Comments on: Gates to Harvard grads: Pay it forward

World's richest Harvard alum tells grads to take on issue of human inequity and not be deterred by complexity.
Photos: Gates goes back to school

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Pay it forward to the pharmaceutical corporations

You have to wonder about Gate's sincerity when he hires Dr. Tadataka Yamada as director of global health programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Yamada is a pharmaceutical corporate insider whose former job duties, as chief of research and development for GlaxoSmithKline, included intimidating and retaliating against scientists who criticized Glaxo's diabetes drug Avandia, despite the fact that Avandia increased the risks of heart attacks.

[greaterthan]

Scrutiny

First I will assume you have never intimidated any one in any way and therefore you are completely innocent of the crime you accuse Mr. Gates (or is it formally Dr. now?)?

And second, I guess you have donated half your net worth to charity, investigated the background of every person hired with that money, ensured that no laws, morals or virtues are broken with that money, and that is what gives you the right to criticize?

Scrutiny is necessary, but questioning character from one fact is inexcusable ignorance.

[Betty Roper]

Editorial intervention?

Why were the previous comments to this post deleted?

[Gayle Edwards]

It wasnt just these comments...

I was actually reading the "comments" (which, by the way, led to other comments within related stories) the other day. And, while I was reading them... they started disappearing. First, they were there, but while I was actually reading, and re-reading them (or when I tried to refresh the pages), they began disappearing (and producing -404- errors). And, as far as I can tell they have not come back.

The initial "comments" were extreme, but relatively-civil, criticisms of "Microsoft", and included a litany of Microsofts (and, thereby, "Bill Gates") decades of abuses against consumers, other companies, and complaints about the numerous laws broken by Microsoft, as a company. These, initial, Microsoft-critical "posts" were met with rapid-flurry of extremely vehement, nasty, even childish, personal-attacks against the original-poster (apparently, simply because he dared to, publicly, point-out these well-established, though clearly unflattering, facts regarding "Microsoft").

Frankly, I think that Microsofts, and its SHILLS and defenders, latest apparent tactic (massive numbers of instantaneous, vicious, personal-attacks) against the overwhelming numbers of Microsoft-critics... is indicative of exactly how desperate Microsoft has become. Microsofts stock is flat (after massive investments and lavish product-introductions), ...their products are being rejected, wholesale, and are being condemned by almost everybody. And, Microsofts established, rather totalitarian, anti-consumer policies, ...as well as their long-term, unethical, and often criminal, activities ...have alienated virtually all of the IT, and consumer, eco-systems. More, and more, people ARE looking for alternatives. And, despite a few hardcore-defenders inane, or simply vicious, counter-attacks... the long-term prospects for Microsoft really do look abysmal from most perspectives. They [Microsoft] have not, and apparently CANNOT, actually -change- (despite spin-campaign, after spin-campaign, after spin-campaign). And, most people have finally come to realize that we (consumers and IT-professionals) simply should not continue down the dead-end of insecure, poorly-designed and implemented, over-priced, products which are primarily designed to rob everyone of virtually every basic consumer-right... and which, by the way, have only been forced upon us by the entirely unethical, and often criminal, actions of one company.

Its too bad that many -public forums- (such as "C|NET") are apparently responding to such "scare", and "vicious-reprisal", tactics against anyone that posts negative-opinions against Microsoft, by wiping the entire -thread-... instead of merely deleting the "offending posts".

So... I guess that means that fear, rhetoric, and propaganda techniques... really do WIN... in the end.

How sad... At least thats MY opinion (for as long as it lasts).