Important Writers on Islam
-Angelo Codevilla
-Oriana Fallaci
-Sam Harris
-Christopher Hitchens
-Samuel Huntington
-Amr Khaled
-Bernard Lewis
-V.S. Naipaul
-Daniel Pipes
-Robert Redeker
-Salmon Rushdie
-Wafa Sultan
-Mahmoud Muhammad Taha
-Ibn Warraq
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Intel's Breakthrough
Intel's Breakthrough
Yesterday was an important day for the computer industry and thus the U.S. economy. The Intel Corporation announced that it had overcome an obstacle in manufacturing microprocessor chips that had made the chips more energy draining the smaller they got. Chips house transistors, the ones and zeroes switches that are the neural basis for all computing. The more transistors you can fit onto a chip the more powerful the computing. For decades the American computer industry had obeyed the so-called Moore's law which held that technology would double the transistor-holding capacity of the chips every two years. Moore's law seemed to be threatened by the inability of the standard silicon dioxide insulator to prevent electrical leakage as chip size shrunk. Intel's breakthrough was to use the superior insulating capability of hafnium. Moore's law still holds thanks to Intel physicist Mark Bohr. Today's front-page article in The New York Times was the basis for this post. This is Public Occurrences.
Yesterday was an important day for the computer industry and thus the U.S. economy. The Intel Corporation announced that it had overcome an obstacle in manufacturing microprocessor chips that had made the chips more energy draining the smaller they got. Chips house transistors, the ones and zeroes switches that are the neural basis for all computing. The more transistors you can fit onto a chip the more powerful the computing. For decades the American computer industry had obeyed the so-called Moore's law which held that technology would double the transistor-holding capacity of the chips every two years. Moore's law seemed to be threatened by the inability of the standard silicon dioxide insulator to prevent electrical leakage as chip size shrunk. Intel's breakthrough was to use the superior insulating capability of hafnium. Moore's law still holds thanks to Intel physicist Mark Bohr. Today's front-page article in The New York Times was the basis for this post. This is Public Occurrences.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Miami City Ballet
Miami City Ballet
This wonderful company is hardly unknown nationally and internationally but all the publicity it gets is deserved. Under the direction of Edward Villella the Miami, like the city itself, has become renown for its cutting edge creativity. Its move from the Jackie Gleason theater to the Carnival Center is a fitting showcase for this gem of a company. A gem performing in a gem.
There were four performances on Saturday night starting with Agon by Balanchine, for whom of course Mr. Villella danced. That was followed by Afternoon of a Faun which was written expressly by Jerome Robbins for Mr. Villella, so taken was the former by seeing Villella, then a 16 year old prodigy, simply limbering up at the New York City Ballet one day. Mr. Villella's virility was clearly intended as the focus of this pas de deux.
The third performance was another pas de deux, the erotic Liturgy by Christopher Wheeldon. The male-female interplay was sensually performed by coquettish Haiyan Wu and desirous Daymel Sanchez.
There were two intermissions in the evening and after the second was the concluding performance, Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room. It has become a signature of the Miami to end the evening with a "fun" piece. What Ms. Tharp's composition lacked in classical character it made up for in fun. The performance was almost as much modern dance as ballet and invigoratingly fast-paced. The dancers were clearly having fun. One ballerina performed most of the piece with a smile on her face. This viewer wore a smile on his face during the entire performance.
Two of the things that make the Miami stand out are its stage design and its costume design. With the Carnival Center's dramatic stage and the company's new wealth the stage design is almost opera-like in its grandeur. The lighting is as good. But besides Mr. Villella the other genius at the Miami is Costume Designer and Director of Wardrobe Haydee Morales. Every night, every performance, Ms. Morales' brilliant, cutting-edge, and inspired eye are evident.
In a city that has escaped its fun and sun tackiness only recently the Miami City Ballet stands out, above Art Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the New World Symphony and every other component of Miami's exciting cultural present. I am Benjamin Harris.
This wonderful company is hardly unknown nationally and internationally but all the publicity it gets is deserved. Under the direction of Edward Villella the Miami, like the city itself, has become renown for its cutting edge creativity. Its move from the Jackie Gleason theater to the Carnival Center is a fitting showcase for this gem of a company. A gem performing in a gem.
There were four performances on Saturday night starting with Agon by Balanchine, for whom of course Mr. Villella danced. That was followed by Afternoon of a Faun which was written expressly by Jerome Robbins for Mr. Villella, so taken was the former by seeing Villella, then a 16 year old prodigy, simply limbering up at the New York City Ballet one day. Mr. Villella's virility was clearly intended as the focus of this pas de deux.
The third performance was another pas de deux, the erotic Liturgy by Christopher Wheeldon. The male-female interplay was sensually performed by coquettish Haiyan Wu and desirous Daymel Sanchez.
There were two intermissions in the evening and after the second was the concluding performance, Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room. It has become a signature of the Miami to end the evening with a "fun" piece. What Ms. Tharp's composition lacked in classical character it made up for in fun. The performance was almost as much modern dance as ballet and invigoratingly fast-paced. The dancers were clearly having fun. One ballerina performed most of the piece with a smile on her face. This viewer wore a smile on his face during the entire performance.
Two of the things that make the Miami stand out are its stage design and its costume design. With the Carnival Center's dramatic stage and the company's new wealth the stage design is almost opera-like in its grandeur. The lighting is as good. But besides Mr. Villella the other genius at the Miami is Costume Designer and Director of Wardrobe Haydee Morales. Every night, every performance, Ms. Morales' brilliant, cutting-edge, and inspired eye are evident.
In a city that has escaped its fun and sun tackiness only recently the Miami City Ballet stands out, above Art Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the New World Symphony and every other component of Miami's exciting cultural present. I am Benjamin Harris.
Monday, January 01, 2007
The Next Great Coach In College Tackle Football Will Be Brian Kelly
The next great coach in college tackle football will be Brian Kelly recently hired by the University of Cincinnati. I am Benjamin Harris.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
English Premier League Skinny
English Premier League Skinny
1. Manchester United, 53. } THE CHAM-PEEONS!
2. Chelsea, 47. }
---------------------
3. Bolton, 39. }
4. Liverpool, 37. }
5. Arsenal, 36. }
6. Portsmouth, 35. } EUROPEAN DREAMIN'
7. Everton, 31. }
8. Tottenham, 31. }
-----------------------
9. Reading, 27. }
10. Manchester City, 26. } THE GREAT MIDDLE CLASS. GOD MUSTA LOVED 'EM HE
11. Fulham, 26. } MADE SO MANY OF 'EM
12. Aston Villa, 25. }
13. Newcastle, 25. }
14. Blackburn, 25. }
15. Sheffield United, 23. }
16. Wigan, 22. }
-----------------------------
17. Middlesbrough, 21. }
18. West Ham United, 18. } CO-CA COLA!, CO-CA COLA!
19. Charlton, 16. }
20. Watford, 11. }
1. Manchester United, 53. } THE CHAM-PEEONS!
2. Chelsea, 47. }
---------------------
3. Bolton, 39. }
4. Liverpool, 37. }
5. Arsenal, 36. }
6. Portsmouth, 35. } EUROPEAN DREAMIN'
7. Everton, 31. }
8. Tottenham, 31. }
-----------------------
9. Reading, 27. }
10. Manchester City, 26. } THE GREAT MIDDLE CLASS. GOD MUSTA LOVED 'EM HE
11. Fulham, 26. } MADE SO MANY OF 'EM
12. Aston Villa, 25. }
13. Newcastle, 25. }
14. Blackburn, 25. }
15. Sheffield United, 23. }
16. Wigan, 22. }
-----------------------------
17. Middlesbrough, 21. }
18. West Ham United, 18. } CO-CA COLA!, CO-CA COLA!
19. Charlton, 16. }
20. Watford, 11. }
Thursday, December 21, 2006
On "A Christmas Story"
On A Christmas Story
I usually re-read what I write, at least occasionally. I first wrote A Christmas Story in 2003. I have never been able to re-read it. It is the saddest story that I've ever heard.
