Edward Said is dead. Mark the man and his passing any way you feel is appropriate. Personally, I have made a donation in his honor to PizzaIDF.org, and had the certificate of recognition sent to the Comparative Literature department at Columbia University. Other groups that might appreciate such a gesture are the Palestinian Mission to the UN, Random House (his publisher), and perhaps most fittingly, Alexander Cockburn at Counterpunch.

Hey dash, I'd like to send a pizza to the IDF too. Is it possible to order one with poison? That would be great. Then I'd send the certificate to one of the "Holocaust" museums that every city in America seems to have, even though it didn't happen here.

Larry2: yes, our museums should only reflect events that have happened on our soil. Get all those foreign pictures out of the art museum - especially the French ones! Ever notice how those eyes follow you...? Those paintings and sculptures are actively working against our national interests! To the bonfire with them!

Everybody keeps writing “Said dead” & the like, as if there were a rhyme. Yet his name was pronounced “Sah-EED.” I suggest that people knowingly continue to mispronounce his name & if anybody begins to offer a correction, interrupt & say, “Sah-EED was his name, I know, but now he’s Deh-ADD.” His life was an Islamonazi salute.

Edward Said, the Palestinian professor at Columbia University was highly critical of American policy. While I dissagreed with most of what he had to say I think it was important to hear different perspectives on American policies -- especially from a Palestinian intellectual who had the freedom to speak his mind here.
On his passing, his American counterpart in one of the premier Universities in the West Bank, Jonathan Smith (who is noted for his highly critical view of the Palestinian Authority and Arafat in particular) had this to say ...
Just kidding. There is no Jonathan Smith. There are no American intellectuals decrying the PA in the West Bank. There is no American point of view in the West Bank. And there most certainly is no open and sustained criticism Arafat and the PA.

Good Riddance.

There are no premier universities in the west bank either. The Palestinian intellectuals are too busy brainwashing the starving poor to go on suicide missions while comfortably living on CU salaries in New York.
How's this for a rhyme:
Dead Said - good riddance indeed.

I read, "Orientalism Revisted." Good summary, but after just a paragraph of analysis it becomes painfully apparent that Windschuttle doesn't understand much of anyhting Said wrote.

"According to Said, Orientalist essentialism is not knowledge, but a series of beliefs that are both distorted and out of date. Surely, though, if these beliefs are wrong, they would have contributed to poor judgment, bad estimates, and mistaken policies."

Windschuttle idea here is that since colonialism was a "success", Europeans must have had a realistic, modern view of the Orient. While this claim itself is rather ridiculous, it fails to comment on what Said defined as "Colonial Discourse" - as a moral vehicle to clear the way for the conquest and subjegation of the East.

I'm no big fan of Said, but it's important to point out that the biggest Palestinian supporter of Isreal's right to exist died last monday (albeight, with the whole Palestinian Authority tacked on). I would advise removing the link to Windschuttle's criticism.