IS COPYING MATERIAL WITHOUT CITATION PLAGIARISM?  IT DEPENDS ON WHAT “IS” IS:   Ah, the joys of academia. These days it is virtually impossible to condemn someone for plagiarism. They simply blame a student research assistant, freelance editor, or other third party.  And it gets even more complicated when the faculty member in question is a member of a minority group. The latest tale from the history department at Arizona State University.

WHO AM I???:  I feel so mysterious.  For those of you who have expressed curiosity, forgive me for not properly introducing myself. My name is Elizabeth Price Foley, and I’m a law professor at Florida International University College of Law, where I teach constitutional law and health care law.  I also practice constitutional law, serving as the Executive Director of the Institute for Justice, Florida Chapter. You can find out more about me on my personal webpage.

OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN STAFF “TOO WHITE”?:  Ah, the post-racial days of the Obama Administration, where everyone is valued for the content of their character, not the color of their skin!  Oh, wait, sorry– I was hallucinating again.  Actually, turns out the great post-racial healer’s campaign staff is now being criticized as “too white.” According to the Daily Caller report, “That skewed workforce is starkly visible in an April photo released by Obama’s Chicago office, which shows roughly 100 of the office’s staff. Only two of the people in the photo, far in the back, are clearly African-American, far below their 13 percent of the national population, and their 33-percent representation in Chicago.”

Wonder if a staff could be “too black” or “too Hispanic”?

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION? WOMEN LAWYERS AT GITMO TRIAL SHOULD WEAR THE HIJAB TO PROTECT THE SOULS OF THE 9/11 ACCUSED:  Really?   If it were me, I’d  wear the highest heels and shortest skirt I could find. The Wall Street Journal reports, “Cheryl Bormann, a lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, was dressed in an abaya, a loosefitting garment worn by observant Muslim women, leaving only her face exposed, and suggested that women on the prosecution team follow her example. They should dress modestly “so that our clients are not forced to not look at the prosecution for fear of committing a sin under their faith,” Ms. Bormann said.

PILLS CONTAINING POWDERED FLESH OF HUMAN BABIES SEIZED IN SOUTH KOREA:  Yuck.  Apparently believed to be  a “stamina booster.”  Another high quality product Made in China.

NY POST CALLS ELIZABETH WARREN A “FRAUDSTER”:  Ouch.  But c’mon, calling yourself a Native American because family lore says an ancestor five generations back was one?  Such is the reality of law faculties these days, however.  If you can “tick a box,” you get many unspoken bonus points.  Doesn’t anyone realize this isn’t helping race relations? Or maybe that’s the idea….

PETER BERKOWITZ in WSJ: WHY COLLEGES DON’T TEACH THE FEDERALIST PAPERS:  “Small wonder it took so long for progressives to realize that arguments about the constitutionality of ObamaCare are indeed serious.”  This is so very true. The Federalist Papers are not even taught in law schools.  If our best and brightest aren’t taught these things, how can we possibly defend our Constitution? Answer: We can’t. It is a crisis of ignorance.

INDIANA SENATE HOPEFUL RICHARD MOURDOCK: “IT IS NOT BIPARTISANSHIP WE NEED. IT IS PRINCIPLE.”:  An impassioned statement from the tea party candidate trying to unseat longtime Senator Richard Lugar. Amen.

NEW STUDY: TEST TUBE BABIES HAVE MORE BIRTH DEFECTS  A new study from Australia confirms the long-held belief that babies conceived using in vitro fertilization (IVF) suffer higher rates of birth defects. But it is unclear if the higher rates are due to the jostling and handling of sperm or eggs, or instead due to the fact that the sperm or egg donor suffers from an infertility disorder.

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO:  According to the 2012 Sex Census, conducted in England, individuals in their 30s report the least satisfying sex lives because of financial and child-raising pressures.  The good news? “The best sex apparently happens in the fifties, while sexual confidence peaks between the ages of 60 and 69.”

DO TEACHERS SHOW MINORITY STUDENTS A “POSITIVE BIAS” THAT THWARTS ACHIEVEMENT?  A new report from the Journal of Educational Psychology confirms common sense:  Political correctness and an overzealous attempt to be “nice” or “gentle” with minority students undermines their success by failing to provide the kind of critical feedback needed for improvement. A fake, poorly written essay was submitted to teachers for feedback. The teachers “displayed a ‘positive feedback bias, providing more praise and less criticism if they thought the essay was written by a minority student than by a white student.”

ROBERT REICH: THE ANSWER ISN’T SOCIALISM BUT MORE WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION: Er, um, so wouldn’t that actually be more like communism?  You can’t make stuff like this up. Apparently the key to economic improvement isn’t harder work, increased efficiency, or self improvement but more aggressive wealth distribution and …… more leisure time?  In Reich’s words, “The problem is not that the productivity revolution has caused unemployment or under-employment. The problem is its fruits haven’t been widely shared. Less work isn’t a bad thing. Most people prefer leisure. A productivity revolution such as we are experiencing should enable people to spend less time at work and have more time to do whatever they’d rather do.”