I usually re-read what I write, at least occasionally. I first wrote A Christmas Story in 2003. I have never been able to re-read it. It is the saddest story that I've ever heard.
Rep. Virgil Goode's Letter on Muslims
Rep. Virgil Goode's Letter
on Muslims
This is the text of the letter with our comments in brackets.
"When i raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing in Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. [ All religions are divisive and therefore objectionable to us. Some religions are more divisive than others, Islam much more so than Rep. Goode's Baptist strain of protestantism.]
"I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way." [Neither do we but others do and should have the right to as long as it's not used for violent or treasonous reasons.]
"The Muslim Representative from Minnesota [Perhaps it was unintentional but this sounds depersonalizing. Rep.-elect Ellison should have been referred to by name.] was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." [This is an ill-thought and ill-written sentence. There is no substantive link between Rep. Goode's position and the election of more Muslims to office. Rep.-elect Ellison is not an immigrant. His election had nothing to do with immigration policy. More Muslims will not be elected to office because of justifiable voter disapproval of Islam's totalitarian philosophy, regardless of when they came to the U.S. "Demanding the use of the Koran" is unclear. American people have and should have the right to READ the Koran. There is not and should not be any law prohibiting the "use" of the Koran in a Swearing in ceremony. There are laws against using any book, the Koran, Mein Kamph, The Communist Manifesto, for violent or treasonous ends.]
"We need to stop illegal immigration totally [beside the point, see above] and reduce legal immigration [beside the point but disagree] and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton [Don't know if this is wholly or partly true] and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country." [Perhaps unintentional again but as stated Rep. Goode would therefore be in favor of blocking Christian or Jewish emigrants from the Middle East. This page totally supports banning Muslims from immigrating to the United States because Islam, as it is preached and practiced today in the Islamic world, is warring against the United States. We would also end student visas and send home those who are here as visiting students. There is no or not sufficient evidence that American Muslims as a group preach or practice their faith in a way that makes them at war with America. Quite the contrary. If there is any model for a Muslim Reformation, for a non-violent Islam, it is in the way that it is preached and practiced in America. If individuals do advocate violence they should be prosecuted under law.]
"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary [ We do not share this fear. We support banning the emigration of Muslims from the Islamic world] to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United states of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped." [ Nonsense, nativistic nonsense.]
"The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust are on the wall in my office. [All religions divide]. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as i have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office. [The story sounds apocryphal but if true that is no way to treat a young visitor to a congressman's office. As stated here previously we should not be critical of our fellow Americans on this issue. As we would do with an adult we should ask them for their views and why they hold them and give them our thoughts. This is all the more true for young people.] Than you again for your email and thoughts."
We must not hate. This is Public Occurrences.
on Muslims
This is the text of the letter with our comments in brackets.
"When i raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing in Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. [ All religions are divisive and therefore objectionable to us. Some religions are more divisive than others, Islam much more so than Rep. Goode's Baptist strain of protestantism.]
"I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way." [Neither do we but others do and should have the right to as long as it's not used for violent or treasonous reasons.]
"The Muslim Representative from Minnesota [Perhaps it was unintentional but this sounds depersonalizing. Rep.-elect Ellison should have been referred to by name.] was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." [This is an ill-thought and ill-written sentence. There is no substantive link between Rep. Goode's position and the election of more Muslims to office. Rep.-elect Ellison is not an immigrant. His election had nothing to do with immigration policy. More Muslims will not be elected to office because of justifiable voter disapproval of Islam's totalitarian philosophy, regardless of when they came to the U.S. "Demanding the use of the Koran" is unclear. American people have and should have the right to READ the Koran. There is not and should not be any law prohibiting the "use" of the Koran in a Swearing in ceremony. There are laws against using any book, the Koran, Mein Kamph, The Communist Manifesto, for violent or treasonous ends.]
"We need to stop illegal immigration totally [beside the point, see above] and reduce legal immigration [beside the point but disagree] and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton [Don't know if this is wholly or partly true] and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country." [Perhaps unintentional again but as stated Rep. Goode would therefore be in favor of blocking Christian or Jewish emigrants from the Middle East. This page totally supports banning Muslims from immigrating to the United States because Islam, as it is preached and practiced today in the Islamic world, is warring against the United States. We would also end student visas and send home those who are here as visiting students. There is no or not sufficient evidence that American Muslims as a group preach or practice their faith in a way that makes them at war with America. Quite the contrary. If there is any model for a Muslim Reformation, for a non-violent Islam, it is in the way that it is preached and practiced in America. If individuals do advocate violence they should be prosecuted under law.]
"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary [ We do not share this fear. We support banning the emigration of Muslims from the Islamic world] to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United states of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped." [ Nonsense, nativistic nonsense.]
"The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust are on the wall in my office. [All religions divide]. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as i have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office. [The story sounds apocryphal but if true that is no way to treat a young visitor to a congressman's office. As stated here previously we should not be critical of our fellow Americans on this issue. As we would do with an adult we should ask them for their views and why they hold them and give them our thoughts. This is all the more true for young people.] Than you again for your email and thoughts."
We must not hate. This is Public Occurrences.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Fighting the Coming War with Islam
Fighting the Coming War with Islam
Iran is one of the major nations in the Islamic world. It is currently hosting a conference denying the Holocaust. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has--again--proclaimed that Israel will soon be "wiped off the map." A New York Times article on the conference said this: "Across the Middle East, contempt for Jews and Zionism is widespread and utterly mainstream."
This is just the latest addition to the reams of evidence that the American people continue to ignore: The Muslim people are warring against us, not just al Qaeda, not just a few "rogue states."
By contrast during the Cold War polls and overwhelming anecdotal evidence consistently showed that the peoples of the United States and Soviet Union actually liked each other, even as their governments had nuclear missiles aimed at each other.
In the war with Islam it is the reverse. The U.S. government counts among its friends the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan for example. The leaders get along fine but the people of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and the entire Muslim world, hate the American people. They have lustily butchered and burned our people and look forward to doing it again. They aim to destroy us.
Not since Neville Chamberlain, a good but naive man, has the West been so unprepared psychologically to recognize the nature of its enemy and what must be done. Not since before Pearl Harbor have Americans been so oblivious to the nature of the enemy and what must be done. At least after Pearl Harbor that generation of Americans united and responded with the merciless use of every weapon in its arsenal to obliterate its enemies. September 11 was this generation's Pearl Harbor, in fact we lost more people on 9/11 than on 12/07/41, but today's Americans have turned on each other, deny reality and can't think the unthinkable. They are afraid, some are cowards, but most are just afraid. They don't know what to do, some are paralyzed by analysis, but most just don't know. They just want peace, but so did Chamberlain, and like him they will be discredited and scorned by future generations. "What did you do during the war with Islam, mom?" "I was on the fat flush diet, honey," would be the honest response but they will just remain silent. "Dad, why didn't we use the atom bomb after 9/11 instead of waiting until after Islam detonated a dirty bomb in Manhattan?" We had our heads buried in the sand" would be the honest answer. "That damn Republican/Democratic president _____ was a coward!" will be the answer given.
