[ img nocaption float="right" width="288" height="91" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]1159[/img] Well, Duuuh

All obvious jokes about obviousness aside, there were some genuinely interesting and useful data in reporter John Tierney's November 18 New York Times account of recent survey research by Santa Clara University economics professor Daniel Klein. Professor Klein has conducted a nationwide poll of 1,000 fellow academicians and found that among full-time faculty in the humanities and social sciences, Democrats now outnumber Republicans by a factor of at least seven to one. The partisan imbalance is significantly more pronounced today than it was 30 years ago. And, if anything, Klein figures it's likely to grow worse, not better: Younger, junior-faculty ranks are almost exclusively Democratic. Klein's separate, more detailed survey of the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford faculties, for example, identified 183 Democratic assistant and associate professors, but only 6 Republicans.

Not coincidentally, as Tierney is canny enough to note, Federal Election Commission records indicate that the University of California employs more people who made financial contributions to John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign than any other single employer in the United States. (Harvard ranks second. Microsoft is a distant sixth.)

But Berkeley officials, for their part, "dispute the accusations of faculty bias" that might naturally arise from data like this. "The essence of a great university is developing and sharing new knowledge as well as questioning old dogma," chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau tells the Times. "We do this in an environment which prizes academic freedom and freedom of expression. These principles are respected by all of our faculty at U.C. Berkeley, no matter what their personal politics are."

Berkeley linguistics professor George P. Lakoff must not have gotten the memo.

How's That Again?

THE SCRAPBOOK can't decide: Maybe it was a translation problem. Or maybe somebody over at the New York Times corrections desk was just back from a trip to the dentist's office and the anesthesia hadn't quite worn off. Or . . . whatever. This was the Times's lead correction-column item on November 11:

"A picture caption yesterday with an article about polarization in the Netherlands over the killing of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker, by a man the police have described as a Muslim extremist, gave an incorrect translation of a sign displayed at Mr. van Gogh's funeral. It read: 'Silence = Deadly. Speaking = Death. But Thinking--That, Never!' (not 'Mouth Shut = Deadly. Speaking = Death. Never Think!')."

Capisce?

Curse of the Lame Braino

The competition has been fierce, but top honors for Dumbest Analogy in a Yasser Arafat Obituary must go to former congressman and still-active Israel-o-phobe Paul Findley. Writing in the November 9 Daily Star, an English-language newspaper published throughout the Middle East, Findley wistfully recalled how the PLO chairman's "perpetually scruffy beard belied his genial, warm manner." Come to think of it, Findley added, "While watching the recent World Series, it occurred to me that Arafat would fit comfortably with the scruffy but genial Red Sox players." Except for the part about murdering Jews, presumably.

Genial but scruffy Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon was unavailable for comment.

Incidentally: Longtime WEEKLY STANDARD readers may remember that Paul Findley offered up an equally prize-worthy mot injuste in the spring of 2001 when his unfortunately timed book Silent No More dubbed Osama bin Laden "one of the pre-eminent heroes of Afghans, occupying a role similar to the Marquis de Lafayette" during the American Revolution.

International Man of Mystery

Speaking of Yasser Arafat . . . Here's David Remnick, in a November 22 New Yorker obit headlined "The Old Man": "Modest in his personal habits and his material desires, Yasser Arafat was grandiose only in his sense of mission."

And here's David Remnick again, same piece, eight paragraphs later: "He ruled the West Bank and Gaza as his fief, personally controlling accounts filled with billions in foreign money and doling out lucrative concessions to his deputies and millions in cash to his wife."

Housekeeping Note

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has recently switched printers, which means, among other things, that subscribers' copies are now being mailed from a different city. We hope and expect this change also means that many of our subscribers will receive their copies sooner. But we'd like to make sure--and we intend to do whatever we can to speed things up still further--so we're once again requesting your assistance.

Please visit a special page on our website, www.weeklystandard.com/mail, where you'll find a very brief form by which you can keep us posted about precisely when your magazine is arriving each week.

Or, if you prefer, drop us a postcard noting the date printed on the cover of your latest issue, the actual date you received it in the mail, and your mailing address. Here's ours: Magazine Delivery, THE WEEKLY STANDARD, 1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 505, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Either way, please let us hear from you as often as possible. The more we know about how our postal deliveries are working, the better we'll be able to identify and fix whatever specific problems might still exist. Thanks.