The Daily Show can hardly be described as a fan of conservative causes, but correspondent and U.S. Marine Rob Riggle turned in a beauty on Monday when he covered Berkeley’s efforts to ban Marine recruiting from the city:
Highlights include:
From a hippie near what looks like Telegraph Avenue:
Berkeley is a bastion of liberal thought and the Marines are just the opposite.
From another hippie on what looks like Telegraph Avenue:
I kinda felt like how the Iraqis felt. Like we were being occupied.
An exchange between Riggle and a Code Pinker:
Code Pinker: It’s very important to protect free speech. And so we clearly have a right to be here.
Riggle: If only there was an organization sworn to defend that free speech.
Code Pinker: Wouldn’t that be great?
Riggle: That would be outstanding.
Another exchange with the same Code Pinker:
Code Pinker: Wars in general would stop if we didn’t have weapons. Just like violence in our streets would stop if we didn’t have weapons.
Riggle: So if we got rid of the police we wouldn’t have crime?
Code Pinker: Potentially.
That last exchange reminded us of this Center for American Progress op-ed on what would happen if the U.S. left Iraq:
The prevailing doomsday scenario suggests that an American departure would lead to genocide and mayhem. But is that true? Iraq today belongs to Iraqis; it is an ancient civilization with its own norms and tendencies. It is entirely possible that in the absence of a cumbersome and clumsy American occupation, Iraqis will make their own bargains and compacts, heading off the genocide that many seem to anticipate.
