One wishes that the women who pushed for the invitation of Larry Summers to speak to the regents to be rescinded had thought of television commentary like this, on Fox, in re Columbia’s invitation to Iranian president Ahmadinejab to speak….

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Let me give you an example of the double standard. This week there was a petition, in the last few weeks, at UC Davis by feminist professors protesting the appearance of Larry Summers at a dinner of the regents, which was supposed to happen last night.

The invitation was rescinded.

BRIT HUME: Former Harvard University President Summers, former Treasury Secretary Summers.

KRAUTHAMMER: In a Democratic administration, a great professor and a great American. His invitation is rescinded. These are elite institutions that speak about a welcoming a diversity opinion. Well, not if you are Larry Summers, and yet yes if you are the president of Iran, a sponsor of terrorism and a denier of the holocaust.

This is an example of the degradation of American academia. And the reason it has become so irrelevant in American public life — 40 years ago in the Kennedy days academia was a source of ideas. It no longer is. All of that now is in think tanks as a result of the incredibly hostile atmosphere in the university against real diversity of opinion.

Boy, you know things are rough when people are saying that think tanks are generating more diversity of opinion than academia.