Okay, now lemme get THIS straight...

Controversial DNA pioneer's talk halted

LONDON - London's Science Museum canceled a Friday talk by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson after the co-discoverer of DNA's structure told a newspaper that Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence.

James Watson provoked widespread outrage with his comments to The Sunday Times, which quoted the 79-year-old American as saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really."

He told the paper he hoped that everyone was equal, but added: "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."

The comments drew condemnation from British lawmakers, scientists, and civil rights campaigners. On Wednesday The Independent newspaper put Watson on its front page, against the words: "Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer."

Watson, who serves as chancellor of the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., was to deliver a sold-out lecture at the Science Museum, but on Wednesday night the institution said Watson's comments had gone too far and the event had been canceled......

Sooooooo....cancelling the appearance of someone who has made public and extremely questionable claims in a country all onboard (supposedly) with free speech, democracy, etc is okay in this instance,

BUT, somehow cancelling the appearance of Whackjob No 2 (and I rank him as number 2 because we still have The Chonger), a guy who's called for the destruction of an entire people (Israel, for those just tuning in), claims the Holocaust never happened, claims he has no homosexuals in his own country, and gets applauded by the useful idiots, somehow preventing this asshat from speaking would have been a great affront to free speech and our "ideals?"

People will go to the mat to defend your buddy Mahmoud's "right to free speech", but this Watson cat, oh no, we'll ban him...

Comments

[Perri Nelson]

I guess that's the difference between the U.S. and Great Britain. Our bill of rights doesn't apply in Great Britain.

[pharaohdux]

Quite the double standard...it seems to be the case these days where it's so cool to be anti-Bush that the line between that and anti-American has becomed blurred...so go ahead, friends, and applaud a hateful dictator who hates your country. Your peers will still think you're cool.

But an old man, a intellect, a hero of the science community, making an off color (pardon the pun) comment? *hand to mouth*

That might offend someone.

[MOGS]

"I guess that's the difference between the U.S. and Great Britain. Our bill of rights doesn't apply in Great Britain"

That's just it though; our Bill of Rights doesn't apply to Ahmedinejad either, yet his appearance at Columbia was cast as a "free speech" issue. As far as the US/British comparison goes, the Bill of Rights is still at least a partial descendant of British Common Law, and we're both supposed to be "standardholders" for the rights described within.

In principle, I see a double standard at work. I wonder how US academia and the scientific community will react to future lectures by Watson, and how the British would have treated Ahmedinejad, had he wanted to speak there?

[nanc]

never, under any circumstances, try to confound libtards with the truth!

fact IS stranger than fiction.