You’d better sit down for this one. According to a story in The Boston Globe, Massachusetts lawmakers are thinking about taxing private endowments worth more than $1 billion a year. That includes Harvard’s endowment.

Sound like good old-fashioned soak-the-rich tax policy from here. After all, what did Harvard really do to earn all that essentially inherited wealth?

But how does Harvard respond?

University leaders criticized the plan as a gimmick that would backfire by hurting institutions that are pivotal to the state.

“You’d be taxing success here,” said Kevin Casey, Harvard’s associate vice president for government, community, and public affairs. “Over time, this would put us at a real competitive disadvantage. . . .”

Do tell.

Maybe the administration should pass the word along to the faculty:

The Harvard Crimson reported that 86 percent of Harvard professors’ contributions went to Democrats.

P.S. -- Time for a rousing rendition of Tom Lehrer’s “Fight Fiercely, Harvard!”

Roger,

You are deluded. A hardcore conservative partisan who rarely if ever deviates from conservative Republican talking points.

There is no leftwing conspiracy on college campuses. Young people tend to trend towards leftist thinking, but not always. That’s about the extent of it.

You guys peddle hate and fear, and when you run out of arguments, dip into insults. That’s how it is, pure and simple.

The websites you name are all political all the time.  The universities are liberal, which is no coincidence why they are targeted for hate and fear and constant political dissembling.

Scott,

Bart was trying to highlight the hypocrisy of Harvard at cringeing at taxation. He was advancing his typical themes of libertarian philosophy.

You may be right that abuse of public money is an issue in the larger sense.

You create artificial havens for tax avoidance with educational and religious institutions the eventual outcome will inevitably be the amassing of wealth and all the consequences that go with that.

I say tax them. Go ahead Boston with your reverse tea party.

This whole liberal vs. conservative thing is really extraneous to the main point, which is that universities, both private and public, liberal and conservative, are acting irresponsibly with the money entrusted to them.

But then that seems to be a theme with the whole damn country these days. Everyone is getting older and does not care how younger generations will have to deal with things later. Long term thinking goes out the window for short term gain and ‘prestige’.

Ed,

I could understand you posting under an alias to your normal alias if you had something intelligent to say but, doing so just to reiterate a lame point is just...lame.

You could go to any number of web sites dedicated to tracking academic fraud and extremism...there are several very well run and serious ones to choose from. You won’t though, because it’s much easier to play at being smart than it is to educate yourself.

Whoa !

R. Smith, hello ? Is this microphone on ? Anyone there ?

You are telling me that universities routinely conduct political purges to excise all conservatives from their staffs and that you have proof this whackadoodle theory is fact and happening as we speak.

Your proof is probably some isolated example of an untenured and incompetent professor getting censured gleaned from some rightwing hate mongering website intended to stir up folks like you.

I’ll grant you that there probably are too many examples of university administrators playing it safe and trying to protect their career instead of safeguard the liberties of the institution. The Wren Cross example comes to mind. Of course the ousting of the W&M;president is the same example, only reversed. They didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to protect either the liberal or the conservative interest.  They sold ‘em both down the river.

But see, that’s about PC. Not about pograms and purges and thought control. Not exactly anyway.

The Harvard example where Summers took heat is far too contreversial. He said some really dumb things. I’m only proving your point that university people are not smart at all. Hmn.

Worse than that. You are still with the random insults. This time it is “ideologue”. Oooooh. That’s bad.

Why don’t we purge this conversation of ideology. Uh, bad choice of words.

I’m saying it is a huge coincidence that two of the brightest universities on the planet are heavily liberal. There must be some reason.

Now I know it is because conservatives are shot on sight. If so, that is one whopping big conspiracy theory.  Whether you have so-called proof or not, that is one big conspiracy. Paranoia.

Hillary is going to find you out and make you wear pantsuits. Ooooh, paranoia is so much fun for conservatives.

You guys have ALL the fun. Democrats are boring.

So many words and so little content. THAT’S a true phony intellectual!

Try this on for size Ed. There are no conservatives staffing universities because the leftists who control these institutions have all but criminalized conservative opinion and philosophy. The ignorant ideolouges have effectively banned conservative thought thru a maze of arbitrary speech, diversity, multicultist and gender codes.

That’s why there are no conservatives on staff.

This is what truely stupid, narrow and petty people do when they can’t win an argument. Criminalize the other side and purge the institution for ideological purity.

And I can back up my opinion with a mountain of evidence proving my point.

You can’t. All you have is your ideologically biased opinion.

Bill and Roger,

This conversation has somewhat broken down kind of like a Middle East peace agreement, but I can always try, just like a brokered peace agreement, to keep it on the level.

Won’t hurt to try, will it ?

Bill is saying he thinks my premise is,
“you have to be smart to get into Harvard or Princeton; both of those institutions are strongly left-leaning; therefore, smart people tend to be Democrats.” Correct, but don’t draw too many conclusions from that.

It could be true, for instance, that the culture of elitist schools has poisoned intelligent people into adopting hopelessly impractical ideals, like energetic minority presidental candidates. Elitist institutions can do that or worse but I question that.