The war is with Islam, with the Muslim people. We must acknowledge this fact. We are realists. We are also not vigilantes. We should not take violent action personally against Muslims in America, the Islamic world or anywhere else but we must elect a president and a government who say who we are at war with and what must be done. It is a war and must be prosecuted as such, not as a police action. A commentator recently acknowledged the above and said that he thought we were in store for a new One Hundred Years War. That is unacceptable. The war should be a one hundred days war. He said we must never split the atom. We believe (we would prefer conventional but similarly overwhelming force) that using atomic weapons will be necessary.
This is how the new one hundred days war with Islam should proceed:
We should take the opportunity of the Holocaust conference to bomb the gathering and thereby kill President Ahmadinejad and whichever number of his government colleagues are at the conference.
We should bomb and thereby decapitate the rest of the Iranian government in their offices or homes.
Those first two actions could be accomplished easily with conventional weapons.
We should also immediately bomb any suspected nuclear sites in Iran. We should err on the side of caution and bomb more rather than less. This will probably require the use of nuclear weapons. We should use them.
The entire Muslim world will then erupt because despite seventeen or so nations the Muslim world is essentially one. We will have chosen the time to fight our enemy, not have our enemy choose the time for general war to begin. We will have them on the defensive until, shortly, they will be as completely destroyed as were Germany and Japan.
As the war blows up--this will be in days--we must immediately decapitate the governments of our two greatest enemies, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. We should take out Pakistan's nuclear capability. We should decapitate the Saudi government. We should send the Rangers in to protect the Saudi oil wells from deliberate destruction by our Saudi enemies. That may not be possible. If not our economy will suffer a recession as we did during the Arab oil boycott of the 1970's, perhaps a depression. We will recover, we cannot recover the lives lost in 9/11 or those lost since, or those to be lost to future Islamic attacks.
In those first few days protests, riots and attacks on Americans and American interests will begin. We should systematically and overwhelmingly snuff them out with more bombing. We must acknowledge and accept moral responsibility for the tragic but necessary fact: Muslim civilians will be killed in overwhelming numbers, but it is they who we are at war with. In the first days of the coming war every time there is a gathering of protesting Muslims in the Islamic world calling for "Death to America!" we should bomb that gathering, in sorrow, but unhesitatingly, recognizing the necessity.
There are one and one half billion Muslims. We agree with Daniel Pipes that we are at war with a "significant minority" of those one and one half billion. Regrettably, many, many, many of those one and one half billion will have to die. We say that with the sincerest sorrow but with the conviction that it is necessary. Perhaps the Muslims will cut and run in a real war as they have done so many times before, in wars with Israel, with us in the Gulf War, with us again in the current Iraqi war. Maybe significant numbers will just surrender. We sincerely hope so but doubt it. For them this will not be a war on behalf of a mere state, like Egypt or Iraq or Syria. This will be a war on behalf of their ideology (it is much more than a religion), with the spiritual impetus of jihad from their sacred book. We must be psychologically prepared to kill millions of our Muslim brothers and sisters who are our brothers and sisters still even if they are our enemy. We must never hate. We must be prepared to kill as many Muslims as we did our Japanese and German brothers and sisters until there is unconditional surrender as there was by them.
The military phase of the war will then end quickly, with a substantial portion of Islam dead and the survivors bleeding. We should then outlaw the preaching and teaching of Islam as it is currently being done, just as the Nazi party and the advocacy of Nazism was outlawed. Thus Islam will go through the Reformation that Christianity experienced but which it never has.
We must fight this war in this manner because we must, not because we want to. Throughout it all we must never hate. This is Public Occurrences.
Iran is one of the major nations in the Islamic world. It is currently hosting a conference denying the Holocaust. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has--again--proclaimed that Israel will soon be "wiped off the map." A New York Times article on the conference said this: "Across the Middle East, contempt for Jews and Zionism is widespread and utterly mainstream."
This is just the latest addition to the reams of evidence that the American people continue to ignore: The Muslim people are warring against us, not just al Qaeda, not just a few "rogue states."
By contrast during the Cold War polls and overwhelming anecdotal evidence consistently showed that the peoples of the United States and Soviet Union actually liked each other, even as their governments had nuclear missiles aimed at each other.
In the war with Islam it is the reverse. The U.S. government counts among its friends the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan for example. The leaders get along fine but the people of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and the entire Muslim world, hate the American people. They have lustily butchered and burned our people and look forward to doing it again. They aim to destroy us.
Not since Neville Chamberlain, a good but naive man, has the West been so unprepared psychologically to recognize the nature of its enemy and what must be done. Not since before Pearl Harbor have Americans been so oblivious to the nature of the enemy and what must be done. At least after Pearl Harbor that generation of Americans united and responded with the merciless use of every weapon in its arsenal to obliterate its enemies. September 11 was this generation's Pearl Harbor, in fact we lost more people on 9/11 than on 12/07/41, but today's Americans have turned on each other, deny reality and can't think the unthinkable. They are afraid, some are cowards, but most are just afraid. They don't know what to do, some are paralyzed by analysis, but most just don't know. They just want peace, but so did Chamberlain, and like him they will be discredited and scorned by future generations. "What did you do during the war with Islam, mom?" "I was on the fat flush diet, honey," would be the honest response but they will just remain silent. "Dad, why didn't we use the atom bomb after 9/11 instead of waiting until after Islam detonated a dirty bomb in Manhattan?" We had our heads buried in the sand" would be the honest answer. "That damn Republican/Democratic president _____ was a coward!" will be the answer given.
The war is with Islam, with the Muslim people. We must acknowledge this fact. We are realists. We are also not vigilantes. We should not take violent action personally against Muslims in America, the Islamic world or anywhere else but we must elect a president and a government who say who we are at war with and what must be done. It is a war and must be prosecuted as such, not as a police action. A commentator recently acknowledged the above and said that he thought we were in store for a new One Hundred Years War. That is unacceptable. The war should be a one hundred days war. He said we must never split the atom. We believe (we would prefer conventional but similarly overwhelming force) that using atomic weapons will be necessary.
This is how the new one hundred days war with Islam should proceed:
We should take the opportunity of the Holocaust conference to bomb the gathering and thereby kill President Ahmadinejad and whichever number of his government colleagues are at the conference.
We should bomb and thereby decapitate the rest of the Iranian government in their offices or homes.
Those first two actions could be accomplished easily with conventional weapons.
We should also immediately bomb any suspected nuclear sites in Iran. We should err on the side of caution and bomb more rather than less. This will probably require the use of nuclear weapons. We should use them.
The entire Muslim world will then erupt because despite seventeen or so nations the Muslim world is essentially one. We will have chosen the time to fight our enemy, not have our enemy choose the time for general war to begin. We will have them on the defensive until, shortly, they will be as completely destroyed as were Germany and Japan.
