I refuse to chill out.

The proprietor of "HelpKerry.org" thinks I should "chill out" and reserve my anger for the war in Iraq, evil thieving Republicans, and other people who aren't on Greg's side of the political spectrum. A few points:

1. This is not "a few words." If the story in the Weekly Standard is true, then many words were lifted, even if only one phrase was taken in its entirety. That is sloppy, slovenly, unprofessional research. Even in the third grade, I remember being instructed to indicate quotations when taking notes on cards and cite to the page number.

2. Whether Tribe is a nice guy and friendly to students is beside the point. If someone commits an offense, they should not get off light because they are handsome, rich, or your good buddy. That is not justice. I am glad that he works so hard on so many pro bono cases. He should have worked a little harder on this book.

3. If Richard Perle stole $5 million dollars and Greg decided to be upset about it and post, I would not question him. I fail to see how the potential thievery of a sometime contributor to the Weekly Standard has any bearing on whether or not the specific allegations in the article on Tribe are true.

4. The argument that anger at relatively minor ethical infractions is misdirected because there are serious political issues to be concerned with at present is absurd and offensive. By this logic, outrage at small injustices must be rejected and standards of morality lapse; after all, what's a theft, an instance of plagiarism, cruelty to animals, or cheating on your wife compared to the overweening evil of the Bush administration? What laughable nonsense. This is not a warblog, or a politics blog. It is the personal blog of a Harvard Law student. I address issues that affect me and which are relevant to the scope of this site. If you want outrage about Bush, go elsewhere. Contrary to Greg's suggestion, there is plenty to be angry about right here.