Hoosier Pundit Smack-Down. (Amazingly, some people actually use the useless information they learned in college.)

FOR THE RECORD: I am just an amateur blogger trying to eke out a small sense of relevance in the broad expanse that is the modern Internet.

There is nothing better than the feeling that somebody who actually knows what they're doing is reading the drivel that usually ends up in my weekend posts. (Actually, in any of my posts. I have a hard time getting the rest of these knuckleheads around here to read them.)

Our pal, Scott, over at the Hoosier Pundit, was kind enough to give me a lesson in 20th Century European History and a whole bunch of "pithy" new material for the archive. As well, he demonstrated why it's important to actually check things before you put them out in the blogosphere ...

For those of you who missed it, we posted a story on Sunday (3/2 - Today's MTP Moment: GOPer Murphy quotes Otto von Bismarck) about the flack-fest on MTP.

During said flack-fest, GOP hack and former McCain campaign pro, Mike Murphy, apparently misquoted Otto von Bismarck. Frankly, we thought it was just a funny quip. But alas, we were wrong and Scott, being the gentleman he is, gently pointed out that the quote we quoted from Murphy - who was ostensibly quoting Bismarck - was not the quote that is attributed to Bismarck, but a mere paraphrase. The actual Bismarck quote is substantially better than the Murph's version.

My response was a shocked and defensive, "Well, I was just quoting what Murph said." Really, that's what Murphy said. "It's not my fault that he got it wrong." However, after pondering the matter for a while and letting it "marinate" long enough to inform an intelligent response, I have decided that this is actually a real opportunity to improve my fairly amateurish skills and become a more productive and contributing member of the family here at the WPHQ.

So, I wanted to take a moment to thank Scott for the lessons in history and blogging. I owe you a meticulously blended frozen drink the next time you're in town, man.


See the full HOOSIER PUNDIT scholarly treatise here:

http://hoosierpundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/pithy-but-misquoted.html