Harvard Researcher Guilty of Misconduct

By Douglas V. Gibbs

When I played baseball, or when I ran Cross Country in high school, I remember Dad correcting me anytime I said, "Practice makes perfect."

He would always say, "No. Perfect practice makes perfect."

In other words, if I had been taught the wrong thing, and then was practicing with the erroneous information as my guiding hand, all the practice in the world would not help me become a better player, runner, or more intelligent. Sort of like that old computer saying, "Garbage in, garbage out."

Man-made global warming is a great example of that concept. The myth was perpetuated with false information, deceptively created models, and a documentary short on any factual truths. Many people fell for the deception, but in the end the facts surfaced, and began to cause the myth of man-made global warming to crumble, leaving the believers confused and feeling betrayed.

The people believed the so-called climate scientists because they were supposedly educated at the best schools in the world. They were learned men and women, people with alphabets after their names, and papers to their credit. No one dreamed that these people would be willing to knowingly deceive the populace.

Institutions of higher learning, not all of them, but many of them, carry themselves with a smugness and air of elitism, while teaching unproven, or false, information. Then, when one dares to challenge the people behind the educational system, words of condensation is rained upon the folks daring to doubt the "educated."

After all, folks from these institutions would never lead anyone astray. . . right?

Harvard University found that one of its prominent researchers, Marc Hauser, as being responsible for eight instances of scientific misconduct.

Say it isn't so!

What is even worse, is after this so-called expert in cognition and morality was caught, like Obama, he refused to fess up! Instead, he said, “I acknowledge that I made some significant mistakes and am deeply sorry for the problems this case had caused to my students, my colleagues and my university.”

Significant mistakes?

Deception is not a series of mistakes.

Imagine that. A researcher that is anti-religion, and is working to prove that morality is a trait gained by evolution and the wonders of the universe, had to cheat to try to prove his point.

Hauser is allegedly guilty of eight instances of scientific misconduct. The misconduct includes problems with “data acquisition, data analysis, data retention, and the reporting of research methodologies and results.”

Of course many of the experiments involved federal money, an unconstitutional activity in the first place, by the way. Education is not something that falls within the Constitutional powers of the federal government.

According to the information being provided regarding this case, three of the misconduct problems occurred in published articles, and the rest were found and corrected before publication.

Corrected before publication? Mistakes caught? Or the realization he may get caught and corrections better be made?

The sanctions to be imposed on Dr. Hauser are confidential, but could include involuntary leave, extra oversight, and restrictions on the ability to apply for grants and supervise students.

Hauser has been instructed to correct three published papers for which the original data could not be found.

The ultimate question is if these are "mistakes" as Hauser claims, or data fabrication as in the case of man-made global warming.

Time will tell.

Personally, I would prefer to attend Hillsdale College.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Harvard Finds Scientist Guilty of Misconduct - New York Times

Hillsdale College