At American Thinker Ethel Fenig posts Freedom of Speech for Me but not for Thee :
Under the holy mantra of academic freedom of speech Iran's president Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at Columbia (we would have invited Hitler) University despite promising to eliminate the population of Israel. Academic freedom proponents were pleased at their victory.Fenig’s post continues here. You may not believe what happened at Emory University in Atlanta.
But when Nobel Prize winner James Watson questioned the intelligence of Africans his book tour was cancelled, lectures called off, job suspended. The fallout continues.Rockefeller University has cancelled a lecture Dr. Watson was to have given Wednesday at a ceremony honoring him and “The Double Helix,” the book he wrote about the elucidation of DNA.In addition, the 79 year old Watson retired as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island as well as from its board. It was his life's work:
“There were some members of the university community who had expressed reservations about Dr. Watson coming here to speak after the controversy over his remarks in the U.K.,” Joseph Bonner, Rockefeller’s director of communications, said today.Dr. Watson transformed it from a small facility into a world-class institution prominent in research on cancer, plant biology, neuroscience and computational biology, the board said in announcing his retirement. Bruce Stillman, who succeeded him as president, said today that he had created an “unparalleled” research environment at the laboratory.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/science/25cnd-watson.html?_r=1&em&ex=1193457600&en=dbaf904a72be118a&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin
1 comments:
john,
I've been reading to much lately.Among other things,I read a blog page at Daily Kos about Watson.He's been savaged as riding on Crick's coat tails,not very bright,arrogant,out of his field and a myriad of other things.Carl Sagan once remarked we are no more evolutionarily advanced than the people of the Dark Ages who would stone witches and I think this proves it.
Ages ago,I read "The Bell Curve"-at least most of it.I didn't find ti sensational ,but was discouraged.I,and I think many of my collegues feel there is a difference in average intellect of races.(I forgot,the professor emeritus who heqaded the attck on Watsondisputed both the existence of race and that intelligence could be measured.)I don't feel this is a pre judging but rather a judging of performance.In anyevent,it's immaterial as long as one judges individuals as such.This is the Achilles heel of affirmative action.By mandating that certain groups be proportionately represented in ceetain circles,it assures a certain porion will be under or poorly performing.
I've remarked on line the Left is far more frightened of discussions of 'IQ' than the right is of creationism.I will close by quoting two famous persons re' the mob of silencers. First is G.Galelei,"Yet it still moves."
And then B.Bunny,"What a maroon."
Best,Corwin
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