A few quick hits

1. What is and isn't wrong with left-wing bias in academia.
Nick responds to my cavalcade of embarrassing quotes from liberal professors ("Unlike conservatives, we believe in working for the public good and social justice," etc.) by saying, "[M]y response is: go forth and do good research. If you can write something compelling and pathbreaking, you'll end up in an at least decent job."

That sounds very true, and I know that Nick is in a better position than I to evaluate whether conservatives get short shrift at universities. However, my problem with left-wing bias is not that it makes life difficult for academics on the right, but that it is morally indefensible. This kind of fierce animus towards a respectable minority is a form of bigotry regardless of how many conservative professors there are. The original article points out that, had a professor suggested that gays or blacks or whoever were underrepresented in academia because they reject the scientific method (!!!), there would have been righteous outcry. When a professor says so about conservatives, people may disagree but they don't raise eyebrows. That indicates a moral failure, and that's the heart of the offense, not underrepresentation.

2. Defending Jonah Goldberg and Dinesh D'Souza.
Adam Bellows' piece in World Affairs explains why a little sensationalism goes a long way, and in the right direction:

I had by now become a seasoned culture warrior, used to being attacked (in print and in person) for publishing quote-unquote “bad” books. That is what it meant to have skin in the game. Other editors were essentially aesthetes whose judgments rested on conventional moral opinion. I was a mad scientist, recklessly mixing unstable elements in a test tube to see what kind of explosion I could get.

That didn’t mean I operated without any standards at all in some kind of ethical gravity-free zone. My strategy was to publish a thoughtful and substantive book, titled and packaged in a way that pushed emotional buttons on both sides. That way you triggered the kneejerk response of the liberal media, unleashing a national firestorm; but when conservatives opened the book they found that it was in fact an intellectually serious effort.

3. Is a rise in food prices the best way to bring about Crunchy Con agricultural habits?
Well, it certainly is a way.

4. Gay man sues publishers over Bible verses.
In case you missed this.

5. The feminist commenter too busy to hate!
Have you ever wondered about my reasons for being so far to the right on gender issues? Check out the back-and-forth that's been going on in the comments section of yesterday's anti-feminism post. A worthy foe is Anonymous.

6. Yale Mafia update
TKB explains the motto of New Haven's own blogger flophouse.