A friend far more plugged in than I to the scene in Berkeley warned me Friday to stay away from campus and downtown Saturday, starting at 5.  A demonstration was being planned, she told me, and trashcans were already being removed from the streets so as to prevent them from being hurled through windows. Absolutely nobody but people living in a dream world expected there to be no violence. And sure enough, after the sun went down and a brief interval passed, I heard the sound of helicopters whirring over Berkeley (where I have lived nearly 3 decades just a bit beyond a stone’s throw from campus), a sure sign that major police and media resources were being deployed. Live in Berkeley long enough, and you soon learn to gauge the Helicopter Index, first calibrated 45 years ago*, when then Governor Reagan deployed helicopters to tear gas the violent so-called “Free Speech Movement” (oh the irony! The last thing the Left today wants is free speech. Speech codes are...(Read Full Post)