Sunday, October 28, 2007

YEAH!

My daughter goes to a rich kids school. Her mother and I

make a very good living. Her mother and I are about in

the lowest 1% income of families with children attending

the school.



Today Dianna went Yachting with her school friend

Natalie and Natalie's folks.


I know yachts. I've seen them. At the boat show once I was

even on one briefly.



Natalie also invited Dianna to go skiing with her family at

Vail over the Christmas break.



They own a house there.



Dianna's mom called the Stuarts and profusely thanked

them and, of course, offered to pay for Dianna's air fair.

I mean, come on, that's just courtesy.



Mr. Stuart is completely unaffected by his wealth. With

no condescension he informed Dianna's mom that that

would be unnecessary seeing that he had a private jet.



When Dianna came back from Yachting her mom said to

her, "Dianna, they take you Yachting, then they offer to

take you to Vail ON A PRIVATE JET?!" "Yeah mom, and

I told them that my dad, after he charges a lot on his credit

card, gets a FREE TICKET ON SOUTHWEST AIRLINES!"

Friday, October 26, 2007

On the Genarlow Wilson case

This morning the Georgia Supreme Court ordered the

immediate release of Genarlow Wilson from state prison,

holding that Wilson's ten year mandatory sentence

violated the U.S. constitution's bar on "cruel and unusual

punishment."



Wilson was convicted of an underage sex crime, having oral

sex with a 15 year old girl. Wilson was 17 at the time. The sex

act was consensual. Wilson spend two years in prison for this.



The Georgia Supreme Court was right. What is wrong is laws

like this. Georgia's legislature has since changed its law (but

did not make it retroactive) but there are other similar laws

on the books in many states, and not just in "backward" or

southern states. In a case in Miami a 14 year old girl was

dating and having sex with her 17 year old boyfriend. The

girl's parents found out about it and forbade her from

seeing the boy again. They grounded her and wouldn't let

her leave her room. The girl crawled out the window one

night to be with and have sex with her boyfriend. The boy

was arrested for a felony. That law is still on Florida's

books.



Besides changes in the law (Georgia reduced the crime

from a felony to a misdemeanor) what is needed at least

as much is greater discretion and common sense on the

part of police officers and prosecutors. Each has discretion

in enforcing the law. The police do not have to arrest some-

one even when a crime has been committed and many,

many times don't. More importantly, prosecutors do not

have to file cases, and many, many, many times don't. The

prosecutor's job, his only job is to seek justice.


Cowed legislators respond to public pressure by enacting

draconian laws, cowed police officers make arrests they'd

probably just as soon not, and cowed prosecutors file cases

with too little concern for justice. What is needed is more

courage and less cowing. This is Public Occurrences.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

On Dr. James Watson


There are so many issues raised by Dr. James Watson's recent


(and more recently retracted) remarks that people of African

descent are genetically less intelligent than others. In rough

order of importance:



(1) The pain and humiliation that the remarks caused to black

people. If it were true that black people were genetically less

intelligent than others no public policy would be changed as a

result. For example, governments would not forbid racial

intermarriage to reduce the number of intellectually-

challenged children, employers would not stop hiring

black people, etc. Nothing would change. So the only result of

proof that black people were genetically less intelligent would

be the pain and humiliation that it causes black people. That is

bad.



(2) It is particularly bad that these statements were made by a

Nobel laureate. If I made them or some other non-scientist had

made them they would be dismissed as unimportant racist

ramblings. When a Nobel laureate, and one who won the prize

in the relevant field of biology, makes them, they are

devastating because they assume the imprimatur of expertise.



(3) Intelligence, either in individuals or in races, is not the most


important quality in human beings. Goodness is. No one argues

that one race is superior or inferior to the others in morality.

My race and Dr. Watson's race, Caucasians, have produced in

just the last century the most murderous behavior that the

world with all of its races, has ever known. This was at a time

when the fruits of our supposedly superior intellect--science

and technology--was at its most advanced. I get angry and

defensive when I read others, such as Jared Diamond, claim

that Caucasians are less intelligent than other races. As I have

written here before I am proud to be white, male, living in the

northern and western hemispheres, and American. But I am

not proud of what my race did in the 20th century.



(4) Although I know not what public policy it informs, research

into and discussion of inherent racial differences should not be

suppressed. As a non-scientist I don't know if Dr. Watson's

initial claims are true. I read and I've never read of any

credible scientific reports that substantiate his initial claims.

If I'm wrong I would like to see the studies widely published

and discussed by the experts. If I'm right, and as Dr. Watson

has said in subsequent comments, that there is no such

evidence then his initial statements are both mean-spirited

as well as unintelligent. And I would like to see research into

racial differences in goodness as well. I don't know why

intelligence get so much attention.



(5) I do share Dr. Watson's bleak view of Africa. As has been

written here before, "It is hard to stay positive" when a head

of state believes he can cure AIDS by reading the Koran,

sprinkling magic water and chanting over victims. That was

just one example recently in the news. High officials in or

formerly a part of the government of South Africa have made

similar, floridly ignorant comments about AIDS. And then

there's Robert Mugabe. However, I don't think it's Robert

Mugabe's race that has made him such a tyrant any more than

I think it's race that made Hitler, Stalin and Mao such tyrants.



