Running Larry Summers Out of Town
Quote of the Day I
“A plurality of one faculty has brought about an academic coup d’etat against not only Harvard University president Lawrence Summers but also against the majority of students, faculty, and alumni. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which forced Summers’s resignation by voting a lack of confidence in him last March and threatening to do so again on Feb. 28, is only one component of Harvard University and is hardly representative of widespread attitudes on the campus toward Summers. The graduate faculties, the students, and the alumni generally supported Summers for his many accomplishments. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences includes, in general, some of the most radical, hard-left elements within Harvard’s diverse constituencies. And let there be no mistake about the origin of Summers’s problem with that particular faculty: It started as a hard left-center conflict. Summers committed the cardinal sin against the academic hard left: He expressed politically incorrect views regarding gender, race, religion, sexual preference, and the military.” – Harvard Law Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz, writing in the Boston Globe
Quote of the Day II
“The American left, long in decline, has shored up its base, definitively seizing the high ground of American academia…. The breaking point began to unfold when Summers dared to entertain as a possible hypothesis that there might be inherent differences between men and women, which in turn might affect the success females experience in mathematical and scientific endeavors. It has now been established that orthodox feminism, not free intellectual inquiry, determines what may be said by the leaders of Harvard.” – Thomas Lifson, writing at the AmericanThinker.com
Thanks to my uncle in Pennsylvania for sending these.
For some fun with this, check out Half Sigma’s recommendation of what Summers should say on his way out the door, of which I agree.
If you want to understand the whole truth behind what got Summers in trouble to begin with, read Steve Sailer here.
Update: Dr. Sanity writes: “In the history of academia, I don’t think anyone has ever come closer to voluntary castration for the cause of radical feminism. And look where it got him. “
June 28th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I agree that this is probably the beginning of the end for Harvard University being the elite
university of the United States. Larry Summers, by the way, was a democrat. Also,
Summers did not actually say that there was a difference in aptitude between the sexes - he
only stated that it was a possibility that had to be considered. Only to be lynched by the
radical left (I am glad that you distinguish between the left and liberals - liberals believe in freedom of speech and academic inquiry which the radical left does not believe). Harvard
lost a $115 million dollar endowment over Larry Summers being forced out, by the way.
A remark on race and intelligence. In the United States, Asian Americans have a average IQ
of about 115 (15 points above that national mean), despite the fact that Southeast Asia is mired in poverty. Like mental illness, intelligence is probably neither purely heriditary nor
pure environment but is a complex mixture of both. Also, hispanics are not a true racial
catagory genetically but represent a linguistic classification (Spanish and Portugese).
June 28th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
My comment was posted before I had a chance to make a typographical correction. the Asian
American IQ score is 15 points above the general United States national mean (”that” should be
“the”) despite the poverty of Southeast Asia.