UMKC - we know drama.

Saw the most painful commercial yesterday while hanging out with rathershady and courters28. A woman is going to a sub place, where the person behind the counter enumerates all their virtues: fresh dough, grilled meat, fresh produce...

She stops him with, "Shhh...you had me at fresh dough."

>_<

Also, every time I see a UMKC TV ad, I gag involuntarily. This is probably due to the smug bastard who was our commencement speaker and his vomitaceous (I made a word!) speech that was larded with PR slogans. "A great place to get a life," bleah.

Speaking of the good ol' alma mater and commencement speeches, the dean of arts and sciences there recently got outed for plagiarism in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Apparently he delivered a commencement speech at UMKC a couple of years ago that lifted large chunks from another commencement address delivered by Cornel West.

Now, I'm not a big fan of plagiarism. It's bad, obviously. However, I do feel that it should be punished equally. I fail to see why Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin have sailed along, merrily ignoring their plagiarism scandals, but genre authors and journalists are excoriated for it. I suppose we hold genre and newspaper writing to a higher standard than the supposedly well-researched "academic" writing. By the same token, why is it OK in history books but not in a commencement speech by a historian?

Do I think it's bad that the dean did this? Totally. Do I think it's likely that he didn't actually write his own speech, and that the actual plagiarist is some University Advancement stooge with a stick up his ass? Yes. Is the dean going to be brought down by it? Much as I hate to say it, probably yes. Which is a shame, because, though he seems like an officious little prick personally, he's actually been a really good dean. Not to mention that my stepdad's press is directly under said dean, and so faces the possibility of a new, much less friendly ultimate boss. x_x

Anyway, of course the inevitable academic shitstorm is sure to ensue. ( More academic ranting )

Some links about the above brouhaha:
- A blog post by the person who tipped the Chronicle off
- The Chronicle article (requires a subscription to view)
- An article from IsThatLegal.org on the subject
- An article on the History News Network about the issue and the dean's response on HNN
- An article in the Kansas City Star...
- ...and in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Whew. Now that my vitriol's spent, here's a funny animated gif (from pekeana). I post it because I love the word "mesbian." XD

Moonlight Rhapsodia

Let's Positive Linking!
- A scan from a Michael Jackson shota doujinshi. Because even if he's been acquitted, nothing will stop the doujinshika! (Not worksafe.)
- Paris Hilton to "retire," presumably from her full career of slasher flicks and bimbo-out-of-water comedy series, in 2 years. I love how she talks about how "she doesn't enjoy going out anymore, it's such a pain." Uh, yeah, then you DON'T DO IT, you vapid twit.
- Adult Christianity, for your daily dose of sacre-licious goodness. (Possibly not worksafe, due to discussion of Christian BDSM and the like, and definitely not for the easily offended.) This is probably most well-known for the OC/Jesus "O come holy spurt" gay pr0n story (definitely not worksafe).
- I <3th Darth. Because we all know Darth Vader has iTunes installed inside his helmet so that he can listen to ABBA.

Also, the Suikosource forums have started discussing Rhapsodia: Suikoden Tactics. From my viewing of this, I've come to three conclusions:

1) Yuber fanboys are muy annoying.
2) A lot of people hate Suikoden IV, not for the inane ship movement system and less-than-stellar music, but because OMG THE CHARACTERS WERE LESS DEVELOPED THAN IN OTHER SUIKODENS!!1! ...Um, have these people played the original Suikoden? I mean, I love it, but characterization? Not its strong suit. Also, they hate it because OMG WHERES YUBER?, and are prepared to hate Rhapsodia for the same reason. (Did I mention Yuber fanboys are annoying?)
3) A lot of people also hate Snowe. Which is kind of understandable in a way, given that he is kind of an ass, but in the end I don't get it. Because really, even though he's such a whiny CYA failure, I don't understand why people hate him and love Jowy, given that his actions totally made more sense than Jowy's batshit insane actions during Suikoden II. x_x

ALIEN FROGGY LUV

GIP, because Tamama is TEH WIN. And since he's now my default icon, I've now redesigned my journal colors to match. :D