Um, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who supported Hezbollah or Al-Qaeda, or Hamas for that matter. I have no doubt that they exist but they are unquestionably a fringe element.

Though I have not been involved with BCR for quite some time (since my Freshman year in fact!), mostly due to other projects, my fraternity, and the fact I am now in Germany, I must applaud the Cal Patriot for standing up for the other side of free speech. No, this is not a backhanded compliment from an irate ‘liberal’, but a true accolade from a tempered moderate conservative. It is refreshing to see you offer alternative perspectives, even if I do not agree with some of them, other than the usual doldrums of the UC Berkeley Campus and your candid bluntness is even more refreshing in a world that seems to increasingly reward people for ‘not stepping on toes.’ As I am currently studying abroad in beautiful Germany, I have noticed that political correctness does not really exist here. Sure, there are things you don’t talk about simply out of taste, but that is acceptable as long as everything else is fair game without fear of some loser popping out of a trash can saying, “YOU CAN’T SAY THAT, BECAUSE IT’S RACIST/SEXIST/HOMOPHOBIC/ETC!” even when the comment is not particularly critical or offensive. This constant appeasement, especially among the Far Left of the USA is, to put it bluntly, fucking annoying. No one can take a damn bit of constructive criticism anymore, no matter how useful it might be. Reading your blog articles about the current racial tensions made me shake my head in disbelief and shame — one of the reasons I came to Berkeley was because I heard it was beyond that kind of crap. Here at the University of Göttingen, if anyone tried this — they’d be told to shut up and deal with it as a personal matter rather than dragging the entire community into it. And this in the great ’socialist paradise’ of Germany. As far as anything you might have heard about riots here with ‘dissaffected muslim youth’ in Europe, the German Police Force were quick and efficient in stopping anything from occuring. The three cars broken into here were by anti-fascists, radical leftist anarchists who would make the Bay Area Left look like a bunch of pansies. And the cops settled their hash real quick. No whacked out ACLU lawyers running in to save the day, no Al Sharpton talking about oppressed minorities, nothing. They broke the law, they got caught, and they are being prosecuted accordingly. Like your magazine, refreshing.

Secondly, I want to thank you for posting about an event with an anti-terrorist expert in a campus that seems to, while not overwhelmingly (at least I hope! It was getting better before I left), support insurgency movements they don’t readily understand and form their opinions on the face value of US Bad - ‘Freedom Fighters’ Good. When I see middle class students supporting the Infitada or Hezbollah, or in the most extreme cases, Al-Qaeda, I feel disgusted and angry. This would be an arrestable and prosecutable offense in many parts of Germany, as it implicitly sanctions the destruction of the state and supports a fascist regime. Even the leftists here are smarter and far more tolerable and enlightened than their American counterparts. They at least recognize radical Islam as a serious threat to world security, however, do not want to get involved at the moment as they believe Germany has enough internal problems to sort out. Back on the middle-class white kid from Walnut Creek who wears the checkered Palestinian scarf, their way of life is threatened by these Islamic Extremists and they are totally oblivious to the fact that these nutjobs would see them as ‘useful idiots’ and would kill them after their usefulness passed. As for the war, I don’t agree 100% with or particularly like how the Iraq War is going a lot of the time, but the media here at least reports good stuff when it happens.

I might not always agree with you, but keep fighting the good fight guys. Berkeley needs its conservative voice.