Free Speech Movement Advocate Dies

Staff / Truthdig Mar 20, 2010 A veteran reformer of higher education, an unparalleled Chaucer scholar and an early advocate of the 1960s free speech movement, Charles Muscatine has passed away at the age of 89 in Oakland, Calif. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Scientists Uncover New Risk Associated With Thirdhand Smoke

Staff / Truthdig Feb 9, 2010 If anyone needs another reason to stop smoking, here it is: Researchers are turning their attention to the effects of "thirdhand smoke," the layer of icky residue that lingers on clothes and in living spaces after cigarettes and other tobacco delivery devices are snubbed out (continued). Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Torture’s Best Friend: An Interview With John Yoo

Staff / Truthdig Dec 29, 2009 The New York Times picks the brain of John Yoo, who compares George W Bush to Abraham Lincoln and says "It was my job" to write the memos that sought to legalize torture Yoo now teaches at the University of California at Berkeley, of which he says: "I remind myself of West Berlin surrounded by East Germany during the Cold War" (continued). Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

‘A Bomb in Every Issue’

Staff / Truthdig Oct 10, 2009 A new book on Ramparts Magazine, "A Bomb in Every Issue," marks the significant contribution of the alternative San Francisco-based publication that gave a viable and legitimate voice to 1960s radicalism. Check out the NYT's review of it here. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Power of Invisibility, Brought to You by the U.S. Military

Staff / Truthdig Aug 10, 2008 The infiltration of American universities by the military is nothing new, but this is: Scientists at UC Berkeley are zeroing in on a way to render people and inanimate objects -- which could include weapons and combat vehicles -- invisible. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Stopping the War Machine: Military Recruiters Must Be Confronted

Ron Kovic / Truthdig May 28, 2008 As a former United States Marine Corps sergeant who was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam on Jan. 20, 1968, I am sending my complete support and admiration to all those now involved in the courageous struggle to stop military recruitment in Berkeley and across the country. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Torture’s Poet Laureate

Staff / Truthdig Apr 2, 2008 A recently declassified memo shines the spotlight once again on John "Take Them to the Point of Death" Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor and once deputy legal counsel in the Justice Department. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

‘Daily Show’: Marines Need Not Apply in Berkeley

Staff / Truthdig Mar 25, 2008 When the Marines decided to set up a recruiting office in Berkeley, they didn't realize what they were up against. Or maybe they did. Either way, "Daily Show" correspondent (and former Marine) Rob Riggle confronts his deep-seated hippie rage to get the story. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

A Study in the Rhetoric of George W. Bush

Staff / Truthdig Jun 1, 2007 In his commencement speech to the class of 2007 at UC Berkeley's Department of Rhetoric, author Mark Danner gives the new graduates a crash course in Bushian rhetoric (not quite on par with Aristotle's celebrated canon) and dubs Bush the "first Rhetoric-Major President." (Note: Article courtesy of Tom Engelhardt at TomDispatch.com.) Dig deeper ( 22 Min. Read )

Hedges Debates Hitchens

Staff / Truthdig Jun 1, 2007 Those Truthdig readers who are following the Chris Hedges vs Sam Harris exchanges on our site may be interested to read that Hedges subsequently faced off with atheist author and provocateur Christopher Hitchens for a debate in Berkeley about religion and politics Also, check out this funny and insightful interview with Hitchens. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Berkeley Voters to Weigh Bush Impeachment

Staff / Truthdig Jun 29, 2006 The City Council of the left-leaning Calif. municipality voted to put the question to citizens on the Nov. 7 ballot. It's symbolic, of course, because only Congress can impeach. And although some cities, like San Francisco and Oakland, have passed pro-impeachment resolutions, Berkeley will be the first city to directly ask its voters to decide. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )