The Minuteman
CROSSING THE CONSERVATIVE WIRES
By Robert Nathan Eberhart
From the September 2006 Print Edition
Campus liberal learns a lesson in futility, or not …
UC Berkeley student and loudmouth liberal Aaron Nicholas Diek, 21, was recently arrested for damaging a Hummer with his “Save the Ozone” sign. According to Sgt. Matthew Barr, Diek attempted to block the Hummer driver with his sign. When the driver attempted to drive around him, Diek smacked the Hummer in the rear quarter panel of the passenger side. The Hummer driver then chased Diek, who attempted to flee on a bicycle. Diek was arrested on suspicion of vandalism and for giving false information to police. Surely Diek’s absurd attempt at eco-terrorism will be lauded upon his return to campus this fall
High Times and Strange Demeanors
On June 27, the Berkeley City Council voted to include on the November ballot an initiative advocating the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney. The initiative, introduced by Mayor Tom Bates, calls on the City Council to petition the U.S. House of Representatives and California State Legislature to impeach the president and vice president, thus setting into motion a trial in the Senate. While the passing of a resolution calling for the impeachment of the current president is now common among the bastions of left-wing activists, Berkeley’s ballot initiative allowing voters to weigh in is a first.
Could California soon be a red state?
According to an August 22 Wall Street Journal article, liberals have significantly fewer children than conservatives. The writer goes so far as to claim that a “state that is currently 55-45 in favor of liberals (like California) will be 54-46 in favor of conservatives by 2020 — and all for no other reason than babies.” No wonder the Democrats support illegal immigration: They have no other way to increase their numbers.
Stinky Business
Berkeley resident and retired judge Wilson Ogg, 78, was recently reprimanded by the city for disposing of an aggressive skunk on his property. It appears as though Ogg, who had a worker commit the act, ordered the skunk dunked in water in response to its malodorous attack on a local boy. When Berkeley animal control officer Karen Neil came to collect the skunk and found it clinging to life in a sack in Mr. Ogg’s trash can, she went ballistic. Neil called the police, which resulted in a 90-minute interrogation by Berkeley police as well as a reprimand from the local animal control officer, Kate O’Conner. If Berkeley Animal Control Services would simply do their homework and check the applicable state Fish and Game laws, they might realize that under state law skunks are part of an unprotected category of animals including rodents, weasels, and starlings. We salute Mr. Ogg exercising his right to humane disposal of problem skunks.
You set my heart, and Israeli flags, on fire
Cecilia Lucas, a graduate student here at UC Berkeley, recently penned this ‘love’ poem for the terrorist organization Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed radical Shiite militia. In case you’ve been living in the woods for the past month, here’s a small update on Hezbollah’s track record: suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy killing 63, including 17 U.S. citizens; suicide bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 U.S. servicemen, and the bombings of the French international stabilization headquarters, which killed 58 French troops. Until September 11, Hezbollah was responsible for more U.S. deaths than any other terrorist group, and all of this does not include the ongoing conflict with Israel. Here are excerpts from Ms. Lucas’ ‘love’ poem:
You were born out of death to a life in a cage
Where bombs are not the only reason people die
Fed by the violence of hunger and homelessness
Raised by colonialism
Your heart and your will still grew strong …
You amaze me.
I love you
But I will never be yours
I don’t want you inside me
You are too male for me
Pacifist … Australian for murderer
During a speech to hundreds of school children in Australia, Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams, 64, showed what pacifists are made of. “I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence,’ because I don’t believe that I am non-violent,” said Williams. “Right now, I would love to kill George Bush,” she said to a group of gleeful youngsters at the Brisbane City Hall. Williams, who received her Nobel Peace Prize more than 30 years ago for circulating a petition to end the violence in Northern Ireland, questions her distinction as a voice for peace. “I don’t know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize,” she said. Neither do we, Ms. Williams.
Party foul
Our era’s heightened security awareness occasionally leads to reactions bordering on the absurd. In downtown Minneapolis, six friends dressed as zombies were arrested for suspicion of “simulating weapons of mass destruction.” According to police spokesman Lt. Gregory Reinhardt, the party-goers were arrested for intimidating people and “ghoulish” behavior. Apparently the simulated WMDs were backpacks equipped with portable radios, and the ghoulishness was part of an annual Minneapolis tradition called the “zombie pub crawl.”
Las Vegas: Don’t feed the homeless
This past July, the Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance making it illegal to feed the homeless. The measure attempts to prevent mobile soup kitchens from operating in parks, where residents say they attract homeless people in large numbers and render the parks unusable by families. Mayor Oscar Goodman dismissed questions about how marshals, who patrol city parks, will identify the homeless in order to enforce the ordinance. “Certain truths are self-evident,” Goodman said. “You know who’s homeless.” Not so, Mr. Goodman; one week spent patrolling the streets of Berkeley would surely prove otherwise.
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