Bookworm Room

I’ve never understood hunger strikes.  That is, I’ve never found them a compelling means of moral persuasion.  To me, they’re a form of emotional blackmail in lieu of reasoned argument.  Still, that doesn’t stop their popularity, and some Berkeley students are now abstaining from food to protest an Arizona law that gives Arizona law enforcement [...]

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[UPDATE:  The school board stopped mulling and decided to act.] Last week, I wrote a long, ruminative post questioning how far a democracy must go to protect its minorities.  Stepping in, right on cue, the San Francisco School District, which is facing a disastrous budget shortfall, is considering a huge expansion in a program aimed [...]

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Green is fine if you can be cute about it:  cute little hybrid cars, cute little permanent shopping bags boasting about your green-ness, and cute locally grown arugala.  But is Green still fine if your City requires that, as a matter of law, you spend up to $30,000 to bring your home into compliance with [...]

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Berkeley is once again trying to prove that it’s the craziest city in America: Berkeley’s City Council will delve into national policy again next week when it votes whether to demand the United States charge Berkeley resident and former Bush adviser John Yoo with war crimes. Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall [...]

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I found Berkeley a desperately unpleasant place when I attended University there in the late 70s/early 80s.  It shocks me to realize that, unaware of it though I was, those were the good years.  In a report filled with photos and text, Zombie walks us through the depths to which Berkeley has sunk.  And I’m [...]

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Yesterday morning, in Berkeley, they were saying this: “Murder, rape, torture, war. That’s what the Marines are for.” and this: “These are very dangerous people. They’re lying to their children, talking them into becoming killers.” I noted that the mask had slipped, revealing that the “we support the troops, but not the war” line was [...]

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If you’re interested in up close pictures and eye-witness reporting from the goings-on in Berkeley, check out ProtestShooter. The pictures are from early in the day, so I can’t wait to see the next installment. My favorite photo was one that really didn’t have to do too much with the protest at all, but that [...]

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Since the Iraq War began, the Left has attempted to disassociate itself from the ugliness of 1960s anti-War protests by repeating, over and over, “We love the troops. It’s just the War we hate.” That line always had a stilted quality, especial since we have a volunteer army, and our troops are willing to serve [...]

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