As the war blows up--this will be in days--we must immediately decapitate the governments of our two greatest enemies, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. We should take out Pakistan's nuclear capability. We should decapitate the Saudi government. We should send the Rangers in to protect the Saudi oil wells from deliberate destruction by our Saudi enemies. That may not be possible. If not our economy will suffer a recession as we did during the Arab oil boycott of the 1970's, perhaps a depression. We will recover, we cannot recover the lives lost in 9/11 or those lost since, or those to be lost to future Islamic attacks.
In those first few days protests, riots and attacks on Americans and American interests will begin. We should systematically and overwhelmingly snuff them out with more bombing. We must acknowledge and accept moral responsibility for the tragic but necessary fact: Muslim civilians will be killed in overwhelming numbers, but it is they who we are at war with. In the first days of the coming war every time there is a gathering of protesting Muslims in the Islamic world calling for "Death to America!" we should bomb that gathering, in sorrow, but unhesitatingly, recognizing the necessity.
There are one and one half billion Muslims. We agree with Daniel Pipes that we are at war with a "significant minority" of those one and one half billion. Regrettably, many, many, many of those one and one half billion will have to die. We say that with the sincerest sorrow but with the conviction that it is necessary. Perhaps the Muslims will cut and run in a real war as they have done so many times before, in wars with Israel, with us in the Gulf War, with us again in the current Iraqi war. Maybe significant numbers will just surrender. We sincerely hope so but doubt it. For them this will not be a war on behalf of a mere state, like Egypt or Iraq or Syria. This will be a war on behalf of their ideology (it is much more than a religion), with the spiritual impetus of jihad from their sacred book. We must be psychologically prepared to kill millions of our Muslim brothers and sisters who are our brothers and sisters still even if they are our enemy. We must never hate. We must be prepared to kill as many Muslims as we did our Japanese and German brothers and sisters until there is unconditional surrender as there was by them.
The military phase of the war will then end quickly, with a substantial portion of Islam dead and the survivors bleeding. We should then outlaw the preaching and teaching of Islam as it is currently being done, just as the Nazi party and the advocacy of Nazism was outlawed. Thus Islam will go through the Reformation that Christianity experienced but which it never has.
We must fight this war in this manner because we must, not because we want to. Throughout it all we must never hate. This is Public Occurrences.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Greg Schiano to Stay at Rutgers
Greg Schiano to Stay at Rutgers
A couple of years ago the Big East college tackle football conference was eviscerated by the defections of perennial national champion contender Miami, recent and mid-term power Virginia Tech, and perennially respectable and big market Boston College. The Atlantic Coast Conference, the recipient of the defectors largesse, was supposed to become a "Super Conference," while the Big East, sarcastically dubbed the "Big Least" was expected to survive on a technicality or dissolve.
Then Larry Coker ran out of Butch Davis' recruits and his own career assistant coach's ability finally caught up with the program. Last year concluded with a humiliating bowl-game slaughter by L.S.U. and this year U.M. lurched to a 6-6 record and a birth in the Micron P.C. Bowl or something like that.
Virginia Tech has regressed since joining the A.C.C. and Boston College has merely maintained it's status as a top-20-25 team. So this year the A.C.C.'s automatic B.C.S. birth goes to the football factory of Wake Forest. Officials at the Orange Bowl have been observed drinking heavily.
Completely unpredictably, the Big Least has arisen Phoenix-like. The West Virginia "Products of Incestuous Relations" beat S.E.C. champion Georgia in last year's Sugar Bowl at UGA's Georgia Dome home away from home.
Rutgers had a miracle season and barely missed out on a B.C.S. bowl in a triple-overtime loss at Incestuous Relations stadium. Head Coach Greg Schiano won the Coach of the Year award. Since he had left the Miami program as an assistant to take the head job at the State University of New Jersey it was thought that Coach Schiano would naturally gravitate back to U.M. after the firing of Coach Coker. Instead Coach Schiano announced today that there's nowhere he'd rather be than Piscataway and took himself out of candidacy for the Miami job.
A program and ultimately a conference's success rides on the quality of its coaches. The Big East had already lost Cincinnati's Mark Dantonio to Michigan State of the Big Eleven. It could not afford to lose Schiano to a "better" job and cannot affort to lose U.S.F. coach Jim Leavitt to Miami or some other "better" job. If it does, it is in danger of becoming the Mid-American Conference, a minor league known only for its incubation of coaches such as Ara Parsegian, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and most recently Urban Meyer.
What a break for Rutgers, if it lasts. The latest report has it that Schiano shrewdly has bought time, money, and prestige for the job he really wants, as head coach of Penn State once Joe Paterno retires. If so, that is the next test of the Big East's credibility. I am Benjamin Harris.
A couple of years ago the Big East college tackle football conference was eviscerated by the defections of perennial national champion contender Miami, recent and mid-term power Virginia Tech, and perennially respectable and big market Boston College. The Atlantic Coast Conference, the recipient of the defectors largesse, was supposed to become a "Super Conference," while the Big East, sarcastically dubbed the "Big Least" was expected to survive on a technicality or dissolve.
Then Larry Coker ran out of Butch Davis' recruits and his own career assistant coach's ability finally caught up with the program. Last year concluded with a humiliating bowl-game slaughter by L.S.U. and this year U.M. lurched to a 6-6 record and a birth in the Micron P.C. Bowl or something like that.
Virginia Tech has regressed since joining the A.C.C. and Boston College has merely maintained it's status as a top-20-25 team. So this year the A.C.C.'s automatic B.C.S. birth goes to the football factory of Wake Forest. Officials at the Orange Bowl have been observed drinking heavily.
Completely unpredictably, the Big Least has arisen Phoenix-like. The West Virginia "Products of Incestuous Relations" beat S.E.C. champion Georgia in last year's Sugar Bowl at UGA's Georgia Dome home away from home.
Rutgers had a miracle season and barely missed out on a B.C.S. bowl in a triple-overtime loss at Incestuous Relations stadium. Head Coach Greg Schiano won the Coach of the Year award. Since he had left the Miami program as an assistant to take the head job at the State University of New Jersey it was thought that Coach Schiano would naturally gravitate back to U.M. after the firing of Coach Coker. Instead Coach Schiano announced today that there's nowhere he'd rather be than Piscataway and took himself out of candidacy for the Miami job.
A program and ultimately a conference's success rides on the quality of its coaches. The Big East had already lost Cincinnati's Mark Dantonio to Michigan State of the Big Eleven. It could not afford to lose Schiano to a "better" job and cannot affort to lose U.S.F. coach Jim Leavitt to Miami or some other "better" job. If it does, it is in danger of becoming the Mid-American Conference, a minor league known only for its incubation of coaches such as Ara Parsegian, Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and most recently Urban Meyer.
What a break for Rutgers, if it lasts. The latest report has it that Schiano shrewdly has bought time, money, and prestige for the job he really wants, as head coach of Penn State once Joe Paterno retires. If so, that is the next test of the Big East's credibility. I am Benjamin Harris.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
We and millions around the world were captivated by the apparent re-discovery of this spectacular bird in the Cache River area of Arkansas last year*. This month's issue of "National Geographic" has a follow-up article. Alas, it says here that the Lord God bird is gone forever, that the intensive efforts to provide conclusive proof of the bird's existence in the last year having come to naught, the most reasonable conclusion is that the 2004-5 sightings were in error, a product of hope and emotion, rather than fact. God damn it and God bless the Ivory-bill, now gone forever. This is Public Occurrences.
*Public Occurrences, August 5, 2005.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
What a Wonderful World Department
What a Wonderful World Department
The best Bloody Mary's in the world are those made at the News Cafe. I am Benjamin Harris.
