Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Genarlow Wilson loses his appeal

The news is not good:

Genarlow Wilson’s case inspired a key exception to a tough Georgia sex crimes law, but he continues to lose his own legal battle.

Wilson was 17 when he had oral sex with a 15-year-old girl. His attorney says the girl agreed to it, but Wilson was sentenced to ten years in jail for aggravated child molestation.

Now, the state appeals court has thrown out Wilson’s challenge to that sentence.

Wilson’s mother, Juannessa Bennett says that while her son should be punished for the oral sex on New Year’s Eve 2003, he shouldn’t be forced to serve the ten year term of a sexual attacker.

Bennett points to trial testimony that the 15-year-old girl was sober and willing

“She had nothing to drink, she had nothing to smoke. She even admitted that she had lied about her age—she came forward and she said that,” Bennett said.

His attorney vows to fight on:

His legal team is now preparing a Motion to Reconsider and continues to fight on.

Needless to say his mother is devastated by the news and the shock to know that her son is sentenced to ten years in prison for a consensual sexual act and her son was the reason to change the law in Georgia to prevent other teens from going through this same problem.

Your prayers and support are very much needed.

Sadly,
B.J. Bernstein

Sign the online petition.

Out and proud

I only hope it’s true:

A new census conducted annually by the School of Public Communications at Syracuse University suggests that 97-percent of gay Americans are out to their families, friends and at work.

That statistic, which some activists are suggesting seems unreasonably high, is partnered with several other percentages in the “Gay/Lesbian Consumer Census Online,” conducted in partnership with the media relations group OpusComm. [...]

Additional findings from the survey include:

• 53% of females are partnered versus 42% of males with the largest percentage together between 4 - 7 years

• 32% of males and 66% of females plan on adding children to their family in the next 3 years

• 12% of males and 15% of females are employed by a government entity

• 57% of males and 45% of females live in cities

• 67% of males and 72% of females are registered Democrats

• 77% respondents feel legal recognition of same-sex marriage for tax, estate and insurance purposes extremely important in voting for a candidate

Apple saves the 99¢ song

Financial Times:

Apple Computer on Monday revealed it had renewed contracts with the four largest record companies to sell songs through its iTunes digital store at 99 cents each. The agreements came after months of bargaining, and were a defeat for music companies that had been pushing for a variable pricing model.

The music industry’s big four - Universal, Warner Music, EMI and Sony BMG - were not immediately available to comment.

Since iTunes’ launch three years ago, Apple has charged US consumers 99 cents for each track - a uniform price that Steve Jobs, its chief executive, favours because of its simplicity for consumers. [...]

ITunes accounts for about 80 per cent of the US digital music market at a time when the record companies are desperate to show shareholders they are replacing declining compact disc sales with new internet revenues. “The labels need Apple too much right now,â€Â� one record executive said.

The common wisdom, as reported in the FT article, is that variable pricing would lead prices to rise. I’m aware of the counter-argument - that with variable pricing prices might actually fall - and I accept it as true. I just think it too early.

The Circle of Crude

A NYTimes editorial today:

The public derision of Republicans’ idea for a $100 gasoline rebate has focused on the desperate political pandering embodied in the proposal. But there’s another view that makes it seem even worse. Consider the China angle.

With the nation already deeply in debt - and with Congress angling this week to cut taxes for affluent investors by more than $20 billion - lawmakers would need to borrow $10 billion to make the rebates happen. Since more than 80 percent of the immense borrowing of the Bush years has been from foreigners, it’s safe to assume that most of the rebates would be courtesy of foreign lenders, of which China has been one of the most willing.

It’s the circle of crude: China’s competition for the world’s oil is pushing up prices. Congress piles on more debt to calm angry consumers with a rebate. The increased debt is a prescription for a weaker dollar, which in turn would make imports, including oil, even more expensive.

For context I went back to Radio Open Source on Neo-Conservatism, the Last Throes with Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard and author, Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire and Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power:

[11:41] I think the big story of our time is the rise of China and I think that in many ways the global war on terror as we used to call has distracted American policymakers from the speed with which China is closing the gap - economically but also strategically - and there’s going to be a wake-up moment and I think it’s going to come quite soon when Americans realize they’re no longer in a position to become any kind of hegemon, benign or otherwise, because there’s a new empire on the block. And this empire really knows what it’s doing because it has a great deal more history of empire building to draw on.

And later he observes:

[45:48] There is an extraordinary imbalance at the moment. Global growth is fueled by American consumption and American consumption is based on accumulating debt overseas, particularly in Asia. We shouldn’t assume that that’s a stable arrangement. To become both the world’s greatest military power and its biggest debtor is an experiment I think which has no historical parallel and it’s hard to foresee its outcome.