October 10, 2001

2:20 PM

Berkeley does it again...The Berkeley City Council is considering condemning the US attacks on Afganistan as acts of terrorism. The best quote: "Berkeley has always been an island of sanity in terms of the war madness that has prevailed in this country," Spring said. "The U.S. is now a terrorist. According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks." (Via the WSJ Opinion Page)
posted by madreblu (30 comments total)

Well. Maybe if they agree with the Taliban so much they should look into citizenship in Afghanistan. I heard its a nice place to live.
posted by Qambient at 2:31 PM on October 10, 2001

Yes, I'm taking it out of context, but this just sounds too good to pass up: "Berkeley has always been an island of sanity..."
posted by msacheson at 2:31 PM on October 10, 2001

If Bin Laden's troglodytes flew a 747 into the Powerbar heardquarters in dowtown Berkely, they might change their tune...

but I'm all for sending the Berkeley Capoeristas after Bin Laden
posted by preguicoso at 2:38 PM on October 10, 2001

If Bin Laden's troglodytes flew a 747 into the Powerbar heardquarters in dowtown Berkely, they might change their tune...

but I'm all for sending the Berkeley Capoeristas after Bin Laden
posted by preguicoso at 2:38 PM on October 10, 2001

"Berkeley has always been an island of sanity..."

Those words were spoken by council member Dona Spring who brought up the condemnation of the US strikes as an "emergency agenda item." Uh, yeah, whatever. It seems more like she's advancing her personal political views at taxpayer expense. Did she also propose an "emergency agenda item" condemning the 9/11 strikes? No? Then shut the fuck up!
posted by RevGreg at 2:39 PM on October 10, 2001

You know, whenever I'm looking for a balanced, objective point of view that is beyond reproach, I know I can always rely on the Taliban.
posted by tpoh.org at 2:39 PM on October 10, 2001

Arrgh. Nothing wrong with speaking their opinion, but couldn't they do this on their own time? It really isn't the job of the City Council to comment on international affairs.
posted by phatboy at 2:40 PM on October 10, 2001

Stupid return key

(hides head in shame)

sorry guys
posted by preguicoso at 2:41 PM on October 10, 2001

2 things come from Berkeley, BSD, and LSD... neither one really promotes sanity...
posted by jbelshaw at 2:42 PM on October 10, 2001

I agree with Ms. Spring: the Taliban's word is gospel, but I refuse to believe a thing the U.S. says. In fact, I love the Taliban today -- they're just so good, and yet we're so darn evil. Exhibit A: those "world's funniest home videos" linked a few threads down. Public throat-slittings in a sport stadium! What will those whacky Talibanis think of next? They're just havin' a little fun, and here we go getting all terrorist on their asses.
posted by pardonyou? at 2:43 PM on October 10, 2001

As someone who's grown up in Berkeley her whole life, let me assure you that the "progressive" majority on the Berkeley City Council are a bunch of nut-cases. They are absolutely left-wing, without a single independent thought. They each constantly battle to out-do the other with how much they can pander to the self-rightous and ultra-lefties. They are the laughingstock of the nation. Kriss Worthington is an absolutely crazy, self-absorbed jerk, Maudelle is just plain batty, Donna is a self-rightous idiot. Berkeley has so many other more important LOCAL things to focus on than condemning the bombings. Like the country cares what those idiots think, anyway. Silly silly silly people. They are the farthest thing from voices of reason. They are the bastion of stupidity.
posted by aacheson at 2:48 PM on October 10, 2001

According to me, all thought is crime. I demand that the Berkeley council prepare a statement agreeing with my assessments, or they will be exposed as the syndico-anarchalist running-dog imperio-trotskyist lackeys we all secretly believe them to be.

Power to the people! Thank you.
posted by aramaic at 2:54 PM on October 10, 2001

Aacheson .. Sounds like Berkley has a hijacking problem of its own.
posted by stbalbach at 3:04 PM on October 10, 2001

Does anyone else think they could have found a better picture?
posted by bytecode at 3:04 PM on October 10, 2001

You missed the best part of the WSJ Opinion entry:

"The Oakland Tribune, meanwhile, reports on an anti-Ameircan rally at UC Berkeley, which was interrupted by a smaller contingent of Berkeley patriots. The closing exchange is priceless:

Another [student], favoring peace [sic], said in the heat of argument, "Look, it's not like they attacked the U.S."
"They did," a pro-USA student replied.
"Uh, oh yeah, they did," the other said, flashing an embarrassed grin.

posted by frednorman at 3:18 PM on October 10, 2001

There are fewer less-biased sources in American media today than the Wall Street Journal opinion page. Couldn't you have at least found something more, well, believable? Less pandering? Less gleeful about finally feeling free to call people anti-American?

