Plagiarism Online

Via Glenn Reynolds, I'm seeing this piece from last summer on classroom plagiarism. I'm pretty sure I saw it at the time, but didn't write about it. Now though I'm almost finished grading fall papers, and I've found three students plagiarizing with direct cut-and-paste from web articles. Check the comments at "Adjunct Law Prof Blog." One suggests "it's a losing battle," but only if professors give up the fight. Obviously most students don't write nearly as well as a New York Times correspondent (or a Wikipedia editor for that matter), and if I sometimes find, while reading through a student summary, inconsistent styling from one passage to the next (often pretty blatant), I just type in the text at Google and up pops the original article. Still, while one of my students literally swiped entire paragraphs (on some California ballot initiatives from Ballotpedia), it's not as common as one might expect. I'm always pleasantly surprised this time of year to find a large batch of students who are very good writers. It's poor students who're tempted to cheat, at least at my college. They simply can't write that well, even two or three paragraphs at a time. It's quite frustrating as a teacher. Some kids come from immigrant homes, including many Latinos, and the schools haven't always picked up where families have left off. It's kinda sad sometimes, but not uncommon. And these kids are in the workforce and often starting their own families. Things will get worse before they get better. Schools are stretched thin at all levels, and to the extent that administration and faculty discuss challenges on campus, it's usually over budgets and contract negotiations. Amazing sometimes how the education of the students, the reason all of this exists to begin with, is filed away as an afterthought. I'm not going to overstate the case, but it's a problem. And there aren't any Chris Christies around to help restore priorities. Teachers are on the front lines, and they gotta keep pushing, looking out for the kids as best they can. That's all you can do sometimes, besides holding on to a bit of sanity.

Schwarzenegger Going Out With Barrels Blazing as Tenure Winds Down

At LAT, "Making Some Scenes Before His Exit":

It doesn't seem to bother Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that many Californians would prefer he just fade away.

Instead, with his days in office numbered and the limelight shifting to his newly elected successor, the former film star seems to be doing everything he can to keep the spotlight on himself.

He's made news jousting with Sarah Palin on Twitter. He settled into the big chair on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to brag about signing a law downgrading smoking pot to the seriousness of a traffic ticket. And he's apparently abandoned political correctness, dropping a raw if colorful reference to male anatomy into an official condolence statement on the death of a Hollywood luminary.

Those who have tuned out Schwarzenegger in the sunset of his administration risk missing a good show. The governor's penchant for shooting from the hip has always been entertaining. Now he seems determined to go out with a blast or two, trying to make news with his mischief.

Schwarzenegger has made it clear he intends to be a presence until his very last day in office. "I don't buy into the lame-duck thing," he said recently.

A couple related videos below, from Arnold's pot-smoking body-building days. He'll be back. Look for some new Schwarzenegger movies in the not too distant future. The dude's ineligible for the White House. And he's not ready to be put out to pasture quite yet.

It Worked! Jennifer Aniston Purple Bikini Shots Almost as Good as Anne Hathaway Topless!

Yep.

I tweeted my Jennifer Aniston post to Robert, and he linked with, "World Shocked by the Alarming Urgency of Jennifer Aniston Mexico Bikini Pictures."

And not kidding about Anne Hathaway. Folks can click through at WeSmirch. (And there's something of interest over there for the ladies, but you'll have to read the entry at Egotastic.)

We Don't Need More Leaders: Social Networking and the Public Square

Interesting piece from NYT, "The Public Square Goes Mobile."

“We don’t need more leaders. We need more followers. Wherever & however you can enter public life is ok.”

That tweet by Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, is a radical provocation in our age of the non-expert. The nation is gripped by the fantasy that the least-qualified, least-experienced among us make ideal leaders. Dissatisfaction — no, real anger — with the status quo, as opposed to informed ideas or policy experience, seems to define qualifications for public service.

Coletta's Twitter page is here.

Lee Meriwether on Twitter!

