ROCK ON UCB ACTIVISTS!!!!!

UCSB needs to follow.

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Berkeley Students/Activists Disrupt John Yoo Class
reposted from youth and students - drive out the bush regime

This week, Berkeley's Daily Cal reported; "about 15 UC Berkeley students and activists protested next to Boalt Hall yesterday, blaming Boalt professor John Yoo for a controversial prison torture memo which critics have said paved the way for mistreatment of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib."

World Can't Wait Organizers at Berkeley called for this urgent protest action exposing and denouncing John C. Yoo for his illegal, immoral, and perverse legal opinions which have directly contributed to the torture being carried out by U.S. military personnel at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other undisclosed locations.

Organizers burst into John Yoo's class with activists dressed in orange jumpsuits worn by Guantanamo Bay torture detainees and one activist was dressed as a U.S military soldier praising and thanking Yoo for allowing him to torture people. Yoo fled the scene and it caused a ruckus in the class. Many students gave cheers, while other complained that protesters were disrupting a class they were paying for and they owe them for ruining the last 5 minutes of their time.

A Berkeley organizer responded, "there's a lot of concern about the disruption of studies, but my own studies are being disrupted when I can't sleep because I dream about what the world is like". Student organizers around the country will continue to challenge people standing on the sidelines as the Bush Regime continues to commit unthinkable crimes against humanity and call on them to be on the forefront of launching a movement to drive this regime from Power starting Nov.2nd.

Check out the Daily Cal at this weblink:
http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=20154

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Nov 2: World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime

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THE WORLD CAN'T WAIT! DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME! MOBILIZE FOR NOV. 2ND

Here we are in the final days before launching the movement that will mark the beginning of the end of the Bush Regime. All progressive people and organizations must be involved in building this movement. This Regime under the leadership of George Bush is putting in place a theocratic superstructure based on their literal translation of the bible. Those in the way have been silenced, forced from power, and even imprisoned without Due Process. Muslims, Gays, Blacks, and People with HIV/AIDS have been demonized by this regime, in some cases even exterminated as in Iraq, the victims of Katrina, and the replacement of AIDS education and condoms with prayer and abstinence only programs. Science and concerns for the environment have been replaced with lies and visions of rapture as predicted in the bible. Women, once again have may have to resort to back alley abortions and coat hangers, because Bush thinks an egg and sperm is more valuable than a woman's right to choose.

As we speak, events at the White House are unfolding - indictments, resignations, and accusations. We can't rest on our laurels expecting these events to bring down this Regime. People who steal elections and believe they're on a mission from God will not go without a fight. We can be certain that the replacements of any of those indicted will be representatives of the same agenda. This is a time to be even more determined in our demand, we must take advantage of any vulnerability that these events create within the ruling structures.

The actions on Nov. 2nd are planned in over 60 cities across the country including high schools and colleges in many of these cities. Our call is to leave work, leave school, and make history. In NYC the plan is to meet at Union Square at noon, rally with speakers and artists until 2pm, than march to Times Square. All along the way encouraging people from the sidelines to join in. Our voices will resonate through the nation as we in our thousands speak for and to the millions that hate this Regime and everything it represents.

Don't stand on the sidelines; don't stay in school. Join this movement, the stronger we are on the 2nd, the stronger the movement will be after the 2nd. Send this email to your friends, your elists, and everyone you know that wants to change the direction this country is being led. The future of the planet depends on our action now. Check out the web site at
www.worldcantwait.org.
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GORE VIDAL: "As the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 were stolen so, with 8 years to prepare, 2008 will perhaps be the last such election, ending the republic unless that 70 percent who are beginning to grasp just what is going on join together in a popular movement dedicated to ending pre-emptive wars and restoring the nation to its traditional tax base which repaired levees, educated the citizenry and at regular intervals repaired the wall that Thomas Jefferson wisely put in place to separate church from state. Join the demonstrations this Wednesday, November 2, to launch a movement to drive out the Bush regime. For the location nearest you, see www.worldcantwait.org."
CINDY SHEEHAN on November 2: "It makes a lot of difference. We cannot let them continue to make us believe that our voices don't make a difference. It's not just coming out once on November 2, but it's over and over and over again. It's really important for a lot of reasons: to show the media we mean business, to show our government we mean business, to show the world that not all Americans are robotic idiots. It's really important not to sit on your couch and think that I can't make a difference because one person can make a difference."

HOWARD ZINN: "I'd like to express my support for the plan to have nationwide protest by students on November 2nd, protest not just against the policies of the Bush administration, protest against the war, but against the general direction which our country has been moving in for some time, a direction which the Bush administration has moved faster on, more fanatically on than any previous administration. By that I mean that the country has been moving towards a militarized country, a country bent on expansion abroad and on the curtailment of civil liberties at home, the direction which the country has been going is a direction which is disastrous for the ordinary people of this country. Because what it means is that the enormous wealth that we have in this country is going to be expended on military adventures abroad, on expansionism, is going to be diverted into the pockets of the super-rich in this country and the rights of people to health, to housing, to education, to employment, those rights are more and more being diminished. And it seems to me that we are at a historic turning point in this country where we will need to turn the country in a different direction if we are not going to be headed towards collapse and disaster."

Sexuality down to the gene splice

I found this article amusing. Lesbian fruitflies. Haha, that's a new thing. Much like queerness these days eh? Dangerous conclusions for scientists to narrow sexuality down to a gene.

That Oh-So-Natural Fruity Feeling

By Patrick Letellier, AlterNet

Did you hear the one about the lesbian fruit fly? She walks into a bar and the bartender says, "What can I get you?" And she says ...

