I just saw a Facebook ad for “custom term papers” (not linked, but you can find 212,000 results by googling that term). Basically, you hand them your research and they churn out an actual report. And they’ll even write your Master’s thesis for you!

My goodness, people. This is why writing centers and editors exist. Let me give anyone who wants to use a site like that a hint: academic writing is about clarity and organization. If you can explain your research to these people, you can save yourself $20/page and write minimally your own first draft. I won’t deny the need for corporate professional writers… but it strikes me as unethical to pay someone for a paper that you’ll then get graded on. It’s called “credit where credit is due.” Seriously. Learn it before you enter the corporate world.

From the Lansing State Journal: Man, 24, Shot Dead in South Lansing

What gets me isn’t that there was yet another murder in Lansing, though of course that’s horrible, or even that, as always, the victim was “such a nice boy.” (This is a commentary for another day, but dead people are always portrayed as saints. I’m sure this guy was nice, but c’mon, are drug dealers never killed like this? “Man, it sucks that Bob got shot, but I’m so not surprised. Dude was always totally wasted and picking fights.” Makes me wish we were operating under the Speaker for the Dead model.)

No–the thing that got me was this quote:

“These kids,” she added, with sadness coming into her voice, “they can’t just settle things with their fists. When you shoot somebody, they don’t come back. It affects the family. It affects the neighborhood.”

What about settling things with words? If you’ve got violent tendencies, take them out on video games or at the gym, people. I like to chop veggies when I’m angry or stressed–it turns the energy into something productive (and tasty). Fistfights are still acts of violence, and even if there’s a legitimate reason for the violence, there are better ways to pursue justice.