Free Republic

Pro-mask zealots have caused incalculable damage to society over the past two and a half years. It spans from their denial of evidence that masking does not work to forcing toddlers to mask in many parts of the country. But many have assumed that masking would be a temporary intervention, endlessly asking the inevitable question, “Why is it so hard to wear a mask?” Recent news out of UC Berkeley shows exactly why so many people have pointed out how ineffective universal masking has been. Because “experts” have lied to the public about the effectiveness of masks for so long,...

Back in the day, if students wanted easy credits, they signed up for underwater basket-weaving. Now they just need a political cause. The University of California, Berkeley is offering students college credit to work for an expressly political organization fighting for affirmative action and immigrant rights. This semester, the African Studies department at Berkeley is offering a two-credit class called “Fighting to Learn, Learning to Fight: Building the Movement for Public Education and Equality.” The class is sponsored by BAMN — The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrants Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary —...

UC names Cal diversity czar Tanya Schevitz Friday, July 20, 2007 07-20) 04:00 PDT Santa Barbara -- UC Berkeley has hired astrophysics professor Gibor Basri as the campus' new vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. On Thursday, UC's Board of Regents approved the appointment of Basri, 56, to increase diversity among faculty, staff and students. The position, created by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, carries a $200,000 salary and is one of the first executive positions of its type in the nation. With a $4.5 million budget, Basri is charged with developing a more diverse faculty and staff and a...

Today many groups got out and protested HR 4437. At least that is what I though they were doing. In fact it was a combination of people demanding no consequences against illegal immigrants who broke the law and Palestinians yelling about Israel. Apparently the two were linked. I found it ironic that the protestors denounced walls and stopping the flow of people while blocking most of Sather Gate. They also blocked the signs of those in the crowd who disagreed with them. Members of the Conservative Activist League(CAL) and the Berkeley College Republicans, who were not disrupting the speakers, found...

December 3, 2005 Berkeley, California- I'm so depressed, I can hardly bring myself to describe the horrible week I had, but I'll try. For months I've had a feeling something was not right in our relationship. At first it was little things like his not paying attention to me when I spoke or not joining me at protests like he used to. Then his personal habits changed. He started showering more often and even wearing cologne, something he had never done. Instead of his old sandals he began wearing Hush Puppies and even bought himself a belt. Then came the...

Cal football coach Jeff Tedford told reporters this week that his team has been "very cooperative all along'' with the police investigation into the July 17 early-morning shooting death of Dartmouth student Meleia Willis-Starbuck. But law enforcement sources say that doesn't tell the whole story. In the weeks following the shooting near the UC Berkeley campus, police were quietly pursuing reports that a second person had been grazed by a bullet that night as well. That person turned out to be Cal freshman football player Gary Doxy, who was with a group of players on that fateful night. In fact,...

Maudelle Shirek may not get her name on a post office in her hometown, but the city could name a different building after the godmother of Berkeley progressives. She is so revered in one of the nation's most liberal cities that a committee of city officials and citizens has been meeting for four months to find ways to honor Shirek, who left the City Council last year after 20 years and was known for her political activism on national and global issues. On Wednesday, the day after Republicans in the House of Representatives rejected an effort to name Berkeley's main...

Berkeley may be the home of the Free Speech Movement, but expressing emotion with a car horn is apparently not a protected form of communication there. An Oakland woman alleges that Berkeley police violated her First Amendment rights when an officer ticketed her last year for honking in support of a labor union's picketing outside the Claremont Resort and Spa to protest rising health care costs and other issues. Carol Harris, 51, is appealing her $143 "unreasonable use of horn'' citation to Berkeley's Police Review Commission, which will consider the case on Thursday. Harris was among nearly 40 motorists who...

I missed the fun at the Berkeley campus yesterday. Apparently students from the "Berkeley Stop the War Coalition" were there to prevent military recruiters from coming on the campus. Protest Warrior and the College Republicans were present to offer an alternative viewpoint to the "Stop the War" crowd. I would like to hear from you if you were in on the mission. If you have pictures, please post them here.

