Liberal Talk Radio

The controversial Sunday Magazine piece on Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, ex-Taliban spokesman who has enrolled at Yale to pursue an undergraduate degree, is pretty fascinating. After reading it, you start to root for the guy and eventually begin to think that this might be as good a way as any to pull f**ked up people with f**ked up ideologies back into the orbit of civilization. Ivy League schools might want to consider reserving scholarships for citizens of ex-tyrannical, formerly undemocratic nations. (It might shake things up a little at these places.)

And even though you may be inclined to shake your head at the apparent idiocy of Ivy League admissions offices tripping over themselves to enroll Islamists, don’t miss this nugget — the image is hilarious:

[Yale dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid] Richard Shaw said the admissions office had once had another foreigner of Rahmatullah’s caliber apply for special-student status. “We lost him to Harvard,” he says. “I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Yes, the Taliban were one of the worst regimes out there, but it’s impressive to see Rahmatullah’s point of view slowly, gradually evolve. Dude should go back to Afghanistan and run for office — it might not be half-bad for him to run for president eventually!