I recently received an email from John Ray who ( with Peter Cuthbertson)

thought that a blog devoted solely to documenting the many idiocies of political correctness (which generally means Leftist correctness) might be an entertaining site for people to bookmark. So he and I have started up pcwatch. Have a look and see what you think.

I observed in reply

Generally, maybe, but not always. According to CNN, via Ezra Klein, via Calpundit

The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings will change the name of “french fries” to “freedom fries,” a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country’s refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq. Ditto for “french toast,” which will be known as “freedom toast.”

However, John and Peter chose not to run with the story. It seems that only politically correct examples of political correctness will be reported on this blog. Still, political correctness, regardless of which political pieties are being observed, is often amusing and usually harmless. So John and Peter’s blog should provide some innocent, if one-sided, merriment.

In fact, the 1990s right-wing panic about political correctness was both sillier and more dangerous than absurdities such as the use of “gravitationally challenged” for “fat”. As I said, here, the belief that appropriate use of language will automatically bring about desirable social change diverts attention away from action to bring about such change and focuses it on verbal gymnastics. As I observed, during the PC panic

a handful of leftists playing verbal games were elevated into a tyrannical dictatorship, posing a fundamental threat to freedom of speech.

Glenn Reynolds has complained about political correctness more times than I can count, but when he sees it from his own side, in the Freedom Fries Flap, he gives a qualified defence, seeing it as a harmless way of sending a message even if ‘it does seem kind of silly at first glance’. Much the same could be said about political correctness in general.