Dean has got into a little trouble over his use of a phrase in a post:

The Internet has detected the mainstream media as a form of censorship and simply routed around them.

A sufficiently good phrase that the Puppyblender linked to it. Over at Jessica’s Well a commenter noted that it is very similar to this:

“The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” – John Gilmore
I know this is the blogosphere and everything, but Mr. Esmay should really consider attributing his sources, rather than attempting to pass off the brilliant words another as his own.

which I think is a profound misunderstanding of how language and discourse actually work. Language is made of building blocks and those blocks are not just letters or words, but the entire round up of memories and impressions that are raised by the invocation of a certain phrase.
Dean has not quoted directly, he has subtly changed the phrase to suit the new occasion, yet in a manner which clearly recalls the earlier, and therefore to the knowlegeable reader has invested his words with some of the impact of the earlier.
An extended example might be the phrase” If I have seen further than others it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants” as Isaac Newton put it (roughly).Yet his listeners would have been in no doubt of two resonances to this phrase, one being to Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century (he used the formulation “If we have” concerning his debates with Thomas Aquinas and their ability to use the newly rediscovered Greek philosophers ) and the second to his use of it to Robert Hooke, often thought of as someone who had helped Newton with his researches. Hooke was also an almost dwarfiish hunchback. So it was both a reference and an insult, which is precisely what I mean about using a phrase to invoke earlier experience yet also illuminate new.
“Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” was also the title of an Oasis album and is thought to refer to The Beatles. Such a pity that their songs seem to be based on hooks and melodies that even Ringo would have rejected as trite.
I was also impressed by the MIT Professor who said “If I have not seen as far as others it is because giants have been standing on my shoulders.”
I think you can see the basic way my thought is going. Taking an extant phrase and either modifying it or simply applying it to a new situation is not plagiarism. It is the very soul of wit, of discourse, of writing and our use of language. So Dean is to be applauded, not castigated.
Why call this post Operation Caesar though? Well, I have arrived at a cunning plan to solve the Najaf crisis. Simply release 30,000 greased piglets into the area around the Mosque. That will clear the fighters out pretty quickly.
What, not got it yet?

“Cry Halal and let slip the hogs of war!”