I haven't written much about Ben Domenech, because he tore himself down quite well without my assistance, thank you very much. However, one point that kept coming up in the discussion bugs the daylights out of me. The records of his plagiarism start back when he worked on the newspaper at William & Mary. His defenders, and he himself, have made the case (before all the later crimes came to light) that he was just a college student, and we shouldn't expect college students to understand such subtleties as attribution or not copying someone else's words.
In Salon.com's War Room, Domenech is quoted as saying "The idea that the attack machine has gotten to the level where they dig back to your freshman year of college, when you’re 17, and say, 'Hey, this guy should have been thinking about the authority of what he was writing the same way that people do at the New York Times,' then, I mean, it’s idiotic," Domenech said Friday in an interview with Human Events Online.
That's BS, and he should know it. Plagiarism, as any self-respecting student knows, especially one working for a newspaper, is cheating. It's theft of another's intellectual property. Sure, it's widespread, because many students would rather cheat than have to do their own work, but if or when they get caught, the penalties often are severe. I've never failed a student in a class because of plagiarism, but I have given many a zero on an assignment, lab, or term paper, because, frankly, that's not acceptable.
I know that people on the right want to think that anything that has happened in the past, on their side at least, qualifies as a "youthful indiscretion" and should be forgiven. Sometimes, there are consequences to actions, and sometimes those are bad. This guy cheated, he stole, and now he's been disgraced. Everything else is just a distraction.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Bush adminstration denies aid to Katrina victims
Not exactly a new thought - not from the administration of the man raised by someone who thought the victims were better off after losing everything. However, this is a new spin:
Cuba won't collect WBC runner-up prize money (Reuters)
Cuba's prize money from the first World Baseball Classic has become collateral damage in the four-decade battle between President Fidel Castro and the United States.
Castro said he wanted to donate the money to victims of Hurricane Katrina, but U.S. officials say Cuba isn't getting any prize money.
Cuba finished second in the 16-nation competition, and the runner-up was entitled to 7 percent of the tournament's profits. But under the 1962 U.S. trade embargo, Havana had to forfeit its cut to get U.S. approval to play.
Castro, welcoming Cuba's players home as champions despite their 10-6 loss to Japan in Monday's championship game in San Diego, said Tuesday that the Cuban prize money would be donated to Katrina victims.
The Bush administration, however, is not prepared to allow such altruism by the Cuban leader.
A Major League Baseball official said the deal that allowed Cuba to play in the tournament, which was reached in February with the U.S. State Department and agreed to by Cuba, made it "crystal clear" that Havana would not receive any share of the profits, even for charity.
"Cuba doesn't have a cut of the proceeds of the tournament, and there is nothing for Cuba to donate," MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney said by telephone from New York.
If there are any unassigned net revenues, MLB would consider a donation to an as-yet-undetermined charitable or humanitarian cause, he said.
So, in order to allow Cuba to play in a baseball tournament, they had to give up their rights to prize money which they weren't going to keep, but give to victims of a major natural tragedy? As utterly pathetic a failure as the 47 year long embargo has been, this is truly a high point.
Cuba won't collect WBC runner-up prize money (Reuters)
Cuba's prize money from the first World Baseball Classic has become collateral damage in the four-decade battle between President Fidel Castro and the United States.
Castro said he wanted to donate the money to victims of Hurricane Katrina, but U.S. officials say Cuba isn't getting any prize money.
Cuba finished second in the 16-nation competition, and the runner-up was entitled to 7 percent of the tournament's profits. But under the 1962 U.S. trade embargo, Havana had to forfeit its cut to get U.S. approval to play.
Castro, welcoming Cuba's players home as champions despite their 10-6 loss to Japan in Monday's championship game in San Diego, said Tuesday that the Cuban prize money would be donated to Katrina victims.
The Bush administration, however, is not prepared to allow such altruism by the Cuban leader.
A Major League Baseball official said the deal that allowed Cuba to play in the tournament, which was reached in February with the U.S. State Department and agreed to by Cuba, made it "crystal clear" that Havana would not receive any share of the profits, even for charity.
"Cuba doesn't have a cut of the proceeds of the tournament, and there is nothing for Cuba to donate," MLB spokesman Patrick Courtney said by telephone from New York.
If there are any unassigned net revenues, MLB would consider a donation to an as-yet-undetermined charitable or humanitarian cause, he said.
So, in order to allow Cuba to play in a baseball tournament, they had to give up their rights to prize money which they weren't going to keep, but give to victims of a major natural tragedy? As utterly pathetic a failure as the 47 year long embargo has been, this is truly a high point.
Back in a few days...
We're taking advantage of the kids' spring breaks to visit that fantastic vacation destination--Goreville, Illinois! Down to see the folks for a few, but the Thinker team will carry on in my absence!
