There he goes again. Three months ago Jimmy Carter criticized President Bush for what he termed "his entire foreign policy." Later he apologized, only last week to blast Bush's support of military tribunals. Most former Presidents refrain from second-guessing their successor. Not Carter. An overwhelming majority of Americans back such tribunals. Not Carter. Why would anyone believe anything this man has to say?

You could see jaws drop, hear cups crash, feel the ground move under Hollywood. What if a veteran of a kinder, gentler TV age staged a reunion -- and all of America came? OK, not all, just enough to make "The Carol Burnett Show: Show Stoppers" a recent week's most highly-rated program.

Television mirrors what we are. It also shapes what we become -- here, more fractured and balkanized. More of us are watching cable. Many, turned off by TV's pornography, profanity, and cesspool morality, are turning it off for good. Adrift, television increasingly programs to the lowest common denomination -- until a special like Burnett's shows why it doesn't have to be that way.

Burnett's was a retrospective of bloopers from a variety series that left the air 23 years ago. Network executives had hoped for a decent audience. What they got topped the Nielsen charts. People of all ages tuned in for Harvey Korman and Tim Conway and friends. Imagine! You didn't need a censor. The entire family could watch.

Baby Boomers grew up when that was the rule, not exception. For Mom and dad, the kids, even grandparents, TV was the hearth. It can still be so -- if TV will wake up. Clean the gutter. Dry the sewer. Give us decent people who come to know and like. The network that does that will be laughing to the top. Just ask Carol Burnett.

Remember Barney Fife, Mayberry, North Carolina's deputy sheriff? He couldn't shoot straight if his life depended on it. Fortunately for Barney, it seldom did.

All of us have known hapless figures -- a high-school teacher, a businessman, a character on screen. They don't mean to be incompetent. It's in the blood: Ineptitude as DNA. Which explains perhaps why area officials continue to doom big-ticket projects that would enhance our quality of life.

Item: GOP county chairman Steve Minarik blasts Democratic assemblyman David Gantt, head of that body's Transportation Committee, for sabotaging a proposed bus terminal, fast ferry, soccer stadium, and performing arts center.

Item: William Nojay of the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority blasts Congressman Louise Slaughter as obstruction's "poster child" against the bus terminal.

Item: After years of wrangling Midtown Plaza is sold, presaging a new Arts Center. Think again. We can't decide whether the city, county, or Washington should raise money first. Hey, fellas: How about at the same time.

We have made virtually no progress on projects to keep our best and brightest from leaving Rochester. At least Barney Fife had one bullet. Our officials shoot blanks. Another TV figure, William Bendix, in the "Life of Riley," said it best: "What a revoltin' development this is."

Timeline: Last week. Dateline: 343 State Street, Rochester. CEO Dan Carp announces that Eastman Kodak will be expected to hike its numerical percentage of women and minorities. His stated cause: "diversity" -- a classic case of Orwellspeak -- where up is down, round is square, and never the truth will rise.

Kodak's brainchild is a panel of outside figures to "advise" the company on diversity. It will meet two or three times a year, work directly with Kodak's board of directors, and be chaired by Bill Clinton's former Deputy U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder Jr.

Clinton said of affirmative action, "Don't end it, mend it." In truth, he mended exactly 1 of 160 federal programs, began others, and in court opposed more qualified white contractors, firefighters, and teachers, respectively, in cases in Colorado, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey. His lawyer? Eric Holder, Jr.

Holder -- conservatives call him the Quota King -- will now bring that political orthodoxy to Kodak: meet our goals, or pay the price: We're talking reverse discrimination. Perhaps Carp should remember Martin Luther King Jr: "What counts is not the color of your skin, but the content of your character." What does this mean to Kodak employees? Read below.

Above, I spoke of how Eastman Kodak CEO Dan Carp has formed a panel of outside figures to "advise" Kodak on diversity. Let's be clear. Diversity means affirmative action, which means preferential treatment, which means racial and sexual quotas, which are against the law.

This decision politicizes Kodak. Too, the panel's head: Eric Holder, Jr., Bill Clinton's former deputy U.S. attorney general. Holder defended more quotas case than any Administration official in U.S. history.

Say you're a Kodak employee. This decision tells you four things.

First, quotas will forge a more uncivil work atmosphere, which will foster less productivity. Exactly what Kodak needs.

Second, it means the bully boys of political correctness will affect Kodak policy.

Third, diversity mandates increased women and minorities. Kodak's workforce is sure to shrink. Guess who'll be first fired and last promoted? The vast majority of Kodak's workforce who happen to be white males.

Fourth, this decision means that Eastman Kodak will likely be sued for reverse discrimination. Why do I suspect that? Because at colleges and other companies it's already occurred.

Americans, according to George Gallup, oppose racial quotas by nearly 80 percent. Too bad Kodak has thrown in with the other 20. Welcome to political correctness, today's form of leprosy: No one who touches it is left unharmed.

Want to express your opinion on these topics to Curt? Click here.