Good Advice
Steven L. Taylor
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Monday, November 4, 2013
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30 comments
“Don’t plagiarize. It will be used against you.”-Ann Althouse (as inspired by the Rand Paul speech brouhaha).
Although I would go with just “Don’t plagiarize.”
And now, the charges extend to his book: Three Pages Of Rand Paul’s Book Were Plagiarized From Think Tanks.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Both father and son have had incompetents writing stuff in their name for years. The senior Paul had racists and the junior has lazy plagiarizers.
“Don’t plagiarize”
Lobachevsky (speaking through Tom Lehrer) respectfully dissents.
Personally my advice would be: “Don’t plagiarize. It will be used against you.”
My advice is this: “Don’t plagiarize – anyone who knows how to use Google will probably find out the source of your theft.”
@Moosebreath: I usually ignore the thumbs-up/thumbs-down thing, but I have a rule: certain things will always get a thumbs-up from me. References to or quotations of Tom Lehrer, Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and P. J. O’Rourke are on that list.
Well played.
As Tolstoy would say ” …. Never mind, not a big fan of attributions…
Should someone tell Jenos that John Cleese despises his political views?
Now there is an op-ed on Sentencing in the Washington Times that Paul plagiarized in.
Seems he is no smarter than the loons who support him.
@anjin-san:
Other than being able to quote a few lines….it’s obvious Jenos is incapable of grasping the meaning of anyone on his/her list.
Even monkeys are capable of mimicry.
Understanding meaning…not so much.
@anjin-san: Who cares? An appreciation of good humor should be allowed to stand on its own.
@Jenos Idanian #13: I would add Lewis Grizzard to that list.
@OzarkHillbilly: Indeed. If I had to give up Clint Eastwood movies or Ted Nugent songs….well I gave up Nugent. But that’s not the point. I still like watching Eastwood even though he’s clearly a political idiot.
@anjin-san: Hey, I can play the stupid passive-aggressive game, too!
“:Someone tell Annie I’m not like those leftist idiots pissing themselves over Ender’s Game being a very successful movie just because they don’t like Orson Scott Card’s stance on gay rights.”
@OzarkHillbilly: As great as Lewis was (he had the best book titles I’ve ever seen), I’m not sure he’d make the cut. However, Mel Brooks would.
“…index was copied from Vladivostok telephone directory!”
It’s not the plagiarizing that’s worrying me so much as Rand’s brains. Either he has totally incompetent ghostwriters or he’s forgotten everything he learned in college about how to write papers.
(Do I want someone that stupid at POTUS? No.)
Rand Paul, or whoever writes his stuff, should learn from Jenos and at least rewrite what he copies, it makes it harder for people to find where he got his “inspiration”…
Many people if they didn’t know better would find it unbelievable that a Board Certified opthamologist should need to steal or plagiarize. Being more cynical than many I see it as contemptuously discounting his audience’s intelligence.
@anjin-san:
“Should someone tell Jenos that John Cleese despises his political views?”
So what? No ones pays to hear any performer’s political views.
@ Moosebreath
Did you miss the 60s?
@Jenos Idanian #13:
I’m not sure what it says about me, and it definitely says something, but I never really got Brooks. Don’t know why but he always left me a little flat.
@OzarkHillbilly: How about Wayne and Schuster? Or Flanders and Swann?
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would add Margaret Cho and Ron White to that list. Plus, I think Clint Eastwood’s performances in those three Dirty Harry movies were some of the best comedy I’ve seen. Great stuff – succinct, perfectly delivered, dead on.
So Paul is now making excuses for his plagarism…after expressing a desire to shoot pundits who spoke the truth about it.
Just another Republican coward.
@grumpy realist: Seeing as I had to google them both… 🙁 Wayne and Schuster at least sounded familiar.
@al-Ameda: Here’s your sign... Bill Engvall
“Before I got married I had 2 things: I had a backbone and I had testicles.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
Isn’t that three things?
Unless you are Lance Armstrong.
@anjin-san:
“Did you miss the 60s?”
About half, and was in diapers for a good percentage of the rest. And my point stands — just because someone is musically talented, or a good actor, or whatever, does not mean their political thinking is worth listening to.
I remember seeing Margret Cho at an open mic night when she was a complete unknown. It was obvious she was going places. It was a lot like seeing Huey Lewis in the early days. He had star quality, there was no way he was not going to make it. (though his label left “Sports” sitting in the can for two years before releasing it)
@OzarkHillbilly: W&S did a marvelous retelling of the murder of Julius Caesar from the viewpoint of Flavius Maximus, Roman Private Eye.
And Flanders & Swann? They were witty, veddy veddy British, and responsible for why a lot of Brits in the 1950s pronounced “gnu” as “ge-noo”. I recommend them highly (link to Youtube of one of their better songs).
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