why plagiarism is about the stupidest thing you can do in today's world

Students at all levels are tempted to take shortcuts.  You have a massive "to-do" list this year and you are provided with incentives for grades, not work process or integrity.

The problem, of course, is that we live in an era of transparency.  The idea behind using blogs is to create maximal value-- if you can send someone a link to your work, they can see for themselves how brilliant you are and reward you accordingly.  This value is hard won.  Since every author's work is available for all to see, it must stand the tests of inquiry and critique.  Or, as in the case of Senator John Walsh, it causes readers to think the author is the sort of person who steals work from other people and calls it his own.