We're fighting them there
because we're fighting them there.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr announced on Thursday that only a few hundred foreign jihadis (he called them "al-Qaeda") are left in Iraq, down from as many as 2000 in late 2005. The foreign element in the Iraqi guerrilla movement has long been over-estimated. Most of the violence is committed by Iraqi insurgents.
From www.juancole.com
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr announced on Thursday that only a few hundred foreign jihadis (he called them "al-Qaeda") are left in Iraq, down from as many as 2000 in late 2005. The foreign element in the Iraqi guerrilla movement has long been over-estimated. Most of the violence is committed by Iraqi insurgents.
From www.juancole.com
The Travelin' Medicine Show
Medicine Show: A traveling horse and buggy team, most common in 19th century United States, which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts. The most common product associated with medicine shows is an elixir which is touted to cure diseases, smooth facial wrinkles, remove stains in clothing, prolong life, or solve any number of common ailments (also known as snake oil). Entertainment often includes a freak show, a flea circus, musical acts, magic tricks, jokes, and storytelling:
"And we have a strategy for victory in Iraq. It's a three-pronged strategy, starting with-it's politics, it is a-it's security, and it's economy. A free Iraq is important for the United States of America. It was important to remove a threat; it was important to deal with threats before they fully materialized; but a free Iraq also does some other things. One, it serves as an amazing example -- it will serve as an amazing example for people who are desperate for freedom. You know, this is, I guess, quite a controversial subject, I readily concede, as to whether or not the United States ought to try to promote freedom in the broader Middle East. Our foreign policy before was just kind of, if the waters look calm, great. Problem is, beneath the surface was resentment brewing, and people were able to take advantage of that, these totalitarians, like al Qaeda. So I changed our foreign policy. I said, freedom is universal; history has proven democracies do not fight each other, democracies can yield peace we want, so let's advance freedom. And that's what's happening.
Step right up, get your snake oil, get your miracle cures, good for what ails ya!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Truer words were never spoken...
In other words, one of the things you better make sure of when you're the President, you're getting good intelligence, and, obviously, the intelligence broke down.
More from the same speech
He also was firing on our aircraft. They were enforcing a no-fly zone, United Nations no-fly zone
No, Your Chimpness, there was NO U.N. no-fly zone. That was a unilateral and probably illegal program set up by the U.S. and the U.K. (France was also in at first, but stopped enforcing it
He'd invaded his neighborhood.
Who is he, Mr. Rogers gone bad? Did he slap King Friday XIII around and take indecent liberties with Queen Sarah Saturday???
This guy was a threat. And so the world spoke. And the way I viewed it was that it was Saddam Hussein's choice to disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences. And he made the choice
Correct, he made his choice--and you invaded anyway.
All from one speech
I'm the Commander-in-Chief; I'm also the Educator-in-Chief. And I have a duty to explain how and why I make decisions. And that's part of the reason I'm here.
De Tocqueville, who's a French guy, came in 1832, and recognized-and wrote back-wrote a treatise about what it means to go to a country where people associate voluntarily to serve their communities.
That was the Taliban. If you were a young girl growing up under the auspices of the Taliban, you didn't have a chance to succeed. You couldn't go to school. If you dissented in the public square, you'd be in trouble. If you didn't agree with their dark vision, whether it be religion or politics, you were in trouble. In other words, they can't -- they couldn't stand this concept of a free society -- and neither can al Qaeda. See, we're dealing with ideologues. They have an ideology.
By the way, if the President says something he better mean it, for the sake of peace. In other words, you want your President out there making sure that his words are credible.
Another lesson of September the 11th, and an important lesson that really does relate to the topic I want to discuss, which is Iraq, is that when you see a threat now, you got to take it seriously. That's the lesson of September the 11th -- another lesson of September the 11th. When you see a threat emerging, you just can't hope it goes away. If the job of the President is to protect the American people, my job then is to see threats and deal with them before they fully materialize, before they come to hurt us, before they come and strike America again. [editor's note--does he get paid extra for each 9/11 reference?]
Iraq is a part of the global war on terror. In other words, it's a global war.
De Tocqueville, who's a French guy, came in 1832, and recognized-and wrote back-wrote a treatise about what it means to go to a country where people associate voluntarily to serve their communities.
That was the Taliban. If you were a young girl growing up under the auspices of the Taliban, you didn't have a chance to succeed. You couldn't go to school. If you dissented in the public square, you'd be in trouble. If you didn't agree with their dark vision, whether it be religion or politics, you were in trouble. In other words, they can't -- they couldn't stand this concept of a free society -- and neither can al Qaeda. See, we're dealing with ideologues. They have an ideology.
By the way, if the President says something he better mean it, for the sake of peace. In other words, you want your President out there making sure that his words are credible.
