Wow, didn’t think that would be such a hornet’s nest. Look: I agree that Hedges was a buffoon. And I think that the school was nuts for booking him in the first place. But if the standard — as several writers have suggested — is that booing is ok if the speaker is an arrogant and selfish jerk, then lefties and other malcontents would be right for booing all sorts of speakers. I mean politicians and intellectuals give assinine commencement addresses all the time. I think the slow clap or complete silence gets the message across. I don’t even care about the occassional boo or hiss. But he was invited to speak and therefor he should be allowed to do that. Maybe I’ve spoken to enough leftwing audiences where people have tried to shout me down that I’m particularly thin-skinned about this sort of thing.