The University of California needs to hear from you

You may have seen this video of brutal treatment inflicted on peaceful demonstrators by the University of California campus police.

Fortunately, there is a way to respond.

The University of California has a system to report and correct behavior that is counter to the values of the university.

Welcome to the University of California's systemwide intolerance report form.

The University of California's Principles of Community are grounded in our mission of instruction, research and public service. We value diversity, affirm the inherent dignity of every person and uphold communities of justice. We strive for a campus and a world free of discrimination, intolerance and hate. We are equally committed to freedom of expression, critical inquiry, civil dialogue and mutual respect.

If you experience or observe behavior that is inconsistent with our Principles of Community, please report it.

If you know of any instances of intolerant or violent behavior on campus you might want to report it using their handy online form.

My description of what I witnessed:

On November 18, 2011, a large group of armed men menaced and attacked a group of unarmed students sitting in the Quad. The mob were carrying firearms and other lethal weapons. Without provocation the mob discharged chemical weapons at a number of unarmed students, although the students had made no threat of violence and posed no danger to any person.

Based on the clothing and insignia worn by the mob, it is possible they were members of the campus police force.

The bias involved was apparently the desire of the armed mob to suppress unpopular political opinions on campus.

The university promises me that they will investigate my report and get right back to me:

Thank you for reporting your concern. The information you provided will be treated with sensitivity and addressed as appropriate. If you provided your contact information, we may contact you directly. If not, please check back on your report in 2 weeks to see if we have any questions or follow-up information for you.

Your Report Key: 2577753955

If you are aware of any incidents of bias, intolerance, or violence on one of the campuses of the University of California perhaps you would like to let the university know about it. After all, if they aren't aware of the problem they can't fix it, right?

Looking like the real thing

Is Scott Brown afraid of Elizabeth Warren? He should be.

Sure, we know all about Scott Brown. He defeated perhaps the weakest candidate for U.S. Senate since Jack McMullen, who ran for Senator from Vermont from his vacation home and lost the Republican primary to Fred Tuttle, a man with such a thick Vermont accent that they needed to run subtitles even when he appeared on the radio, but Brown was the beneficiary of an even worse candidate. That was, of course, Martha "What do you expect me to do, stand outside Fenway Park and ask people to vote for me?" Coakley.

Scott Brown has all the qualifications for Senate--he's posed naked in a magazine and he owns a pickup truck--but he may find Warren a bit more of a challenge.

At the beginning it was tempting to see her as merely an academic, or, as the latest dirty word in the Republicans' vocabulary, a technocrat. She is showing us, though, that she has the goods to get out there and campaign.

Exhibit A is the video of her talking about the nature of wealth and success in this country. It was great reading the transcript, but it's phenomenal when you see it.




Then we also saw pictures of her recent volunteer rally. Very impressive that she was able to motivate such a big crowd of volunteers.


Finally, just last night, she had to contend with a deranged heckler from the Tea Party who called her a "socialist whore".

Her response:

“I actually felt sorry for the guy. I really genuinely did,” Warren later told the Huffington Post. “He’s been out of work now for a year and a half. And bless his heart, I mean, he thought somehow it would help to come here and yell names.”

She also added: “I’m not angry with him, but he didn’t come up with the idea that his biggest problem was Occupy Wall Street. There’s someone else pre-packaging that poison — and that’s who makes me angry.”

As I say, she can handle herself, and I think she's a problem for Naked Scott.

This seems kind of big

We've already seen the board of Ben & Jerry's come out in support of the Occupy movement, but that's pretty much to be expected, since they're all a bunch of communist hippies anyway.


I've never seen anything political come from the management of Men's Wearhouse, but today is different. In their Facebook page today, here's what they said:

We closed our store near Oakland City Hall today, for one day, to express the company's concern for the issue of wealth disparity in our country. The issue affects our employees and customers across the political spectrum.

Could it be that concerns for wealth disparity and the engineered unfairness of the national economy are going mainstream?

"You're gonna like our politics. I guarantee it."

Government benefits

At a discussion board I go to, City-Data.com, a conservative posted the following query:

Liberals, have you ever been helped by Gov't?
This question is for all those who consider themselves liberals who support Big Government: Have you ever received government assistance? Which programs?

My spouse and I have been poor most of our lives, but not ONCE have either of us ever qualified for a single government assistance program. We didn't have kids, we ALWAYS took whatever job was available (even the military, when we graduated in the middle of yet another major Recession), and even today we live like paupers--except for the house, which we wrongly thought was better than losing savings to no-interest and currency devaluation.

We also cannot save nearly enough for our retirement because our tax burden is insanely high. Two professional jobs, in the peak income years--aka Cash Cow for Government. After taxes and cost of living, we just about break even. When our health prevents continuing these 80-hour workweeks, we're up the creek without a paddle. And guaranteed, the governments that have been bleeding us dry will then say we're on our own.

Knowing the finances of Social Security and Medicare, and as part of the generation that is denied Social Security until age 67, I have no doubts that neither I nor my spouse will ever get a penny back from that program either.

I probably would be more supportive of the idea of Government stepping in and providing a "safety net," if I didn't know that there is NO safety net for responsible people like me.

There are a lot of responses to it. Here's mine:

I won't go all the way back to the day of my birth, but just a few highlights of government benefits that have helped me include:

I went to Catholic grammar school and high school, but my grammar school was located on a road paid for and maintained by the government. When I went to high school I traveled into New York City every day over government-built roads, crossed the Hudson River by means of the George Washington Bridge or the Lincoln Tunnel, both of which were built by the government, and then took public transit to get to my school. I regularly spent time in the government-operated Central Park while at school, and during the indoor track season I would have practice and meets at the 103rd Engineers Battalion Armory, now known as the Armory Track Center. Sometimes during the outdoor track season I would run in meets at Randalls Island, a stadium built with public funds; to get there I would travel across the Triborough Bridge.

I went to a public college and a public law school. Both universities were funded in large part by tax dollars, and my law school student loan was subsidized by the federal government. On occasion, while I was away at school, I traveled by airplane back and forth to my parents' house. Those airplanes would land at publicly built and financed airports, and they were enabled to land safely by the publicly operated air traffic control system. While in law school I lived in married student housing, which was also built and operated in part by the use of public funds. I also worked at Little Caesar's Pizza both as an undergraduate and a law student; the stores depended on public roads to get supplies and ingredients and to make deliveries, and the owners were able to deduct my pay from their taxes.

I have worked in employment that is in part funded by public funds. I have raised two sons, both of whom went to public schools and public universities, although one son graduated from a private college. When I want to communicate with them I might send them an e-mail or visit them on Facebook, made possible by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, or I might telephone them over wires put in place by operation of eminent domain.

I have owned three houses, one of which I still own. I am able to afford it in part because I can deduct the mortgage interest and property taxes that I pay. I can get to and from my house and to work on roads funded by the government. I don't worry about crime or fires because I am able to rely on my publicly funded police and fire departments. I also know that I can accumulate savings because the federally financed Securities and Exchange Commission is able to maintain a reliable, market for private and public securities.

When my parents were sick and dying I never had to worry about whether we could afford their care because they had medical coverage supported in part by the Veterans Administration and Medicare. They were able to receive treatment from professionals whose training was subsidized by the federal government, and who were licensed and regulated by their state government. That's how other members of my family and I get medical care, too.

I could go on, but I think I'll stop at saying that anyone who doubts that the receive benefits from the government is a fool.

I do know one other thing: if I were in the top 1% instead of in the bottom 99%, the list of benefits I get from government would be a lot longer, and the value and price of those benefits would be a lot higher.