THE ALL-SEEING, ALL-KNOWING intelligence arm of Darwin Central*, the Conspiracy that Cares, has discovered something very curious indeed. Phyllis Schlafly, soundly mired in the early 19th century, wrote this stupefyingly conventional anti-Darwin diatribe last week. It was published on her own Eagle Forum website. Then, mysteriously, the exact same column appeared on the townhall.com website a couple of days ago, but under Jack Kemp’s byline. Well OK, maybe townhall.com made a mistake. But now, even more mysteriously, the same column is on David Horowitz’s frontpagemag.com, today, again under Kemp’s byline.
This could, of course, be the stupidest case of plagiarism ever discovered. It could also be a mistake, though what, we wonder, are two separate conservative webzines doing publishing an article by the same wrong author?
But the third alternative is most intriguing. Has anyone ever seen Phyllis Schlafly and Jack Kemp together, hmmm?
(UPDATE: Carl Zimmer has noticed the same thing. He also notes that several commenters on townhall.com have pointed out this odd ‘coincidence’, but nothing has been done to fix it. Hmmm, maybe this is more than a simple goof….)
(UPDATE NUMBER 2: Without comment, and after three days, townhall.com has changed the byline from Kemp to Schlafly. But you can still link to the article through the directory of Jack Kemp’s columns)
(UPDATE NUMBER 3: Townhall.com are now claiming it was all a mix-up of bylines. Yeah right! I guess Phyllis/Jack isn’t quite ready to come out as a transgendered chimeral hermaphrodite fused entity yet, at least not until we figure out whether he/she qualifies as a married couple under the marriage protection amendment. By the way, welcome, Wonkette readers!)
*Otherwise known as Carolina Guitarman – sorry, CG, meant to mention this!
“Phyllis Schlafly, soundly mired in the early 19th century, wrote this stupefyingly conventional anti-Darwin diatribe last month.”
Well, actually, it was last week. But the point stil remains; it was written by Schlafly and has been falsely attributed to Kemp. Unless of course, as you say, they are the same person… What is her opinion on the Flat Tax??
I fixed the date, and added a link to the Carl Zimmer blog.
Jack Kemp and Phyllis Schlafly–One Mind, or One Ghost Writer?…
Cut-and-paste creationism? Yesterday I pointed readers to a column attacking evolution by Jack Kemp on the web site Town Hall. Today a sharp-eyed commenter pointed out that it is almost entirely identical to a column from Phyllis Schlafly from August…..
Jack Kemp, Phyllis Schlafly Reveal Selves to be Same Person…
Differentiated only by published date and bylines, two anti-Darwin columns demonstrate conclusively that there is a higher power, and He has guided two of his most faithful (and aging, and mentally diminished) servants so well that He thought, what……
Why do I care whether Kemp is an idiot? I hope he isn’t, but he did look bad debating Al Gore in 1992. That, I now think, should be nearly impossible.
You laugh, but Phyllis was a pretty decent dropback passer. Not real mobile, but she had a good arm. “Schlafly drops back…Warlink is wide open…touchdown!”
Of course, there were all those rumors that Phyllis was just a little too friendly with some of the Charger players.
Of course, she’s just a normal heterosexual woman, so there’s nothing wrong with that!
Looks like both sites fixed the goof. I know it’s good for a chuckle, but I don’t see it as anything but an editorial mistake. I like both sites (more FPM than TH.com) and will continue to read them, though more silly anti-science nonsense will seriously affect how often I go to those sites.
That being said, what took them so long to figure it out?
“but he did look bad debating Al Gore in 1992″
Surely it was 1996?
Possibility #4: The column was written by a right-wing think-tank (like the Heritage Foundation) for publication under a “front” name — a known practice — only this time they goofed and gave the same column to two different fronts.
I think this may be the actual truth.
Yes, it was 1996. Tried to repress the whole era’s memories entirely but only messed up the dates.
I forgot the GOP actually ran Kemp for VP back in 1996. I’ve mentally blocked out the Clinton years, for many reasons.
But I don’t think they’re the same person- Phyllis was terrible at reading the blitz.