"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven." - Matthew 6:1

"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men." - Matthew 6:2

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." - Matthew 6:5-6

"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. -Matthew 6:16-18

You don't have to be Christian (which I'm not) to see the underlying theme here.  Either Jesus was a very shy person who hated trumpets or those who make endless pronouncements of their unbelievable awesomeness at being totally awesome aren't always the most awesome. 

Ok, yes, I could use some help on my Biblical interpretation.  But I still think that there is a key secular relevance to all these phrases from the Sermont on the Mount and our "Sacred Grove" Kabuki Theatre.  And it ain't "wash your face, hippies," because we all know that ain't happening!

Continue reading this post »

via www.puppiesandflowers.com

Dear San Francisco Chronicle,

This is an open letter from just a single reader who goes by the name of TwistNHook on an unimportant blog you've probably never heard of.  I can only speak for myself.  This is what I want to say.

Continue reading this post »

(Ed Note:  More media from the Grove when CBKWit was up there last Wednesday, i.e. D-Day.  Enjoy!)

If we here at CGB have learned anything this week, it's that Cal football fans love hippies.  Our visit and comment numbers have been fine since we moved to SBN, especially for the dead summer period, but it took a bunch of hippie warriors with vaguely sexual aliases to really bring some traffic to our site.  It's the Jennie Finch/Allison Stokke phenomenon, but apparently you readers are more attracted to the earthier type.  2 days of 1,000 plus visits?  4 threads with more than 100 comments?  Thank you hippies!  (But if you don't think half of these numbers are Twist hitting F5 every 10 seconds, you're crazy).

More eye candy for you perverted bastards.

Well, I'm pretty sure this post is going to shatter our previous records.  Not only will it have lots of hot hippie pics, but we've got 4 totally uncensored videos with only the hottest, naughtiest hippies!

To answer your question: Yes, that is indeed our favorite long bo, being waved with a pair of pants (?) attached as some sort of display of solidarity/surrender.  The evolution of the use of this single bamboo staff is, to me, one of the most compelling stories of this entire ordeal.  It's gone from a hypothetical defensive tool to a walking stick to a sad display of hippie pride.  And yes, it will become something else entirely, in a video to follow.

Continue reading this post »

via www.scicomp.ucsd.edu

"Wait, what?  The Alameda County Court website is working slightly slower than usual?  Ok, everybody click on it right now, this could mean something!  But, I'm going to lay here a little longer.  I'm tired."

Oh, the week that was.  Honestly, this week has been so crazy I can't remember a time before it began.  I have heard of a before before time when, in the hazy mist of the past, we discussed our thoughts on UCLA.  But I can't get verification on that.

On Saturday, CBKWit and I went deep undercover into the heart of darkness.  I ended up doing Dane Cook shtick and I felt so dirty afterwards.  But the dirt just isn't coming off!  We met our dear friend with the long bo, Martial Art Mask Maker.  He's like Donatello, but he probably doesn't have Half-Shell Turtle Power.  Lord knows I do!

Then, nothing happened on Sunday.  LAME!  I hate Sunday SO much right now!

On Monday, Ryan Anderson broke all of our hearts by following about his rational self-interest.  Why must you live your dream, Ryan?  What about my dreams, Ryan?  What about them?

On Tuesday (aka XMas Eve), the "Storm Troops" "raided" the "sacred" "grove."  We were first introduced to our love-interest, Dumpster Muffin.  Our man was on the scene, describing in extreme detail just how dreamy Ms. Muffin truly is.  Uh, maybe that detail was a bit too extreme.  She has been living in a tree for the last unknown amount of time, afterall.

Then, Wednesday.  It was like the JFK assassination and moon landing all wrapped up into one day.  Except not fake.  You'll be able to tell your grandkids years from now where you were when you first heard the media irresponsibly reporting on the Judge's ruling.  "Yes, sonny boy, I remember that each network was worse than the last.  I just broke my hip!" 

It got sort of wack-tastic that day.  And that twenty minute time span when all looked lost, that was the sort of shared experience that never goes away.  It'll haunt us to the end of our days.  We all asked ourselves, "Could GreyBear really have been so wrong?  Could everything we'd heard really been so off?"  

The answer, thankfully, was no.  OakTownMario and Danzig led us through an in depth legal analysis of the 128 page ruling.  If only Buzz Bissinger were still alive today to read it.  "A blog?", he might say, "Producing in depth legal analysis?  But the Chronicle inserted the word "sacred" into a supposedly objective caption!??!   That's the newspaper way!  That's the way it should be""

Then, on Thursday, we were back through the rabbit hole.  Ayr gave a press conference.  As compared to Air, which continues to tour France, supplying those cheese-eating surrender monkeys with sweet, sweet jazz music.

It was the week that gave us Dumpster Muffin.  It was the week that gave us "Save The Oaks:  Overthrow Capitalism."  It was the week that gave us "Carolyn Jones," not to be confused with Carolyn Jones. 

Finally, a hearty thank you to the Judge for releasing the Order at 6 PM on Wednesday, ensuring that hundreds and hundreds of people checked the site repeatedly all hour, every hour, well into the evening.  Our advertisers thank you greatly!  Except for NewsMax.  They would never thank a bunch of crazy Berkeley hippies, like us!

