And yes, the world is going to hell in a handbasket....

It's the news. All from today's Chron:

Cramped speech at UC Berkeley- Teacher warns 'conservative thinkers'

"At UC Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, a graduate teaching instructor who is a leader in the pro-Palestinian movement on campus has incited a nationwide controversy by trying to control the tenor of discussion in his class.

Snehal Shingavi, 26, a fifth-year graduate student in English, who will be teaching an undergraduate English class on "The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance," in the fall included in his class description a "warning" that "conservative thinkers are encouraged to seek other sections." Students who are required to take the reading and composition course can choose from a menu of classes covering different "

"The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian Resistance"?

I must of missed all that when I was an English Major. Too busy reading Shakespeare, Chaucer and Fitzgerald.

I know Berkeley's a state school, but somebody's paying for that crap. If it's not a parent, it's tax-paying me.


But, wait, it gets bettter, way better. I hope your not drinking something while you read this because your computer is about to get sprayed on:

Quayle's role models-Osbournes 'dysfunctional' but better than Murphy Brown

Although you have to read the full story to appreciate the sheer level of....of....absurdity, here's a few snippets:

" Ten years after he came to San Francisco to vilify single mom Murphy Brown as an agent of moral decay, Dan Quayle has found a TV character he can applaud -- Ozzy Osbourne.

The former vice president vigorously defended his decade-old condemnation of single parenthood Thursday and its glorification on television. He added "Friends" and "Sex and the City" to his list of offending shows and boasted that many politicians -- including Democrats -- had joined his moral crusade.

Yet when he was asked about MTV's hit series "The Osbournes," which documents in "real TV" format the bizarre daily life of the former Black Sabbath lead singer and his family, Quayle was eager to display his hipness.

"You have to get beyond this sort of dysfunctional aspect," he said of the Osbournes, whose expletives are bleeped out but whose frank discussions of alcohol, sexuality and body odors are not.

"You have a mother and a father involved with their children. And from the one episode I saw, they were loving parents," Quayle said.

Too many jokes to make. Too funny for too many reasons.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Is it that Ozzie is now being praised by Dan Quayle? Has Quayle ever heard Black Sabbath? And if so, God, I would so of loved to have seen that. Or is it just that somebody's actually still paying attention to Quayle?

Oh fer fucks sake. It's just too much to. Too fucking much....

And on a sad note, there's this:

North Beach to miss deli, Panelli twins

North Beach, one of the city's most zesty and colorful neighborhoods, is about to lose a little of its flavor.

This sad news comes by way of the Panelli brothers, Richard and Robert, who recently decided to close their family's dynamic delicatessen after 82 years. And to say that people are unhappy about it would be an understatement. There's been enough salty tears shed in the neighborhood to boil a generous portion of pasta.

When I lived in North Beach, I went to that deli a lot. Usually on Sunday's cause Molinari's was closed. Although their sandwhiches were never as epic as Molinari's, they were still pretty darn yummy. I loved going to place, though, because of what it was- a family run business. When I went there, all three generations of Panelli's would often be found behind the counter, the 9'ers game on the tv. As they made their sandwhiches and took customer's orders, all they'd do was just completely bust on each other, giving each other shit for whatever was going on that they felt like giving each other shit about. Sometimes they'd even include the customer in on the joke, explaining as you'd sit there why it is that their son was so stupid or why the father was such a dork. It was all done with such love and affection that I'd just sit back and listen, not caring how long it would take for them to make my sandwhich. Half the fun of going there was just that, to sit back and listen to the daily comedy routine that began everytime an order was made.

Oh well. Sorry to see another great SF place close down. There seems to be too many stories like that these days.