Great article about how crappy the city of Berkeley is in the Daily Planet.

Weiss said one of his toughest challenges in attending UC Berkeley has been finding local venues that he would want to go to or that would invite him, a 20-year-old, in.

“I’ve learned that being a college town and a party town are two very different things,” he said.

Berkeley, home to one of the largest universities in the country, has avoided the glut of bars, clubs and late night eateries that typically accompany other schools.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve went out for a midnight snack. I walk all over the place looking for a restaurant that’s open, with no luck. It’s a lost cause but I try anyway. Luckily, the gas station across the street from my apartment is always open so I can pick up a hot dog that’s been roasting under a heat lamp for the better part of the day.

Katz said that extending hours for cafes and bars along Telegraph would improve safety and increase business along the corridor. The biggest problem so far, Katz said, has been convincing the mostly family owned sit-down restaurants to stay open into the earlier hours of the morning, when the relatives who run the restaurants would rather be sleeping.

All the more reason to have chain restaurants. Maybe it’s just me, but I see the absence of these things as a sign of anti-business/anti-growth overregulation. The Mom & Pop restaurants could maybe hire some extra help and learn how to compete for once. So yes, please do extend the hours. I want to see some 24/7 service by next year.

The rest of the article is about opening new clubs and extending hours. I’m all for it, even if it’ll bring a little more noise. Better the student populace party it up than go crazy studying or coming up with leftist plots.

I promised myself not to talk about the election, since it’s done and over with. However, if you are Jesse Jackson, who is notorious for butting into other people’s business, you would do anything to overturn the election results so that you would have a good night’s sleep for the next four years.

Ohio has just finished its last recount showing Bush having a 118, 457 lead, down from a 118,757 lead. John Kerry, the “gracious loser” who had decided not to contest the results, has his campaign wading into the controversy.

The state had earlier declared Bush the winner by 118,775 votes and plans to adjust its totals to reflect the recount later this week.

The Kerry campaign supported the recount, but said it did not expect the tally to change the election winner. Supporters of the recount, requested by two minor party candidates, said they wanted to make sure every valid vote was counted.

He did not want a recount, before he supported it.

Of course, the recount shows the efficient use of Ohio’s tax payer’s money

The Green and Libertarian party presidential candidates asked for the recount and raised the $113,600 required under state law for the process.

Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has estimated that the recount will end up costing taxpayers $1.5 million.

A three hundred vote gain shows 1.5 million dollars down the drain. If the recount continues, we might have a President-elect Kerry.

If you fail the first time, never hesistate to try again.

Cliff Arnebeck, an attorney representing the voters in the challenge, wasn’t taking much stock in the recount effort. He questioned why there was no independent investigation into the accuracy of counting machines to determine whether the machines had been tampered with.

“You’re allowing the original error to be repeated a second time, so it’s not a meaningful recount,” he said.

Damn it! We won’t allow Mickey Mouse and his friends to be disenfranchised! So yea, George Bush is still the president, the earth is still spinning, and Jesse Jackson still finds ways to maneuver himself into anyone’s backyard. All in all, not really news.

Whole Story

The year is almost over… what are you thankful for? Read this article by Kevin D. Dayaratna and count your blessings.

After the disastrous events in Indonesia, South Asia, and Somalia, families are picking up of what’s left of their homes and looking for the missing, many of whom are now presumed dead. The tsunamis that struck after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Sumatra have claimed 22,000 dead, leaving local livelihoods vulnerable to diseases and reduce food supply. Days after the disaster, the United States and various nations in Western Europe are doing all they can to meet the needs of the victims and support their rehabilitation.

However, in light of the disaster, some feel the need to politicize the event and use it as a podium to chastise Western Nations, particularly the US, for its “stinginess.” According to CNN, Jan Egeland, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, blasted Western nations for the lack of foreign aid.

In a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, Egeland called for a major international response — and went so far as to call the U.S. government and others “stingy” on foreign aid in general.

“If, actually, the foreign assistance of many countries now is 0.1 or 0.2 percent of the gross national income, I think that is stingy, really,” he said. “I don’t think that is very generous.”

Is Jan Egelhand placing the blame squarely on the United States for the ensuing humanitarian crisis? Singling out the United States for the “lack of foreign aid” has been a favorite argument among UN bureaucrats. Jan Egelhand ignores that fact that those numbers do not include private donations, especially from religious organizations, which make up a large percentage of America’s total foreign aid. In Foreign Affairs, Carol C. Adelman shows that in 2000, total private donations totaled 35.1 billion dollars, which made up 61% of America’s foreign aid. Is that stingy? If you work for the UN, yes it is!

