In the funny bin this morning, KCBS 740 is reporting an effort to recall Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates will start today.

Opponents of the mayor claim he is too close to developers and his alma mater, Cal Berkeley, and is only trying to get tough on the homeless in order to satisfy business interests. The petition drive is being headed by Zachary Running Wolf, a former mayoral candidate and an organizer of the Berkeley tree sitters, the group protesting the university’s plan to cut down an oak grove to make way for a new athletic training center.

If you want to know how close Bates is to the University, look at how many times the City of Berkeley has sued or threatened to sue UC Berkeley under his watch. Add in the election next year where the mayor will be voted on and the trees that will be killed to make the paper for the petitions and this is ridiculous.

I also think Zachary Running Wolf has less then selfless intentions. Just recently I heard Running Wolf refer to himself as “the next mayor of Berkeley.”

Today a judge in Alameda County Superior Court ruled the hippies could continue their nine month occupation of the oak trees near Memorial Stadium. The University wanted them removed because of health and safety issues. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The university asked for the court order Monday when police found several propane tanks in the tree houses. There have also been an increasing number of excrement and urine spills from the tree-sitters’ buckets, UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

If they want to be more in tune with nature, instead of using propane tanks the hippies could use more earthy ways of staying warm and cooking. They should make wood fires.

“We have a long tradition of honoring and protecting free speech on this campus, but we also have to protect the safety of the students, community and the people in the trees,” said Mogulof. “This is becoming a small village, and we’re seeing all the same sanitation and safety issues you see in any small village.”

While it is funny the oaks and associated tree people are now a “small village,” it is also sad. When did it become permissible to trespass and occupy someone else’s property for nine months?

A Solution

If we are going to revert to an older village based system, maybe more people should see and experience this way of life. The hippies want the fence removed so maybe they should get their wish. With the barrier separating the people suddenly gone, things will proceed very quickly. When tens of thousands of football fans are around the stadium on Saturday they can directly interact with the tree people. They can learn about each other’s way of life and values. It would be a great opportunity to experience the differences between the cultures of tree-sitting and football. The hippies will sing combiya and the football fans will chant the classic “Give um the Axe.” However the two sides resolve their differences, it will be without the lawyers and courthouses the modern world has forced upon their natural ways. Isn’t that what everyone wants? A solution where both sides can express their feelings face to face in a natural setting.

Until this dream becomes a reality, the occupation of the oaks by hippie tree-sitters will continue.

Today I had the privilege of participating in jury duty. As I was called two years ago and served a day, I knew what to expect. Both times I was in the selection pool but never sat for a trial. The last time I was in a courthouse was about a year ago, but that is unrelated.

The day started at 7:45 when I reported to the Orange County Superior Courthouse. I was one of about 150 prospective jurors. After we watched a short feel good video about jury duty, they parceled us out to different courtrooms.

From the pool of prospective jurors, people were called out and sent to specific rooms in groups around 50. In each courtroom the presiding judge gives a quick summary of the matter being tried. My case involved the taking of an automobile (it was only taking a vehicle with the intention of depriving the owner of its use, which I was told was not as bad as other vehicle thefts). Since it was a criminal case, they selected 12 people at random from the pool and 6 alternates to sit in the jury box. The judge had every prospective juror state their basic information and asked them case specific questions like their experience with car theft (from both sides). He also asked if anyone had a reason to distrust the police or any of the witnesses based on their language or ethnic background. The attorneys wrote themselves notes on Post-its about each of the jurors as they were questioned.

The judge also asked jurors if they understood different legal ideas. He used examples to explain concepts like hard v. circumstantial evidence and accessories to a crime. While the judge who presided over the case did use humor, his stories were not as enjoyable as the ones I heard from the judge during my previous service. The following example is from a Judge at the Westminster Courthouse I heard two years ago.

Possible v. Probable
Every Wednesday morning before coming to work I put my trash cans on the curb in front of my house. As I am pulling out of my driveway I see the garbage truck a few houses away picking up the neighbor’s trash. I never see the trash man empty my garbage cans, but every Wednesday I come home and find my cans as well as all the other ones on my street empty. Then I came home one Wednesday and a neighbor kid tells me my trash was not taken by the man in the garbage truck, but instead by aliens from Mars. Is it possible aliens from Mars took my trash? Yes. Is it probable the aliens took my trash? No.

Back to today, a number of people gave reasons why the current time was a bad time for them to serve on a jury. While some of the people’s excuses were legitimate, some were attempts to get out of serving on the case. The judge explained he could defer their service by a few weeks, but they would still be back in to serve. After realizing this, many of the people decided serving then was as good as later.

