A National Review editorial published today begins as follows:

Lena Dunham, actress, television writer, and disturbing memoirist, is displeased that a National Review writer quoted passages from her book and characterized some of the episodes described therein as representing the sexual abuse of her younger sister, Grace. Her lawyers have threatened to sue the conservative website Truth Revolt for subsequently doing much the same thing. 

It goes on from there, and you’re very welcome to follow the link and read on if you’ve got a strong stomach. I was not aware of Lena Dunham until the scuffle about quoting from her newly published memoir broke out. Now I kind of wish I could go back to never having heard of her. Too late. But does the part about being chastised and even threatened just for quoting and characterizing something that somebody wrote in a book or article remind you of anything?

Yes! National Review writer Kevin D. Williamson and our friend Ben Shapiro’s Truth Revolt are being accused of quote mining, just like they always accuse us of doing, in a different context. Join the club, gentlemen! What’s quote mining?

"Quote mining" defined: When a scientist is accurately cited as saying something true but awkward for the Darwinian evolutionary cause.

— David Klinghoffer (@d_klinghoffer) November 4, 2014

That seems succinct and accurate. Don’t you agree?

Image: Lena Dunham/Wikipedia.