It is also possible, as Roger seemingly suggests, that not everyone at those institutions is intelligent. Doubt that, but if Daddy’s wealth and connections can get you in, hardly impossible either, at least for a few.

If most businesspeople are smart can a few be dumb ? I strongly believe so, but it seems as if Bill is saying no, that is not so. Hell, I think a know a few stupid businesspeople. He is going too far. He must be talking in generalities too and I overstep in interpreting his words. Ok. You didn’t mean it.

Or my fault in not seeing the overarching brillance of all these self-made geniuses. I thought they just piled on the bucks. My bad. Most are very smart of course. That much unquestioned.

We are talking generalities here to be specific (oxymoron intended).  I’m not saying the average Dem is smarter or anything like that. Only that obviously smart (if you are being honest) folk do like the Democrats for some unknown reason.

They must all be delusional. Is that it ?

There is a connection there. You can do your best to explain it away but you can’t make it totally disappear. It’s frankly quite a coincidence that such a resounding imbalance exists. There must be an explanation. Your explanations sound lame to me. My explanation sounds insulting to you.

All that talk about smirking and condescension is just standard conservative talking points when your pomposity is pricked. You guys all use the same arguments. When all else fails, use insults. Even if there were a sliver of truth to any of it it begs the question of whether Bill himself is condescending too. That answer is 24/7.  I’m willing to accept the reply that you do indeed possess humility, but be forewarned I must be heavily skeptical of said claims.

Frankly, I don’t hold that against him. It’s all good he thinks he is smart.

I’m not sure I furthur the peace process to mention condescension even in self defense but let the healing begin all the same or the rubbing of salt into the wound, whichever comes first.

And let’s not forget that HaHvaad just reinstituted segregated swimming so muslim men would’nt have to stone thier sisters for showing too much skin.

Keeping in mind too, that this is the school that drove out it’s last president for suggesting there may be biological differences in the way women and men think!

Wow..it’s hard being that smart AND that much of a bunch of dooshbag hypocrites!

I wonder if Prince Ali Whahabi will come out with his own line of Harvard tweed knee pads and lip balm…

All that super intellectual groveling and ass kissing can be tuff on pursed lips and boney knees of our enlightened uber masters.

And they’re not just the smartest people in the whole wide world, they have impeckerable ethics.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=109754&d=10&m=5&y=2008&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

Ed said:

“Roger seems to be willing to see the connection between Harvard and Princeton, two of the best and brightest institutions in the world, supporting the Democrats overwhelmingly.”

Best and brightest at what? Self promotion? Some people will always confuse over priced with superior.

The Ed said:

“Roger conveniently writes off all profs as a “loser afraid of the real world”.  Never mind that both Condi and Petraeus are graduates of Princeton. They went out into the “real world” must be his explanation”.

First...a graduate is not a professor. Second..I have no use for Rice. Her performance as Sec O’ State has been unimpressive. Third, Petreaus left the academic world and went out and got a real job where he actually does something to earn his money.

Any normal person would readily admit that a one party educational sysyem is more Soviet than liberal in nature. Pile on that dose of common sense the mountain of evidence pointing to the rigid ideological extremism that dominates the faculties of these institutions and one can only assume that Ed simply chooses to believe it’s about intelligence because Ed is a democrat and to believe so makes him feel superior.

Much like the useless idiot academics he seeks to imitate.

Bill,

They ARE smarter. Obama’s biggest demo is college educated libs. Just watch the next Obama’s ralley to prove the point. Swooning and throwing your panties at your idol is the surest way to confirm your intellectual bonafides. Blindly supporting a man you know nothing about simply reeks of genius.

They’ve always been the smartest people in the world...right up until they find themselves in a reducation thru labor camp or kneeling on the edge of a pit with a rifle at their back....that’s usually when they start whining for the stupid Joe Sixpacks to come bail them out so they can do the same thing again a generation later.

“I am saying though that people who are undeniably and preeminently smart have a strange affinity for the Democrats.”

Wow.  That’s a bold assertion that I don’t see how you would prove, much less your basis for making it, other than your own subjective impression.  And how do you define what “smart” means in this context, including some way of measuring/quantifying that variable?  Your premise appears to be “you have to be smart to get into Harvard or Princeton; both of those institutions are strongly left-leaning; therefore, smart people tend to be Democrats.”

“Sure there are smart Republicans” strikes me as incredibly condescending - along the lines of “Sure there are black people who don’t commit violent crimes.” So are you saying that the Democratic party on the whole is “smarter” than the Republican, or are you saying that the “average” Dem is “smarter” than the “average” Rep?  Or what?

Or is this just another red herring?

“A fair number of businesspeople are dolts and idiots, who just happened to make bundles of money selling mattress covers or paper clips.”

Run with that if it makes you feel better.  I’m not talking about someone selling mattress covers or paper clips - which I doubt will make you a millionaire unless you’re extremely smart at how you go about it.

As far as making you smirk - I have no problem believing that.

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