"His fatal flaws were honesty and a desire to do the right thing"

Tiny stares out the back door (offscreen to the right) -- at things we don't see -- this morning from behind a mock prison, the laundry rack atop the washing machine, where she likes to swish and purr and self-pet while weighing opposing arguments before deciding the exact moment when it's safe to go outside.

"His fatal flaws were honesty and a desire to do the right thing. That has ruined more than one academic career," writes Thomas Sowell, noting "the resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard University tells us a lot about what is wrong with academia today":

Even if every conclusion with which students are indoctrinated were true, unless those students develop their own ability to weigh opposing arguments, these conclusions will become obsolete as new issues arise in the years ahead. These "educated" people will have developed no ability to analyze opposing sides of issues.

Students are getting half an education at inflated prices and learning only how to label, dismiss and demonize ideas that differ from what they have been led to believe. Their "educated" ignorance is a danger to the future of this country.

But all may not be lost. Like the Danish imams who fanned the fires of "Arab-street" cartoon hysteria only to have their attempts to repress freedom of speech in the West blow up in their faces [Buy Danish!], Harvard's radical FAS malcontents may have unwittingly sown the seeds of their own destruction by revealing the raw power grab behind their heavy-handed attempts to repress freedom of speech on campus.

Honesty and a desire to do the right thing, a fatal flaw in today's university president, are the hallmarks of success among leading members of the feline community.

According to Harvard Prof. Ruth R. Wisse in Opinion Journal:

Student response to the ouster suggests another long-term outcome. Although the activists of yesteryear may have found a temporary stronghold in the universities, a new generation of students has had its fill of radicalism.

"My sources report that Summers did himself no good with the faculty by becoming a hero to the student body," quips Emmett Tyrrell, popping the spoilers' hot-air balloon with humor:

The weekend before his resignation the student newspaper, The Crimson, published a poll showing that some 70 percent of the university's undergraduates wanted him to stay. Knowledgeable observers around the Harvard Yard recognize that many faculty members are very jealous of the undergraduates, viewing them as handsomer, prettier and in some cases much better skateboarders. Also the undergraduates are seen as a threat to the professoriate's self-esteem, as many do not watch much television or play video games. They agree with Summers that Harvard State University should be a citadel of learning, even if that means reading books rather than conducting witch hunts.

We hope the smug thugs of the FAS get to read that. Maybe we'll google their email addresses and forward it. There's nothing a tyrant can tolerate less than being made fun of.

Comments

[goomp]

It is disappoiting that Summers did not have the fortitude to accept the support of the Harvard student body to stay as a shining example of determination to resist the corruption of the fascist minded arts faculty of Harvard.