DRUNKEN SAILORS AND A JEWISH BIRTHDAY BOY

Couldn't help noticing that PC has reached a new height. A New York City councilman is demanding an apology from the mayor for his aide's use of the term "drunken sailor," because it denigrates the men and women in the Navy.

After the aide accused the council of "spending money like a drunken sailor" earlier this week, the councilman issued a press release claiming that the "slur against sailors" was "unacceptable" -- especially because it occurred on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor day.

The mayor wisely refused to apologize. He pointed out that when describing the council's spending "drunken sailor is about as nice a ways as you can phrase it."

Today, the same day that kerfluffel was reported in The New York Times, the paper's pop music critic Kelefa Sanneh called Jesus a Jewish "birthday boy" in his review of Clay Aiken's Christmas concert at the Theater in Madison Square Garden.

Sanneh writes that since the concert coincided with "the third night of Hanukkah, Mr. Aiken turned his second act into a celebration of Jews. Well, one Jew: Jesus. Whereas other seasonal gatherings evoked a secular or multifaith 'holiday spirit,' Mr. Aiken's concert was one party where the birthday boy got all the attention."

Will PC Christians and Jews demand an apology from Sanneh for his insouciant treatment of -- pick one, a) the son of God or b) the guy who was not the messiah -- and will the editors of the Times be excoriated for their insensitivity? And if he gets wind of this before his departure, what will Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent have to say?

Postscript: "Following up on your PC Christianity," a reader writes, "if Dan Brown is on to something and Jesus did marry Mary Magdalene, does that make her the daughter-in-law of God? If so, Mrs. Christ deserves her due. Renaming St. Patrick's Cathedral in her honor would be a healthy start, or a casino in Sin City. Maybe Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas strip?"