After the judge excused a few people, replacements were called to the jury box; I was one of them. After the defense and prosecution talked and questioned the jury for 15 minutes the action quickened. Each side could kick off 10 jurors for any reason. The little Post-its of the defense and prosecution then came in handy. They alternated rejecting people. There was no hesitation; both of them knew exactly who they wanted to kick off.

On its first or second opportunity, the prosecution kicked me off the jury. I was shocked and semi-offended. I think I would be the kind of disciplinarian who would send someone to the chair for stealing a bike. This happened last time two years ago; the prosecution kicked me off at the first chance. There is something prosecutors don’t like about me being on a jury. Maybe Physics and Classical Civilization are a secret code for I vote for acquittal.

After I was excused from the case I returned to the jury assembly room and they told me I was not needed anyone. I left at 2:30 in the afternoon.

During the day I remembered something Charles Wiley had said when he spoke on campus last year. When he was a young man during WW II, he was drafted into the executive branch and served for four years in the military. Today we are drafted into the judicial branch and asked to serve for a few days a year.

I hope we all respond to the call as our grandparents did.

Here we have an article from The Sun online saying that European MP’s want to change livestock diets so that their farts won’t be as great an impact to global warming.

Thanks to the UN, who is focusing all their time and energy on such grave world crises, we can now pinpoint global warming on “livestock emissions”. Can you make hybrid livestock? ones that plug into the wall?

Give me back my SUV, this is all Bessie’s fault!

The challenge: find a news article from today that is more ridiculous/funny than this one. I won’t give you a cookie, but maybe someone else will.

Last night was Raw Food night at Crossroads. I don’t mean sushi and raw meat (which would be awesome), but something else. I will point you to the website by Cal Dining.

I was eating there and I had to try this raw food they were advertising.

From the Cal Dining website:

Why Eat Raw Food?
People get into raw food for a number of reasons, and here are some of the many and varied reasons:

Ethics:
Some arrive by a path that involves a search for more natural, ethical and sustainable ways of living; a more compassionate way of life, as a natural extension of vegetarianism or veganism, or being ‘green’.

Spiritual:
Some sense the spiritual benefits, cleansing mind and body, with the widespread tradition of eating only or mainly raw fruit amongst wise men and women.

The five things featured were:

Kale Salad
Pasta with Pesto
Spicy Carrot Soup
Brownies with Cashew Cream
Apple Cobbler

I tried all of them, and the brownies were the best, but they tasted like an Odwalla bar. The apple cobbler was not as good as it looked and neither was the “pasta” (actually zucchini). I took one sip of the carrot soup and was glad it was a small sip.

I also tried the Kale salad. It was made with dinasour kale. Since it is spelled like dinosaur, and dinosaurs are cool I figured it must taste good. When I put a piece in my mouth it was so bad it immediately went into my napkin.

From my experience last night I now know to avoid anything that claims to be “raw food.”

Does anyone else have an experience with this “Raw Food?”

Yesterday was April 20. It is a holiday celebrated by many Berkeley residents and students. For those of you not familiar with it, the idea is to smoke marijuana on that day.

I celebrated by going to the campus operated Golden Bear Café. When I was there I purchased what was called a Nestle THC Bar.

I enjoyed the TCH. It is great Golden Bear Café sells Nestle Tollhouse Cookie ice cream sandwiches. If I really wanted to smoke pot, I should have stopped by the dispensary on Telegraph when I was walking home.

Thanks to Beetle for pointing this out.

I picked up a Daily Cal this afternoon at the BCR table and read about some “tree sitters”. I figured, more crazies in the oak trees, no biggie. As I continued reading about people sitting in a redwood (we have those on campus?!) near Sather Gate, I happened to glance upwards. What to my wondering eyes did appear, but several hippies many feet up in the air. With signs.

The Daily Cal article said the tree-sitters were not prepared to discuss their motives just yet (could this be a consequence of today’s date being 4-20?), and their signs were equally vague. This one says “Activate your love force”

Also, the police are prepared to deal with them the same way they treated the other tree-dwellers up by Memorial Stadium, that is, to do nothing. If they are students they could face University sanctions, and if they are not, they could be arressted, but we’ll see if either of those two happen.

I have some pictures that need to be seen. They were all taken on Sproul on Tuesday between 11 and 12:30.

Exhibit A: The newly built vibrator race track of SQUELCH!

If they care enough to build a plywood track like that and pay attention to the duck tape detail they deserve your vote.

Exhibit B: The reaction of some people upon seeing the SQUELCH! creation.