Another lesson of September the 11th, and an important lesson that really does relate to the topic I want to discuss, which is Iraq, is that when you see a threat now, you got to take it seriously. That's the lesson of September the 11th -- another lesson of September the 11th. When you see a threat emerging, you just can't hope it goes away. If the job of the President is to protect the American people, my job then is to see threats and deal with them before they fully materialize, before they come to hurt us, before they come and strike America again. [editor's note--does he get paid extra for each 9/11 reference?]
Iraq is a part of the global war on terror. In other words, it's a global war.
How not to live in the real world
From the NYT (via Salon's War Room): "One person who met Mr. Rove said he attributed Mr. Bush's problems more to external events, in particular Hurricane Katrina and Iraq, than to anything the White House did wrong."
Three things. 1) Aren't there *always* external events, in everyone's lives, and aren't we still required to deal with them?
2) Didn't we invade Iraq? How is that an external event?
3) Isn't an "external event", namely 9/11, responsible for most of what Chimpy has interpreted as his mission from god?
Three things. 1) Aren't there *always* external events, in everyone's lives, and aren't we still required to deal with them?
2) Didn't we invade Iraq? How is that an external event?
3) Isn't an "external event", namely 9/11, responsible for most of what Chimpy has interpreted as his mission from god?
Winner--Most Pathetic Letter to the Editor
Anti-smoking effects
I no longer fly to the West Coast or Hawaii. I haven't gone to a restaurant in Buffalo Grove since their smoking ban went into effect. I won't be eating in a restaurant in Chicago with their new smoking ban. I don't go to restaurants that prohibit smoking. Yes, airlines, towns, villages, and cities have lost business with their restrictions.
Ann Payne
Libertyville
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_opinion_letters/2006/03/antismoking_eff.html
Hello, Prop Room?
Hi, is this the prop room? Good. This is the White House. The president is appearing in West Virginia today, and we need a stooge to feed him some cornball nonsense. Do you have a speech monkey handy? You do? Great, send him over.
STOOGE: Mr. President, I have a son that's special forces in Iraq. And I have another son, I have another son that's in the Army. He left college to join the Army. He's out in Hawaii. He's got the good duty right now. But I thank God that you're our Commander-in-Chief. And I wouldn't want my boys --
PRESIDENT: Okay, thanks.
STOOGE: Again, I thank God you're our Commander-in-Chief. You're a man for our times. And I'm supporter of yours. And I think it's good that you come out and tell your story. And I think you need to keep doing more of it, and tell the story and the history of all this. And God bless you. And I thank you for your service.
"And God bless you. And I thank you for your service??" Doesn't it sound like the stooge was reading from the preznit's script?.
STOOGE: Mr. President, I have a son that's special forces in Iraq. And I have another son, I have another son that's in the Army. He left college to join the Army. He's out in Hawaii. He's got the good duty right now. But I thank God that you're our Commander-in-Chief. And I wouldn't want my boys --
PRESIDENT: Okay, thanks.
STOOGE: Again, I thank God you're our Commander-in-Chief. You're a man for our times. And I'm supporter of yours. And I think it's good that you come out and tell your story. And I think you need to keep doing more of it, and tell the story and the history of all this. And God bless you. And I thank you for your service.
"And God bless you. And I thank you for your service??" Doesn't it sound like the stooge was reading from the preznit's script?.
Two plus Two Equal Permanent Occupation
Compare these two statements. The first is from a 19-year old kid stuck at a new mega-base in Iraq, where according to the Washington Post story, the concrete goes on forever, vanishing into the noonday glare, 2 million cubic feet of it, a mile-long slab that's now the home of up to 120 U.S. helicopters, a heli-park as good as any back in the States:
"I think we'll be here forever."
The second comes from a vile "think tank" called the Project for the New American Century. This group included familiar names, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Bill Bennet, Dick Cheney and last but not least, Rummy.
"The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein....retaining forward-based forces in the region would still be an essential element in U.S. security strategy given the longstanding American interests in the region."
The kid's right.
"I think we'll be here forever."
The second comes from a vile "think tank" called the Project for the New American Century. This group included familiar names, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Scooter Libby, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Bill Bennet, Dick Cheney and last but not least, Rummy.
"The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein....retaining forward-based forces in the region would still be an essential element in U.S. security strategy given the longstanding American interests in the region."
The kid's right.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Fun with spellcheck
Spellcheckers may know more than they think....
At work, I use Epic editorial. I tend to type "WorldCom" a lot, and the spellcheck suggests...
WHOREDOM?
On my Juno e-mail, I had a response to the Chicago Tribune online, and for chicagotribune.com, it suggested
"crematorium."
Hmmm....
At work, I use Epic editorial. I tend to type "WorldCom" a lot, and the spellcheck suggests...
WHOREDOM?
On my Juno e-mail, I had a response to the Chicago Tribune online, and for chicagotribune.com, it suggested
"crematorium."
