<p>...Another rather tired attack by somebody who hasn't read what Summers said. I suppose this means that you don't need to be a close reader to work for the Washington Post.</p>
<p>There are posters who don't like Harvard or resent it for some reason, and who like to post on the Harvard site to express these negative views. They see the Summers' dustup as promising fodder.</p>
<p>It has ever been thus. Just view it all as a perverse, back-handed compliment of some kind. Just wade dutifully through the standard bashing threads to get to the worthwhile information. Consider it similar to the lineup of bums and beggars outside the Palace gates!</p>
<p>Goodness. I just thought it was cute. Gene Weingarten is a humor columnist, so he's just poking fun. No need to be so hostile. I personally saw it as just as much criticism towards the fact that Summers is backing down from what he said as it is criticism towards the actual words that brought about such controversy.</p>
<p>And honestly Byerly, "There are posters who don't like Harvard or resent it for some reason, and who like to post on the Harvard site to express these negative views". Replace Harvard with Yale or Princeton or whatever, and it's you.</p>
<p>Kelly, You say you came here to learn about Harvard. What issues at Harvard are currently bigger than: 1. sexism, 2. faculty unrest, 3. female tenure or lack of, and 4. the Harvard President\'s views towards all of the above. Although some here would have us ignore them, these Harvard issues are being written about each day, in cities around the world.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What issues at Harvard are currently bigger than: 1. sexism, 2. faculty unrest, 3. female tenure or lack of, and 4. the Harvard President\'s views towards all of the above.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, these are the topics constantly making headlines, but are they really worth the endless publicity? I agree with Kelly in that I'm tired of the same issue being constantly brought up. There are more important things going on at Harvard now. Why don't we talk about something positive? Like the new engineering campus. :)</p>
<p>byerly, you know that you dont like other schools. That is why of the two regular alums who post(NSM and you). I have to take whatever you write with a cargo ship load of salt. Its not that what you say isnt accurate, its just that you are obviously slanted. Come to think of it you are sort of the like the Iraqi Information Minister before Gulf WarII. A bit extreme of an analogy but still has truth to it.</p>
<p>We all know that Harvard is good, even great. But, that does not mean it is great for everybody. I like Harvard(and would be delighted to be accepted), but not to the point where I insult other comparable schools!</p>
<p>Sempitern, Thank you for my biggest laugh of the day. It took a while for me to stop. Comparing Byerly to the former Iraqi Information minister was a classsic. I wish it occurred to me. It is exactly on point. From now on when I visualize Byerly, I am going to think of that man and how out of touch with reality he was.
I wish I could find a tape of that guy\'s last press conference when he was telling everyone they were on the verge of winning the war. I heard that when the allies found him, they didn\'t even detain him. They had concluded he was a buffoon and not worth their time.
Could he be Byerly?</p>
<p>P.S. I wish I could agree with you on Byerly\'s veracity but I reviewed his history (as did \"Truthinposting\" on the other thread) and found a boat load of misinformation. He has been a very \"creative\" fellow.</p>
<p>I have never "insulted" any school; that is absurd. </p>
<p>It is hardly a reflection on Yale's great stature as an educational institution to have pointed out - when a Yalie loftily insisted that the Bulldog is a superior mascot to anything Harvard has to offer - that the Bulldog is a particularly stupid animal.</p>
<p>Note well: this is not <em>my</em> opinion, but the informed view of canine authorities worldwide! Indeed, to be fair, I have noted that the Bulldog's slow-wittedness may arguably work in its favor on the sidelines, since, amidst all the noise and confusion, the creature is likely to be totally clueless about what is going on, and to remain placid.</p>
<p>For those who may have missed it, I will now re-supply the rankings:</p>
<hr>
<p>Ranking of dogs by breed intelligence: [From "The Intelligence of Dogs"]</p>
<p>Summers should lose his job. Harvard would never hire someone who publically made such overtly sexist comments, epsecially to the office of president. So why keep him now?</p>
<p>The fact that he made a slip of tongue is his own problem. Authority figures by default have great resposibility, especially to promote opportunity for everyone. Saying that men are innately more talented in the sciences than women is just as bigoted as saying that whites are innately more intelligent than blacks. </p>
<pre><code> Affirmative action, which Harvard openly embraces, is meant to promote minority participation at institutions of higher learning. This is a due response to counteract the malicious racial discrimination that certain ethnic groups have experienced over hundreds of years. Women are indeed a minority in science and have been unduly repressed, even outside the realm of science. Just as affrimative action gives underrepresented minorities an edge, women should similarly be given an edge in the sciences. This could include increasing the percentage of female faculty in the sciences or by increasing female student enrollment into scientific fields. Similar processes have occured for racial minorities (such as increasing the number of minority faculty members). By espousing sexism, Summers is openly undermining the concept of affirmative action itself, a concept embraced by other elite institutions and leaders.
</code></pre>
<p>Quoted from Byerly: "There are posters who don't like Harvard or resent it for some reason, and who like to post on the Harvard site to express these negative views. They see the Summers' dustup as promising fodder."</p>
<p>The poem in the first post wasn't criticizing Summers' comments at all. In fact, it went as far as saying that he was right to begin with and shouldn't be ashamed of what he said, but rather come up with backing for his <em>correct</em> comments. The poem was a parody of the whole situation and the response its been attracting; it isn't spreading negative comments about Harvard as an institution at all! In fact, it tends to poke fun at the critical reponse of more liberal institutions (like MIT) and the big deal they have been making.</p>
<p>I guess we know that Byerly's poem interpretation abilities are a little lacking because he completely missed the point of the poem.</p>