From the moonbats that gave us the telling slogan “Better Red than Dead” comes this bit of cheer regarding the annual Veterans Day Celebration in Berkeley:

Berkeley’s Veterans Day ceremony, scheduled for Nov. 11, was abruptly canceled on Monday because the volunteer organizing committee split over the political content.

At issue was a proposal by the chairman, singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald, to have Bill Mitchell, a co-founder of Cindy Sheehan’s organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, as the keynote speaker.

Mitchell’s and Sheehan’s sons were killed in Iraq the same day.

Some committee members worried that Mitchell would inject an unwelcome note of partisanship into the event, which has been scrupulously non-political in years past.

Michelle Malkin said it better than anyone; “File this under “We support our troops…by refusing to honor their service.”

Berkeley isn’t just a bastion of liberalism. It is one of only a handful of genuine communist communities in the country. As far as being better red than dead…I report, you decide. Here are some of the resolutions passed by the City Council in the last few years:

“Request the City Manager send letters to our elected national representatives asking them to take whatever action they can to cease the bombing of Afghanistan and to seek a legal, nonmilitary resolution; 2) Endorse and send to these officials, the attached letter recently presented by Vice Mayor Shirek to the Congressional Black Caucus, which acknowledges and grieves the tragic events of September 11th; and 3) adjourn this Council meeting in memory of the innocent civilians in Afghanistan being harmed and made refugees due to the bombing.”

This resolution was passed less than 6 weeks after 9/11.

In an historic vote on September 10, 2002 the City Council of Berkeley, California enacted Resolution #61744, declaring the space 60 kilometers and above the City is a space-based weapons free zone. On September 14th, Congressman Kucinich, was officially presented the Resolution by Councilmember Dona Spring, who initiated this milestone Resolution, before 700 people in Wheeler Auditorium, who gave Kucinich and Spring a cheering ovation.

This resolution violates several treaties to which the US is a signatory, not to mention being just plain batty.

WHEREAS, the citizens of the City of Berkeley consider it to be our sovereign right and civic duty to recognize that corporations remain artificial entities created by the people through our state legislatures; hope to nurture and expand democracy in Berkeley and in our nation; and reject the concept of corporate constitutional rights based on “corporate personhood” or any other factor.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Berkeley supports amending the United States and California Constitutions to declare that corporations are not granted the protections or rights of persons, and supports amending the United States and California Constitutions to declare that the expenditure of corporate money is not a form of constitutionally protected speech.

This from our friends who began the so-called “Free Speech” movement of the 1960’s. I wonder if they would outlaw similar spending by labor unions?

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Berkeley City Council has banned log-burning fireplaces from new homes. Not content to stop the madness there, however, Jami Caseber, the “environmental activist” who led the drive to institute the ban, also wants to ban the use of existing fireplaces.

The ban also applies to wood-burning cooking equipment, a condition of the legislation that has pissed off some Berkeleyites. Alice Waters, owner of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse restaurant and a world-famous advocate for organic foods, says she burns half a cord of oak and fig weekly in her grill and oven, which has no pollution-control equipment. Although her appliances are grandfathered under the just-passed law, Walker is nevertheless opposed to the law. As she (needlessly) explains to the Times, “‘we’ve had a fundamental connection between fire and food since the beginning of time.’”

Anyone else find the irony of burning oil or natural gas to keep warm rather than wood to be as delicious as I do?

Berkeley Food Policy Council

Mission Statement

To build a local food system based on sustainable regional agriculture
that fosters the local economy and assures all people of Berkeley
have access to healthy, affordable and culturally appropriate food
from non-emergency sources.

I hate to ask what “culturally appropriate” food might be. And who decides what is “sustainable regional agriculture?” Berkeley is smack dab in the middle of some of the most productive farmland on the planet. Now, you and I might call that “sustainable.” But to the food Nazis in Berkeley, corporate farming is a rape of the land.

This is what it would be like living under the thumb of these crazies. And the fact that they have canceled a Veterans Day celebration because they couldn’t agree that it was appropriate to inject politics into a memorial service for people who gave their lives so that the Berkeleyites could play at being mini-commissars and regulate people’s lives inside and out only goes to show that the left has no concept of what it takes to defend what they so cavalierly exercise.

It begs the question; is there anything they would consider dying for to protect outside of their own miserable hides?