HillBuzz Open Thread: Friday August 17, 2012
Plagiarist Fareed Zakaria’s been re-instated at both TIME magazine and CNN. But, that’s not the most exciting Zakaria-related news of the day. In the week or so that he was cloistered away on what was supposed to be a one-month suspension for publishing other people’s work under his own name without any sort of attribution, Zakaria penned a 7-book young adult fiction series that he’ll be releasing soon (no doubt to great praise by TIME and CNN). Expect to see the Barry Putter books, about a magical boy who has many adventures and grows up to be President one day, in Zakaria’s collected “works” soon.
In all seriousness, though, the reason I bring this up in an open thread is because I want to know what you think of plagiarists.
I’ve seen my work lifted without attribution in different places and last year I had a bit of fun with someone who plagiarized me worse than anything Zakaria would ever dream of — it was a whole 5,000 word essay I did on Governor Sarah Palin that some guy in Idaho copied and then pasted onto his own site…though he took the time to delete my name and references to HB in the article so that he could somewhat make it seem like the piece was his own. However — weirdly — he didn’t delete the references to living to Chicago that were in there and didn’t take out the links I had to other HB articles, so when he published the piece it sent “trackbacks” to this site and out of curiosity I followed them to his site and saw what he had done. It was so egregious I took the time to look up a phone number for the guy (as his name was clearly visible on the site) and ended up speaking with his grandmother about what he had done. ”I always knew that computer would get him in trouble. He’s good for nothing!” she sharply told me. Within 15 minutes after speaking to Grandma it was all down…and a little while after that the guy’s father made him write an apology note, saying he was sorry for “doing stupid things”.
I doubt Zakaria’s sorry or even understands what he did wrong. Here’s hoping magazine readers and TV viewers never forget. In college, I had professors in my international studies program who forced us to read Zakaria’s opinions all the time and I’ve always found the guy to be smarmy and anti-American (while, of course, enjoying all the perks of living in the highest echelons of America). I hope Republicans are smart enough to forever hold Zakaria’s feet to the fire regarding his plagiarism whenever he goes off on his pro-Obama tears in the upcoming days of this election.
I used to think that was a pipe dream — Republicans holding the Left accountable and taking the fight to them — but the Romney/Ryan ticket seems to be doing just that and there aren’t words to accurately express how thrilled that makes me.
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What’s on your mind today and what are people talking about in your part of the country?
© 2012, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Did you see this excellent video response to MSNBC’s Toure’s recent comments about Gov. Romney? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc1xrKLlOwo&feature=player_embedded
Since the MSM is giving so much airtime to the liberal nuns who don’t like Paul Ryan and using them as proof that Catholics will vote for Obama, I’d like to point out that Cardinal Dolan – the man many say will be the first American Pope – KNOWS Paul Ryan personally, and LIKES him. This is the same Cardinal Dolan who said that Barack Obama looked him in the eye and LIED to him about the Obamacare legislation and the potential impact it would have on Catholic institutions.
The REAL Catholic leadership in this country seems to be sending the message that it’s time for Catholics to abandon their traditional Democrat leanings and go with the team who can be trusted to respect the Church. That’s a whole lotta votes in 2012!
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314272/dolan-ryan-great-public-servant-kathryn-jean-lopez
Ah! If you are Black, Mulatto, Brown or Muslim, you do not have to adhere to the standards of society! You can LIE, CHEAT and do whatever you like.
But if a WHITE man FARTS they want his HEAD!
There’s something wrong in this old world!
I can’t stand plagiarism or any other theft, really. People tend to trivialise how wrong it is because of how easy it is to do and how difficult it is to detect. Writing for a living is difficult enough without people stealing your work.
I react to plagiarism the same way that most people respond to President Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark. People pour their hearts and souls into their businesses and then he denigrates their hard work while concurrently trying to take a greater share of their profits than he already does?
And the thing is that they did build that with great care and precision, in much the same way that a writer crafts a sentence. It isn’t easy to create strong, succinct writing. If it were, you wouldn’t have people stealing quality work because it’s so easy to copy and paste it. I know how it feels to spend an exceptional amount of time fretting over specific words, turns of phrase and the flow of a sentence. It disgusts me to see someone turn around and so easily disrespect the author by seizing the hard work like they’re entitled to it.