Hmmm....
Suggestions from Mr. Language Person
For our "commander-in-chief":
First of all, it is SEPTEMBER 11th, NOT September THE 11th!!!!
And fearless leader added that "you know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans"
BECAUSE OF OCEANS??? WHO ARE YOU? Phillip IV of Spain? OK, let's move ahead 400 years, are you Woodrow Wilson?
George, I know you were drunk and stupid during history classes, but have you ever heard of the Doolittle raid? Or maybe this thing called THE COLD WAR?
Oceans???
First of all, it is SEPTEMBER 11th, NOT September THE 11th!!!!
And fearless leader added that "you know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans"
BECAUSE OF OCEANS??? WHO ARE YOU? Phillip IV of Spain? OK, let's move ahead 400 years, are you Woodrow Wilson?
George, I know you were drunk and stupid during history classes, but have you ever heard of the Doolittle raid? Or maybe this thing called THE COLD WAR?
Oceans???
Is it just me, or is it warm in here?
Inuit See Signs In Arctic Thaw
String of Warm Winters Alarms 'Sentries for the Rest of the World'
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
PANGNIRTUNG, Canada --Thirty miles from the Arctic Circle, hunter Noah Metuq feels the Arctic changing. Its frozen grip is loosening; the people and animals who depend on its icy reign are experiencing a historic reshaping of their world.
Fish and wildlife are following the retreating ice caps northward. Polar bears are losing the floes they need for hunting. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are hauling up on islands to give birth. Robins and barn owls and hornets, previously unknown so far north, are arriving in Arctic villages.
The global warming felt by wildlife and increasingly documented by scientists is hitting first and hardest here, in the Arctic where the Inuit people make their home. The hardy Inuit -- described by one of their leaders as "sentries for the rest of the world" -- say this winter was the worst in a series of warm winters, replete with alarms of the quickening transformation that many scientists expect will spread from the north to the rest of the globe.
Well, luckily for us, the rapture will save us from all that global warming nonsense.
String of Warm Winters Alarms 'Sentries for the Rest of the World'
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
PANGNIRTUNG, Canada --Thirty miles from the Arctic Circle, hunter Noah Metuq feels the Arctic changing. Its frozen grip is loosening; the people and animals who depend on its icy reign are experiencing a historic reshaping of their world.
Fish and wildlife are following the retreating ice caps northward. Polar bears are losing the floes they need for hunting. Seals, unable to find stable ice, are hauling up on islands to give birth. Robins and barn owls and hornets, previously unknown so far north, are arriving in Arctic villages.
The global warming felt by wildlife and increasingly documented by scientists is hitting first and hardest here, in the Arctic where the Inuit people make their home. The hardy Inuit -- described by one of their leaders as "sentries for the rest of the world" -- say this winter was the worst in a series of warm winters, replete with alarms of the quickening transformation that many scientists expect will spread from the north to the rest of the globe.
Well, luckily for us, the rapture will save us from all that global warming nonsense.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Bill Maher on blogging
From "New Rules":
New Rule: Bluetooth headset users have to do something that lets me know you're just on the phone and not a dangerous schizophrenic. Right? We don't know if you're talking to your secretary or the evil leprechaun who lives in your head. You're not the chief communications officer of the Starship Enterprise. You're a shoe salesman asking your mom if you can bring over your laundry. If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of brain static rattling around in your head, I'd read your blog.
New Rule: Bluetooth headset users have to do something that lets me know you're just on the phone and not a dangerous schizophrenic. Right? We don't know if you're talking to your secretary or the evil leprechaun who lives in your head. You're not the chief communications officer of the Starship Enterprise. You're a shoe salesman asking your mom if you can bring over your laundry. If I wanted to overhear every tedious scrap of brain static rattling around in your head, I'd read your blog.
From Rush's dumber brother
Discussing the Feingold censure resolution, Limbaugh's dumber brother Dave opined "At least with the Clinton impeachment, which many wanted to dilute to a censure and others to a mere verbal wrist-slap, there was no question that he committed multiple felonies."
The [fill in the blank] doesn't fall far from the [fill in the blank].
Caution--slippery slope ahead
From the increasingly incoherent Charles Krauthammer:The "stirrings for the mainstreaming of polygamy (or, more accurately, polyamory) have their roots in the increasing legitimization of gay marriage. In an essay 10 years ago, I pointed out that it is utterly logical for polygamy rights to follow gay rights. After all, if traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as gay marriage advocates insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement--the number restriction (two and only two)--is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice."
Good heavens, is there a better textbook demonstration of the logical flaw of the slippery slope? A rational adjustment to a legal definition must necessarily invite the wholesale eradication of the concept?
So, the opening of marriage to two consenting adults throws open the gate to polygamy, and what else Chuck? Cross-species marriage? Please.
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