuses.

On the Israel on Campus Coalition:

The group was put together by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, which is funding several student programs and has invested a quarter of a million dollars to fund this project.

It hired Wayne Firestone, former director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League, as its director.

Based in Washington, the Israel on Campus Coalition will act as an information-sharing and planning agency for more than 20 Jewish organizations on campus, and a central clearinghouse for students and professionals.

Pro-Israel professionals from the elite consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, offered pro-bono services to assess the key lessons learned from the activities of the past year and the top priorities of each organization for the coming year.

In a document the company submitted to the Israel on Campus Coalition, it stated that the primary goal for this year should be to “take back the campus” by influencing public opinion through lectures, the Internet and coalitions.

It says that to affect public opinion on the campuses, the message should be to “make the case for Israel proactively: Don’t sound defensive about Israel, or argue about specific facts — instead, reframe the debate to emphasize Israel’s long history of democracy, peace and resistance to terror.”

• Pomerance, Rachel. 2002. “Jewish Groups Coordinate Efforts to Help Students ‘Take Back Campus’”. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, August 28.

On the David Project:

The ICC has a single “affiliate member”: the David Project. The David Project is led by Charles Jacobs, who is a co-founder of CAMERA, the pro-Israel media watchdog group; the founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group, which calls itself “America’s leading human rights group dedicated to abolishing modern day slavery worldwide”; and, along with Richard Perle, Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol, among others, a member of the board of advisers of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

The ICC’s website lists a number of “regional ICCs” that receive “strategic advice and guidance” from the Washington headquarters. The regional ICC representative in New York is none other than Rachel Fish, the director of the David Project’s New York office. Jacobs was tight-lipped in a recent interview: He refused to provide details about his financial backers, referring only to unnamed “individuals and foundations”; and he declined to elaborate on the extent to which the David Project receives tactical advice from professional pro-Israel lobbyists and operatives allied with the ICC.

• Sherman, Scott. 2005. “The Mideast Comes to Columbia”. The Nation, April 4.

Jesus loves Ron Paul, evidently.

Freedom! Forever! Fuck, yeah!

V is for winning! In case you didn’t hear, the Paulite crew have been appropriating anarchist manifesto V for Vendetta for their personality cult’s fundraising. This makes no sense.

The University Center bridge has a couple of anti-Ron slogans. To this one, someone later chalked on “… the competition”.

This is my favorite.

When award-winning British journalist Yvonne Ridley was captured by the Taliban in 2001, the last thing she expected was to convert to Islam two years later. After promising to read the Qur’an following her release, Ridley stayed true to her word and found that, contrary to the actions of the Taliban toward women, the Qur’an was in fact what she later described as a “Magna Carta for women”.

Yvonne Ridley, though, evidently doesn’t think that the Taliban were all that bad.

Go buy a T-shirt.

This isn’t an op-ed. It’s an editorial, approved by the New University editorial board. Watch out, the Kool-Aid looks like it’s going around.