Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell calls William Bennett everything but a wife-beater and child-molester in the black-crime-abortion controversy — his is an  “ill-chosen hypothesis,” his comments were “disgusting,” “racist,” and “ignorant,” though more the last than the second.

Ditto Freakonomics author Stephen Levitt, who predicts crime based on socio-economic profile — his is “an unseemly theory,” he’s got “arrogance” that “frightens . . . and offends” her.

She reduces black crime to selling dope to whites, who “drive” crime, saying nothing about who commits it.  (Put dope on the free market, I say, but that’s another story.)

In any case, she rejects Levitt’s contention that you can predict high incidence of crime using as your measure “income, the likelihood of growing up in a female-headed household, having a teenage mother, and how urban the environment is,” as he said.  It frightens and offends her (as above).

But isn’t that beside the point, which is whether Levitt’s right or not?  Does Mitchell present her feelings in the matter as more important than Levitt’s argument?

If Mitchell wants to get to the heart of the matter, she should calm down, forget her feelings, and THIMK!

Chi Trib scored well ahead of “Play ball” today at Sox park with a p-1 profile of 1st-baseman cleanup hitter Paul Konerko that moves along and tells a lot, is excellently organized, and starts the day right for a Sox fan, such as this one who at least from age 10 got the Trib off the front porch and went first to see how they did (and was doubly pleased if the other team had lost). 

“Heart of the order: Paul Konerko’s gritty, workman approach makes him a clubhouse leader and a South Side hero” is by David Haugh, who puts meat on the bones of frequent throwaway references by sports writers to Konerko as a blue-collar, hard-working type, which is required in view of his big salary.  Beside the point in Haugh’s account, who quotes a brother:

“My grandpa [DiPiro] always told us that just having a job is honorable, so treat it with respect no matter what it is,” said Peter Konerko, Paul’s older brother who is a photographer in New York. “Paul’s attitude came from learning at a young age that whether it’s hitting a 90-m.p.h. fastball or digging a hole, your job requires integrity. I think Paul works harder now than he did when he was in [Class] A ball.”

This is a hard kind of story to do right, because of the danger of overkill, also known as b.s. about local hero.  If there’s b.s. in this story, if it’s a con job, I’m conned.  It happens, even to citizens of an age that says they should know better.