Re: Something We Can All Agree On

1

If they are employees rather than scholar-athletes I don't see the justification for having them attached to a school at all. Let there be a junior NFL consisting of free floating teams.

And if the athletic department is just a money raising enterprise why not have other such enterprises? The college has a large supply of nubile youths who could be profitably employed doing porn, for example.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:03 AM
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I saw that paper yesterday and, yes, it's sort of brief, but it was better than I was expecting it to be.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:05 AM
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The college has a large supply of nubile youths who could be profitably employed doing porn, for example.

Don't make me make the Duke joke.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:06 AM
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4

If you understand the paper to be an interdisciplinary blending of historical narrative and creative writing, then maybe it merits an A-. It's got a nice poetic quality to it. Considered as short creative work, I like it.


Posted by: urple | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:06 AM
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5

Duke could flesh out their endowment by creaming a little off the top of that if only they were enterprising enough.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:09 AM
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it was better than I was expecting it to be.

This was exactly my reaction. But that's not a good thing!


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:09 AM
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3 - That they'd lose in the first round because they didn't deserve their #3 seed from the AVN Awards ranking committee?


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:10 AM
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And now you understand why it got an A-. Probably would have had a solid A if they had closed the last quotation. I like how it ends right before the action; it's important that papers end with cliffhangers so that you have something to write for the next one. (This is even more true in math than the social sciences.)


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:13 AM
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9

If they'd quoted Outkast, I think they'd have nailed the A.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:15 AM
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10

But obviously only if they cited correctly.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:15 AM
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11

Rosa Parks 2: Electric Boogaloo


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:16 AM
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It's hard to boogaloo when you're sitting down standing up for your rights.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:17 AM
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13

I just dont think it's at all fair to call the football player "functionally illiterate"; if the assignment is "Write a paper describing what happened to Rosa Parks" with a minimum length of 140 words, and the perfectly literate and reasonably intelligent student in question 1. didn't give a fuck and 2. hoped to knock the thing out in about five minutes then this is exactly what I'd expect.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:20 AM
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14

Everyone post your income and your best 140+ word Rosa Parks essay.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:22 AM
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15

What on earth kind of essay assignment has a length of 140 words? What are they, assigning shorter and shorter essays in the hopes of training the students to be good Twitter users?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:23 AM
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16

They're not really paying the adjuncts enough to read more than that, are they?


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:26 AM
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17

If you'd been better at crew, you'd understand.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:28 AM
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15: twitter was my thought as well. 140 words rather than characters? Whatever the fuck.


Posted by: Den E. Crumb | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:28 AM
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19

Maybe they said "at least a half page double-spaced".


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:30 AM
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20

Man, I hate when I have to take business trips because of all the extra tax I have to pay on the hotel and flight. I also asked IT not to upgrade my computer because I didn't want to pay the tax on a new laptop. Fortunately when I was invited to lunch by a potential collaborator he covered the income tax in addition to the tip.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:30 AM
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21

I'd bet a thousand bucks that guy also thinks tax brackets apply to all income instead of marginal income, but I don't want to pay the extra tax on my winnings.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:33 AM
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22

5 needed "seminal".


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 8:46 AM
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23

If we are in the field of judicial notice, I would think that some might conclude that the weekend in New York City was a chore and that those who went sacrificed valuable time that might better have been spent on the farm, in the woods, or along the seashore.


Posted by: Douglas, J., dissenting | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:20 AM
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24

Are some of the comments in this thread making anyone else uncomfortable?


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:22 AM
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25

I had a tutor at Glasgow who used to set very very short word limits. That was to make essays harder, not easier, though. He still wanted real content, he just didn't want all the formulaic essay guff, and he wanted concision.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:24 AM
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The shortest he ever set was, iirc, 200 words. On a short story by James Kelman that was itself only 100 words or so.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:26 AM
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[For the non-lawyers, I'll add this. Justice Douglas' dissent in Rudolph v. US, quoted above, illustrates why the tax course in law school is so much more fun than everyone thinks it's going to be. People think it's going to be about math or memorizing the numbers of code sections, but no, instead it's about describing and categorizing human behavior. Think narrative, not arithmetic.

For which, to come to a point in the OP, being able to distill to a pithy half page is better training than writing 20 pages of detail.]


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:35 AM
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28

23 is such a great dissent, but that's another case where it would have been funnier as "Opinionated Justice Douglas."


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:39 AM
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28: isn't that "OPINIONATED JUSTICE DOUGLAS"?


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:58 AM
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30

SHOULDA BEEN "OPINIONATED JUSTICE DOUGLAS"


Posted by: OPINIONATED SIMULATED ANNEALING | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 9:59 AM
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31

Speaking of essays, it's apparently paying business to copy articles from 1950s magazines word-for-word and submit them to slightly stodgy modern-day publications.

In this case, the "author" is a bit unfortunate that Coronet magazines from the 1950s are now on Google Books. And he'd been caught at the same thing once before.


Posted by: Aethelred the Unready | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:06 AM
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32

Least presidential president ever, but I'm not sure I want my real name immediately next to the accusation.


