The Shame of Stanford University

One of the main reasons I came to admire Carroll “Lex” LeFon was his intellectual curiosity. He had a quality that, let’s be honest, one has to try and nurture. It’s too easy to “pick your side” and then find fault with anyone holding a different view.

Particularly in these politically-charged days.

I believe it has to come down to a respect for others. Not putting oneself first above everything.

I learned most of what I know about naval aviation thanks to Lex. He wrote some of the funniest stories I’ve read, and some of the most instructive.

But his real core was more than funny and instructive stories.

Many of his “posts” were of such a nature that to call them “blog posts” does him a disservice. They are more on the essay side of the scale.

If I had to pick one essay of his that exemplified him, this is the one. He picks one of the ugliest things one person could do to another, and asks the reader of that revulsion that most of us would have – does it come from a conscience given by God, or is it more secular in origin?

“Religious/philosophical discussion follows. Those who don’t like that sort of thing, or aren’t capable of joining it in a civil fashion are encouraged to seek their entertainment elsewhere.”

He was genuinely curious about the beliefs of all.

One of his “best friends he never met” was a journalist from the UK, of which “they agreed on virtually nothing“. But they respected each other and were curious about the other’s beliefs.

Although I never met him, nor even had an Internet conversation with him, I have come to believe that if he had been surrounded with readers who simply agreed with him, he would have become bored quickly and Neptunus Lex would probably have slipped back into anonymity in Sandy Eggo way before 9 years.

But that’s just my opinion.

I have SiriusXM on a car, and have have enjoyed the Megyn Kelly Show. She had 2 interesting subjects on today, and the contrast couldn’t have been greater. In one segment, she had as a guest Stanford Law student Tim Rosenberger. Tim, a member of Stanford’s Federalist Society, invited Judge Kyle Duncan, an appellate judge in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, to speak.

The predictable happened, with left-wing “protestors” shouting him down, and preventing anyone else from hearing what he had to say. Only this judge didn’t just take it, like so many other conservative speakers. He gave it back to them.

The subjects were supposed to be cryptocurrency and firearms regulation. Nobody got to hear his opinions on these subjects.

Stanford’s policy towards this is supposed to be one warning towards anyone trying to disrupt a speaker, and expulsion from the venue if they do it a second time.

Look at this yourself, and decide whether this was a disruption, or a “peaceful protest”.

Even a member of the administration was heckling him. Nobody from the Stanford administration enforced their policy.

Her interview starts here (58:27).

At the beginning of her show, she had 2 men with opposing viewpoints on whether the Silicon Valley Bank should have been rescued. Despite them at times getting heated, they at times conceded the other’s points (and I thought both views had merit).

Didn’t know that Roku had $500 million on deposit, way above the FDIC insurance of $250,000.

That’s the way grown ups are supposed to talk.

“Higher Learning”, indeed.

It takes a weak mind to want to silence anyone whose beliefs threaten yours.