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I remember when then-Oakland City Manager made curbs on the sale of guns in Oakland a major priority; then Mayor and now AG Jerry Brown fired him.  Since then, Oakland's taken its collective eye off the ball of controlling gun sales.  And the lack of attention has been so severe that it's led to this article in today's Oakland Tribune  : OAKLAND — Seventeen-year-old Dominique Nubie stood on a West Oakland street corner talking about what matters in his life. "Guns "... everybody here has guns," he said, motioning around. Instead of the usual high school concerns about finishing homework or making the basketball team, Dominique worries most about survival in a neighborhood where many of his peers own guns. Oakland is teeming with guns. They're easy to buy, easy to steal and seen by some young men as a necessary possession in certain Oakland neighborhoods where to be unarmed means to be vulnerable. "If I got a gun, I feel like I can't be touc...

 Well four days ago I had this music in a dream then in my head I could not figure out how it got there. It was sci-fi like and could either be in a horror movie or a sci-fi flim. Then I saw the second Star Trek trailer, and it was that music. I kid you not. The second Star Trek trailer reveals a movie that will be a sure-fire hit. J.J. Abrams, who directed the movie and co-produced it, and his staff aimed for a mix of realism and Star Trek and hit it right on the money. I do hope we can see William Shatner in it, but I understand why he made this difficult -- he'll be sorry. But I hope he's in it with Leonard Nimoy.

Apparently Arab-Israeli aggressions are heating to boiling point in Berkeley.  The Daily Cal reports a Thursday night fight police may call a hate crime: A fight that broke out last Thursday in Eshleman Hall may be classified as a hate crime pending further investigation by police. Police said racial remarks were made during the altercation-a result of Palestinian flags that were hung from a second-floor balcony overlooking a pro-Israel concert-that may cause investigators to classify the fight as a hate crime. "We're looking into the possibility of it being a hate crime, based on the statements (made to police by) Palestinian students," said UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya. "Clearly these two groups have some conflict."

In what has to be the most unfortunate case of temporary insanity, Jing Hua Wu, who went berserk and shot three co-workers at the radio chip maker Si Port, is going to be arraigned in San Jose this Wednesday.  I certainly hope this is the only case of it's kind for a long as there's a poor economy.  Wu killed his fellow employees,  Marilyn Lewis, 67, of San Jose, the company's head of human resources; Brian Pugh, 47, of Los Altos, vice president for operations; and Sid Agrawal, 56, of Fremont, the company's co-founder and chief executive, after he learned he was going to be fired.    I don't understand why this father of three would do that, but as TechCrunch put it  , it's a sad day in Silicon Valley.  

This video of the Saturday, November 15th No on 8 Rally at Oakland City Hall was created by YouTuber marymactavish. I believe the speaker is At-Large Councilmember-Elect Rebecca Kaplan. (I was and still am out of town.) The passage of Prop 8 has caused a number of protests in California and around the country. Hopefully the initiative will be repealed in the courts.

I saw what is an interesting take on Blogging and how it's like an election campaign, and since we just experienced and participated in one, I thought it was appropriate. I found it at Problogger and it's by "Trish" of "Ideas for Women." I disagree that a Blogger should take a break, not that Bloggers should not, but one has to make sure there's a constant churn of information -- posts -- daily. I read somewhere -- I think here at Technorati -- that the most successful blogs had between four and 30 posts a day. That's work. Here's an excerpt: I followed this year’s U.S. presidential election pretty closely on T.V. and also volunteered for one of the candidates. Over I time I began to notice some parallels between running a successful campaign and a successful blog. I don’t plan to ever run for president - but I would like to have a more successful blog. I would also like to share what I learned and hope that it will be helpful to ...

THE OAKLAND SCHOOL district should fire the chief of its small police force for his abusive behavior caught on tape as he inappropriately detained an Oakland Tribune journalist during a student protest against immigration raids after striking her with his car. read more | digg story