Posted by: Aethelred | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:07 AM
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33

Presidentially post an url, yo.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:10 AM
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34

Scalia's dissents over the past ~5 years all make a lot more sense if you read them as from OPINIONATED NINO SCALIA.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:29 AM
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35

Jeez, Sifu, is it really so hard to run a search matching the text of every Coronet article from the 1950s against every article published in the last 8 months by a slightly stodgy modern-day publication?

You only get out of Unfogged what you put into it.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:31 AM
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31: very stodgy indeed if an article written in the 1950s still appears current.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:35 AM
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37

Gentleman in question runs this web site, which will not confirm any of your prejudices whatsoever about certain political tendencies: http://www.robertwpelton.com/


Posted by: Aethelred the Unready | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:47 AM
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And yeah, the magazine's readership demographics trend a bit on the old side.

Coronet issue in question, and the article, with three offending passages at the url.


Posted by: Aethelred | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:52 AM
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39

OMG I love this guy. Here are some of his book titles:

Family Baking Recipes of the Signers
A Treasury of Family Recipes From The Time of the War for American Independence
Cooking and Baking During the War of Northern Aggression
America: A Christian Nation?
George Washington's Prayers
George Washington: Man of Destiny
Family Baking Recipes of Civil War Notables
Robert W. Pelton's Official Emergency Survival Guide: Special Power Hour Edition


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:52 AM
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40

As I recall, he also had a book on Amazon about copyright and writing ethics, last time I caught him at this (a few years ago).


Posted by: Aethelred | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:54 AM
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41

There it is:

http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Research-Handbook-Bible-Freelance/dp/006463468X/ref=sr_1_36?ie=UTF8&qid=1396029382&sr=8-36&keywords=robert+w+pelton

Not sure it's the same guy - 1978 copyright date is a lot earlier than most of his output.


Posted by: Aethelred | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:57 AM
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39 has made my day. I hope he carries on with the series in historical order.

Brioches, Cakes and Muffins of the Spanish-American War

"Retreat, Hell! We Just Put The Oven On!": 101 Favourite Casseroles of the U.S. Marine Corps on the Western Front

Pershing: The General, The Man, The Shortcrust


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 10:59 AM
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By the way, let's just say that Robert W. Pelton has totally hit all my buttons. Right wing copyright-violating pro-baking ideologue!!!!!


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:03 AM
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an url

Wait, you actually pronounce it as "earl"? I don't know how I feel about this.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:03 AM
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45

Game on, Pelton. Let's see what else we can find.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:05 AM
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46

Here's an excerpt from Pelton's None Dare Call It Treason Book 1: The Internal Security Farce

"Our glorious Declaration of Independence is a timeless divinely inspired masterpiece given to mankind through the anointed pen of Thomas Jefferson. The grand and unmatched United States Constitution is indisputably [!] the product of Providential guidance and wisdom and certainly not a document which evokes whimsical interpretations with the changing political climates."

Who was behind allowing Red Chinese soldiers take airborne training at Fort Benning Georgia?
Is this not treason?
Why was South Vietnam, South Africa, Rhodesia and numerous other American friends deliberately betrayed to the forces of evil?
Is this not treason?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:12 AM
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About the Author: Robert W. Pelton has been writing and lecturing for more than 45 years on religious, political and historical subjects. Mr. Pelton is one of the nation's foremost authorities on demons, possession and exorcism, having researched the subjects in depth for many years, interviewed hundreds of religious leaders in various faiths, and personally witnessed many exorcisms in churches and homes throughout the United States. He has taught freelance writing at the University of Tennessee, done much research on minority religions and published other important documentaries including Snake Handlers - God Fearers or Fanatics? and The Persecuted Prophets. Mr. Pelton has published more than 100 books including a brand new four book series called Chronicles of Demonic Evil which contains Confrontations with the Devil; Demons, Possession and Exorcism; Unmasking Satan & His Demons; and the sensational The Devil & Karen Kingston. Mr. Pelton proudly claims a heritage going all the way back to well before the War for American Independence. One of Mr. Pelton's ancestors, John Rogers, came to America on the Mayflower and was one of 41 signers of the Mayflower Compact. Another, John Smith was one of the founders of Jamestown. Peleg Pelton served as a fifer in the Continental Army at age 17 during the Battle of Saratoga (1777) and again in Yorktown (1781) where the British surrendered

Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:14 AM
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48

Will P. W. Botha ever forgive us?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:15 AM
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Unfortunately The Devil and Karen Kingston does not appear to be an erotic novella. But maybe Family Baking Recipes of Civil War Notables is.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:17 AM
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"One of Mr. Pelton's ancestors, John Rogers, came to America on the Mayflower and was one of 41 signers of the Mayflower Compact."

No one called John Rogers signed the Mayflower Compact.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:18 AM
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50: You've only seen the forgeries. Robert W. Pelton has the one true copy of the document in his possession.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:22 AM
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s None Dare Call It Treason

How original.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:24 AM
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53

That's a kind of an unremarkable collection of ancestors for Americans who are overly interested in genealogy. You'd think he'd have more notables.

