Sunday, October 02, 2005

Berkeley - Bastion of Conservatism

Today's Letter to the Editor hails from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Hold on kiddies! It's down the rabbit hole we go!


Berkeley's reputation

Editor -- To Chip Johnson, "Berkeley has earned a national reputation for being a place that is far left of just about anywhere else" ("Let Berkeley pay homage to its own," Sept. 30). In fact, Berkeley would not rank as particularly liberal compared to most European countries and many other places around the world.

As an example, Berkeley turned down propositions to name a Gaza refugee town a sister city, or to declare that the Geneva Conventions applied to the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

Former Berkeley Councilwoman Maudelle Shirek made her mark in Berkeley in spite of its powerful right-wing elements by espousing issues and causes that resonated with all fair-minded, and yes, progressive citizens. The truth is that, when compared to the rest of the world, everywhere else in the United States would fall to the right end of the scale.

RAIF HIJAB

San Mateo

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Cue the "fair minded, and yes, progressive citizens!"


"Are you angry? [Yeah!] Are you angry? [Yeah!] Are you angry? [Yeah!] Well, we've been watching intifada in Palestine, we've been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don't have an intifada in this country? Because it seem[s] to me, that we are comfortable in where we are, watching CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and all these mainstream... giving us a window to the world while the world is being managed from Washington, from New York, from every other place in here in San Francisco: Chevron, Bechtel, [Carlyle?] Group, Halliburton; every one of those lying, cheating, stealing, deceiving individuals are in our country and we're sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it's about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here. And we know every-- They're gonna say some Palestinian being too radical -- well, you haven't seen radicalism yet!"
-U.C. Berkely lecturer Hatem Bazian, April 10, 2004


No, no! I mean the other "fair minded, and yes, progressive citizens!"



Hmmm....

These folks certainly look suspiciously right-wing to me.

How about we just zoom in the arch-conservative movement luking just below the surface of this plainly "fair-minded, and yes, progressive" citizenry?


Oh dear.

Mr. Hijab's point is well taken. It is clear that Berkely is just a few french fries short of becoming a Republican Happy Meal. That is, when compared to "the rest of the world."






Yepper...

8 comments:

portia said...

Oh. My. God. I think I'm going to be ill.
This is by the far the cruelest thing you've ever done.

You know what? On second thought: Go Indians:)

portia said...

Redrum, indeed.

spd rdr said...

Hey! It's just natural.

Cassandra said...

You'd do anything to post that Breasts, not Bombs thing, wouldn't you?

You can only bust on Berkeley so far, you know. It produced Liberal Larry.

Pile On® said...

Who says you can't have breasts and bombs?

This is America damn it! I want both.

spd rdr said...

You take what you're given, Cass.
Thi swas a gift.

portia said...

Hey! It's just natural

No, Tyra Banks' are just natural. So are...um, well, so are others:) Them things are against nature.

Cass, do you mean that he has provided that link before? There are no words.

E-mail me when it's safe to return.

Cassandra said...

I think we have to realize that not everything in the natural world is benign... :)


The thing that really frightened me was the tan lines on that broad with the Nature sign... a bikini? And fishnets?

I am busily rethinking the advisability of both articles of clothing. My dresser drawers may undergo a drastic cleaning this Fall [shudder].

Henceforth I may leave the fishnet-wearing to mr rdr.