Immediately recognizable, she was Catwoman in the film version of Batman (1966). And she's following me. I hadn't considered posting this otherwise, LOL!

Hottest Women in the World!

Maybe even too hot for the front page here, so check Theo's.

Jennifer Aniston Mexico Bikini Pics!

Just got the tip at WeSmirch, and I'm trying to avoid "Holiday Traffic Suckage Season," so what the heck?

Besides, I'm not getting too many reciprocal links from that last epic round of Rule 5 linkage. (And Glenn Reynolds hasn't linked.) So what can you do?

See London's Daily Mail, "Jennifer Aniston recycles her favourite bikini on girls holiday to Mexico with Chelsea Handler," and RadarOnline, "PHOTOS: Bikini Girls Jennifer Aniston & Chelsea Handler Enjoy Thanksgiving Sunshine in Mexico."

And the main story's at UsWeekly, "Jennifer Aniston, Chelsea Handler Flaunt Bikini Bods in Mexico."

Let's see if Bob Belvedere can dig that, and Washington Rebel as well.

And I haven't linked Pat Austin in some time, so check out her great holiday blogging.

A Simple Respect For the Office?

A simple respect for the office she seeks would not reflect itself in these increasingly callow, sarcastic, cheap jibes at a sitting president. But sadly, like so many now purporting to represent conservatism, there is, behind the faux awe before the constitution, a contempt for the restraint and dignity a polity’s institutions require from its leaders.

Andrew Sullivan is up to his old tricks again, and Robert Stacy McCain nails it:

A Harvard-educated, AIDS-infected, Internet-cruising, marijuana-using gay British expatriate presumes to speak for Americans who reject Sarah Palin because of “a meanness, a disrespect, a vicious partisanship.”

We await a response from Sarah Palin’s uterus.

More at the link.

Black Friday Mob Tramples Shopper at North Buffalo Target Store

A follow up to this morning's report: "No Deaths Reported So Far as Crowds Mob Stores for Black Friday!"

At KSAZ FOX 10 Phoenix, "Shopper Hospitalized After Stampede." And from WIVB News 4 Buffalo, "Shoppers Trampled by Early-Bird Rush":

Added: "Black Friday 2010: Woman Arrested, Threatened to Shoot Shoppers at Toys "R" Us."

'This Chick is Such a Hooker'

Look, even my wife thinks Joy Behar's a loser, and who can forget this? ... "Sandra Bernhard Spews Gang-Rape Taunt on Sarah Palin." So now they're going after Bristol. Unreal. But typical.

At The Blaze, "Mean Girls: Behar Show Panel on Bristol Palin – ‘This Chick is Such a Hooker’."

Guy With Nazi Swastika on Twitter Attacks Conservatives as Nazis After Being Called Out on 57 States Gaffe Against Sarah Palin

The dude is Kirk Andrews.

He's changed his avatar, but Conservatives4Palin have it here, and lots more at the post: "Lessons in Reactionary Mockery" (at Memeorandum). And Melissa Clouthier has the Obama cult angle: "Simplifying The Message: Obama Good. Palin Bad."

Of course, the Internet is forever:

Obama Gets Stitches After Being Smacked On Lip During Pick-Up Basketball Game

Maybe the guy should stick to fitness training.

At LAT, "Obama Elbowed Playing Basketball; Gets 12 Stitches" (and Memeorandum):

Korean Joint Exercises in Futility

The government in Seoul is frustrated: "With Limited Options, South Korea Shifts Military Rules." (At Memeorandum.) It's a war footing, frankly. And think about the implications of this passage amid calls for increased diplomatic engagement:

North Korea has already weathered years of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation. In fact, the tough economic conditions appear only to give the North motivation to continue its brinkmanship, to extract aid as it faces a winter of food and fuel shortages. Some analysts say the North is also using the provocations to burnish the military credentials of Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, and his heir apparent.

