by JAMES TARANTO
Monday, February 27, 2006 4:44 P.M. EST

A Whiff of Isolationism
There seems little doubt that whipping up hysteria over Dubai Ports World's planned takeover of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the British concern that manages commercial operations at some U.S. ports, is good politics.

"Just 17% of Americans believe Dubai Ports World should be allowed to purchase operating rights to several U.S. ports," according to a Rasmussen poll, which "found that 64% disagree and believe the sale should not be allowed." According to the poll, congressional Democrats even have a momentary advantage over President Bush, 43% to 41%, on the question of whom voters "trust more on national security." Little wonder that the Dems have suddenly decided they love racial profiling.

On the merits of the kerfuffle, we have little to add to last week's editorial in The Wall Street Journal. But the broader implications are worrisome. We've argued that the likely result of another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 would be "a retreat into isolationism and an emphasis on homeland security":

Its elements could include genuine curtailments of civil liberties, an end to the taboo against ethnic and religious profiling, restrictions on immigration, and heightened security that introduces enormous inconveniences into everyday life while constraining the flow of people and goods into America.

The public's receptivity to Dubai hysteria suggests that there is an appetite for just such an approach--one that, in our view would be very bad for America and even worse for the rest of the world. Politicians who agree would do well to be more circumspect about pandering to such impulses.

Winter for Summers
On National Review Online, Stanley Kurtz offers this analysis of Larry Summers's ouster as president of Harvard:

Summers is from the sane side of the Democratic Party (yes, there is one). These moderate Democrats want to bring the academy closer to the center of the country. But when push came to shove, the leftist faculty wouldn't play along.

That left Summers and his moderate Democrat backers on the board to choose between appeasement and a serious public battle. Ultimately, Summers and his allies backed down because they are part of the same national political coalition as the leftist faculty (which contributes heavily to the Democratic Party). Moderate Dems would be happy to reform the academy, but they don't have the stomach to treat leftist professors as open opponents. Only Republicans can do that. So in a way, we are seeing another iteration of the paralyzing split between DLC types and the fire-breathing base. The Democratic left is just too big, too powerful, and too essential to victory to be purged.

The Los Angeles Times reports that many Harvard students sided with Summers and against the faculty wackos:

Somewhere in the controversy surrounding Summers is evidence of a change in campus politics, one professor said: These days, it is not unusual for students to be to the political right of their professors.

"This is a sort of 'I'm-not-a-feminist-but' generation," said J. Lorand Matory, a professor of anthropology and of African and African American studies. "I don't know if the word is 'conservative' as much as 'careerist.' " . . .

Harry Lewis, a computer science professor and former dean of Harvard College who left under pressure from Summers, said campus politics here had been shifting for decades, as more students from less affluent backgrounds enrolled.

A more diverse group, they are also "eager to prosper and less willing to take risks by rebelling," Lewis said. His upcoming book, "Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education," traces what he considers to be the decline in the quality of education at Harvard. It's left them far more likely to support the power structure, he said.

"The Harvard student body looks more like America than the Harvard faculty," he said. "That's what's happened."

If the Democratic Party chooses to look more like the Harvard faculty than America, voters have a ready alternative in the Republican Party. Academia is the left's biggest remaining redoubt, but here too there may be alternatives. During our vacation we paid a call on Ken Starr, dean of the law school at Pepperdine University, and he told us with great enthusiasm of how undergraduates on campus were doing serious work--actually studying great books, no less.

This ought to be perfectly unremarkable. That a university administrator boasts about it tells you something about the state of higher education in America. But it may be that in the coming years schools like Pepperdine will benefit as those like Harvard squander their prestige on left-wing faculty politics.

The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong
Have you noticed how, at least when a Republican is in the White House, economic news almost always seems to be bad news? When in doubt, it seems, the journalists just make stuff up. This is from a Reuters dispatch last week:

Employers are having difficulty finding the right people to fill jobs despite high unemployment in Europe and the United States, a survey by U.S.-based staffing firm Manpower showed Tuesday.

In fact, unemployment in the U.S. was just 4.7% in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whereas rates in Western Europe routinely run twice that. Meanwhile, check out this Associated Press dispatch:

After the booming 1990s when incomes and stock prices were soaring, this decade has been less of a thrill ride for most American families.

Average incomes after adjusting for inflation actually fell from 2001 to 2004, and the growth in net worth was the weakest in a decade, the Federal Reserve reported Thursday. . . .

The median family income, the point where half the families made more and half made less, rose a tiny 1.6 percent to $43,200 in 2004 compared with 2001.

But if the average income fell while the median income rose, that almost certainly means that incomes were falling at the top while rising at the bottom. If the opposite had happened, of course, the AP would doubtless have told an alarming story of increasing income inequality.

