by JAMES TARANTO
Friday, September 30, 2005 2:54 P.M. EDT

Is Political Correctness Finished?--I
The latest Bill Bennett kerfuffle leads us to think that the culture of political correctness that surrounds race in America may be in its final throes. Bennett and a caller to his radio show the other day were discussing a hypothesis in Steven Levitt's book "Freakonomics" (available from the OpinionJournal bookstore): that the explosion of abortion after Roe v. Wade depleted the number of potential criminals and thus helped reduce the crime rate. Bennett rejected such utilitarian pro-abortion arguments:

It's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could--if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

The ragemongers at MediaMatters.org ginned up a controversy over Bennett's remarks, and the ritual expressions of outrage followed, as the Washington Post reports:

Bennett's comments . . . were quickly condemned by Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who issued a statement demanding that Bennett apologize. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) circulated a letter, signed by 10 of his colleagues, demanding that the Salem Radio Network suspend Bennett's show.

Wade Henderson, the executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, demanded that the show be canceled.

"Bennett's statement is outrageous. As a former secretary of education, he should know better," Henderson said. "His program should be pulled from the air."

Today the White House joined in: "The president believes the comments were not appropriate," the Associated Press quotes press secretary Scott McClellan as saying.

But Bennett also has his defenders. One of them is the liberal journalist Matthew Yglesias:

Not only is Bennett clearly not advocating a campaign of genocidal abortion against African-Americans, but the empirical claim here is unambiguously true. Similarly, if you aborted all the male fetuses, all those carried by poor women, or all those carried by Southern women, the crime rate would decline. Or, at least, in light of the fact that southern people, poor people, black people, and male people have a much greater propensity to commit crime than do non-southern, non-black, non-poor, or non-male people that would have to be our best guess. The consequences, clearly, would be far-reaching and unpredictable, but the basic demographic and criminological points here can't be seriously disputed.

Keep in mind, too, that black leaders and liberal politicians constantly harp on the high incarceration rate of black Americans--so much so that John Kerry* was caught last year exaggerating it. Yet somehow it's considered invidious to point out that blacks, or black men at any rate, have a higher crime rate than nonblacks?

We can't help but wonder if part of the outrage over Bennett's remark isn't precisely his view that aborting black babies is immoral. After all, the official position of the Democratic Party is that abortion not only is not immoral but is a fundamental constitutional right, as long as the mother consents. And although MediaMatters claims that Levitt's argument has nothing to do with race, blogger Bob Krumm notes that in a 2001 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Levitt and John Donohue expressly link black abortion to reduced crime:

Fertility declines for black women are three times greater than for whites (12 percent compared to 4 percent). Given that homicide rates of black youths are roughly nine times higher than those of white youths, racial differences in the fertility effects of abortion are likely to translate into greater homicide reductions.

In other words, whereas Bennett rejects the idea of reducing crime by aborting black babies, Levitt and Donohue argue that that is exactly what has happened over the past three decades, as a result of liberal policies. If they are right, there is, to say the least, a fundamental tension between blacks and pro-abortion feminists, two of the core components of the Democratic coalition. No wonder Bennett's comments have caused such discomfort on the left.

So why do we see this as a sign of political correctness's decline? Well, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we kept hearing from our liberal friends that what this country needs is an honest discussion of race. Of course, liberals who call for a discussion of race never actually want it to be honest. Rather, they want to engage in the old familiar ritual in which blacks air their grievances, white liberals trumpet their moral superiority, the rest of us shut up and listen, and dissenters are shamed and silenced (see John Conyers's and Wade Henderson's demands regarding Bennett, above).

Our sense, however, is that this old ritual no longer has the same power it once did, and that as a result, liberals actually are getting the honest discussion about race that they have long demanded. If so, their worst fears are coming true.

* A man so white, he looks French!

Is Political Correctness Finished?--II
Here's another reason we think political correctness may be on its last legs. From yesterday's Washington Times:

The Tate Britain museum has made an unprecedented decision to pull a work of religious art from an exhibition over fears that it might offend Muslims.

Artist John Latham's "God is Great" features copies of the Koran, Bible and Judaic Talmud that have been cut apart and embedded in thick glass.