Also, I see he has a visitor counter on his site. I bet that shortly, Unfogged will represent a spike in traffic.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:27 AM
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54

There is a Thomas Rogers who signed it. Maybe his friends called him John.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:32 AM
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Thomas Rogers had a son John who didn't come over on the Mayflower but probably wanted to pretty badly (his older brother got to go) and so likely got to be an honorary signatory.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:35 AM
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Just because the pilgrims were sort of cool like that, you know?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:35 AM
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57

I assume that Sifu had the information in 55 just right at his fingertips.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:42 AM
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58

I called the hotline.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:44 AM
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59

Sifu is obviously the great-great-however many greats-grandson of John and has the family tree prominently displayed in the parlor, along with the family copy of the Mayflower pact and the family Bible. He's nth cousin to both Pelton and Queen Elizabeth.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:48 AM
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60

I get most of my best stuff from Coronet Magazine, that's for sure.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 11:55 AM
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||

David A. Trampier has passed away.

|>


Posted by: MAE | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:00 PM
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59: Another cousin is Steve Rogers aka Captain America.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:00 PM
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63

That's a kind of an unremarkable collection of ancestors for Americans who are overly interested in genealogy. You'd think he'd have more notables

I don't agree with this; I've got a similar set of not-very-notable notables in my own reasonably well-documented family history going back to the Puritan Migration. Those folks have a lot more descendants than you might think, and if your family lived in backwaters it won't have many notables.

So while that survey you may have seen, comparing the persistence of certain surnames among top college graduates across several countries and centuries would think it suggestive that my name is among Yale graduates before the Am. Revolution, that's a different branch of descent from our original immigrant. I'm reasonably certain my father and his older brother were the first college graduates in our branch of the family, ever.

So Pelton's family tree looks dead-average to me.


Posted by: idp | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:00 PM
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64

Maybe Rogers signed with his John Thomas?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:02 PM
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64 I was trying for my own "John Thomas" joke but it just wouldn't uh, you know. But I knew Unfogged would not disappoint.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:06 PM
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Family Baking Recipes of the United States Constitution: A Treasury
None Dare Call It Rhodesia!
The Divine Constitution of the United States Part VI: The Exorcisms
George Washington: Snake Charmer or God Fearer?
The Robert W. Pelton Guide to Animal Pelts: Special Power Hour Edition


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:15 PM
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Stonewall Jackson vs. J.E.B. Stuart: A Family Bake-off
I'll Take My Stand-Mixer: Southern Agrarian Recipes That White People Like
Cheesed-off: The Anglo-American Dairying Tradition and Its Relevance To Modern-Day Survivalism
The Wit and Wisdom of Erma Bombeck As Told To Robert Pelton
Caligula Now! A Short Treatise On Power Politics In The Age of Newt Gingrich


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:27 PM
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63: Maybe I was unclear. I mean that this guy seems very, very into his ancestry as it connects to American history. I don't think he's got all that much to be excited about. As you say, pretty average for someone who can trace lineage back that far.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:46 PM
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69

67 is fun.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 12:52 PM
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Are You There God? It's Me, America.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:05 PM
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George Washington's Dicks


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:11 PM
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Some of the wisdom of Pelton via Facebook (sic throughout):

I agree without reservation. Only the Bible is to be sworn on whether he likes it or not. For this inbicible to swear on the Koran is an insult to all Americans!

Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air in American politics. I and innumerable friends of mine would support him and vote for him. I AM AN AUTHOR AND WILL OFFER HIM MY TIME IN WRITING NEWS FEATURES, PRESS RELEASES, ETC FOR HIM.

Lastly, the 4th volume or what I call Book 4 is titled The Devil & Karen Kingston, the story of a 13-year old retarded girl who was cured of her affliction through exorcism when 13 different demonic spirits were cast from her. All four books will will be published within another month. These are big 5.5x8.5 in size and they range from around 350 o 700 pages apiece -- a bargain at $24.95 each.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:20 PM
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73

Sez you, Pelton.


Posted by: Superkoranic Inbicible | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:23 PM
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72.2: I for one will not stand idly by and be insulted by inbicibles.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:25 PM
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You guys are the best.

I do wonder whether the guy thinks of the serial plagiarism as a way to support his important political work, or just thinks of all of it as one big happy scam to keep the money flowing in.


Posted by: Aethelred | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:34 PM
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68: Pretty much. I have one line that I can trace back pretty far and includes some famous names, but whatever. If you had an ancestor in certain ethnic groups that's fairly likely to happen--during the 1630's there were, what, 30k immigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony? There just weren't that many people and you've had almost 400 years of relatives to marry into one of those famous lines.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 1:50 PM
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76 Yeah, but not all that many residents of 17th century New England are household names nowadays, and because of class issues over all those centuries, it's not uncommon at all for people with lots of 1630s NE ancestry to be able to point to very very few of those few who are known. And even then, for a lot of unclassed folks, it's through some black sheep or other. (Eg, I'm a descendant of William Bradford, but through a 18th century dissident minister's daughter who (a) married at 15.5 to a man who was 27 and (b) gave birth 4 months later. Minister's father went to Harvard. Bridegroom of no known distinction.)


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 03-28-14 2:43 PM
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