Now THAT'S a Skan-DAL!

What did I learn tonight after coming up for air for what I thought would be my final curtain call?

I learned that Renegade Rebbetzin would have been advised to stay "no, thank you, Dovie."

I also learned that DovBear loves the folks at TNR and the folks that write letters to TNR. Loves them so much that he often adopts their writing as his own.

After my previous post, I received an email from another well respected Jewish blogger who stated that he noticed that his RSS reader was showing certain old DovBear post as new posts. A clear sign that he was editing old posts. This screen shot shows a post that was subsequently edited to include a reference to its source, you got it, TNR letters to the editor. While on the surface this may not look like a big deal, keep in mind the following:

1. DovBear corrected each of the posts I identified with a note indicating the date of the update, in an attempt to make it clear that the attribution was added recently. This post (and perhaps many, many others), which I missed, he simply updated without any indication that it was updated. Clearly, DovBear is trying to minimize the visibility of the extent of his sins.

2. At the same time, DovBear's defenders and detractors -- including me -- have been arguing about how many posts were plagiarized: 10, 12, 14. All this while, DovBear knew these numbers to be false. The number was in fact higher. Yet DovBear did nothing to correct us. Still today DovBear has not revealed the extent of his plagiarism.

3. The corrected post still does not complelty attribute the source. Although a link was added to the second paragraph, the first paragraph (beginning with the words "The bottom line") comes from another TNR letter from the very same webpage (the first letter).

And, now, the kicker. It turns out that Renegade Rebbetzin's "Seal of Approval" is about as good as a hashgacha on a Monsey chicken. Just a little more looking revealed several more instances of plagiarism, going back to DovBear's first days of blogging:

TNR's &c. blog, 10/26/04:

WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?:

If it's in bad taste for John Kerry to out Dick Cheney's openly-gay daughter or for Teresa to momentarily forget Laura Bush had ever held a "real job," then why isn't it in bad taste for Karl Rove to talk about Bill Clinton like he's either an invalid or an inanimate object? Here's what Rove had to say about Clinton's role in the Kerry campaign, according to today's New York Times.

In Davenport, Iowa, where President Bush was campaigning, Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, said of the spectacle, "They had to roll Clinton out of the hospital room and onto the campaign trail to help Senator Kerry with his core constituencies that are so weak."

DovBear, 10/31/04:

WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE?

If it's in bad taste for John Kerry to out Dick Cheney's openly-gay daughter or for Teresa to momentarily forget Laura Bush had ever held a 'real job,' then why isn't it in bad taste for Karl Rove to talk about Bill Clinton like he's a house plant? Here's what Rove had to say about Clinton's role in the Kerry campaign, according to the 10/26 New York Times.

"In Davenport, Iowa, where President Bush was campaigning, Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, said of the spectacle, 'They had to roll Clinton out of the hospital room and onto the campaign trail to help Senator Kerry with his core constituencies that are so weak.

Screenshot.


Andrew Sullivan, 10/31/04:

But it wasn't the Kerry campaign that launched a direct attack on the other guy's war-medals; or deployed every anti-gay slur known to man in critical races; or accused those who worried about missing munitions of attacking the troops; or implied that a vote for Kerry would mean a nuke going off in a major city.

DovBear, 10/31/04

Well, I guess that's about what you should expect from the campaign that launched a direct attack on the other guy's war-medals; deployed every anti-gay slur known to man in critical races; accused those who worried about missing munitions of attacking the troops; and implied that a vote for Kerry would mean a nuke going off in a major city.

Screenshot.

TNR &c., 9/2/03

PROGRESSIVELY WORSE: Flagrant hypocrisy is pretty standard fare for a Wall Street Journal editorial. (In fact, the entertainment value therein is the best reason to read the page.) Usually, though, the Journal editors have the sense to space out their contradictory propositions.

Usually, but not today. The paper's lead editorial contains the following mystifying passage condemning California's state tax:

Start with the individual income tax, which has six brackets and is steeply progressive. Its top marginal rate of 9.3% is among the nation's highest but, worse, it kicks in at just $38,000 of income. This means that the likes of nurses and janitors already pay to the state a dime of every $1 in higher salary they receive.

Question: If the top rate starts at $38,000, forcing janitors to pay the same rate as millionaires, then how can the tax system be considered "steeply progressive"?

DovBear, 10/27/04:

"Start with [California's] individual income tax, which has six brackets and is steeply progressive. Its top marginal rate of 9.3% is among the nation's highest but, worse, it kicks in at just $38,000 of income. This means that the likes of nurses and janitors already pay to the state a dime of every $1 in higher salary they receive."--The Wall Street Journal editorial page, October 2.

