On Monday night Dinesh D’Souza will be speaking on campus. His talk will be about Christianity, Islam, and the War on Terror. It will be related to his new book, What’s so great about Christianity It starts at 7PM in 2060 VLSB and will include a question and answer time. The talk is being hosted by the Berkeley College Republicans with support from the Young America’s Foundation.

I have heard him speak and read his Letters to a Young Conservative. D’Souza is a smart and well researched speaker. Even if you disagree with him, he is worth hearing.

As the facebook event says:

Dinesh D’Souza
Monday, April 28, 2008
7:00pm - 8:00pm
2060 VLSB

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series of posts that never made it here when they were originally conceived. This post was written last November and posted at californiapatriot.blogspot.com.

A law in San Francisco is about take effect that will ban plastic bags in many grocery stores. The plastic bags, deemed a danger to the environment, will in many cases be replaced with paper bags. The San Francisco Chronicle has the explanation:

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi then introduced legislation to ban the bags altogether, which passed the board and was signed by Mayor Gavin Newsom earlier this year.

“It was really the only choice,” Mirkarimi said. He said the resistance from grocers resulted from their being “creatures of habit.”

“Part of that habit is imposing the cost of convenience on customers and city governments,” said Mirkarimi, who added later that he is considering a “menu of possibilities” for further measures. He would not say what those are, though, because of the experience with the bag fee.

I would like to know if Supervisor Mirkarimi thinks this new policy of the city government is imposing any cost upon grocers and customers.

For some comparison, according to an NPR report from March of this year, South Africa, Taiwan, and Bangladesh have already banned the plastic bags, while Ireland has a tax on them.

If the city is going to engage in social engineering, they should at least do it right. If they really wanted to make a statement, they would outlaw all new paper and plastic bags. They would require people to bring their own bags or reuse boxes like they do at Costco. Paper kills trees, and as I have been told by many a person, trees are sacred and have feelings too.

The next time my housemates and I go to the Berkeley Bowl, we will bring some fine California Republican Party canvas bags. As we bag our organic produce, we will be saving the environment one paper or plastic bag at a time.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
1925-2008

Photo by Pictorial Parade/Getty Images

William F. Buckley, Jr., conservative icon and founder of the National Review passed away today at the age of 82 . He inspired many Patriot writers, past and present, by giving us the intellectual firepower to combat political and cultural liberalism. His work is immortalized by the many generations of Americans who have passionately continued the conservative movement.

I received my first copy of the National Review from my sixth grade history teacher, who may or may not have been conservative, but took profound interest in my political education. Through his columns, Buckley became my virtual instructor in Conservatism 101.

Catch up on your Buckley reading here.

And then watch this great clip of WFB taking on Gore Vidal in 1968. America needs more unapologetic patriots like William F. Buckley.

The East Bay Express has the story from today:

Cody’s Books is moving late next month to downtown Berkeley, where it will occupy the Shattuck Avenue/Allston Way corner formerly occupied by the Eddie Bauer store.

One wonders, what business changes will they be making?

“We are going to divest ourselves of the things that aren’t doing that great in the retail book world these days — computer books, for one. The something-for-everyone model is dead and gone,” she says. So the staff will, instead, “curate the sections that we feel the strongest about: history, politics, current affairs, and literature.” Cody’s will continue to carry children’s books, young adult literature, travel books, cookbooks, reference titles, and more, along with a new “Green World, Green Living” section.

The green world and green living section has to be a success. However the business climate in Berkeley has been brutal to Cody’s in the last few years. They closed their flagship store on Telegraph in 2006 and are being pushed out of their established Fourth Street location by higher rents. Combined with the recent closure of their short lived San Francisco store, things are not looking good for Cody’s.

There was a Barnes and Noble several blocks down Shattuck that closed last summer. While they were not as close to downtown as Cody’s will be, they had parking which is quite scarce. It would be nice if Cody’s could be prosperous, but I am not very optimistic.

Whether or not you are hanging out near city hall, you can observe Darwin Day today. From their official website:

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on or around February 12, the day that Charles Darwin was born on in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin — the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor. More generally, Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

Picture source.

UC Berkeley is even having its own celebration, with many events including a Darwin Day “Tree Party.” Their website is sparse on the Tree Party details, but at least it is happening at Wellman Hall and not the oaks by Memorial Stadium.
I first heard about Darwin Day this past weekend. As a friend of mine was leaving church some people from Revolution Books, a local communist bookstore, were passing out flyers. They were saying progressive Christians should support Darwin Day.

If you feel left out finding out about this great holiday when so much of the day has passed, fear not. Next year is the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and you have a whole year to plan your celebration.

While Darwin has done great scientific work, there is one other person who should not be forgotten this day. Another great man was born on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln.

