Plagiarism?

Since my academic career is way behind me I feel very safe in confiding with you all that as a student I was guilty of plagiarism at several points through my academic career. Those of you who have known me for a long time may not find that shocking but this does I feel give me some latitude to speak as one who has been guilty of this offense in the past.

Now, I know that I am given to quoting people without crediting them all the time. Sometimes these are famous well known expressions that the public know about and other times it is passing along something I heard along the way. At no point do I intend to convince everyone that I am smarter then they think I am by the comments that I use. In fact the main reason why I do this is to make a point and sometimes other people have already come up with the best way to say it and so why fight city hall. I say this because I think this latest attempt to make an issue out of Obama's use of Gov. Patrick's wording is perhaps the most ridiculous of these flailing punches to date.

Not only are Obama and Patrick very good friends for more than 15 years, but they actually share a lot of the same political team. In comparing this to Joe Biden in 1988, what gets conveniently left on the curb is that Biden was caught taking wholesale statements and themes from a British politician with whom he had no relationship whatsoever.

While I usually quote my mother when I say "no enemies only customers" or my dad with his "the man with the gold makes the rules" or Roger Grimsby's more cynical "the fucking you get not being worth the fucking you get" but I certainly don't do this every time. Besides they aren't even the originator of those words but crediting them or not does not make me a plagiarist today.