A Berkeley initiative fails at the polls, but succeeds in drawing attention to the sex work debate. ___ Scarlot Harlot, a self-proclaimed “unrepentant whore, activist and artist,” sauntered into the Missouri Lounge on November 2 looking more like a patriotic Scarlet O’Hara on a tempestuous Saturday night. Joining sex workers and friends to await election returns inside the saloon-esqe Berkeley venue, Harlot sported an American-flag-turned-18th-century-period gown that swayed playfully over white knee-high boots. Otherwise known as Carol Leigh, Harlot was energized by the buzz of election night, occasionally turning her attention from the blare of Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the...

When the Greenlining Institute made its foray into Berkeley politics last year it was seeking to add to the city’s storied tradition as a national springboard for political innovation. Since the city made waves in 1979 by divesting from South Africa, revolutionaries with a dollar and a dream have determined that if they can’t make it in Berkeley, they probably won’t make it anywhere else. “Things get started in Berkeley. It’s an activist town,” said Robyn Few, director of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, which saw voters trounce its proposal to decriminalize prostitution in November. Other political drives have been...

BERKELEY, Calif. The number of student liberals at one of America's most liberal campuses is on the rise. A survey of freshmen at the University of California, Berkeley found that the number of students who call themselves liberal is higher than a decade ago and approaching Vietnam War-era levels. The fall 2004 survey found that just over half of students identified as liberal, compared with 12 percent as conservative and 37 percent as "middle of the road." That is higher than 1990, when about 43 percent identified themselves as liberal compared to 18 percent as conservative. It's much higher than...

SUPPORT PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE TROOPS Rally in Pleasanton, California Friday, October 22, 2004 Location: Hopyard & Valley, Pleasanton, CA Time: 4:00 - 7:00pm Media is expected to be there and we need a good showing This was our rally point during the post Bush/Gore election fight. *** URGENT NOTE: We have been informed that Kerry/Edwards supporters have targeted this rally with a counter-rally of their own at our location and they've been leafleting Pleasanton and Berkeley to try to overshadow our support of President Bush. We need as many people on our side as possible.

OpinionRacial Profiling Not RacismProfiling Can Be Intelligent Way to Prevent Future Terrorism BY Ethan LutskeTuesday, September 7, 2004 Political conversations are supposed to be dispassionate. Ideally, we should be able to bandy about ideas freely, in a place where all notions and suggestions are given due consideration, deconstructed through logic, unencumbered by the weighing anchor of fragile emotion. But it rarely happens. A controversial idea will be inevitably blindsided by the accusation of intolerance toward some group. Racist. Sexist. Homophobe. Bigot. Coming to campus tomorrow is a very controversial speaker, one who no doubt will be tagged with an aforementioned...

When Dr. Hatem Bazian called for an intifada in the United States, he claimed that he was misunderstood; but other statements that he has made show him to be such a consistent foe of America that one wonders why he is still here. “Well, we’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is, what are we doing?” Dr. Bazian asked the crowd at a rally at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches. “How come we don’t have an intifada in this country?” Dr. Bazian asked the crowd. Dr. Bazian...

Bill may let UC consider race By Richard Clough DAILY BRUIN REPORTER rclough@media.ucla.edu In a move likely to re-ignite a recurring debate, the state Assembly passed a bill Wednesday which would allow public universities in California to consider race in their admissions processes. Assembly Bill 2387, which will be sent to the state Senate Education Committee by June 9, would allow the University of California and California State University to consider factors such as race and gender in undergraduate and graduate admissions as long as no preference is given based on those factors. The bill passed the state Assembly by...

The Dean campaign: The day after Iowa MANCHESTER, N.H. – After a night of nearly no sleep, we left the UC Washington Program center at 6 a.m., arriving in Manchester, New Hampshire at noon, entirely embedded in layers and layers of clothing, and feebly contending with the 10 degree temperature and 20 mph winds. When fellow student Jenny Felsen and I finally got to the Howard Dean campaign headquarters, it was eerily empty. Yes, the vans parked outside had slogans on the window such as "Now is the Time!!" and "NH or Bust!!" but I was a wee bit...

"I'm horrified at the thought that Schwarzenegger can be our governor," said Gretchen Purser, 25, of Berkeley, who voted against recall. "I'm sick of Republicans trying to take over the state."