Ahmadinejad Draws Laughter at Columbia

Assembled students reacted with gales of derisive laughter today at Columbia University when Iran's president Ahmedinejad declared, "We don't have homosexuality in Iran. We do not have that phenomenon in our country."

Ironically, his country hangs people in public for homosexuality on a regular basis, which makes his claim for its non-existence a bit difficult to accept.

University president Lee Bolinger gave Ahmedinejad further lessons in the concept of free speech as he coolly launched an intellectual attack on the dictator.

"Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," Bollinger said. On the Ahmedinejad's Holocaust denial the president called him "astonishingly uneducated." The more than 600 people present reported burst into applause. Bollinger also rose the questions of women's rights and freedom of expression.

The university had come under fire earlier in the week for inviting the dictator to speak, having consistently refused to let people with any views they deemed conservative speak. It seems that the university may have regained a reputation as a haven of free expression today.