Larry Summers Should Be Fired

No, I don't agree with the idiot critics of Larry Summers's comments that ignited the recent firestorm. They are intellectual Soviets who wish to air-brush any fact that puts their absurd worldview to lie. And the way they do that on campuses is by intimidating those with opposing viewpoints, so that those viewpoints are silenced, which is what is happening to Summers now.

Had Summers simply responded that his conjectures were out in public for refutation by science and research, and that anyone who didn't want to address the subject in that way should find another place to work or matriculate, I would have defended him wholeheartedly.

Instead, he caved. He threw the whole notion of the university being a place where ideas are spoken and debated openly and civilly right out the window in an effort to save his cushy job by pandering to the shrill censors attacking him.

This statement, from one of his many apologies, is particularly galling:

As I said at our Tuesday meeting, if I could turn back the clock, I would have spoken differently on matters so complex. Though my NBER remarks were explicitly speculative, and noted that "I may be all wrong," I should have left such speculation to those more expert in the relevant fields. I especially regret the backlash directed against individuals who have taken issue with aspects of what I said. In this University, people who disagree with me - or with anyone else - should and must feel free to say so. I know of no community as committed to free inquiry as this one, and no institution with a greater responsibility to uphold it.

This is sheer stupidity. His critics are not attacking his statements or the evidence that supports them. They are attacking his right to say such things. To "regret the backlash directed against" them is to regret the very concept of the university itself. Dr. Summers has shown what's most important to him: a nice, easy seven-figure salary, and open debate and respect for the view of others be damned. Your community is committed to free inquiry? Give me a break, Summers.

Meanwhile, his critics say things such as this:

"What bothers me is the consistent assumption that innate differences rather than socialization is responsible for some of the issues he talks about," said Howard Georgi, a physics professor who has been part of a successful effort in Harvard's physics department to recruit more women for tenured positions.

"It's crazy to think that it's an innate difference," Professor Georgi added. "It's socialization. We've trained young women to be average. We've trained young men to be adventurous."

Hey, y'know what, Professor Georgi? Gather the scientific evidence for your view over Summers's, and publish it! Have it out in an open debate of ideas! It's not "crazy to think that it's an innate difference" -- it's conjecture and study to think that -- something we call "SCIENCE" -- which is your freakin' job, you twit!!

Fire the lot of 'em, I say. What absolute appalling incompetence. The inmates are running the asylum.