The best Bloody Mary's in the world are those made at the News Cafe. I am Benjamin Harris.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
On Song Binbin
On August 18, 1966 an ecstatic nineteen year old girl pinned a Red Guard armband onto an approving Mao Zedong. The occasion was the first mass rally of the Red Guards in Tienanmen Square. The pinning was Mao's imprimatur for the Cultural Revolution which lasted for ten years. Millions were to die.
The photograph of that moment is an icon of the twentieth century. The beaming girl with the Dentyne smile was Song Binbin, the daughter of an alternate Politburo member. She had already received the honor of being chosen to share the reviewing platform with Mao that day. The pinning made Song a part of history, an accidental historical figure, a (perhaps) insouciant participant in one of the most murderous movements of the incomparably murderous twentieth century. When Mao asked Song the meaning of her given name she replied "suave." Mao suggested that a name more fitting the times would mean "more martial." Song then changed her name to Yaowu, "want violence."
She got it. The Cultural Revolution almost destroyed China. There was a mini-war with the Soviet Union which threatened to go nuclear. The Chinese economy was devastated. All schools closed for a year. On the level of the individual--so unimportant to the Chinese--virtually no one was untouched. Those who weren't murdered were purged, those not purged were sent into internal exile. The families of those murdered, purged, or exiled were ostracized. At the end of it all, after Mao's death, the State held those, principally the "Gang of Four," responsible.
Somehow Song Yaowu survived this preternatural Chaos, the whole period and beyond. She immigrated to the United States in 1980, the same year that the trial of the Gang of Four began. She prospered. Having already secured an education at the elite Middle School for Girls Attached to Beijing Normal University, Song continued her career trajectory by earning a Ph.D in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reportedly she is living under an assumed name in Boston now and working as an environmental researcher.
In 2005 a film documentary was made of the Cultural Revolution and distributed in the West. In a rare interview on her past, Song, looking suave indeed in turtle-neck sweater and well-coifed hair, agreed to be interviewed for the film. Well..."interviewed" is such an..."interactive" word. More accurately, Song was allowed to state without follow-up questioning that she had been a victim of the Cultural Revolution, that her name had been exploited, that when she had learned of the violence of the Red Guards--whose emblem she had so proudly worn and so proudly pinned on one of the Big Three of twentieth century mass murderers--she had changed it back to "suave."
So then use thine real name, Song. So then don't insist, as thou did for Morning Sun, that thy face be blackened out as if thine were a Mafia informer.
At least one other Internet wretch besides the undersigned has expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation for Song's anonymity, that she feared repercussions from the Chinese government. That is laughably preposterous. No subject could be more closed for the Chinese government than the inconvenient details of the Cultural Revolution.
This page does not engage in insinuation. It engages in bluntness. Song should be investigated by the United States authorities to see if she participated directly, as principal, or accessory in the deprivation of human rights during the Cultural Revolution.
You don't have to be Kenneth Starr to "connect the dots" here. Song was already a member of the Red Guards when she pinned Mao. The Red Guards were the shock troops of the Cultural Revolution. Before Song pinned Mao the Red Guards had engaged in violence. She was at the heart of the Cultural Revolution at the beginning, in the universities and schools of Beijing. She knew of the violence. After pinning Mao she changed her name to "want violence." Certainly nothing suspicious there! When did she have her epiphany and become "suave" again?
Song, how exactly were you a victim of the Cultural Revolution? Tell us. What was done to you? And what did you do?
Why did you leave China only in 1980? The Cultural Revolution was already dead four years when you left? The trial of the Gang of Four began in 1980. Was your decision to immigrate influenced by the commencement of that trial? Are those two events totally coincidental?
To the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, what investigation did YOU do into Song's background? M.I.T., you are so exclusive, your admissions policy is based so much on character because all of your applicants have such stellar academic credentials. Did you vet Song's character to your satisfaction, or not vet her at all? Tell us. What did you know and when did you know it, about this applicant who subsequently received one of the most coveted degrees in American higher education? To the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who reportedly hired Song, did you know anything about her background? Did you care? Do you still employ her? Do you care now? This is Public Occurrences.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
The photograph of that moment is an icon of the twentieth century. The beaming girl with the Dentyne smile was Song Binbin, the daughter of an alternate Politburo member. She had already received the honor of being chosen to share the reviewing platform with Mao that day. The pinning made Song a part of history, an accidental historical figure, a (perhaps) insouciant participant in one of the most murderous movements of the incomparably murderous twentieth century. When Mao asked Song the meaning of her given name she replied "suave." Mao suggested that a name more fitting the times would mean "more martial." Song then changed her name to Yaowu, "want violence."
She got it. The Cultural Revolution almost destroyed China. There was a mini-war with the Soviet Union which threatened to go nuclear. The Chinese economy was devastated. All schools closed for a year. On the level of the individual--so unimportant to the Chinese--virtually no one was untouched. Those who weren't murdered were purged, those not purged were sent into internal exile. The families of those murdered, purged, or exiled were ostracized. At the end of it all, after Mao's death, the State held those, principally the "Gang of Four," responsible.
Somehow Song Yaowu survived this preternatural Chaos, the whole period and beyond. She immigrated to the United States in 1980, the same year that the trial of the Gang of Four began. She prospered. Having already secured an education at the elite Middle School for Girls Attached to Beijing Normal University, Song continued her career trajectory by earning a Ph.D in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reportedly she is living under an assumed name in Boston now and working as an environmental researcher.
In 2005 a film documentary was made of the Cultural Revolution and distributed in the West. In a rare interview on her past, Song, looking suave indeed in turtle-neck sweater and well-coifed hair, agreed to be interviewed for the film. Well..."interviewed" is such an..."interactive" word. More accurately, Song was allowed to state without follow-up questioning that she had been a victim of the Cultural Revolution, that her name had been exploited, that when she had learned of the violence of the Red Guards--whose emblem she had so proudly worn and so proudly pinned on one of the Big Three of twentieth century mass murderers--she had changed it back to "suave."
So then use thine real name, Song. So then don't insist, as thou did for Morning Sun, that thy face be blackened out as if thine were a Mafia informer.
At least one other Internet wretch besides the undersigned has expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation for Song's anonymity, that she feared repercussions from the Chinese government. That is laughably preposterous. No subject could be more closed for the Chinese government than the inconvenient details of the Cultural Revolution.
This page does not engage in insinuation. It engages in bluntness. Song should be investigated by the United States authorities to see if she participated directly, as principal, or accessory in the deprivation of human rights during the Cultural Revolution.
You don't have to be Kenneth Starr to "connect the dots" here. Song was already a member of the Red Guards when she pinned Mao. The Red Guards were the shock troops of the Cultural Revolution. Before Song pinned Mao the Red Guards had engaged in violence. She was at the heart of the Cultural Revolution at the beginning, in the universities and schools of Beijing. She knew of the violence. After pinning Mao she changed her name to "want violence." Certainly nothing suspicious there! When did she have her epiphany and become "suave" again?
Song, how exactly were you a victim of the Cultural Revolution? Tell us. What was done to you? And what did you do?
Why did you leave China only in 1980? The Cultural Revolution was already dead four years when you left? The trial of the Gang of Four began in 1980. Was your decision to immigrate influenced by the commencement of that trial? Are those two events totally coincidental?
