Thoughts in a Haystack

Jules R. Benjamin has [cough] cracked the problem of appropriate "balance" so often called for in academia and our wider society. Here is a sampling from his article at History News Network, entitled "What is Wrong with Quotas? Equality, Democracy, Bias, and Balance in American Society." Not much commentary is needed:

Conservative scholars have discovered the secret control of liberal arts departments by, of all people, liberals. The remedy suggested is balance, achieved by ending the liberal bias of current hiring and tenure decisions. Who can oppose balance or support bias? ...

Departments of Physics would greatly benefit by replacement of the terribly warped theory of space-time derived from the work of a mere clerk in the Swiss Patent Office. (And for this phlogiston was sacrificed!) ...

Due respect for the fossil evidence supporting intelligent design would remove a major roadblock to hiring someone with a dissertation on "Darwinism: The Problem from Hell," or on "The Devil is the One and Only Other." ...

Removing bias would draw many bright flat-earth natural scientists to departments of Geology. Plate Tectonics would finally face a serious challenge opening the way for the new Tsunami theory based on path breaking bathtub studies based on recent work by Archimedes. ...

Outside of the academy, signs of bias abound as well. Liberal bias is most shocking when one examines so-called "civil rights" organizations. A poll of the members of the ACLU found only three percent (3%) who opposed free speech. This in an organization that prides itself on support for minority opinion! ...

Replace the vacuous debate over the existence of the Holocaust by a compromise between semitic and anti-semitic authors. In the name of balance, they might settle their differences by agreeing that three instead of six million Jews were killed. A similar bargain could be struck between materialists and people of faith by declaring that evolution is the cause of 50% of the nature of human beings while the other 50% is the work of god.

Now all we need is an opinion from someone opposed to balance to balance Benjamin's call for balance.
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