"We believe the particular circumstances we find ourselves in post-7 July make it difficult for this work to be viewed as the artist had intended--as a commentary on the evolution of religious thought from an original state of nothingness--but instead as an overtly political act," a Tate spokeswoman told The Washington Times.

This is of a piece with the notion that urinating on a crucifix is art while urinating on a Koran is a crime against humanity. How can anyone accept the notion that the only sensitivities that matter are those of our enemies and their coreligionists?

Poll Rage--III
President Bush's poll numbers are soaring, CNN reports:

Bush's job approval rating in the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll climbed to 45 percent, and 71 percent said they approved of his handling of Hurricane Rita, which struck land Saturday near the Texas-Louisiana border.

By comparison, only 40 percent said they approved of his handling of Hurricane Katrina, which hit near the Louisiana-Mississippi line August 29.

If his weather-related ratings keep improving at this rate, he'll be at 102% by the time Hurricane Yolanda rolls around. Anyway, remember when the twits at MediaMatters.org accused us of lying when we said the president's poll ratings were improving? Turns out we were just prescient.

Spot the Idiot
In the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one Luis V. Teodoro, a professor of journalism at the prestigious University of the Philippines, explains that America is just like Nazi Germany, only worse:

The United States is "America" to most people. But that word refers to the continent. When applied to the United States, it is better spelled with a "k," as in "swastika." . . .

The United States is not a nice place for non-whites and dollar-poor people to visit even in the best of times. You don't really want to live there--not if you think there's more to life than McDonald's, a gas-guzzling car, Mickey Mouse prancing around Disneyland, and indulging one's earthly appetites at the cost of one's dignity and self-respect. But I confess: I've visited the United States several times to see relatives, and even briefly lived there during arguably better times. . . .

But the scramble to visit and live in the United States continues because the poverty rampant in the United States world order (800 million people go to bed hungry daily) drives millions from their countries to look for opportunities abroad--especially in the United States. . . .

Racism is as common as grass in the United States, where everything's right if you're white, but everything can be wrong if you're not. And they start them young. Grade school children blithely hurl such racial epithets as "Nigger," "Spic," "Chink," etc. at each other when they quarrel. . . .

"America" isn't in the heart. It's in the colonial mind, "Amerika" being the reality. You don't really want to live there, and visiting it is like visiting Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Except that today you don't have to be Jewish; you just have to be different.

Sounds as if this jerk is angling for a faculty position at an American university.

Zero-Tolerance Watch
Good news from Omaha, Neb., where government school authorities have reversed their decision to suspend 6-year-old Ethan Gray for bringing a butter knife to school:

OPS said the school's principal has some discretion over punishment as long as the weapon wasn't a firearm. A child who brings a knife to school can face expulsion.

Wednesday morning the principal at Ed Gomez Elementary decided that the 6-year-old had learned his lesson, and canceled the suspension.

"That was the whole point," said OPS's Luanne Nelson. "So he would know it's inappropriate to bring something like that to school. She felt he learned that and wanted him back right away. It's not an exception as much as taking into consideration all the parts, his age, the infraction."

The district said it didn't reconsider because of the negative publicity.

Sure, we believe you. We noted the story yesterday but had missed the follow-up. Meanwhile in Phoenix, a diabetic student at Mountain Pointe High is suing over a prohibition on medical equipment, the Arizona Republic reports:

Alex Lagman, 17, of Chandler, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes on his 12th birthday and has been self-monitoring his blood sugar using small lancets to prick his finger four to 10 times a day. The Arizona Center for Disability Law filed the suit against Tempe Union High School District in federal court on his behalf.

The school wants Alex to visit the nurse's office for testing, said his father, Bruce Lagman. But that's not practical, he said, because if his son's blood sugar is very low he might not make it without passing out. Also, he said, the nurse is not always available, and the trips would cause his son to miss class.

Even the teachers don't respect the rule, though: "Alex has continued to attend school and carry his testing kit. Teachers have been supportive and said they'd 'look the other way' when Alex had to use his tester, his father said."