To the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, what investigation did YOU do into Song's background? M.I.T., you are so exclusive, your admissions policy is based so much on character because all of your applicants have such stellar academic credentials. Did you vet Song's character to your satisfaction, or not vet her at all? Tell us. What did you know and when did you know it, about this applicant who subsequently received one of the most coveted degrees in American higher education? To the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who reportedly hired Song, did you know anything about her background? Did you care? Do you still employ her? Do you care now? This is Public Occurrences.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCESWednesday, November 22, 2006
On Song Binbin
China's Cultural Revolution, one of the 20th centuries greatest catostrophes, began in the late spring and summer of 1966. When Chairman Mao had the arm band of the Red Guards pinned on his arm at the first Red Guard rally in Tiananmen Square he symbolically conferred his imprimatur to the purges and violence that had just begun and would sweep the country for the next ten years until his death.
The photograph of that moment is the iconic image of the Cultural Revolution. The honor of pinning Mao was bestowed on a fervent Red Guard member, a pretty nineteen year old student and daughter of a prominent Party offical with the beautiful name of Song Binbin. Mao asked the girl the meaning of her name and when told it meant "gentle and polite" the forward-looking Mao suggested that she change it to something "more martial." So the girl did, to Song Yaowu ("want violence"). An idolatrous, impressionable young woman had been made cruelly an unknowing pawn in an enveloping catastrophe.
Or at least that's her story and she's sticking to it. Song has kept an extremely low profile since August 18, 1966. In 2004 an acclaimed documentary on the Cultural Revolution, Morning Sung, was filmed. In a "rare," perhaps unique, brief interview for the film Song emotionally related how she had quickly grown disillusioned with the carnage that she unwittingly had helped unleash and changed her name back to "gentle and polite." Curiously, and irksomely to some since she certainly had nothing to fear from the Chinese authorities at that late date she refused to have her face shown on the film.
Millions of Chinese were destroyed professionally, beaten, killed, or driven to suicide during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, Song escaped all of that. Although grown disillusioned she remained in China throughout and beyond the end of the Cultural Revolution. After Mao Zedong's death in 1976, the Cultural Revolution ended. Immediately the Old Guard began consolidating power and isolating those responsible for the catastrophe of the preceeding ten years. The Red Guards were turned on, disbanded purged, and in many cases killed. Luckily, Song, the very symbol of the Cultural Revolution, escaped unscathed. In October 1980 Premier Hua Guofong and other Central Committee members staged a military coup and arrested the "Gang of Four" officials who had been instrumental (with Mao's encouragement) for the start and continuation of the Cultural Revolution.
Continuing her seeming divine fortune Song emigrated to the United States at just this time. Here she made a new, and quite successful, life. She earned a PhD in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last we have been able to trace her she is living in Boston and working as an enviornmental engineer, possibly for the Commonwealth. Such an amazing success story.
It does not take the rabidity of a Kenneth Starr however to look with jaundiced eye on Song's spectacular story.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
China's Cultural Revolution, one of the 20th centuries greatest catostrophes, began in the late spring and summer of 1966. When Chairman Mao had the arm band of the Red Guards pinned on his arm at the first Red Guard rally in Tiananmen Square he symbolically conferred his imprimatur to the purges and violence that had just begun and would sweep the country for the next ten years until his death.
The photograph of that moment is the iconic image of the Cultural Revolution. The honor of pinning Mao was bestowed on a fervent Red Guard member, a pretty nineteen year old student and daughter of a prominent Party offical with the beautiful name of Song Binbin. Mao asked the girl the meaning of her name and when told it meant "gentle and polite" the forward-looking Mao suggested that she change it to something "more martial." So the girl did, to Song Yaowu ("want violence"). An idolatrous, impressionable young woman had been made cruelly an unknowing pawn in an enveloping catastrophe.
Or at least that's her story and she's sticking to it. Song has kept an extremely low profile since August 18, 1966. In 2004 an acclaimed documentary on the Cultural Revolution, Morning Sung, was filmed. In a "rare," perhaps unique, brief interview for the film Song emotionally related how she had quickly grown disillusioned with the carnage that she unwittingly had helped unleash and changed her name back to "gentle and polite." Curiously, and irksomely to some since she certainly had nothing to fear from the Chinese authorities at that late date she refused to have her face shown on the film.
Millions of Chinese were destroyed professionally, beaten, killed, or driven to suicide during the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, Song escaped all of that. Although grown disillusioned she remained in China throughout and beyond the end of the Cultural Revolution. After Mao Zedong's death in 1976, the Cultural Revolution ended. Immediately the Old Guard began consolidating power and isolating those responsible for the catastrophe of the preceeding ten years. The Red Guards were turned on, disbanded purged, and in many cases killed. Luckily, Song, the very symbol of the Cultural Revolution, escaped unscathed. In October 1980 Premier Hua Guofong and other Central Committee members staged a military coup and arrested the "Gang of Four" officials who had been instrumental (with Mao's encouragement) for the start and continuation of the Cultural Revolution.
Continuing her seeming divine fortune Song emigrated to the United States at just this time. Here she made a new, and quite successful, life. She earned a PhD in geology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last we have been able to trace her she is living in Boston and working as an enviornmental engineer, possibly for the Commonwealth. Such an amazing success story.
It does not take the rabidity of a Kenneth Starr however to look with jaundiced eye on Song's spectacular story.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Today is November 22
Today is November 22
A very bad day and the start of a very bad weekend forty-three years ago.
A very bad day and the start of a very bad weekend forty-three years ago.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Murder Case Photographs- #26
Murder Case Photographs- #26(1955)
This is the best quality photograph in this series. Enlarge it to see the detail. It is there both in the foreground and background. Crime scene techs now and then used really good cameras and film which is why these photographs are so good.
This is the inside of a bar or club. It was a particularly important photo in the trial because it was enlarged (the crease in the middle is from being folded to fit into a manilla envelope) and matted on cardboard. The red marks were made by the witness(es) to place where they and the other players were. It would be reasonable to assume that the murder happened in here but there's no body, no blood, no bullet holes. Maybe it started here and spread outside.
Curiously this photograph is from the same case as the one immediately below, the outside of a church. Not an impossible, but an unusual, juxtaposition. The church photo is also marked with a witness's X and the spot is further emphasized by the staring policeman. Seems like maybe that's where the deceased fell but again there's no blood, no clothes, etc.
Love the old-fashioned police car. Enlarge and check out the spelling of the church, "Triumpth."
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Murder Case Photographs- #25
Murder Case Photographs- #25
1958
All that one knows about the cases from which these photographs are taken is what is in the Clerk's office file, which means only those items that were introduced into evidence at trial. One of the intriguing things about going through these old files is trying to piece together the whole from that part. Sometimes there is a confession which pretty much solves any mystery about the general outlines of the case. Even then there is occasionally a photograph that you can make no sense of whatsoever.