OK, I'm making this up. I don't know what a lesbian fruit fly would order (peach schnapps?), but this much is true: scientists announced recently that they've documented homosexual behavior in fruit flies -- girl on girl action, to be specific.

Seems after just a wee bit of gene splicing, and a Barry White soundtrack playing, the female creepy-crawlies of the species try to get it on with other females.

Before you say, "Eew, gross" or "Who cares?", hear me out, because believe it or not the antics of these dykey fruit flies are being linked to homo behavior in us homo sapiens. And like anything else remotely hinting that gay sex may be -- egad! -- natural, this has right-wingers absolutely frothing.

As announced in a recent issue of the scientific journal Cell, two neurobiologists at the Austrian Academy of Sciences made slight genetic "manipulations" in some female fruit flies, inserting the male version of one gene into the brains of these teensy creatures. They apparently hoped to create a super-strong, crime-fighting Six Million Dollar Fly, but instead ended up with k.d. lang-like female flies that act just like males during courtship: they gently tap virgin females on the legs, play songs on their wings for them, and, when that seems to go well, they lick the females in all the right places. And that, says a New York Times science writer, is "all part of standard fruit fly seduction."

Besides legions of lesbian fruit flies serenading willing virgins, what does this study reveal? "We have shown that a single gene in the fruit fly is sufficient to determine all aspects of the flies' sexual orientation and behavior," said lead investigator Barry Dickson.

Uh-oh. Careful, doc. Talking about genes and sexual orientation in the same sentence is dangerous in these right-wing, ultra-religious, gay-marriage-is-evil times we're living in.

Predictably, trouble started when another scientist linked the fruit fly study to fruity humans. "The whole field of the genetic roots of behavior is moved forward tremendously by this work," said Dr. Michael Weiss, chairman of the biochemistry department at Ohio's Case Western Reserve University. "Hopefully this will take the discussion about sexual preferences out of the realm of morality and put it in the realm of science," Weiss told the Times.

Well, as us non-scientific types like to put it, FAT CHANCE, BUDDY!

But Weiss was undeterred. "I never chose to be heterosexual: it just happened. But humans are complicated. With the flies we can see in a simple and elegant way how a gene can influence and determine behavior."

Yep, he said it: sexual orientation is neither a choice nor a moral issue, and, with fruit flies at least, genes affect complex sexual behavior.

This is not rocket science, I realize, since most people recognize that genes affect a whole host of behaviors, human and otherwise. But to say that sexual orientation in humans has genetic roots is to remove the ace holding the conservative, anti-gay house of cards in place. Because if, like race, sexual orientation is an innate characteristic, then the widespread and mean-spirited prejudice directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is revealed to be just that. And Americans, as a whole, don't go in for prejudice of any stripe.

Now you ask, reasonably enough, who cares about a bunch of fruit flies? Conservatives aren't really going to jump all over this, are they? Ah, my naive grasshopper, let us look at the news release from that stalwart of the right wing, Focus on the Family. The fruit fly study has been "hijacked by pro-homosexual journalists," Focus declares. It "doesn't tell anything about humans," says psychologist Warren Throckmorton, of Pennsylvania's Grove City College, who offers this insightful gem: "Fruit flies don't date, go to bars, go to church -- there is no way you can make the leap."

Uh, thanks for that clarification. In case you're still tempted to rush out and buy a "Flies Are People, Too" bumpersticker, Focus further reminds us, "Fruit flies don't have fantasies, wishes, hopes, dreams or any of that."

All I can say is, when the far-right is sternly lecturing us about the emotional life of lesbian fruit flies, you know we're on to something.

Patrick Letellier is a journalist living in San Francisco, a city full of creatures great and small. Read more of his writings at PatrickLetellier.com.

Elmo, Mr. Incredible Arrested In LA...

This week's big WTF moment. I didn't know you can get arrested for "aggressive begging". Is that when Elmo chases after you begging you to tickle him?

Elmo, Mr. Incredible Arrested In LA...

The Wall Street Journal | Posted October 24, 2005 09:25 AM

Last Wednesday, the furry red Muppet named Elmo learned that Hollywood Boulevard is a long, long way from Sesame Street.

In plain sight of children and tourists, Elmo -- or at least, a man named Don Harper in a knockoff Elmo costume -- was arrested here by the Los Angeles Police Department. Elmo was taken down by a special task force created to combat a growing nuisance in the Hollywood tourist district: famous costumed characters who try to be photographed with tourists and sometimes badger them relentlessly for tips.

LAPD officers, posing as clueless foreign tourists in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, also busted Mr. Incredible, the superhero from the animated hit "The Incredibles," as well as a man dressed as the villain from the "Scream" movie franchise. All three icons were arrested and could face charges ranging from illegal vending to aggressive begging.

Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions

Daaaamn. Real World: MARS. Now transmitting human pettiness and drama-rama not only all over Earth but all over the galaxy!

Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions

Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers.

NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2018 and later on to Mars. But a round-trip mission to the Red Planet would probably last at least 30 months and carry six to eight people. That would be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, says a report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

"With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality," says Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an author of the report. It reviewed NASA's plans for research to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space – but the plans make no mention of sexual issues in spaceflight.

Palinkas says long-term space missions may be similar to extended periods in the isolated and confined environments of Antarctic research stations. He says crews in those stations often pair up in "bachelor marriages" that last the length of their stay – or less. "If there are instances of sexual conflict or infidelity, that may lead to a breakdown in crew functioning," he told New Scientist.