I Have a ... Xerox

Drew Hansen writes on plagiarism and orators in the Houston Chronicle, proposing that political oratory operates under different standards from academic writing. Oratorical reuses that are transformative, are done with consent, or are obvious quotations from near-universally known sources such as the Bible, he argues, are not plagiarism. (I'm a little dubious about the idea that the actual words of the King James Version are currently so well-known that quoting Isaiah will be immediately recognized as quotation by most of the intended American audience, but I'll go with it.)