This is one of those. What the hell is this? It is some piece of heavy machinery but I can't make out anything beyond that. It doesn't look like any piece of farm or road-grading equipment that I've ever seen. It vaguely looks like the innards of a tank but it certainly is not that. There were some objects in the movie Alien that this reminds me of. That it's also a crummy photo doesn't help things. And why would it have been introduced into evidence in the murder case? Where's the deceased? Is there a gun hidden there somewhere? What possibly could have been the evidentiary value of this? LOVE this job.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Murder Case Photographs- #24
Murder Case Photographs-#24
(1953)
This scene is the inside of an African-American bar (note the Joe Louis and the Caucasian-ified woman advertisements on the wall). Prohibition is Exhibit #1 for our society's attempt at "legislating morality." Fair enough but if we could have successfully outlawed booze there would be a lot--a LOT--more people alive today. I would estimate--and this is just off the top of my head now--that 75% of the murders that I have handled in the past twenty-one years had something to do with alcohol or drugs: using and getting buzzed or selling and getting killed, somehow. Or if we outlawed men. That I can recall right now I only have had one female murder defendant among hundreds that I've handled. Maybe there's a couple more I'm forgetting but murder--and violent crime generally--is a guy thing. It amuses me sometimes and infuriates me others when someone says violent crime is largely an African-American thing. If we're going to make generalizations let's use the most impressive one: if there weren't guys there would be virtually no violent crime. I am Benjamin Harris.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCESFriday, November 17, 2006
Bo Schembechler Dies
Bo Schembechler Dies
If this minnow of a website can commemorate Milton Friedman's death, it is not too hooty-tooty to commemorate the death of a Leviathan in Sports, the Toy Department of Life, Bo Schembechler, the former coach of the University of Michigan "Wolverines," and on the eve of perhaps the biggest game in the history of Michigan-Ohio State college tackle football. For tonight only this is Public Occurrences.
If this minnow of a website can commemorate Milton Friedman's death, it is not too hooty-tooty to commemorate the death of a Leviathan in Sports, the Toy Department of Life, Bo Schembechler, the former coach of the University of Michigan "Wolverines," and on the eve of perhaps the biggest game in the history of Michigan-Ohio State college tackle football. For tonight only this is Public Occurrences.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Interlude
Interlude
Thought I would lighten up this page a little, filled as it is with all these morbid posts on morbid topics like crime and Islam and war. Yuck.
Islamic poobahs don't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to themselves. Tyrants never do. Fidel Castro reportedly has a wonderful, playful way of poking good-natured fun at his closest advisers. But he loses his sense of humor when he is the butt of the joke. So we will use humor against Islam (then we will destroy Tehran, Islamabad, Riyahd, Damascus. Huh-huh-huh, just kidding Islam!).
I have a theory. Employing the anthropologist's construct of hermeneutics and common anagrams my theory is that we can come to a deeper understanding of things.
Take Mohammed (please!), for example: Prophet, founder of the religion, yada yada yada. Everybody knows that. But if we rearrange the letters in Mohammed we can get,
"Oh, me mad"
Huh, how about that? Wouldn't we have fucking liked to have known that before 9/11!
And I have one other one for you. Taj aldin al hilali, Australia's top Islamic cleric who recently implied that if women don't want to be raped they should be locked up in the house and covered up head-to-toe in that Islamic thing they make women wear. If you rearrange that guy's name you can get,
"All tail in jail"
Damn straight you can and don't tell me that don't mean nothin'. Fuck you.
-I am Benjamin Harris.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Thought I would lighten up this page a little, filled as it is with all these morbid posts on morbid topics like crime and Islam and war. Yuck.
Islamic poobahs don't have much of a sense of humor when it comes to themselves. Tyrants never do. Fidel Castro reportedly has a wonderful, playful way of poking good-natured fun at his closest advisers. But he loses his sense of humor when he is the butt of the joke. So we will use humor against Islam (then we will destroy Tehran, Islamabad, Riyahd, Damascus. Huh-huh-huh, just kidding Islam!).
I have a theory. Employing the anthropologist's construct of hermeneutics and common anagrams my theory is that we can come to a deeper understanding of things.
Take Mohammed (please!), for example: Prophet, founder of the religion, yada yada yada. Everybody knows that. But if we rearrange the letters in Mohammed we can get,
"Oh, me mad"
Huh, how about that? Wouldn't we have fucking liked to have known that before 9/11!
And I have one other one for you. Taj aldin al hilali, Australia's top Islamic cleric who recently implied that if women don't want to be raped they should be locked up in the house and covered up head-to-toe in that Islamic thing they make women wear. If you rearrange that guy's name you can get,
"All tail in jail"
Damn straight you can and don't tell me that don't mean nothin'. Fuck you.
-I am Benjamin Harris.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
On Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali
Miss NovemberOn Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali
By now the entire world knows about Sheik al Hilali's comments that western-dressed women are like uncovered pieces of meat who invite rape. As was said here recently* it should be the strategy of those of us who believe that the threat we face today is Islam--not a radical, fringe interpretation of it, not a small band of terrorists, it is mainstream Islam as it is preached and practised today that is the threat--for those of us who believe this it should be our strategy to keep incidents like this in the minds of those who we have influence with--our family, our friends, our coworkers, our elected representatives--as long as possible.
We should not argue with other Americans who think differently, we should not get angry with them, we should not condescend to them. Those things make people dig in their heels and less likely to change their opinions. We should view them as...the pre-enlightened.
We should ask them their opinion and the basis for it. Sometimes we will have to let it go at that to avoid hard feelings. We have still accomplished something, we have gotten them to think. To the less defensive we can go a little further, quote the Koran or In the Shade of the Koran or the Islamic evil de jour. We can tell them about some of the Islamic states, like Syria and Iraq, who patterned their governments after that of Nazi Germany. We should ask them respectfully not to be beguiled that Islam is a religion. It is that but it is preached and practiced today as a fascist philosophy too.
We should not hate and as importantly not give other Americans the impression that we hate, especially not them. We do not hate Muslims or Sheik al Hilali either, but we must not prevaricate. We call this a war and we mean it. President Bush calls this a war but has prosecuted it as a police action on steroids with a warm and fuzzy nation-building final chapter. We believe that we should bomb out of existence the governments of, for example, Syria, Iran, and Pakistan. We should use conventional bombs if we can but nuclear and thermonuclear weapons if we must. That is hard even for us to swallow, and we should admit it. We are not callous and don't want anyone to think that we are. It is not something one even thinks without feelings of sorrow, so imagine the impact on people who hear this for the first time from us. We must tell them that we have an open mind--and mean it. We should ask them what they would do, and why. But we have to state clearly where we stand. We will be reasonable but firm, open-minded but decisive.
Today was a good day. Like Islam's attacks on the Pope, like Islam's reaction to the Danish cartoons, today gave worldwide publicity to the true face of Islam as it is preached and practised today: hateful, vile, medieval. Sheik al Hilali has changed some people's minds in our favor. Islam will do our work for us, if we just listen, and get others to listen. This was a good day. This is Public Occurrences.
*See For Verbal Provocation of Islam, Publocc, September 17, 2006.
By now the entire world knows about Sheik al Hilali's comments that western-dressed women are like uncovered pieces of meat who invite rape. As was said here recently* it should be the strategy of those of us who believe that the threat we face today is Islam--not a radical, fringe interpretation of it, not a small band of terrorists, it is mainstream Islam as it is preached and practised today that is the threat--for those of us who believe this it should be our strategy to keep incidents like this in the minds of those who we have influence with--our family, our friends, our coworkers, our elected representatives--as long as possible.
We should not argue with other Americans who think differently, we should not get angry with them, we should not condescend to them. Those things make people dig in their heels and less likely to change their opinions. We should view them as...the pre-enlightened.
