It’s a bit early to be nominating Man of the Year, but I think I’ve found a shoo-in candidate for Weasel of the Year. That would be Lee Bollinger, Presi-weasel of Columbia University. Just look at the guy weaseling away here about how he “would not assign blame to any individual protester until a probe is complete.”

Why not? The responsible individuals are right there on video, doing what they did. They’ve been on local TV screens ever since, boasting about how they won’t allow “Nazis” (a term they reserve the right to define themselves) to speak on campus. I am sure their names are known all over the campus.

Bollinger “vowed that an investigation into the incident would continue, but declared that “It’s simply too early to rush to any judgment as to whether disciplinary action should be taken.” Why is it too early? By the time this “investigation” has plodded along for a year or so, won’t it then be too late? Isn’t too early sometimes better than too late?

One of the dictionary definitions of “summary“ is: “Direct and prompt; unceremoniously fast.” Seems to me we might as well just drop this meaning, as we seem to have lost the ability to do anything in a summary fashion. It takes fifteen years to execute an obvious murderer; it takes twenty years to do nothing at all about North Korean nukes; it will take Columbia at least a year to decide to slap the wrists of these hooligans.

Kick them out, Bollinger. If you don’t have power under the university’s constitution to kick them out, at least step up and say that’s what you WANT to do.

Weasel, weasel, weasel.

[A reader recently emailed to tell me that his father’s main grumble was: “This country no longer has the will to put a man up against a wall and shoot him.” I agree with the old geezer; and I think his complaint encapsulates something that has gone radically wrong with us. No, I don’t want the Columbia thugs shot, but I do want them expelled, and can’t understand why this hasn’t already been done.]