Now reports indicate that North Korea is escalating the tensions. Pyongyand launced a provocative volley of artillery fire following the visit of U.S. Gen. Walter L. Sharp at Yeonpyeong Island. Mainstream outlets suggest the peninsula's on the "brink of war" (at Christian Science Monitor and New York Times, via Memeorandum). Meanwhile, domestic criticism of Seoul's response is growing:

Hundreds of South Korean veterans demonstrated in the border town of Paju today, accusing the government of being too weak.

"The lazy government's policies towards North Korea are too soft," said Kim Byeong-su, the president of the association of ex-marines.

"It needs to take revenge on a bunch of mad dogs. We need to show them South Korea is not to be played with."

I criticized the futility of diplomacy earlier. See, "Regime Change North Korea." As noted, the threat to use force should be backed with international support embodied in a U.N. Security Council resolution. Interestingly, the administration has rebuffed such calls, for example, earlier this week from Japan, "Washington Spurns Tokyo's Demand for Reprisal Against North Korea":

Washington roundly condemned the North Korean Nov. 23 artillery attack on the populated South Koreanislandof Yeonpyeong on the Yellow Sea border, calling on North Korea to halt its belligerent action and abide by the terms of the 1953 armistice agreement. But the Obama administration was clearly not about to meet Japanese pressure for joint military action in support of Seoul or reinforce its fighting forces on the peninsula – even as a deterrent. Two South Korean marines were killed and 17 soldiers and 3 civilians injured as the flames engulfed the targeted island.

A Pentagon spokesman also said it was too early to discuss redeploying US tactical nuclear arms to South Korea, a possibility raised by South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Tae-young Monday when North Korea's parade of its uranium enrichment and light water plants came to light.

The Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's second demand in his call to President Barak Obama after the North Korean attack was to convene an urgent UN Security Council meeting. That too went unheeded. The session France announced would take place Tuesday night was indefinitely postponed.

The Japanese prime minister maintained to Obama that North Korea must not be allowed to get away with two armed attacks on the South in the space of eight months without a military response. On March 26, North Korean torpedoes sunk the South Korean Cheonan cruiser. At least 46 seamen were lost.

And at the conclusion:

... Obama's lack of response to the Japanese call, despite the presence of 28,000 US troops on the Korean Demilitarized Zone border – even with limited military action - is bound to devalue the defensive umbrella against North Korea the US has pledged South Korea and Japan. U.S. unresponsiveness is already resonating loudly in the Middle East and Persian Gulf which is beginning to take it as betokening feeble resolve in dealing with Iran and its nuclear weapons aspirations.

Of course, the administration thinks appeasement will lessen tensions in those regions, and according to reports out today, the White House is worried about China. See WSJ, "China Protests U.S.-South Korea Exercises." But see Stephen Hayes comments on U.S. deference to Beijing, "The Sixty Years War":

It is up to the White House to break the cycle of futility ....

For years, U.S. policy on North Korea has been outsourced to China. Successive presidents have asked that Beijing use its muscle to control its combative ally. It hasn’t worked, because the Chinese believe that the status quo is preferable to escalation. The Obama administration needs to flip that equation by making the status quo less acceptable. Rather than asking China politely to do our diplomatic spadework, why not use our diplomatic and economic leverage over China to demonstrate that there are consequences for Beijing’s recalcitrance?

In the short term, we can reimpose the tough sanctions that were unwisely lifted by President Bush in the summer of 2008, and immediately return North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terror. The administration could also urge South Korea to end its participation in the Kaesong Industrial Complex—a zone of joint economic cooperation with North Korea in which South Korean companies provide capital and North Korea provides labor. Beyond that, America can aggressively seek to interdict North Korean ships suspected of carrying illicit materials, and increase the number of regular, high-profile joint naval exercises we conduct with South Korea.

