Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Morons know no party

- Religious right scientist: Slaves were "lucky" to go to U.S.

A prominent member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is under fire for publishing an essay in which he argues that Africans were fortunate to have been sold into slavery, and that the civil rights movement was "irrational."

"There is another way, or other ways, to look at the race issue in America," writes Gerald Schoenewolf, a member of NARTH's Science Advisory Committee. "Africa at the time of slavery was still primarily a jungle.... Life there was savage... and those brought to America, and other countries, were in many ways better off."....


I think I've heard this joke before. The punchline involved not getting eaten by a lion.

- Weirdo former-lefty-crackpot: Anti-Semitism (and Anti-Irish-ism) "sometimes justified".

In an interview profile for the magazine Watson asks rhetorically, "Should you be allowed to make an anti-Semitic remark?" He answered: "Yes, because some anti-Semitism is justified. Just like some anti-Irish feeling is justified. If you can't be criticized, that's very dangerous. You lose the concept of a free society."


More from Esquire (who seem to have heavily edited that earlier section):

I've wondered why people aren't more intelligent. Why isn't everyone as intelligent as Ashkenazi Jews? And it may be societies work best when there's a mixture of abilities—the bright people would never be an army. Or has our intelligence been limited by leaders killing off any potential competitors? I suspect time is not a factor. The Ashkenazi Jews have a thousand years. So these are the sorts of things we'll find out—how many mutations would you need to be more intelligent?


Exactly how did this even come up in the interview? Did the guy just throw darts with various caricatures tied to them to a board and say, "go"? Also, Israel has Ashkenazi Jews- AND a universal draft. Que the fuck, dude?

The dear doctor adds that he left the left because they were trying to harsh his eugenics buzz, and now identifies as a libertarian.

And this isn't the first time this guy has wigged out.

Witnesses were flabbergasted when the 72-year-old discoverer of the double helix suggested there was a biochemical link between exposure to sunlight and sexual urges. ``That's why you have Latin lovers,'' Watson said. ``You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.''

In a lecture hall jammed with more than 200 Berkeley students and faculty members, Watson showed a slide of sad-faced model Kate Moss to support his contention that thin people are unhappy and therefore more ambitious.

``Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them,'' Watson said.

Even those who chalked up Watson's remarks to his penchant for deliberately stirring things up were concerned that hearing such views expressed by a Nobel laureate would fuel irresponsible speculation about how genes might influence behavior.

...Watson, who has a reputation as an engaging lecturer, started off describing an experiment by scientists at the University of Arizona, who injected male patients with an extract of melanin. They intended to test whether they could chemically darken the men's skin as a skin cancer protection, only to observe an unusual side effect -- the men developed sustained and unprovoked erections.

``He said this (melanin injection) is even better than Viagra because you don't even have to think about sex,'' Tegen recalled.

``Then he launched into this whole thing about the sun and sexual drive,'' added Berkeley graduate student Jill Fuss. She said Watson showed slides of women in bikinis and contrasted them to veiled Muslim women, to suggest that controlling exposure to sun may suppress sexual desire and vice versa.

Watson reportedly went on to suggest that people who live in northern climates drink more alcohol to compensate for the unhappiness they suffer because of sunlight deprivation. Then he delved into what he presented as the bad news, good news aspects of being fat, the students said. The bad news, said Watson, is that thin people are more ambitious and therefore make better workers. On the other hand, fat people may be more sexual, Watson told the assembly, because their bloodstreams contain higher levels of leptin, one of the hormones derived from pom-C. He used a slide of a Reubens painting to illustrate the assertion.

...``Sometimes, Nobel laureates are asked to give their opinions on areas where they should keep their mouths shut,'' Kane said. ``Unfortunately, Jim just likes to talk.''


Hmm. Kind of reminds me of Ward Churchill. I wonder if he was this weird back when he got the Nobel. Anyway, yeah, let's hear it for jerks that are at best anti-social wingnuts and at worst anti-Semitic apologists and sexist, racist dungbats. Kudos, Jimbo.

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