I think the two kids had participated in the last race.

Exhibit C: Moms come out and campaign in support of their children.

Student Action’s family came out to support Ilana earlier.

Exhibit D: Alternate picture of sign in right of Exhibit C. Shawn Jain 121’s supporters stick with him because they are family.

I had two midterms yesterday and wore my SQUELCH! shirt, so it is time for some fun.

While the ASUC is supposed to be a democracy, things can change slowly over time. Take for example our current situation. A dynasty is forming before our eyes. Our story begins in 2002. Jesse Gabriel was elected President for the 2002-2003 year. He can be called the founder of the House of Gabriel.

Picture from Jesse the Founder’s facebook with brother Oren on the left.

After Jesse the Founder had ruled the reaches of Eshleman, he left for a land far away. Then his younger brother Oren gained popularity. He started as a senator for 2005-2006 and then wanted to be made ruler like his brother. While the people of the realm selected him, all was not right. There was prophecy of some kind, as clear as writing on the ground. It did not bode well for the heir apparent. The council of justice said he should not be made king. But after the magicians were called in the council’s objection was soon forgotten.

Oren the Heir

Now, as we approach 6 Y.G. (Year of the Gabirels) we have a choice. We can put the dynasty on a solid foundation, or we can chose change over the status quo. Currently Oren Gabriel sits on the throne. Next week we have the chance of voting for Ilana Nankin, the cousin of Oren and Jesse.

Yesterday on Sproul there was a suggestion from the elder members of the Gabriel clan, “The family reminds you.”

Ilana the Friendly

If you want to support your local monarchy, now is your chance.

The latest happenings with the ASUC have been very well covered and analyzed by Beetle. My only contribution is a picture of the flower he gave to GA President Josh Daniels. Here it is symbolically being offered to the pelican outside of the GA building, Anthony Hall.

If only everyone could get along this well.

I think is encapsulated in this Drudge headline!

Another comment on the subject is found at UrbanDictionary: the definition of the “Gore Effect”

Harvard is appointing a new President, and all indicators indicate that it will be a professor named Drew Gilpin Faust. She’ll be the first female President of Harvard, ever, which is pretty cool.

She’ll be the permanent replacement for Larry Summers, who stepped down last year after pressure from his colleagues. He’d done a lot of things that really rubbed them the wrong way, such as suggesting that academia might be the tiniest bit anti-Israel and that underpopulated nations were also underpolluted, but his biggest transgression was that he had the gall to suggest that men and women might have brains that work differently, thus perhaps explaining why more men than women seem to like subjects like math and science.

Seems only fitting that, after this Harvard would appoint a woman as President. So, what kind of a professor is she? Math? Chemistry? Materials Science and Engineering?

Oh, oops. History.

One thing there is plenty of in Berkeley is political correctness. Last week I saw this tree someone tried to set up. I don’t know the story behind it, so I can only guess whether this was a Christmas Tree or the politically correct “holiday tree.”

There is one Christmas tradition that is not lost in Berkeley, the placing of things in trees. What could be a more fitting symbol of the local atmosphere then a hippie?

While it is a bad picture, the hippies have occupied an oak tree near Memorial Stadium to protest the cutting down of these trees to build a new gym. Even though almost three trees will be planted for every tree cut down, that is not good enough for the tree sitters.

I wish a Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

On Friday from 10-2 the Berkeley College Republicans will be having a dunk tank on Sproul just south of the Savio Steps. You can stop by and buy chances to land people in the water for $2 for one ball or $5 for three balls. If the excitement of getting someone wet is not enough, then you can feel good knowing all your money goes to the American Cancer Society to help breast cancer research.

The event was originally scheduled for last week, but the University put up several bureaucratic hurdles that effectively blocked the event at the last minute. Even though they had said the week previous to the event everything was set they came up with another thing we had to do less then 24 hours before the event. While it is possible the bureaucracy just missed something, I would be surprised since there was a dunk tank on Sproul just recently for Homecoming activities. The Student Advocate is helping to investigate the situation.

The schedule as of now:

10:00-10:30 - TBA
10:30 - 11:00 Melissa Jones, Former BCR Senator
11:00 - 12:00 Lev Ingman, Person to dunk
12:00 - 1:00 Josiah Prendergast, President
1:00 - 1:30 Phil Kahn, Webmaster
1:30 - 2:00 Chris Page, Director of Propaganda, I mean Publicity

Mention this and get the special, $10 to push the button.

If you don’t like Republicans or breast cancer, stop by. The worst that could happen is you help save a life.