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During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see. Syllabus: http://gov20h.blogspot.com/2023/08/draft-introduction-to-american-politics.html

Monday, November 4, 2013

The First Rule of Holes

So today in class we briefly discussed the fact that Rand Paul has gotten into a bit of trouble for his plagiarizing. His website initially added footnotes, and is now taking down entire transcripts.

My mom always taught me that the first rule of holes is that "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." Obviously, Rand Paul has not learned this rule. If you didn't know too much about the Paul family stubbornness, you would think that now that he is in trouble for plagiarism, Rand would back off a bit and try not to do any other unwise things while the spotlight is on him. You would be mistaken.

He has jokingly(?) said that he wishes he could challenge his accusers to a duel. Yes, with guns. I would really advise reading the actual article here, because the punchline to this joke is that the only thing holding him back from the duel is the fact that Kentucky makes state-level officeholders swear an oath that they haven't participated in a duel, so if he did, he couldn't run for state office in Kentucky. Ha ha! Obsolete Kentuckian constitutional provision duel jokes!


On a related note, the Washington Post has published an article which discusses whether the plagiarism controversy will affect Paul's chances in the 2016 presidential campaign. Personally, I don't want to talk about that, because I'd like a break before we get back to presidential politics. Seriously, we haven't even had the midterms yet. People need to calm down. 

Anyway, everyone should take this as a lesson in the importance of accurate citation, lest you be pursued by what Paul calls "the footnote police." It could be vital to your chances of becoming the president.

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