Free Republic

Concerned parents calling themselves SafeBears have raised $40,000 to pay for security guards or “safety ambassadors” to patrol the UC Berkeley campus area for a few weeks in early March. UC Berkeley may be one of America’s most prestigious schools, but its location in the California Bay Area has parents and students both wary of safety on campus. A group called SafeBears, that touts itself as comprising “1,300+ Cal parents and community allies working to improve safety for UC Berkeley students,” has worked to solve the problem themselves, hoping their prototypical program of patrols around campus will inspire the college...

Stacey Zolt Hara was in her office in downtown San Francisco when a text from her 16-year-old daughter arrived: “I’m scared,” she wrote. Her classmates at Berkeley High School were preparing to leave their desks and file into the halls, part of a planned “walkout” to protest Israel. Like many Jewish students, she didn’t want to participate. It was October 18, 11 days after the Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Zolt Hara told her daughter to wait in her classroom. She was trying to project calm. A public-relations executive, Zolt Hara had moved her family from Chicago to Berkeley six...

"Skeletonized" human remains were discovered in a years-long unoccupied building at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus earlier this week, school officials announced. University police were notified of the remains on Tuesday, Jan. 10, a UCPD statement from the school’s communications department said. The cause of death is still undetermined, and school officials didn’t tell SFGATE which building the remains were found, how they were discovered, and how long the building has been unoccupied for.

Two months ago, as the school year began, nine affinity groups at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, adopted a bylaw banning speakers who support Israel. The bylaw was promulgated by a Berkeley front group for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, the movement described by the Anti-Defamation League as “an international campaign aimed at delegitimizing and pressuring Israel, through the… isolation of Israel, Israeli individuals, Israeli institutions, and, increasingly, Jews…” that is recognized as “a manifestion of antisemitism” by the U.S. State Department. When the organizations, which include the Women of Berkeley Law, the Asian Pacific...

Nine different law student groups at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law have begun this new academic year by amending bylaws to ensure that they will never invite any speakers who support Israel or Zionism. In America, more and more college campuses, heavily influenced by Muslim students, are trying to become “Israel-free zones,” free of the taint of what virulent anti-Semites like Congressmuslim Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), slander as an “apartheid state.” Jewish Journal – Kenneth L. Marcus (h/t Mary C) If it wasn’t so frightening, one might be able to recognize the irony in the sight of...

Mask Up, Berkeley StudentsI was trying to avoid writing more stuff on masks, but this is unbelievable. UC Berkeley, that bastion of California higher education, is now requiring masks -both indoors and outdoors, if one is not vaccinated against… influenza! And, as a virologist and vaccinologist, the use of the slang “flu” makes me cringe. There are no “flu” vaccines. There are a variety of vaccines for reducing Influenza A and Influenza B virus infection and disease. None of them work particularly well. And just as with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the vast majority of deaths from Influenza A and B...

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,...

An off-campus co-op for students at the University of California, Berkeley named the 'Person of Color Theme House' has banned white guests from entering common areas of the house. A list of house rules revealed that occupants were told 'many POC moved here to be able to avoid white violence and presence, so respect their decision of avoidance if you bring white guests.' While the student house aims to have an 'inclusive' environment, the rules specifically state 'white guests are not allowed in common spaces,' according to the list, which was posted on Reddit. The accommodation, which is located close...

There is no greater injustice in economics than Seth Smith; just hearing his name makes me boil with anger and depression and nihilism. It is so sad. Now that his killer’s court case came to a conclusion this week, and we have ostensibly obtained some semblance of closure, I am sadder than ever. Seth Smith was a double major in economics and history at UC Berkeley. He was only 19 but a third-year student, scheduled to graduate next spring at the age of 20... he must have been very smart. He was a beautiful and brilliant young guy who had...

UC Berkeley scholar’s old lecture resurfaces and prompts criticism, debate “That’s why I am coming up with this recent understanding that to abolish whiteness is to abolish white people. That’s very uncomfortable perhaps, but it asks about our definitions of what race is and what racial justice might mean.”