What Will We Do With Experts?
"Experts Don't Know if Diet Prevents Cancer"--headline, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 27

What Would Mammals Do Without Studies?
"Oxygen Helped Mammals Grow, Study Finds"--headline, Associated Press, Sept. 29

What Would Gulf Nations Do Without Emirates?
"Emirates: al-Qaida Threat to Gulf Nations"--headline, Associated Press, Sept. 29

Thanks for the Tip!--IV
"Health Tip: Drink Enough Water"--headline, HealthDayNews, Sept. 30

Why Voinovich Is Crying Again
"Bolton Beats Plovdiv 2-1 to Advance to Group Stage of UEFA Cup"--headline, Bloomberg News, Sept. 29

Guess the Bubble Has Burst
"Million Dollars Homes Dime a Dozen"--headline, Washington Times. Sept. 30

'I Call Dibs on the Front Seat!'
"Pontiac Enthusiasts to Gather in Pontiac"--headline, Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.), Sept. 30

How Come We Never Get Invited to Parties Like This?
"Sheep, Two-Day Parties Enliven Remote Falklands Isles"--headline, Reuters, Sept. 29

We'll Have the Pot Roast
"A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, with a menu featuring rice-water and leaves, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas," Reuters reports from Phnom Penh:

Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture centre, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.

But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.

"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."

"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.

Oddly enough, Reuters classifies this story under "World Crises" rather than "Oddly Enough."

Flight Fight
"Labor unions representing most of the nation's 90,000 flight attendants have urged their members to boycott a new Jodie Foster film that portrays a flight attendant and a U.S. air marshal as terrorists," Reuters reports from Los Angeles, ignoring its usual policy of never saying terrorists without scare quotes:

"This depiction of flight attendants is an outrage," said Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) International President Patricia Friend. "Flight attendants continue to be the first line of defense on an aircraft and put their lives on the line day after day for the safety of passengers."

An AFA spokeswoman in Washington said the unions worry that moviegoers will take away impressions that will make it more difficult for flight attendants to "earn the trust and respect of passengers."

"It's just so irresponsible," the spokeswoman, Corey Caldwell, told Reuters on Wednesday.

She said the portrayal of airline cabin crew members as evil-doers adds further insult to long-standing Hollywood stereotypes that have depicted flight attendants as sexualized bubble heads or as harsh, humorless disciplinarians.

We have no brief for the movie, which we haven't seen and probably won't, but it does seem to us that Caldwell is living up to that humorless stereotype.

The Greatest Ex-President
Jimmy Carter may not have been the best president in American history, or even in the top 33, but he has developed quite a reputation for good works out out office: building houses, observing elections, fighting Third World disease, photographing Ethiopian girls while they urinate . . .

Seriously, he says he photographs Ethiopian girls while they urinate! From the Emory Wheel, a student newspaper:

Carter shared two experiences that he said have been most memorable from througout [sic] all his travels and volunteer work. . . .

The second image Carter recalled was of a young Ethiopian girl's eagerness to demonstrate that she, like her brother, could use the small latrine their father had made for them.

"She spread her skirt out very carefully and she squatted down to relieve herself." Carter said.

Carter added jokingly, "We took some pictures of it."

We've observed before that because of his tendency to badmouth his successors, Carter makes Bill Clinton look like a statesman. We never thought we'd say Carter makes Clinton look like a normal man.

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• Ken Langone: Eliot Spitzer owes me--and New York's taxpayers--an apology.
• Daniel Henninger: Leviathan 101: Don't blame it all on FEMA.
• Manuel Miranda: America has a new chief justice, and we can thank Bill Frist.
• The Journal Editorial Report: Tune in this weekend for a discussion of Tom DeLay and the Supreme Court's new term.

And on the Taste page:

• Review & Outlook: Harvard's School of Public Health goes Hollywood.
• Tony & Tacky: Do lawmakers have a constitutional right to drive drunk? Plus make what not war?
• John Fund: Is Hillary Clinton the next Geena Davis?
• Todd Buchholz: The lines blur between white- and blue-collar workers.
• Vincent Carroll: A bankruptcy judge threatens religious freedom.