Comments on: Elementary, my Dear. Dump Watson.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:09:24 +0000

Dave,Thanks for the clarification. By the way, loved your post on homicidal thoughts.

By: Dave Munger

Dave Munger — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:41:41 +0000

Watson was always an adviser. He was never on the official board. But as you point out in your other post, now he’s not even an adviser.

By: JanieBelle

JanieBelle — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:45:21 +0000

…for the record, I hold no malice toward asses. In fact, I’m rather partial to the small and nicely shaped ones.

By: JanieBelle

JanieBelle — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:43:51 +0000

Somebody kick me before I post without previewing again.

By: JanieBelle

JanieBelle — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:42:25 +0000

Indeed Greg. “Never ascribe to malice that which can easily be explained by sheer asshatery” or however that goes.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:37:28 +0000

I don’t think seed is being particularly evil. I do think they have been less than brilliant about how to handle, make use of, a board of directors.

By: Anne Gilbert

Anne Gilbert — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:22:49 +0000

The more I hear about James Watson, the more appalled I become at his behavior and his "ideas". Please, please, rant and rave about this. Somebody needs to do this. You may remember that shortly after Watson made his last round of appalling remarks regarding the supposed lack of intelligence of people of Afircan descent, William Saletan actually tried to defend the guy!Dr. Watson can and should be remembered for discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule. This was an important scientific achievement. But he has spent so much of his career peddling uscientific tripe atout races, sexes, etc., that, to me, it is a shame that he is still on the board of a supposed scientific media outlet. This should not be tolerated.And while I believe completely in freedom of speech and thought and ideas, if Dr. Watson really wants to express these appalling apinions of his, he should not be doing this in a scientific capacity. At all. And it is for this reason I clicked the link you posted, which leads to another link to SEED's e-mail address. I sent them an e-mail, urging them to get rid of Watson as "adviser" to their board. I did it politely, because I was brought up to be polite, but I did try to lay out my case as clearly as possible.As for "locking up any children" while you rant and rave about Dr. Watson, I think children should learn early, that there are some types of behavior that are simply not acceptable in this day and age, and while it is best to be polite and courteous, even as you rant and rave, some latitude can be excused in the pursuit of decent behavior toward all and the need to edge closer to the spirit of scientific inquiry. Dr. Watson has done neither.Anne G

By: Virgil Samms

Virgil Samms — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:17:50 +0000

As the Republicans should have learned by now, “the coverup is worse than the crime.” If Seed is being deceptive about the status of their relationship with Watson, that is a bad thing in itself.
The remarks Watson made were certainly racist, but I thought the reaction by Scienceborgers was overblown. Watson lost his primary job as a result, as head of a government lab where his racism might conceivably have been an issue in personnel matters. Does the probability that he is racist matter to his relationship with Seed? Does he influence hiring decisions? If not, why should Seed kowtow to demands to sack him? I suspect most of the Scienceborg crew would agree with the wrongness of “zero tolerance” policies in most matters.