OK, we learned something new today. We’ve written a lot about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) but we’d never heard of DEIBJ, which stands for “diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice” (how soon until we see DEIBJ+). The Skimm interviewed UC Berkeley’s new Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion, Dania Matos, who describes the emotional toll of her $325,000 a year gig. At the time of her interview, she’d only been at UC Berkeley for about a month, so her typical day consisted of “holding informal and formal listening sessions focused on truth-telling, trust, and transformation.” The Skimm asked her...

Last December news leaked that the Breakthrough Listen project, part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), had picked up an unexplained signal from the direction of Proxima Centauri. Although everyone involved stressed how unlikely it was that our first evidence for alien intelligence would come from the nearest star to our Sun, some dared to hope. Further research, however, has made Earth-based interference a near-certain explanation. There are many reasons to study Proxima Centauri besides the possibility of technological radio emissions. Australia’s giant Murriyang radio telescope was pointed towards the star primarily to study stellar flares, but in the...

A prominent climate physicist has resigned from one of his roles at the University of California, Berkeley, after he said faculty members would not agree to invite a guest lecturer to the school who had come under fire for his political views. The lecturer, Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist, has been criticized for opposing affirmative action programs and other initiatives to promote diversity, equity and inclusion at colleges and universities.... ...The Massachusetts Institute of Technology this month rescinded a lecture invitation to Abbot, a geophysicist and associate professor at the University of Chicago, amid public backlash over an op-ed he co-wrote...

Vermont’s socialist democrat Senator Bernie Sanders was once the toast of the left. He said all the right things about any given subject, promoted socialism, and was consistently voted the most popular politician in America. Now, it would appear Sanders’s political career has lived long enough to see him become the villain. It looks as if the left is now turning on him. Big time. Sanders apparently made the unforgivable move of ruining Neera Tanden’s chances for the Biden administration’s Management and Budget office. Sanders questioned Tanden about her “vicious attacks” against both Republicans and hard-leftists, including himself.... Sanders being...

Three weeks ago I processed the Capitol insurrection with my high school students. Rallying our inquiry skills, we analyzed the images of that historic day, images of white men storming through the Capitol, fearless and with no forces to stop them. “This,” I said, “is white supremacy, this is white privilege. It can be hard to pinpoint, but when we see, it, we know it.” Across our Zoom screen, they affirmed, with nods, thumbs-ups, and emojis of anger and frustration. Fast-forward two weeks as we analyzed images from the inauguration, asking again, “What do we see?” We saw diversity, creativity...

A San Francisco high school teacher wrote an op-ed claiming Sen. Bernie Sanders “manifests privilege” for wearing his meme-evoking inauguration outfit. Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a former UC Berkeley professor, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Vermont senator’s choice of recycled wool mittens was integrated into her class discussion on US diversity and discrimination.

A 60-year-old black man has been arrested for the murder of a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student. On Monday, the Alameda County district attorney’s office filed felony charges against Berkeley resident Tony Walker for the June murder of UC Berkeley student Seth Smith.

BERKELEY, Calif. - The man suspected of killing a 19-year-old UC Berkeley student in June has been charged with murder Berkeley Police Department said on Monday. Tony Walker, 60, of Berkeley was arrested at his home August 20 for the shooting death of Seth Smith on June 15. Smith, who was set to graduate from Cal next year, was found on the sidewalk of Dwight Way near Valley Street. Alameda County District Attorney's office charged Walker, a convicted felon, with murder as well as a number of criminal enhancements. Police had offered a $50,000 reward for information in this case....

Last week, I posted an item about a Psychology Today article titled "The Ideological Animal" (now fully available at the website). The article purports to explain what motivates those of us who made the post-9/11 shift from left to right and it uses my story, as well as the discussion group I started, the 9/11 Neocons, as an example. As I indicated at the time, I have no serious complaints about the article's take on me, which I found to be generally fair. Mostly, I objected to the inaccurate use of the term "pro-war rallies" to describe my days as...

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos concerning the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) and its potential misuse of federal funds under Title VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). By way of background: Title VI grants use taxpayer money to "develop a pool of international experts to meet national needs" in the field of "international studies and world languages." Programs supported by Title VI must "reflect diverse perspectives and a wide range of views" for the purpose of aiding U.S. national security. The Middle East Forum's Campus...