There's a reason we have a greeting card business!

Ann Coulter writes at Breitbart,

...If you’re on MSNBC and traffic in outrage and sanctimony every day, you can lose your bearings and not even realize what an idiot you’ve become.

Ann is referring to the nonstop outrage at MSNBC and other media outlets about Melania Trump's speech containing plagiarisms of Michelle Obama's 2008 speech.

The similar passages were:

— The only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams!

— Your word is your bond!

— May your tomorrows be brighter than your yesterdays!

— From tiny acorns great oaks grow!

Huffington Post, Gawker and Jezebel pulled all-nighters to hoot and sneer at the prospective first lady’s speech. The following day, Andrea Mitchell devoted half her show to Melania’s “plagiarism.”

Listen to yourselves, MSNBC! Your obsession with the “theft” of these saccharine sentiments only reminds people how trite Michelle Obama’s speech was. (Which you adored.)

...Obviously, Melania’s speechwriter didn’t think up those words — and neither did Michelle’s. You can hear the same thing at any third-rate college commencement, at Orientation Day at Excel academies, at motivational speakers’ corporate events, and right now, in the greeting card aisle of your local Rite Aid.

Not even Hallmark cards could claim authorship because there were probably caveman drawings with rainbows that said, “You can achieve anything you set your mind to!”

If I were giving a speech and suddenly burst into, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets …” you’d have a right to say, “Um — Ann, did you write that part about fighting on the beaches yourself?

But if I say: “The only limit to your achievement is your dreams!” no one can claim the rights to those words because they’re insipid nothings.

No one invented “the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams,” anymore than I invented “Hey — how you doing?” There’s nothing there! These are phrases designed to allow you to make sounds while moving your mouth.

People who wanted to hate Melania thought her speech was godawful, and the ones who like her thought it was awesome and are now requesting copies of the speech to use at the office.

Some people like this stuff. There’s a reason we have a greeting card business.

Read more here.

Misremembering, misstating, or misconstruing

Victor Davis Hanson notes that when someone is caught misremembering, misstating, or misconstruing,

Punishment is calibrated by the stature of the perpetrator. If the offender is powerful, then misremembering, misstating, and misconstruing are considered minor and aberrant transgressions. If not, the sins are called lying and plagiarizing, and deemed a window into a bad soul. Thus a career can be derailed.

...Why do so many of our elites cut corners and embellish their past or steal the work of others?

For them, such deception may be a small gamble worth taking, with mild consequences if caught. Plagiarism is a shortcut to publishing without all the work of creating new ideas or doing laborious research. Padding a resume or mixing truth with half-truths and composites creates more dramatic personal histories that enhance careers.

...Contemporary postmodern thought sees the “truth” as a construct. The social aim of these fantasy narratives is what counts. If they serve progressive race, class, and gender issues, then why follow the quaint rules of evidence that were established by an ossified and reactionary establishment?

...The Greek word for truth was aletheia – literally “not forgetting.” Yet that ancient idea of eternal differences between truth and myth is now lost in the modern age.

Our lies become accepted as true, but only depending on how powerful and influential we are — or how supposedly noble the cause for which we lie.