(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: the Wilhoit's Law edition [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-13 A look at one non-mystery … plus another still mystery … after-the-jump ... But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself. This 2018 quotation has been cited numerous times on this website … yet there has been comparatively little attention paid to who actually wrote it. And there is a different (yet similar in tone) quotation attributed to a South American autocrat leader … yet there does not seem to be a consensus on who said it first. With the legal proceedings enveloping our world, it might be worth a look. First: a parallel to Wilhoit’s Law is this quotation — about voters supporting candidates (or referendums, such as Brexit) that would result in hardships for other groups of people … just not themselves. Like the secretary at a federal prison in Florida upset at the GOP shutdown, saying: “I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” she said of Mr. Trump. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting”. x 'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party. — Adrian Bott (@Cavalorn) October 16, 2015 However, in the case of Frank Wilhoit: the quote above is often attributed not to the gent who wrote it (a classical music composer) but instead: a noted political science professor who died in 2010 … and whose work would seemingly tally with it. Francis M. Wilhoit (1920-2010) was a North Carolina native, was friends with both Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski in college, served in the armed forces during WW-II and also worked for the CIA. He was a poli-sci professor at Drake University in Iowa for nearly thirty years, retired in 1990 and died in his native North Carolina at age ninety. He was noted for his teachings on slavery and racial resistance, winning an award from the Southern Political Science Assoc. in 1973. The quote actually came from a (now) 65 y/o classical music composer (posted on Crooked Timber) who in 2022 seemed unduly sheepish about the confusion. I was perfectly horrified by that because I had absolutely no right to create that kind of confusion, to pose that kind of insoluble problem for the custodians of his legacy. They will be playing whack-a-mole with that mis-attribution for all future time. I’m just disheartened to have been the cause of that. Q — What a generous read on your own bon mot being stolen from you. It’s not a question of stealing. He was somebody—and that’s what makes the coincidence all the more bizarre—who actually had standing to write what he wrote and to publish what he wrote. He had standing to say such things and I do not, I am a pure amateur. Frank …….. take it easy on yourself, will ya? Meanwhile, there is an (aforementioned) different quote that goes like this: "To my friends, everything; to my enemies, the law" The most-oft cited individual attributed to is Óscar Benavides (1876-1945) — who became president of Peru from 1914-1915 and later from 1933-39 … who by all accounts was a fascistic authoritarian ruler. Óscar Benavides Yet I have also seen the quote attributed to a president of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954) — who also served two separate terms, and was autocratic (though who was not a full hard-right fascist). Tellingly: rather than go into retirement, he committed suicide rather than leave office in 1954. Getúlio Vargas (1882-1954) If anyone has further information, please advise. Either way, who-said-it-first is not something to honor. Let’s close with a parody of the original 1965 hit by the Bobby Fuller Four (and covered in a turbo-charged version in 1979 by The Clash). Here, a short version dedicated to the lawless Tories … who on July 4th will be handed their walking-papers. Now, on to Top Comments : From TampaEdski: In the diary by DRSat4880 about the decline of Christianity in the US — this thread has a lot of the usual religious hatred/hard feelings, but it also has some well thought out comments. Mind Matters (as usual) gives us food for thought in reasonable voice. Highlighted by renren: In the diary by Witgren about Russia’s population time bomb — this comment made by Mr Meaner. Highlighted by MarcKyle64: In the same diary about Christianity (listed above) — this comment made by Front Toward Enemy. And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........ In the front-page story about right-wingers going all-in for raw milk — nehill likes the taste, but adds a cautionary note for others. TOP PHOTOS June 12th, 2024 Alas, the Picture Quilt is still out-of-commission … hoping for its return very soon. And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/13/2243188/-Top-Comments-the-Wilhoit-s-Law-edition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_groups_Top+Comments&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/