Berkeley vs. Animal Rights Protesters: You're a Terrorist. No, YOU'RE a Terrorist.

Only a few weeks ago, Berkeley was embroiled in a controversy sparked by a city council letter that called local Marine recruiters "unwelcome intruders." Now the tables are turned, and animal rights protesters are aggressively targeting UC Berkeley professors who take part in vivisection. Can there be no comfortable middle ground for Berkeley? Insidebayarea reports today that the masked protesters show up at the homes of professors with bullhorns to denounce their actions, occasionally throwing rocks through their windows and breaking flower pots. Berkeley is seeking a restraining order against the protesters calling the animal rights activists "terrorists" and comparing them to al-Qaeda. Employing the I-Know-You-Are-But-What-Am-I defense, a San Francisco animal rights attorney fired back, "There are more similarities between the vivisectionists and al-Qaeda than there are with the vegan animal rights picketers." This tactic was employed in Salem about 400 years ago, and all it got us was a pile of dead midwives. Can no one in Berkeley write a nice letter to the editor? — Andy Wright