Berkeley Tree Sitters & Adverse Effects

On Tuesday I found out that a friend was mugged in North Berkeley, near the university, at 9:30 am.  He lost his entire wallet, his cell phone, and a laptop computer.  For those of you who know Berkeley, you know that North Berkeley is known for being a nicer part of the city, a place where you can feel safe, especially during the daytime.

Wednesday morning when I turned on the TV to watch the morning news, what did I see?  I saw tons of Berkeley policemen standing underneath a few oak trees watching five tree sitters, to make sure that they were safe.  In case you missed the story, here it is.  I'm infuriated that these tree sitters are draining the resources of our university.  So much violence is happening in our city right now, and we need our police to worry about the citizens and students of Berkeley - not those that are protesting. UC Berkeley has spent about $700,000 on police and security in the past 18 months and still a student gets mugged on the way to class in the morning.  This waste of resources needs to stop, and I hope it does soon.

This article sums up the current tree situation nicely (it changes daily).  I was happy to find out that Berkeley city officials will not file an appeal to the judge's ruling in UC's favor.  Although a spokesperson from Save the Oaks commented that there is broad support from Berkeley residents, I have to say, being a Berkeley resident of 3 years, I have yet to meet someone who disagrees with the university.  We're all just hoping it doesn't drag on for too much longer.

Political Chain Emails & Factcheck.org

Here is an article that is very useful, especially if you receive a lot of politically-based "chain" emails. Factcheck.org concludes that the majority of political chain emails are completely false, with only a few having shreds of factual information. 

The article continues to describe how snopes.com has investigated 31 emails about Barack Obama and Hillary and Bill Clinton.  Only  two were completely accurate.

I urge you to read the article and think twice before you believe these emails or forward them on.  Many of these emails "have a lot of things in common: urgent and frightening messages; spelling errors; a tendency to blame mainstream media for not telling the real story; and false, misleading, utterly bogus, and completely off-base claims." The more popular the emails are, the more likely they are to be false.

I get these emails all the time from my father-in-law. He is purportedly trying to balance our "left leaning." I don't mind receiving political emails, even if it's from the other side.  I just want the information sent to me to be true!

Furthermore, if you receive an email and are wondering if it's true or not, try searching factcheck.org or snopes.com.  If you don't find an answer you can submit a question to factcheck.org and they will try to answer.

Factcheck.org is a fascinating website all around. They are nonpartisan, non-profit and exist solely to help voters separate fact from fiction in American politics. I recommend a look ;)