The 0.7% rule, which mandates each industrialized country allocate 0.7% of its GDP for foreign aid, is arbitrary and assumes that the states, not private organizations, have the sole duty to contribute foreign aid. Measuring the generosity of countries based on the percentage of state foreign aid in terms of GDP should not be scale that measures which countries are generous. The state and private organizations should make a concerted effort to aid other countries in disaster such as those that happened last weekend.

Arguments as to which country is the most generous or who has the responsibility of allocating aid is lost when one sees the extent of the damage. May God give those families and friends who lost their loved ones the strength to recover, and may those who lost their lives find peace in eternity.

I wasn’t planning on posting for a few days, but something has come up that I have to call attention to. I don’t want to damn all liberals, but some of them have some pretty thin skin. What follows will be my rant on why this kind of overreaction is dangerous. I hope you enjoy.
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Just posting a few quick links to spread some Christmas cheer:

• Pondering the political affiliation of Santa
• Different takes on A Christmas Carol
• The Physics of Santa, by way of Slashdot
• The Economist’s 2004 Poem
• And for the slightly demented… Christmas around the world!

Enjoy the holidays!

Here’s to our “friend,” the Saudis. No matter how much we try to coddle the Saudis and befriend them, they still manage to have the time to stab us in the back, all because of those damn Jews controlling our government.

Which brings me to a serious note. Our government is not doing enough to pressure the Saudis to clean up their act. The ruling Saudi family knows how unstable their situation is and the only thing that keeps them afloat is our continued importation of their oil so that they can continue to finance their decaying system of government. Peace in the Middle East is only possible if the Saudi government cuts off all funding of terrorist organizations, not just al-Qaeda, and rein in the power of the Wahabbis. Though there have been numerous terrorists captured or killed in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government has not been a willing participant in shutting down all channels of terrorism.

Anyway, here is the “Saudi Arabia Back Stabbing Moment of the Week”

MSNBC has obtained a videotape made by a Palestinian group (surprise, surprise) which details how to create a homemade suicide-bombing vest. This video contains instructions on what materials to use, how to make them, and what the effective killing radius is for certain vests.

The video also encourages the Sunni insurgents in Iraq to continue their battle against the Americans. In light of the tragic suicide bombing at a mess hall in Mosul, this video is a chilling reminder of what we are up against, not only in Iraq, but in the whole War on Terror.

Hat Tip to Little Green Footballs.

A group of teenagers in the French town of Ales tried to steal Santa’s gifts. As for the kids, they should be expecting a ton of coal in their stockings. Tsk, tsk.

Poor Santa

Hat Tip to Matt Drudge

Extry, Extry! Terrorist sympathizer and charmain of the British chapter of the Osama bin Laden fan club complains he’s not getting enough welfare dole.

Hamza, who is due in court next month on incitement to murder charges, claims he has been denied benefits worth 200 pounds (290 euros, 389 dollars) a week for nearly three years, The Sun newspaper said…In Hamza’s case it is connected to alleged incitement by the cleric at public gatherings to kill non-Muslims, specifically Jews, according to four of the charges.

He was also charged with four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to stir up racial hatred; one count of possessing threatening, abusive or insulting sound recordings; and one count of possessing a terrorist document.

Read this story. God, how can the Brits live with this man?

So yea, I’m guessing the whole mantra of these terrorists is “Destroy their way of life, even though it keeps me from being piss poor and having to beg money from the Jews (oy!)” . Winston Churchill needs to come back and kick some ass.

That is like inviting someone into your house, and then letting your guest do anyting they want. Bad manners, if you ask me. “Oh, welcome to my house. Those vase and china plates are expensive, but please feel free to break them if you need to.” HAH!

An article in today’s SF Chronicle analyzing the defeat of Berkleley’s tax increase measures in the recent election.

After years of voting for various tax measures that have made Berkeley’s property taxes the highest in the state, voters are now saying: enough already.

On Nov. 2, four tax measures designed to fund basic services such as fire and police, youth programs, medical services and libraries — yes, libraries — failed to get the two-thirds vote they needed to pass.

I’m happy to say I did my part in defeating those measures.

As someone who has lived for much of his adult life in Berkeley — and willingly paid extra property taxes so Berkeley could remain one of the world’s most livable and innovative communities — even I couldn’t bring myself to vote for all the latest tax measures this time around.

I was incensed to see President Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger make cutting taxes the centerpiece of their respective campaigns — and winning. I realized that voters in Berkeley (and San Francisco, and other similar communities who are not against taxes on ideological grounds) have in effect been enabling Bush and Schwarzenegger to continue on their anti-tax crusades. By continually voting to impose higher taxes on ourselves to keep essential services going, we have made it easier for them to carry on as if the taxes they’re cutting weren’t needed in the first place.

Berkeley… livable??? Without fast food chains or mega shopping centers, life is almost not worth living. Thankfully, I’ll be back in good old SoCal this Christmas break and be able to live again.