At Least Their Robes Are Black
Here's a curious observation from an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail about the U.S. Supreme Court's taking up a partial-birth abortion case:

Activists who oppose abortion rights are hoping Mr. Bush's choice of two conservative, white, middle-aged male jurists--John Roberts, the court's new Chief Justice, and Samuel Alito, who replaced the centrist, swing-voter Sandra Day O'Connor--will herald the end to all legal forms of abortion in the United States.

The mention of Roberts's and Alito's age and sex is odd enough, but what could their race possibly have to do with abortion?

Death Becomes Her
Bernard-Henri Lévy, a left-wing though philo-American French author, pens "A Letter to the American Left," which appears in The Nation. Blogger Thomas Lifson notes this Lévy plaint:

Why haven't we heard from more intellectuals like Susan Sontag . . .?

The answer, of course, is the same reason we haven't heard from dead white males like Plato, Shakespeare and Tocqueville. Susan Sontag died in 2004.

The Angry Left, Explained
Host Howard Kurtz interviewing blogress Arianna Huffington on CNN's "Reliable Sources":

Kurtz: All right. Let me stick with the media and the vice president. Arianna, I'm sure you'd like to respond to this notion that you're suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Huffington: Well, absolutely. First of all, I agree that there were many, many more important stories last week, but it's a little bit like what happens in a dysfunctional relationship.

You know, you put up with your husband or boyfriend cheating on you with your best friend, with him having a love child with his secretary, and, finally, he gives you milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate on Valentine's Day, and you explode.

So you see, it's all perfectly reasonable!

What Would We Do Without Men Shot by Vice President Cheney?
"Man shot by Vice President Cheney says accidents happen"--subheadline, MSNBC.com, Feb. 17

Israel Was Doing It Before It Was Cool
"Egypt Cool to Clamp Down on Hamas"--headline, Arizona Republic, Feb. 22

I'm the New President of Haiti, Nyah Nanny Nyah Nyah!
"Rene Preval faces a taunting task in impoverished Haiti after being declared the winner of the presidential election."--photo caption, CNN.com, Feb. 17

That Was Thoughtful of Him
"Sex Offender Alerts via E-Mail"--headline, Chicago Tribune, Feb. 23

So Where Did They Entomb the Survivors?
"No Survivors in Primary School Entombed in Mud"--headline, Independent (London), Feb. 20

What Would Landslide-Hit Villages Do Without Experts?
"Landslide-Hit Village Was Disaster About to Happen--Experts"--headline, INQ7.net (Philippines), Feb. 23

Perhaps Because They Usually Don't Die at the Same Time?
"Why Spouses Often Die One After Other"--headline, Arizona Republic, Feb. 16

Baby on Board

"Abortions at Home Are Safe--Pilot Study"--headline, Guardian (London), Feb. 16

"Airplane Gains a Passenger Midair"--headline, United Press International, Feb. 16

Thanks for Sharing
"Home-Builder Shares Face Test"--headline, The Wall Street Journal (link for subscribers), Feb. 22

Hey, Who Took the Kleenex?
"Four Indicted in Case of Tissue Theft"--headline, NPR.org, Feb. 23

Thanks for the Tip!--L
"Health Tip: Get Some Sleep"--headline, HealthDayNews, Feb. 17

Bottom Stories of Our Vacation

• "U.S. Olympians Last to Know About Cheney Shooting"--headline, FoxNews.com, Feb. 17
  
  
• "Vets Called After Dead Swan Found"--headline, BBC Web site, Feb. 17
  
  
• "Deer Die After Antlers Lock During Combat"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 24
  
  
• "Ape Guru Develops Coffee Certification Scheme"--headline, Reuters, Feb. 18
  
  
• "Ancient Tree Possibly Found in Indiana"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 17
  
  
• "Oprah Visits New Homes"--headline, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 17
  
  
• "Justice Ginsburg Goes It Alone"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 18
  
  
• "Connecticut Governor Unhurt in Car Wreck"--headline, CNN.com, Feb. 21
  
  
• "Ill. Governor Confused by 'Daily Show' Bit"--headline, Associated Press, Feb. 24

Tom and Jewry
The jihad against cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was only the start. The Middle East Media Research Institute transcribes a lecture by Hasan Bolkhari, "a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry," that appeared on Iranian television:

There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults--"Tom and Jerry." . . .

Some say that this creation by Walt Disney [sic] will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Co. gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse--especially the mouse.

Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe. . . .

If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the anti-Semitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began. . . . Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.

Watch "Schindler's List." Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed "dirty mice." "Tom and Jerry" was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. . . .

It should be noted that mice are very cunning . . . and dirty. . . .

No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews. . . .

Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. . . .

"Tom and Jerry" was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever. . . . This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows.

One wonders what he would make of "The Ducktators."

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: What's the alternative to promoting freedom in the Middle East?
• John Fund: The Taliban's former spokesman is now a Yale student. Anyone see a problem with that?
• The Journal Editorial Report: A transcript of the weekend's program on FOX News Channel.