And, Kevin? It’s good to see you back, man. You’ve been missed.
One of the BEST moments yesterday was when I was able to tell the FodGuy “Kevin’s back at HillBuzz!!”
Headed to the doctor this afternoon; stress is manifesting in physical symptoms – between being unemployed, the FodGuy losing overtime, the Progeny having legal issues {dating from 6 YEARS ago!}, and anxiety that Øbama will return to the White House {in addition to Afghanistan/Israel/Egypt, etc.} I’m feeling like I’m jumping out of my skin …………………………… since I can only affect ONE of the things bothering me {being unemployed}, after I return from the doctor, it will be back to the computer, doing job searches.
Our doctor’s office stopped accepting new MedicAid/MediCare patients over a year ago; WE still have private insurance, but the deductions keep going up – I can’t really complain, though, as the Progeny has been battling repeated incidences of kidney stones for 3 years, with NO ‘fix’, only symptomatic relief {and BIG honking bills, for CAT scans to PROVE the stones’ existence}, because she has NO insurance. If she were an illegal, however, it would have been “fixed” the first time around ……………………….
She has a gay friend whose boyfriend is an illegal – Jose is facing deportation, for repeatedly getting busted for drunk driving, but gets ANYTHING he needs medically …………………………
That’s MY day …………………………………
Semper Fi’
DM
BTW, snagged this from Old NFO, thought you might enjoy: http://youtu.be/yEH4Yum4nN4
Semper Fi’
DM
Hillary was offered VP spot and turned it down (reports Ed Klein)
http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlows-money-politics/314296/ed-klein-hillary-turned-down-veep-spot
“I AM my brother’s keeper.” -BHO
Oh, really? Then how come Dinesh D’Souza ends up helping pay for George Obama’s child’s medical bills?!
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/16/how-became-george-obama-brother/
The mask is peeled back a bit further.
Who really unchained Wall Street?
In keeping with the left’s blaxploitation enterprise, white Northerner Joe Biden feigned the hemistichical rhythm of a Southern black preacher for his largely black audience in Virginia yesterday:
They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the-he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street! They gawn’ put y’all back in chains.
For all the bluster of Obama, pre- and post-2008, as well as that of Attorney General Eric Holder concerning the alleged criminal activities on Wall Street, there have been zero Wall Street prosecutions under Obama/Holder. Compare that with his predecessors Bush and Clinton:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/who_really_unchained_wall_street.html
“Hey, remember when Nancy Pelosi and a gaggle of Democratic women vowed to eradicate Washington’s culture of corruption? Tee-hee. Instead of breaking up the Good Ol’ Boys Club, Capitol Hill’s leading liberal ladies have established their very own taxpayer-funded Sisterhood of the Plundering Hacks.”
http://michellemalkin.com/2012/08/17/the-liberal-sisterhood-of-the-plundering-hacks/
State Dept now inserting Obama hosannas in “Fact Sheets”?
“First, hosannas to Barack Obama began appearing in the presidential biographies of his predecessors on the official White House website. Now, Heritage Foundation’s Amy Payne has discovered that the State Department has begun inserting hosannas to the boss in their new “Fact Sheets” of countries around the world. Is the Obama administration attempting to build a cult of personality, or just create the jobs necessary to clean up official government websites of his electioneering after January?”
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/17/state-dept-now-inserting-obama-hosannas-in-fact-sheets/
I think plagarism sucks and I think it sets a bad example when you see so-called well-respected journalist stealing other peoples’ work.
I have thought about starting a business blog several times, but I haven’t done because of the high probability my content will be stolen. A well researched article takes a lot of time (at least for me it does) and to have some idiot steal it and put their name on it is very disturbing.
There are too many things going on with the country and the Fareed Zakaria incident will just fade away. Unfortunately plagarism is rampant in the college world, but you never think someone held in such a high esteem would do it.
On a different note, people in my neck of the woods are talking about the racist comments made by the village idiot, Toure, over at MSNBC. I’m glad SE Cupp was there to challange his dumb a$$.
The Unhinged Badgers didn’t stay in hibernation long: http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/166571856.html (This happened in the Appleton, WI area.)