We should ask them their opinion and the basis for it. Sometimes we will have to let it go at that to avoid hard feelings. We have still accomplished something, we have gotten them to think. To the less defensive we can go a little further, quote the Koran or In the Shade of the Koran or the Islamic evil de jour. We can tell them about some of the Islamic states, like Syria and Iraq, who patterned their governments after that of Nazi Germany. We should ask them respectfully not to be beguiled that Islam is a religion. It is that but it is preached and practiced today as a fascist philosophy too.
We should not hate and as importantly not give other Americans the impression that we hate, especially not them. We do not hate Muslims or Sheik al Hilali either, but we must not prevaricate. We call this a war and we mean it. President Bush calls this a war but has prosecuted it as a police action on steroids with a warm and fuzzy nation-building final chapter. We believe that we should bomb out of existence the governments of, for example, Syria, Iran, and Pakistan. We should use conventional bombs if we can but nuclear and thermonuclear weapons if we must. That is hard even for us to swallow, and we should admit it. We are not callous and don't want anyone to think that we are. It is not something one even thinks without feelings of sorrow, so imagine the impact on people who hear this for the first time from us. We must tell them that we have an open mind--and mean it. We should ask them what they would do, and why. But we have to state clearly where we stand. We will be reasonable but firm, open-minded but decisive.
Today was a good day. Like Islam's attacks on the Pope, like Islam's reaction to the Danish cartoons, today gave worldwide publicity to the true face of Islam as it is preached and practised today: hateful, vile, medieval. Sheik al Hilali has changed some people's minds in our favor. Islam will do our work for us, if we just listen, and get others to listen. This was a good day. This is Public Occurrences.
*See For Verbal Provocation of Islam, Publocc, September 17, 2006.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Clfford Geertz Died Today
Clifford Geertz Died Today
The preeminent cultural anthrolpologist of his time, the erudite, humorous, and lyrical writer, a consummate American, is dead. He had such an effect on my intellectual life and on the lives of so many others so much more important. I am Benjamin Harris.
The preeminent cultural anthrolpologist of his time, the erudite, humorous, and lyrical writer, a consummate American, is dead. He had such an effect on my intellectual life and on the lives of so many others so much more important. I am Benjamin Harris.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
This is Islam in its own words
This is Islam in its own words
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside...without proper cover and the cats come to eat it...whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab no problem would have occurred." Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali, top cleric at the largest Mosque in Sydney, Australia. This is Islam in its own words.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside...without proper cover and the cats come to eat it...whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab no problem would have occurred." Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali, top cleric at the largest Mosque in Sydney, Australia. This is Islam in its own words.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Murder Case Photographs -#23 Then and Now
Murder Case Photographs- #23, Then and Now(2006)
The photo at far left is looking at the exact spot in the same direction as in the 1955 photo. The other photo is the same location but looking in the opposite direction.
If you took a photograph of a murder scene in New York City, say Times Square, in 1955, and then took another one in 2006, you'd be able to recognize the location easily. Not here. New York is an old city with a lot of history. This is a city that people have moved to to make new history out of sandy roads and mom and pop landscaping shops.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Murder Case Photographs- #22
(1954)
There was some trouble here at this homey-looking bar back in 1954. Big trouble, a murder. This photograph was actually marked by a witness at the trial. The X right in the middle of the picture is the witness's. (S)he is identifying someone with that mark, maybe the killer, maybe him/herself. And then there's the "LS", "LR" marks appended to a female.
As other photographs in this series have shown, there was a vibrant African-American community in this city during segregation. This looks like a respectable bar, not a dive.
One unexpected thing about having all of these photos from all of these different murders, the vast majority are African-American. Black on black killings too, then as now. I was under the impression that Black crime really took off in the 1960's. Maybe it did but not from the evidence of these 1950 murder files.
-I am Benjamin Harris.
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Monday, October 23, 2006
Murder Case Photographs- #21 Then and Now
Murder Case Photographs- #21
, Then and Now 1954
The house number here was 1384 which doesn't exist today (below). Today the numbers go from 1382 to 1386 so right in the middle of the two houses below is where this one once stood.
This homicide detective, whom I don't know, had to be one of the first African-American people to reach that elite level. That alone makes this photo noteworthy. However there are some other things to see here. Enlarge the picture and look at the detective's eyes. Do you see how he is staring at the blood stain? That is the look that everyone gets from time to time in this business when you have to look at a murder victim or what's left behind, the blood. It grips you. I have never gotten used to seeing a murder victim and if I don't have to I won't. We get used to the work--we can eat lunch with a spread of bloody photos on our desks--and so did this detective but there are always those moments when we're not engrossed in our jobs and we just look at what is around us. I have seen this look many times on others faces and you respect it. You don't kid the person about it--"What are you staring at? You never saw a little blood below?"--I never heard anyone say anything like that. You respect what has happened and the humanity in your fellow coworkers when they get this look and you love them and this work all the more.
The other noteworthy thing about this photograph is its locale. This side of the street is, and was then, a middle-class African-American neighborhood of single family homes. However right across the street from here, where the cameraman is standing to take the "now" shot is the most notorious government housing project in this city. "Was" is the better word. It is now a shell of row after row of two story apartment buildings, the windows all broken out, crumbling, home only to a few homeless crack addicts. Literally right across the street. We have failed so much. The people who lived there and turned to drugs and thefts, robberies and murders, they failed. We who built these grotesqueries failed to provide those residents with the job opportunities that produce pride in ownership as opposed to resentment at a handout that breeds contempt, contempt in the residents to the governmental officials who condescended to put them here, hoping that they will be quiet and be out of sight, contempt by those governmental officials and the rest of us for those lazy, don't-want-to-work freeloaders. Lot of failure here.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
, Then and Now 1954The house number here was 1384 which doesn't exist today (below). Today the numbers go from 1382 to 1386 so right in the middle of the two houses below is where this one once stood.
This homicide detective, whom I don't know, had to be one of the first African-American people to reach that elite level. That alone makes this photo noteworthy. However there are some other things to see here. Enlarge the picture and look at the detective's eyes. Do you see how he is staring at the blood stain? That is the look that everyone gets from time to time in this business when you have to look at a murder victim or what's left behind, the blood. It grips you. I have never gotten used to seeing a murder victim and if I don't have to I won't. We get used to the work--we can eat lunch with a spread of bloody photos on our desks--and so did this detective but there are always those moments when we're not engrossed in our jobs and we just look at what is around us. I have seen this look many times on others faces and you respect it. You don't kid the person about it--"What are you staring at? You never saw a little blood below?"--I never heard anyone say anything like that. You respect what has happened and the humanity in your fellow coworkers when they get this look and you love them and this work all the more.
The other noteworthy thing about this photograph is its locale. This side of the street is, and was then, a middle-class African-American neighborhood of single family homes. However right across the street from here, where the cameraman is standing to take the "now" shot is the most notorious government housing project in this city. "Was" is the better word. It is now a shell of row after row of two story apartment buildings, the windows all broken out, crumbling, home only to a few homeless crack addicts. Literally right across the street. We have failed so much. The people who lived there and turned to drugs and thefts, robberies and murders, they failed. We who built these grotesqueries failed to provide those residents with the job opportunities that produce pride in ownership as opposed to resentment at a handout that breeds contempt, contempt in the residents to the governmental officials who condescended to put them here, hoping that they will be quiet and be out of sight, contempt by those governmental officials and the rest of us for those lazy, don't-want-to-work freeloaders. Lot of failure here.
PUBLIC OCCURRENCES
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