Christopher's own "Original and Authentic Custom Dissertation"

I'm not sure why the recent blog posting by "Barry" has to repeat "authentic" in its title ("Original and Authentic Custom Dissertations from the most Authentic Dissertation Service Online"), unless it's for the same reason those guys standing on the street corners with portable displays of watches for $20 each (2 for $30) have to stress the idea that they're "authentic" Rolexes.

The post, of course, is nothing more than an advertisement for a site selling dissertations: a particularly repellent practice in which failed hacks sell talentless drivel to academic morons. Or maybe I'm being too kind.

Perhaps I'm more enraged by this than most, since I teach English at a college in Toronto and have run across my share of students trying to pass off stolen work as their own (and when it comes to plagiarism, the work is stolen whether it's been paid for or not). Or perhaps it's from years as a writer and editor.

Or maybe I was just raised by decent people.

Whatever the cause, these people raise in me somewhat the same disgust I might feel toward someone who admitted to bestiality.

In this case, however, the perversion is compounded by the fact that "Barry" not only uses his blog post to advertise this crime, but then follows it up with a comment (which apparently we're not supposed to notice is being written by the very same person who wrote the post) praising two competing sites -- all of which are exactly the same site.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings in the least if "Barry" were "authentically" banned from AVW and his post burned. I've never called for the banning of anyone, but in this case I could easily make an exception.