If you're getting your news from opinion columns in the Wall Street Journal, you're doing yourself a disservice.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:20 PM on October 10, 2001

stbalbch, you have no idea.
They just "redistricted" a district to include 5000 more students so another "progressive" candidate can be elected to that "conservative" district, basically disenfranchising the homeowners in that district. However, the progressives get all defensive when it's called "gerrymandering." Since the definition of gerrymandering is whenthe party in power redraws voting lines to get themselves more votes, I don't know what else to call it. Bullshit, perhaps?
I moved to Oakland, a relative oasis of sanity compared to Berkeley.
posted by aacheson at 3:27 PM on October 10, 2001

Mo Nickels, so we should therefore expect to hear from the outraged Berkley City Council informing us that they really didn't say those things, and that the WSJ made it up, right? I'll be on the lookout ...
posted by pardonyou? at 3:29 PM on October 10, 2001

Freaking hippies. Cut your hair! Get a ... oh, crap you mean you're part of society now? This is distressing.
posted by owillis at 3:30 PM on October 10, 2001

If you're getting your news from opinion columns in the Wall Street Journal, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Perhaps you're not familiar with newspapers, but no one should get their "news" from "opinion" pages. "Opinion" pages represent ... follow me here ... opinions. You may not agree with those opinions, but that's why its not called something like "newsjournal.com". ;-)

There are fewer less-biased sources in American media today than the Wall Street Journal opinion page.

May or may not be true. But would you say that MetaFilter is one of them? ;-)
posted by madreblu at 3:31 PM on October 10, 2001

What the deuce are those liberals babbling about? What's so "terroristic" about lobbing our beloved "Peacekeeper" missiles and bombs into populated civilian areas?

That shouldn't terrorize anyone, especially since we haven't even broken out the nukes, or the bio weapons, or the phosgene or mustard or blistering agents yet. Hell's bells, we're just throwing high explosives probably mixed with a little shrapnel (ok, maybe a few flechettes), fer chrissakes.

I hate liberals. God Ble$$ America.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 4:13 PM on October 10, 2001

It would be interesting to learn how much federal monies go to the town of Berkeley and to the school (for example Lawrence Radiation lab)...typically: mouth off but take, take, take.
I disliked Berkely since the day I went to register and had my car ticketed. I knew they were out to get me.
posted by Postroad at 5:50 PM on October 10, 2001

Perhaps you're not familiar with newspapers, but no one should get their "news" from "opinion" pages. "Opinion" pages represent ... follow me here ... opinions. You may not agree with those opinions, but that's why its not called something like "newsjournal.com". ;-)

The emoticon does not reduce the useless nature of your comments, in which you appear to be one of those people who prefer to assume ignorance on the part of others, rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt. Much more fun to intentionally mis-read and misunderstand, isn't it?

You don't have to explain these things to me: I'm an ex-journalist and I spend my days reading newspapers online, dozens a day. If the link was found via the Wall Street Journal pages, then somebody is using that as a source for their news, aren't they? If they're getting their news from those pages, then they're getting right-biased, left-bashing points of view, aren't they?

It's easier to get a balanced perspective on the news if you start out in the middle to being with, not pit, say, The Nation against The New Republic and call yourself even.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:23 PM on October 10, 2001

Regardless of the source of this particular link, I think it would be pretty easy to suss out the veracity of the story -- if this happened during an open council meeting, then it's public record.

And it makes it all the more clear why they call the place Bezerkley. I truly think that the city should just be allowed to peacefully secede and form its own nation. No more money, no more ties, and they can condemn and blather all they want.
posted by Dreama at 8:56 PM on October 10, 2001

What the deuce are those liberals babbling about? What's so "terroristic" about lobbing our beloved "Peacekeeper" missiles and bombs into populated civilian areas?

Populated civilian areas? Excuse me? Mullah Omar's house/bunker is a "populated civilian area?"
posted by lizs at 9:16 PM on October 10, 2001

Berkeley has always been an island of sanity...

According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks...

One or two minor modifications and this would be a great Onion piece.
posted by lizs at 9:21 PM on October 10, 2001

Why all the Berkeley bashing? The city really is more than its politics. I lived there for 9 years and miss it very much (I'm now in NY). I think it's a great place to live and has a lot to offer both culturally and intellectually, plus you can't argue that there isn't a diversity of opinion there. Oakland is great, too, btw. As far as federal funding goes, please keep in mind that the Lawrence Berkeley Lab is funded separately from the University. A lot of the money that goes to the University goes for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, teachers' salaries, research, retrofitting/building maintenance, etc. In fact, less and less money has been allotted to the University in recent years. Federal funding is slowly drying up. Cal just finished a $1.3 billion dollar fundraising campaign, raising money from private sources. It was focused on the University, not the Lab.

It would be easier to take some of you guys more seriously if you weren't so vicious in your commentary of Berkeley. I don't remember metafilter being this harsh even 6 months ago.
posted by doublehelix at 8:23 AM on October 11, 2001

DoubleHelix, this is an example of why all the "Berkeley bashing".
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:05 AM on October 11, 2001

Left, right, middle left, ultra conservative..

What ever happened to common sense?
posted by rich at 1:46 PM on October 11, 2001