Picture source.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“As the right-wing blogosphere railed and a U.S. senator vowed financial retaliation against the Berkeley City Council for its effort to boot the Marine Corps out of town, three war protesters ratcheted up pressure from the left by chaining themselves Friday to the front door of the downtown Marine recruiting office.

The demonstrators snapped their locks shut at 7 a.m. and spent the next 7 1/2 hours blocking the door, waving and chanting as hundreds of cars driving by honked in support. Finally, at 2:30 p.m., police snipped the chains and arrested them.

Two of the three were cited for blocking a business and released, and the third was booked into jail on an unrelated traffic warrant, police said”

Oh boy. These guys have the works: orange prison suits, chains, the usual cadre of anti-Bush/anti-war/abu ghraib signs, etc. The most delicious part is how the right-wingers here on the interweb are supposedly the ones going ballistic, not those restricting the movement of others. I am not surprised that Berkeley is the first city to do this. Some of the reaction came from Republican Senator Jim DeMint, who is working on a counter-measure:

“Conservative bloggers and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also believe more articulation is necessary - from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

DeMint began drafting legislation Friday to cut $2.1 million in federal funding to Berkeley in a current congressional budget bill and transfer the money to the Marine Corps. The funding would include $750,000 for prospective ferry service, $87,000 for the Berkeley Unified School District nutrition education fund and $243,000 for the Chez Panisse Foundation, which promotes nutritional awareness in school lunch programs.

“The First Amendment gives the city of Berkeley the right to be idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money,” DeMint said in a statement.” Any thoughts on this?

The “ballistic” right wing response is apparently innapropriate, according to Council Member Donna Spring, who said “I guess they’ve never heard of free speech,” in response to those who left her critical phone messages. So her right to speak should be defended but not those who disagree? GatewayPundit is another “ballistic” blogger.

Cal even got a mention in a message from Melanie Morgan: “we have been contacted by Marine groups across Northern California, Cal Berkeley Young Republicans, SF State Young Republicans and a tsunami of e-mails in support”.

The action is going down Tuesday Feb 12th, when folks will be marching on the next Berkeley City Council meeting. Come along if you wanna see something fun.

From The Daily Cal’s website:

“In response to a Marine Corps recruiting office established in Berkeley last year, local activists are trying to make it more difficult for future recruiting centers to open in the city.”

This is how they intend to make it more difficult:

“If passed by a majority of Berkeley voters, a proposed initiative would require military recruiting offices and private military companies in Berkeley to first acquire a special use permit.

To obtain this permit, a business must hold public hearings and a public comment period.

If the initiative passes, recruitment offices could not be opened within 600 feet of residential districts, public parks, public health clinics, public libraries, schools or churches.”

Also, military recruitment offices have been compared to “pornographic stores“:

“In the same way that many communities limit the location of pornographic stores, that’s the same way we feel about the military recruiting stations,” said PhoeBe sorgen, an initiative proponent and a member of the city’s Peace and Justice Commission. “Teenagers that really want to find them will be able to seek them out and find them, but we don’t want them in our face.”

For those of you who aren’t acquainted with the non-residential areas of Berkeley, this process would make getting a recruitment office nearly impossible. First, the proposed recruitment office would have to have a special permit that they’d have to obtain through the “public hearing and public comment” process, which means entangling themselves in Berkeley’s sizeable and slugglish bureaucratic net. If they were successful, the 600 foot regulation basically covers anything they could be next to. The assumption that they have to be far away from public entities like schools, parks, and clinics indicates that the city still believes recruiters are “preying” on poor, weak, minority citizens. However, churches? Those aren’t “public” in the same way the other institutions are, and shouldn’t be put in that category (the whole church and state thing).

My elementary analysis: This is the “nice” way of banning military recruitment without actually doing it. I hope the public outcry is loud. But what am I saying, this is Berkeley.

update: welcome, Michelle Malkin readers. Come make yourselves at home!

The Bay Area is considering another wining idea. The San Francisco Chronicle answers the burning questions we all have about wood fires and the solution of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

It would be illegal to use residential fireplaces on nights with poor air quality under a rule being considered by Bay Area air regulators.

Over the next three weeks, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will hold workshops to gauge public opinion on the proposal, which would follow similar bans in Sacramento County, the San Joaquin Valley, and such Bay Area cities as Mill Valley, where people who disobey the city’s wood-burning law are already subject to stiff fines.

It is good the government is stepping up to combat the problem of wood fires. For thousands of years wood fires have plagued humanity. They have been used to light the darkness, cook meat, and even kept people warm. This winter as you gather round the central heating with your family, be thankful for the government and their boundless wisdom.

Some preliminary links to keep you entertained while we wait for Nonie. Gateway Pundit detailing the events slated for tonight; with the exception of the event at Pepperdine, which is cancelled due to fires.