People don’t like taxes and they vote for politicians who don’t like taxes… quite a shocker. Hopefully, we’ll see this translate into spending cuts and privatization of more services. That would really incense this writer.

Outrageous, but depressingly unexpected (at least by me), words from our Governator.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested in a German newspaper interview published Saturday that the Republican Party should move “a little to the left,” a shift that he said would allow it to pick up new voters.

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has taken an unorthodox approach since winning office last year — standing by a promise to toe a conservative line on fiscal matters while veering leftward on social issues such as gay rights and the environment.

I’ve never really been an Arnold guy. He does do some good, like his speech at the convention this past summer. And if he brings in some new Republicans, who end up voting for other Republicans on the ballot, then that’s a plus. But I have no regrets about voting for someone else in the 2003 Recall. It was my first time voting, and I was glad I could vote for someone I really wanted. But Arnold won, and I was cautiously optimistic.

I really don’t think he has “toed a conservative line on fiscal matters.” He always seems to support the costly propositions every election. This state is in need of some major spending cuts, and we aren’t seeing much of that either. He is supposed to be a disciple of Milton Friedman, but President Bush looks better in comparison (haha, but at least he’s serious about social security and tax reform).

Notice that I haven’t said anything about going to the left on social issues. I would like him to take a more libertarian, laissez-faire approach to social issues. But he probably wants the government more involved in these things, whereas I would prefer it minds its own business. I doubt he would take a truly liberal stance on the War on Drugs, or other victimless crimes (which the Left doesn’t either). But none of this matters because, libertarians are also fiscally conservative.

That said, I’ll support Arnold in 2006 if he campaigns for Tom McClintock for Lt. Governor. So hopefully by 2010, we can have a real conservative Republican to save California.

Hilarious article in the Contra Costa Times, though it probably wasn’t meant to be. Registration may be required, so use this.

WE HEAR IT time and time again: Teenagers are more than their friends, iPods and college applications.
Today you’ll meet five driven young humanitarians whose activism stretches from the East Bay to the nation and even the world.

Activism? Oh man, this’ll be good. I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment from reading it all, so I’ll just excerpt a few choice bits.

Sara Schultz
Immigrant advocate, Albany High School
Not many students care more about Latin American immigrants than Sara Schultz. Schultz, 17, works to help undocumented immigrants, which helps immigrants in general, regardless of whether they are documented or not.

That’s quite a stretch to make.

Jacob Breslow
Environmental activist, Acalanes High School, Lafayette
Make your way to an Environmental Club meeting and you’ll find co-president Jacob Breslow in union-made sneakers and a Fair Trade shirt.
—
“Although I do want to work in queer youth activism, I will never exclude myself from being an environmentalist. As long as I live I will keep pushing myself toward more sustainable living.”

Always keep your options open. Those are two wonderful career choices… And what wonderful fashion sense our young activist possesses.

Tiffany Wright
Social justice activist, Carondelet High School, Concord

What do you feel you’ve accomplished?
“I feel like by going to the protest I made a difference. I also feel like I have informed more people. We had people sign protests and we made announcements at school.”

What was the protest in Georgia like?
“Amazing. It was very peaceful. Some people got arrested only because they climbed over the walls onto the fort. There were 10,000 people protesting with us, including celebrities such as Sister Helen Prejean, Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon. I met all of them and got to talk to Martin Sheen for a little bit. I also have pictures with him.”

Awesome, celebrities! Protesting is fun!

So we have a child labor activist, an “immigrant” advocate, an environmental activist, a gay rights activist, and a social justice activist (whatever that may mean). I’m beginning to think that activism is only about supporting left wing causes. Do you think you would ever see these people, or these profiled? Probably in their next edition featuring “misguided youth.”

I was walking through campus on my way to a final. Going over historical facts in my mind, I inadvertently picked up a flier from a random leftist (normally I’m in ignore mode). I look at the derogatory, if amateur, illustration on the front then flip it over to reveal the headline: “Bush to adopt General Pinochet’s Social Security plan” (I’m going from my memory on this). I laughed then quickly threw it in the trash (I actually recycled it if that makes a difference).

I wonder what they would say about “Castro’s Education plan,” or “Stalin’s Five Year Plan,” or “Canada’s Health Care plan…” They obviously are trying to link Bush with a dictator (and there’s no question that Pinochet was one, irregardless of how bad the alternatives were). But if John Kerry or someone similar were to implement the things I listed above, there would be no mention of the terrible dictatorships that they originated from (I’m only joking about Canada, I think…)

And actually, it wasn’t Pinochet’s plan anyway. It was José Piñera who initiated it, with influences from Milton Friedman and the rest of the Chicago School economists. With any luck, it’ll be implemented in America soon, and President Bush will finally have a conservative accomplishment.