Oh and can't forget Brent Musburger.  I know I never will.  GO BEARS!

Honestly, I don't have any idea how much the stadium is worth.  I don't even have a ballpark (ha!) figure.  But in the wake of yesterday's ruling, pretty much everything rests on answering that question.

After reading yesterday's ruling, I came away with the feeling that UC won on pretty much every point of contention, and while that is the case, it's not enough.  We're not keeping score here -- UC has to do more than just win the most arguments.  In a conversation overheard at the grove yesterday, a PHA representative described the voluminous CEQA objections raised by the petitions as nothing more than 'gnats in front of UC's face', side issues used as 'distractions' and as 'delay tactics'.  There wasn't much merit to many of these issues, as Judge Miller attests in writing page after page of her ruling, striking down each argument with ease (and what I read as overtones of annoyance).

No, the really important issue, as the PHA representative pointed out, the one issue that could potentially kill the whole project, was the valuation of the stadium, and it was on this issue that UC lost a couple of key points.  First of all, UC contended that the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act (A-P) didn't apply to them.  Personally, I felt that this was the weakest point of UC's argument, and Judge Miller evidently agreed, ruling that, in fact, A-P did apply to UC.  (I think UC also knew that this was a weak argument, but if they had won this point, the rest of the case would have been basically moot.  Hey, if you're stuck in court anyway, you might as well swing for the fences!)

Continue reading this post »

It has been a crazy few days up in the grove; while we at CGB don't really need to use YouTube Thursday as filler material this week, I think we can all use a little wisdom via Brent Musburger.  Enjoy!

Things are starting to calm down here at Calsylvania.  We all woke up this morning with the uninhibited glee of a Christmas morning.  Then, we got coal in our stocking for like 36 of the least productive hours of our life.  Things got a bit wacky in the open threads near the end of the workday as it appeared nothing might be emerging.

Then, it went South fast.  NBC was reporting this.  ABC was reporting that.  Rumors of people having read the opinion were rampant.  Tree-sitters were cheering.    And we all took it at face value, even though it seemingly came all from that PHA guys wild and crazy imagination (the project is about as dead as the ironic mustache in "certain coffeeshops in the Mission").  All seemed lost.  Texts, calls, emails and carrier pigeons of despair were flying about.  Then, we started to read it.  And read it.  And read it.  Things didn't seem so bad all of a sudden.  Looking past the shallow veneer of the Carolyn Jones and PHA Dudes of the world, Cal was maybe rocking out with a wide variety of its appendages out.  Maybe.

That's where we are now.  Danzig has been helpfully posting his thoughts and analysis in helpfully titled sections like Biological Impact, Native American burial site, and Hippies Deserve Swift Kicks To The Behind.  And OakTownMario is working on his own level of analysis, which should hopefully be good.  And I'm working on figuring out a series of Married....With Children references to tie in to this whole thing.  Right now, I'm thinking of calling the tree-sitter's God Pod "Wanker County."  I'll work on that, don't worry.  Don't worry.  I've got a whole NO MA'AM thing ready to go.  I said don't worry!  So, stop worrying!

Plus, (plus!  there's more!) CBKWit was at the grove today in the afternoon and has photos and stories.  Ragnarok was/is out at the grove tonight and will have some information on how things were when the ruling was announced and what happened afterwards.  When I called him on the phone, he said he was two feet away from the PHA guy.  Scary!  Will he lives to tell the tales?  Or will he be crushed under a cubic ton of spin. 

Many people might think that this is the end, but it's just the start.  A whole lot of content is on its way around here, so don't change the channel.  But hey, feel free to relax, rest up, and put that one hand down your pants.  You worked hard selling women's shoes today, you deserve it.

[Edit by Ragnarok:  Big thanks to Ken Crawford , who put the ruling together in a PDF (found here:  StadiumRuling ) so we don't have to tediously click through all 129 TIFF files...]

Because the previous thread got too long and too slow... here's another one.  Post away....

Well, first we went deep undercover on Saturday at hippie training.  Then, on Tuesday, we had our man on the scene as the process of bringing the tree sitters down began.  He'll back taking photos and collecting stories today.  But there's a lot more going on than just taking down (potentially) the tree sitters and the trees.  Let's use this as an Open Thread to discuss a)what's going on at the grove and b)the Judge's ruling, which comes out today. 

And please, post any photos and stories from the grove from today or yesterday, people!  Big day today, people!  Historic times!  GO BEARS!!!!

You didn't think the hippies would let all that planning go to waste, did you?

Twist and I leave them alone for 48 hours, and look what happens.  They come back in even greater numbers and wage an ingenious counter-strike on UCPD and the arborists.  And by counter-strike, I mean they stood around and ate outside of the the two fences and row of police officers.  (By the way, "arborists" are also known as "tree surgeons".  Thanks Wikipedia!)

Yes, it's clear the police are extremely threatened by the subdued, hungry hippies.  Note the cop sitting on the stone wall.

Continue reading this post »