A Familiar Plague Exacerbated by Internet Connectivity

There is actually a website named Plagiarism Today.  It doesn't lack for content.

Also, there is now a posted step-by-step response protocol for when you discover that your work has been stolen.

I've been a "ghost writer", although never for fiction.  I would clean up quickly published books written by politicians just prior to their attempts to gain their party's nomination for whatever office interested them or athletes upon their retirement or bored captains of industry.  Frankly, I've never heard of ghost writers for fiction.  That sounds kind of ewwww.  Fiction has always been such a personal genre that I can't imagine any author giving up what seems like their child to some stranger.  Let alone one from a ghost writer service.

I recall sitting as one of the clergy at the ordination of a priest when, while listening to the sermon, I realized that the preacher had stolen about one-third of one of my ordination sermons.  It was one of my first sermons to be published online and also, for that reason, one of the last.

On another occasion, when I was a new rector in a parish, one of the couples from the congregation brought their friend's adult education curriculum to me so that I might use it at our parish.  Since he was a Congregationalist, I was curious to see what he had developed, since most of the Congregational clergy I know merely assimilate from other sources.

Turns out I was more right than I thought.  What they handed me was a direct copy of the curriculum of one the courses I had designed and taught at Hartford Seminary.  It was online, you see, and all the congo fellow did was remove my name and replace it with his.

So, I understand how this could infuriate an author.

The Glory That is...Socialism!

 

and

Oh, Hey, Firefighters? This May Result in Armageddon, So Maybe Let's Hear about It at Least as Much as You Tell Us about Millionaire Actors Giving Awards to One Another

BREAKING NEWS: Pakistan Army has invaded two indian posts at Nakial Sector Turkandi Raitla in India in possible major escalation since Pakistani strikes.

— BNL NEWS (@BreakingNLive) February 26, 2019

If you're wondering about the "firefighters" reference, go here for some media hubris.

Please Keep Telling Me What an Emergency This Is

A House Natural Resources subcommittee held a hearing on climate change (its first hearing of the year) — and Republicans successfully forced a motion to adjourn cuz not enough Dems showed up.

Talk about growing pains for the new majority!

— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 26, 2019

Oh, my gerd!  Oh, my gerd!!  We are totally going to die in twelve eleven and one-half years if we don't do something right now, you guys!!!

When they start acting likes it's an emergency, I'll regard it as such.  Otherwise, it's just another attempt to manipulate the simple-minded.

Every Time This is Done, It Makes Climatology a Suspect Science

The Greatest Scientific Fraud Of All Time

What the Bureau has done to the historical temperature record for Darwin [Australia] is indefensible. The Bureau has artificially shortened and cooled Darwin’s climate history to make it consistent with the theory of human-caused global warming.

The Difference Between Reporting and Journalism

Amazon fiasco teaches media painful lesson about business reporting

Step One in Destroying Your Small Business [This Time, Without Government "Help"]

Ohio music store owner faces backlash for turning away Trump supporters

You can hate him, loathe him, find him a lout or an overgrown brat, but approximately half your potential customers voted for the guy.  Is your small business so successful that you can alienate half of your potential customers?

Oh, Look: There are Two Sets of Rules

It seems #BelieveAllWomen is used some of the time, but not all of the time.  Here's what one of the leaders of that movement has done:

Sexual misconduct allegations against Time’s Up CEO’s son prompted her resignation

Encouraging victims to “speak their truth” is a key tenet of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up. But the interaction between Gellert and Bowden illustrates the complexities that can arise with sexual misconduct claims. The situation also demonstrates how a person’s loyalties can be divided, particularly when a loved one faces serious allegations. 

Borders’ “role as the president of Time’s Up was in conflict with being a mother who was taking active steps to defend her son,” said one of the knowledgeable people, who asked not to be identified.

One of the chief things I've learned through almost four decades in The Episcopal Church is that the strident rules of sexual behavior for clergy apply to everyone, unless you're a prominent dean, a prominent bishop, or a well-connected priest.  In which case, wheeeeee!

If You've Never Heard Her Story, It's Because She's Not a Victim

Women of Valor: Lois Gunden

Update: Regrets about the pre-verbal post headline earlier, since corrected.  No, I haven't had a stroke.  I've been playing with this new iPhone and being a little sloppy with it.

Step One in Creating a Viable Black Market for Goods

Marijuana Tax in New Jersey? It Could be $42 an Ounce

Taxing away reasonable profit and discouraging new, small business growth is California's thing, New Jersey.  Why would a marijuana user change from their current supplier if it means higher prices and reduced quality?  Because their supplier is a criminal?  Please, criminality is a standard part of weed culture and actually gives it an exciting frisson.

Tales of the Post-Christian Age

Anti-Christ Arrives in a World Without Mercy

The Desperate Quest of the Remarkably Ordinary to Deny Their Existential Fate

Transgender sprinters finish 1st, 2nd at Connecticut girls indoor track championships

I never understood why they didn't separate competitions according to chromosomes, rather than by self-identification.  Although, I may compete in the next triathlon as an elderly woman.

Because That's Not the Narrative

Good news: divorce rates are declining

Family life is looking pretty healthy – why aren’t more people celebrating that?

Of Course. Next Question, Please.

Are men the new marginalized minorities on campus?

Needlehooks

L.A. Times: You Should Feel Sad that You Made a Smaller Interest-Free Loan to the Feds Last Year

Counting on a tax refund to balance your annual budget is foolish.  Correctly figuring your withholding is a mature and sensible way to build your finances.  Most people who are shocked that they're receiving a smaller refund seem not to realize that they're paying less in taxes.  I'm not sure why the media are painting this as some sort of "fault" of the non-preferred political party.

It's the Sound of Cleveland-Style Jazz, as So Many Young Musicians Learned to Play Not in School, but in Church

“Hearing” the Hammond Organ

This is a Fine, Touching Story; You Won't Find It Reported by the U.S. Media

Sheffield bomber crash: Flypast on 75th anniversary

In Socialism, Food is Always a Weapon

Aid is piling up on Venezuela's border. Here's why it's not getting in

Book Review - The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present

Not only is this a valuable history, but it may contain the best paragraph EVER about the native experience in U.S. history:

...more than two hundred Lakota who survived Wounded Knee . . . lived on—to experience the pain of loss, yes, but much more as well. They survived to live and grow, to get married and have babies. They survived to hold on to their Lakota ways or to convert to Christianity and let those ways recede. They survived to settle on the reservation and, later, to move to cities. They survived to go to school and to college and to work. They survived to make mistakes and recover from them. They survived to make history, to make meaning, to make life.­­­­

The Coracle's Saturday Literary Corner: Good, as It's Historically Illiterate

Historians irked by musical ‘Hamilton’ mounting a counter-attack play