I have been watching the Israeli response to the Gaza terror attacks, there are still 132 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. What is known is Hamas engages in rape and sexual torture, there are a number of women being held and abused. Why any reasonable person would support rapists and sex offenders is preposterous.

So when Jerry Seinfeld received his honorary Doctorate from Duke University and addressed the student ceremony, this was almost a scene from an episode of Seinfeld. Jerry is a comedian and did years of stand up, he is used to hecklers and people walking out. Now, I have to admit that these honorary doctorates irritate me. A PhD student must undertake original research to write a thesis that is peer reviewed.

That is what these students should have been annoyed about, a free qualification from a serious university. This totally devalues the student work to earn their degrees. We all know Jerry Seinfeld is Jewish so it comes as no surprise that he supports the Israeli perspective. There is a pro-Palestinian uprising in United States and other western countries, I need to see who is really organising these protests. This is a pretty mild protest, this is barely news.

This is what I do not get, Duke University is the leading university in North Carolina, ranked number seven by the national universities guide and number fifty seven in the QS World University ratings. Duke University cohort by percentage of student graduations in computer science [11%], economics and quantitative economics [10%], public policy [9%], biology and biology science [8%] and research and experimental psychology [7%]. Duke University has a 5:1 student to faculty ratio and 71% of classes have less than 20 students.

So around 30 of the 7000 students got up and walked out. That is around half of one percent of students, so that is hardly worth reporting. What I found interesting is the inability of these students to engage in rational debate, apply critical thinking, deductive reasoning and reflection. If I can work out the percentage of people leaving quickly enough, the economists at Duke University should work it out in a matter of seconds. Clearly they can apply quantitative skills, they cannot apply the very skills they are attempting to apply.