On taking a stand

Via SFDB, a couple of South Florida bloggers are up in arms about plagiarism by a new Miami Herald columnist, Jackie Bueno Sousa. I agree with Rick that the standard for plagiarism being set here is pretty low. Beyond this, there are more important things to take issue with in the piece:

I believe that Main Street is as responsible for the current economic crisis as Wall Street. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; that NFL play rules are beginning to coddle quarterbacks; and that all elected officials should be subject to term limits. I believe that man really did land on the moon; that history will redeem George W. Bush; that life begins after conception but before birth; and that nature will destroy us before we destroy it.

I have two problems with this. First, the idea that "Main Street" is as responsible as Wall Street for the current crisis is a convenient cover. Sure, it sounds right. But with this logic, I could also blame Vioxx users for their own deaths as well, I mean if they had only known better...

But they couldn't have known better since the professionals they hired to help them understand the products were not operating on good faith, as the Miami Herald has reported.

Which goes to the second point I want to make about this. The speech made by Costner in Bull Durham is intended to be a corageous statement (not everyone will take a stand for soft-core porn). Sousa's post isn't particularly corageous at all. It's right-wing pablum.