(6) I mean this sincerely and not meanly, does Dr. Watson

suffer from any mental problem, such as Alzheimer's? He is

aged and his initial statements seem to me so ridiculous and

his retraction so immediate and categorical that I wondered

if he didn't suffer from some mental impairment, although I

have read that he has made similar statements in the past.

Perhaps he's just a mean man.



I am Benjamin Harris

Sunday, October 14, 2007

China's Great Wall of Silence: A Letter to Congressman David Wu

Dear Congressman Wu,

As the first and only Chinese-American in Congress, and as a lawyer, you are uniquely positioned to be receptive to this request for assistance in the investigation into the murder of Bian Zhongyun.

Bian was beaten to death on August 5, 1966 by her Red Guard students at the privileged Girls School Attached to Beijing Normal University. She was the first educator to be murdered by students in the Cultural Revolution. All of her attackers were girls.

The historical significance of Bian's murder was made complete on August 18, 1966 when Song Binbin, the leader of the Red Guards at Bian's school, was given the honor of pinning a Red Guard armband onto Mao Zedong. The photograph of that moment is one of the most famous of the twentieth century. The occasion was the first rally of Red Guards in Tianenmen Square. Over a million were in attendance.

Bian's murder has ever since been a subject of interest to many. Two films, Though I am Gone, by Hu Jie, and the pseudo-documentary Morning Sun, by Red Guard sympathizer Carma Hinton, have been produced in the last few years. The latter was partially funded by your and my tax dollars through the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Although some courageous people, such as Hu Jie and Dr. Youqin Wang of the University of Chicago, have kept the memory of Bian's murder alive, only one of the perpetrators has been named, Liu Tingting, daughter of the then President of China, Liu Shaoqi. Ms. Liu was one of those who beat Bian on August 5 but there were others, three or four, who committed most of the violence and they have never been named.

It's not for lack of witnesses that those responsible have not been identified. The beating was a public spectacle carried out in front of the student body in broad daylight. The beating lasted for hours. In similar public circumstances Bian was also beaten on June 23 and August 4. After the former beating Bian made a futile written appeal to the Beijing municipal authorities.

Liu Tingting, Song Binbin and a host of other former Red Guards subsequently immigrated to the United States and started new lives. Liu Tingting is now a wealthy, jet-setting business consultant with a residence on Central Park. Song, the most infamous of the Red Guards, changed her name to Yan Song once in the U.S., got her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and had homes in Lexington and Concord, the birthplaces of the American Revolution. Others, such as Weili Ye, are comfortably ensconsed in academia. None have even been questioned about their actions during the murderous period of the Cultural Revolution that resulted in an estimated 3,000,000 killed.

With the above as background these are the specific issues that I am asking for your assistance on:

(1) How did Song Binbin and Liu Tingting get into this country? I would respectfully request that you provide me with their immigration forms in order to determine if either made any false or misleading statements there on.
(2) How could the National Endowment for the Humanities fund Morning Sun? What vetting of content occurred or didn't occur that led to N.E.H.'s approval for funding? I would respectfully ask that you provide me with Ms. Hinton's application and any internal N.E.H.documents that informed their decision.

Congressman, your website says that you will not respond to email from folks outside of your C.D., that all other correspondence must be in writing, so I will send this to you in letter form.

Finally, I just ask that you not send me a form letter in response. If you do not wish to assist no response is necessary.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Harris, J.D.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Plato/Aristotle v Homer/Nietzsche

"Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all

Aristotle in his head."


-Herman Melville, Moby Dick.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

True Crime Stories



I casually mentioned to the judge that he didn't have a poker

face, that I could usually tell how he was going to rule by his

facial
expression. When I first told him about that he was

astonished. I was astonished that he was astonished,

sometimes he'd screw up his face like he was having a

hemorrhoid attack when a lawyer was making an argument.

Then we started getting into it: I'd say, "Judge, I can see by

the expression on your face...," or he'd catch himself and say

"Mr. Harris, what am I thinking now?" One time I was begging

for a trial postponement and he said, "Read my face." I looked

up and he was giving me the finger with both hands.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

China's Great Wall of Silence: Carma Hinton's New Film!



The Shocking story
of the REAL Red Guard


Girls.



Murder! Looting! Burning!





Entertainment fun for the whole family.


With the ORIGINAL CAST
from the hit farce


Morning Sun.



See Song Binbin
as you've never seen her


before, with her face exposed!



Also starring Liu Tinting, Deng Rong and Weili




Ye.



Special appearance by
Mao Zedong!


Coming soon to a theater near you.







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Often Wrong, Always Certain

Occasionally even this blind hog roots out the truffle. See "The Next Great Coach in College Tackle Football Will Be Brian Kelly," Publocc Jan. 1, 2007. 

I am Benjamin "Nostradamus" Harris.