Fareed Zakaria and Harvard's Culture of Corruption: 3.0 ( A whole lotta Plagiarism going on)

American Thinker ^ | 08/14/2012 | Jack Cashill

[SeekAndFind]

First, I will acknowledge up front that this is a revised version of an earlier American Thinker article, which in itself was an update of the information contained in my book,Deconstructing Obama. But as still another Harvard worthy gets busted for literary fraud, I feel compelled to keep updating my scorecard.

The culprit this time is the painfully smug Fareed Zakaria, CNN host, Time Magazine columnist, and Harvard Ph.D. Not surprisingly, Harvard Law's own Barack Obama is a Zakaria fan. In a famous photo, the president is seen holding a copy of Zakaria's book, The Post-American World, a world that Obama has been hastening to make a reality.



In brief, Zakaria got caught lifting a passage on gun control from an article by historian Jill Lepore published in April 2012 in the New Yorker. There is a bit of irony here in that the New Yorker, whose editor David Remnick wrote a disingenuous puff biography of Obama, very recently had to fire wunderkind writer Jonah Lehrer for making up Bob Dylan quotes for his bestseller Imagine. Although Lehrer did not attend Harvard, he did graduate, like Obama, from Columbia University.

Speaking of irony and Columbia, the Columbia trustees give out a prestigious annual book prize called the Bancroft Award. Only two or three authors receive the prize each year, and only one has had to give it back. That would be Michael Bellisles, author of the much touted but transparently fraudulent gun control tome, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture. It seems that to make a convincing case for gun control writers may have to make stuff up.

[Da Coyote]

It is painfully obvious to even the less than casual observer that the Obamadork and his clueless followers comprise a special class of less-than-average folks who have politics and the media as their only possible means of employment.

Really....what have any of these dorks produced and what else could they possibly do?

I respect my garbage man - who works tirelessly and reliably - far, far, FAR more than I respect most in government.

[glorgau]

Team Xerox.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

1. Begin classes at Harvard.
2. Get drunk.
3. Get Laid.
4. Network.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until just before graduating.
6. Oh s**t! Plagiarize a thesis.
7. Graduate and go to work with one of the rich kids you networked with or rich sluts you laid.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Ha! I think you nailed it.

[Steely Tom]

It is painfully obvious to even the less than casual observer that the Obamadork and his clueless followers comprise a special class of less-than-average folks who have politics and the media as their only possible means of employment.

Ayn Rand - who grew up in the post-revolution Soviet Union - described collectivists as second-raters who envied the accomplishments of their betters and were desperate to appropriate some of the glory of the Edisons, the Carnegies, and the Wrights for themselves.

They have no idea how to accomplish this in reality, so they attack reality itself in an attempt to re-define themselves into the winner's circle.

[bjc]

Arrant nonsense. Many of Harvard undergrads and grads work their tails off and play strictly by the rules. Some are or become smug, self-righteous plagiarists. They are a type that are especially drawn to political activities - and can infest Ivy League, large State Schools and the local community college. In my experience, as a teacher and employer of Harvard grads, they are a distinct minority.

[allmendream]

I overheard two professors talking. One was laughing about the pretensions of superiority of a third professor, one who graduated from ‘Hahvahd’, and lost few opportunities to point it out.

She recalled that finally she told him ‘And yet here we are at the same school with the same job - so either I am a smashing success and you are a failure - or the fact that you graduated from Harvard didn't really make much of a difference.’. She said he managed to shut up about being from ‘Hahvahd’ after that, at least in her company.

Legacy admissions are exactly like affirmative action for the blue blood set. Not qualified to get in on their own - special allowances had to be made.

[DesertRhino]

Harvard is largely trading on reputation and networking today. They hate it when we evaluate them by their results, but most of the worst thinking in America comes from the Ivy.
When a new idiocy hits the news, it almost invariably comes from Harvard. Kagan and Obama are classic examples. But the list is rich and long. Harvard rarely is the home of any new creative product of thinking, excepting for advances in statist thought. To most of the nation, they have become a joke.

Student per student, most land grant state universities produce a far better result at a fraction of the price.

[bjc]

Arrant nonsense. Many of Harvard undergrads and grads work their tails off and play strictly by the rules. Some are or become smug, self-righteous plagiarists. They are a type that are especially drawn to political activities - and can infest Ivy League, large State Schools and the local community college. In my experience, as a teacher and employer of Harvard grads, they are a distinct minority.

[DesertRhino]

The fact remains, the Harvard quality drop has become legendary. Imagine if Harvard were replicated in the midwest today, out of thin air, with a different name. Say it were housed in modern looking non-descript buildings.

Almost none it’s programs be would be widely respected.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Zakaria’s book, The Post-American World, a world that Obama has been hastening to make a reality.

________________

Additional evidence that Dinesh D’ Souza’s latest film : “2016: Obama’s America” is right on the money.

D’Souza hits the nail on the head when he shows evidence upon evidence that Obama’s plan is to bring America down to the level of other countries. He does not want a dominant America. He wants an America than is EQUAL to everyone.

[ozzymandus]

Zakaria is an anti-American hack. If he had to earn his living on his own merits, he’d be working in a convenience store.

As for Harvard, it’s all about the name. You’re paying for bragging rights.

[bjc]

Of course, Harvard is trading on its reputation. And certainly its social science departments have more than their share of statists and elitists. But that is also true of almost every college and university in the country. The silly comment at the top of this thread was about the students - and empirically it is simply wrong and sounds as outlandish as the nonsense spouted by the OWS brigade. Believe me I have no time for the likes of Zakaria, Laurence Tribe, etc. and you may well be right that their brand is much diminished - but they still manage to attract more HS valedictorians than public funded universities. Three years ago the Harvard intern we employed was brilliant, hard-working, unpretentious and a pleasure to talk with - as were many of his fellow students that I met. He was also scathing about most of his liberal arts professors. Alas we could not match the offers he got from Google.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

You can tell a man from Harvard, but you can't tell him much.

(Joke I heard years ago from someone whose name I've completely forgot.)