Question: If the top rate starts at $38,000, forcing janitors to pay the same marginal rate as millionaires, then how can the tax system be considered "steeply progressive"?

Screenshot.

Live From Brussels, 11/5/2004:

"Thou Shalt Not Kill" = racist
UPDATES HERE


(via LVB: Tolerantie (1).) In the Netherlands, artist Chris Ripke reacted to the murder on Theo Van Gogh by an islamic fundamentalist by painting a mural with the text "Gij zult niet doden" ("Thou Shalt Not Kill"), one of the ten commandments of the Christian religion.

DovBear, 11/8/2004:

HAS THE NETHERLANDS LOST ITS MIND?

THOU SHALT NOT KILL IS RACIST?

In the Netherlands, artist Chris Ripke reacted to the murder on Theo Van Gogh by an Islamic fundamentalist by painting a mural with the text "Gij zult niet doden" ("Thou Shalt Not Kill").

(Note how our plagiarist faithfully reproduced the incorrect use of "on" instead of "of" in the first sentence.)


World Socialist Website, 3/21/2005:

This from a man who, as governor of Texas, rubber-stamped the execution of 152 prisoners, giving an average of 15 minutes apiece to their death row appeals.
...
The cynical and brutal exploitation of an internal family dispute over the fate of Schiavo,...in order to whip up the most backward, ignorant and intolerant social elements.

DovBear, 3/21/05:

Err on te side of life? Does Mr. McClellan not remember that his boss, as governor of Texas, rubber-stamped the execution of 152 prisoners, giving an average of 15 minutes apiece to their death row appeals? Now this pandering, retrograde moron is preaching that we must "Err on the side of life?"
...
Meanwhile, his phony, war-mongering Congressional colleagues are passing around a memo calling this, "A great political issue,” as they seek to whip up the most backward, ignorant and intolerant elements of our society for the purpose of exploiting a family tragedy for their sordid political purposes.

CBS, 3/15/2005:

The implications of this move are astonishing. Just think about it. Anytime Congress doesn't like the result in a particular case, it could swoop in and call a "do-over," which is essentially what this legislation represents. ... If this law is declared valid, no decision in any state court in the country will be immune from Congressional second-guessing. It would throw out of whack the entire concept of separation of powers....It truly will be fascinating to see how federal court judges react to this-- whether they simply bow down to this end-run or whether they back up their state-court colleagues....Not liking a particular result in a case that has been litigated fully and completely by a court with competent jurisdiction, Congress now has said that the game must be re-done with new rules that heavily favor one side over the other.

DovBear, 3/21/2005

The implications of this are astonishing. Just think about it. Anytime Congress doesn't like the result in a particular case, it could swoop in and call a "do-over." If this law is declared valid, no decision in any state court in the country will be immune from Congressional second-guessing. It would throw out of whack the entire concept of separation of powers. It truly will be fascinating to see how federal court judges react to this-- whether they simply bow down to this end-run or whether they back up their state-court colleagues....Let's sum this up: (a) A case has been litigated fully and completely by a court with competent jurisdiction. (b)Congress now has said that the game must be re-done with new rules that heavily favor one side over the other.

Democracy Cell Project, 3/13/2005:

those who speak up in disagreement are forcibly removed from sight before anyone can hear what they say.

That is what the White House is calling “A Conversation on Strengthening Social Security”

DovBear, 3/14/2005:

Why does the White House call it “A Conversation on Strengthening Social Security" when those who speak up in disagreement are forcibly removed from sight before anyone can hear what they said?

So there you have it. For those keeping score at home, those are 7 more cases of plagiarism. And frankly, there may be more. Lots more. And until each one is identified and fixed in a way that clearly indicates that the attribution was added after the fact, DovBear's sins remain blood red. And to all those that have been attempting to minimize DovBear's misdeeds, focusing instead on the imagined motives of his accuser, you stand accused. You are always the first to react in disgust to the unfortunate tendency by many Orthodox Jews to brush off critical press scrutiny of wrongdoing in our community as the work of "the anti-semitic goyishe media." Yet this is exactly what you are doing here -- focusing on the accuser rather than the sins of the accused.

One last point. How do my findings square with Renegade Rebbetzin's findings? Is the program she used faulty? Or is something else at play? Only DovBear and Renegade Rebbetzin can answer that.

(Additional screenshots available upon request.)