7:11 event begins with an introduction from BCR President Ross Lingenfelder. “The purpose of Islamo-Fascism awareness week is to bring attention to our common enemy, radical Islam”

Nonie, as you are aware, is the daughter of the general who invaded Israel in the 60’s, and was brought up in a Jihadist family. Her speech is sponsored by David Horowitz.

7:14 Ms, Darwish takes the stage to jeers of “Fascist; you are nothing but a tool of the United states”. Shouter is rebuked and removed.

Ms Darwish: “As an American, I cherish the freedom of speech”. What a fitting start. “This is not a discussion of good, peace-loving muslims…but an ideology of violence and hatred”

(more…)

Here’s my photo-update from the Wednesday event. It got some coverage on Drudge report, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin’s blog, as well as others.

Here is Melanie Morgan and another woman singing patriotic songs.

(more…)

This week in San Francisco, an idea has been floating around to create and sterile place where drug users can safely use their drugs. The San Francisco Chronicle has a summary of the idea:

About 150 people gathered Thursday in the Mission District to discuss an idea that some say is crazy even for San Francisco: opening a city-funded, legal center where intravenous drug users can congregate, get free needles and inject themselves in a safe environment.

Momentum for such a center seems to be gaining strength among drug reform advocates and some public health workers, who say it will help stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, prevent deaths from drug overdoses and keep dirty needles off city streets.

A center like this exists in Vancouver and many have been operating in Europe for several years. However, the article reports no politicians are championing the idea.

I don’t like this safe drug use center idea. It tells people even though it is illegal to use drugs, we are going to make it as safe and easy as possible for you to do so. If drugs are going to be illegal, then the city should not encourage people to break the law.

I would also like to know who would pay for this center. I hope public funds will not be used to buy needles for people who chose to spend their money on drugs.

The front page of the San Francisco Chronicle covers two men who dressed as nuns and went to a Roman Catholic church for the purpose of ridiculing it. (As a point of disclosure, I am a Roman Catholic.)

From the paper:

It was a typical Sunday Mass until two men in heavy makeup and nuns’ habits received Holy Communion from San Francisco’s top Catholic official.

On Oct. 7, Archbishop George Niederauer delivered the Eucharist to members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence - an activist group whose motto is “go forth and sin some more” - prompting cries of outrage from conservatives across the country and Catholics in San Francisco.

There is also this exchange of quotes:

Conservative Fox news commentator Bill O’Reilly, who has disparaged “San Francisco values,” called the latest flap another example of how the city is run by “far-left secular progressives who despise the military, traditional values and religion.”

On his Friday news show, O’Reilly called San Francisco “a disgrace on every level.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom dismissed O’Reilly’s comments.

“This debate really is about San Francisco values. The Bill O’Reillys of the world are threatened by San Francisco because we value diversity, universal health care and civil rights for all. They will exploit any controversy to attack our values.”

It is incidents like this that discredit the diversity so many people are proud to proclaim. Diversity as I know it involves a minimum level of respect for people, especially if they are different from you or you disagree with them.

The two men are the ones who should apologize. They chose to go into a church service for the reason of disrespecting and ridiculing it. In the same way it would be wrong for a person who disagrees with a gay person’s lifestyle to go into an LGBT meeting to disrupt it or make fun of those present.

Archbishop Niedarauer has nothing to apologize for. He did not withhold the Eucharist from anyone but instead trusted anyone who entered the church and approached him for Holy Communion did so with earnest and honest intentions in accord with the sacrament.

Sometimes when intentional disrespect of people or their beliefs occurs there is a call for hate crime legislation and diversity training. From what I have read online it is hard to say a majority of non-Catholic people condemn the actions of these two men.

This Daily Cal article is sort of like a Patriot Blog post in that it contains Ross Lingenfelder and Yaman Salahi in the same place. The Islamo-fascism awareness week that is happening here has getting some attention around the internet with the fake posters at GWU that were attributed to the Young Americas Foundation group there. The events are headed by David Horowitz, who we’ve seen speak here a few times since my freshman year, and are scheduled for Oct 22-26th. There should be some interesting speakers, including Nonie Darwish, and some interesting protesters, including the folks from Revolution Books. Maybe zombie will be there!

the quotes:

“(The week) is an attack on the Muslim community at Cal and in the country, and an effort to marginalize them,” said Yaman Salahi, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. “It’s also an attack on the free discussion of political issues, especially about foreign policy and the Middle East.”

“The week is about exposing Islamo-Fascism—all different aspects of it” Lingenfelder said. “Women’s rights is a focus, but it’s not what the week is all about.”

Many people in Berkeley do not observe Columbus Day, instead they celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

The Patriot would like to wish you a happy Columbus Day.

Painting by Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547)