No doubt, it will be tempting for President Obama to take the easier path—to pursue meaningless nonproliferation agreements, to offer platitudes about a nuclear-free world, to restart the six-party talks and otherwise seek dialogue about disarmament with regimes committed to nuclear weapons. But as French president Nicolas Sarkozy reminded Obama at the U.N. Security Council last year:

The people of the entire world are listening to what we’re saying, to our promises, our commitments and our speeches. But we live in a real world, not a virtual world. We say: Reductions must be made. And President Obama has even said: ‘I dream of a world without [nuclear weapons].’ Yet before our very eyes, two countries are doing the exact opposite.

And what have the repeated offers for dialogue produced? Sarkozy answered his own question.

“Nothing.”

More at USA Today, "N. Korea: Joint Exercise Pushes Countries to 'Brink of War'." (And Memeorandum.)

No Deaths Reported So Far as Crowds Mob Stores for Black Friday!

And I'm only slightly joking, considering what happened a couple of years ago at Walmart. See, "Retailers Given Tips on Handling Friday Crowd."

Also, at New York Times, "For Some, Black Friday Is an Urban Adventure." And at Los Angeles Times, "Black Friday: Determined Shoppers Swarm Southern California Stores."

Plus, "Black Friday 2010: U.S. Retailers Expected a Red Letter Day" (with some interesting links).

Imaginary Communists? Sadly No!

Recall the famous claim from Tintin the ringleader of collectivist hate: There's no real communists any more, just "imaginary" ones.

Well, Doug Ross administers the hammer to these pricks: "Sadly, No Economic Literates at Unintentionally Hilarious Lib Blog."

Hilarious — and demonic.

Comeback

The new ad from General Motors:

Looks like it's going over pretty well. Then again, in other news: "After GM Stock Sale, Taxpayers Lose, Unions Win." Actually, not everyone agrees on that: "Capitalists ‘Recover’ On Backs of Workers."

Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 7: American Exceptionalism'

The final installment, via Glenn Reynolds (and now available on DVD at Amazon):

Previously:

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 1: Small Government and Free Enterprise'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 2: The Problem with Elitism'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 3: Wealth Creation'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 4: Natural Law'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 5: Gun Rights'."

* "Bill Whittle's Firewall: 'What We Believe, Part 6: Immigration'."

Heritage of the Great War

An interesting historical collection, including what's said to be some of the very first color pictures from World War I. This one's titled, "Verdun - Synonym for Inhumanity":

French picture made in 1916 in a trench near Verdun, Northern France.

The Battle of Verdun was the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements of World War I. Two million men were engaged. The Germans began the battle on February 21, 1916. In December of that year the French had regained most of the ground lost.

The Germans intended a battle of attrition in which they hoped to bleed the French army white. In the end they sustained almost as many casualties as the French: an estimated 328,000 to the French 348,000. The real figures are unknown.
Nowadays Verdun stands for everything that is cruel and savage in warfare. Soldiers on both sides lost their sense of humanity.

Actually, the Holocaust is probably a more important example of man's inhumanity. Verdun, as horrible as it was, illustrates the folly of fighting mass 20th century industrial warfare using battlefield tactics of the 19th century. The First World War was mechanized trench warfare for the calvary ethos. Offensive military doctrines were made instantly obsolete by the advantages of machine gun cover. Entire generations of fighting men were wiped out. But it wasn't the war to end all wars. The origins of war are found in the structure of the system and in the hearts of men, unfortunately. Nations will continue to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best, or lest they fall by the wayside.

HAT TIP: Blazing Catfur, "Killed by Mustard Gas..."

BONUS: "French Army in the Great War."

Rise and Fall of America

An interview with Dr. Patrick Porter at FiveBooks.

From what I can tell, the guy's a realist/non-interventionist. See, "The military is not a surgical tool of political engineering."

Students Riot in London Over Tuition Fees. Tuition Fees?

Old Man Marx must be rolling over up on Highgate. Tuition fees just don't have the ring of the worldwide proletarian struggle, although I'm confident the anti-Western hatred driving these folks will become increasingly extreme. Where's Baader Meinhof when you need 'em?