school's still in

If this keeps up, maybe I'll just enroll. Something I never really grokked 1966-70: Berkeley is really a beautiful campus. The fresh spring air, I find, is even nicer without the tear gas. The coeds (I suppose they're still called that) are yet more beautiful, in their halter tops and jeans skirts, than the Blue Meanies of the Oakland Sheriff's Department, with their azure jumpsuits (I wouldn't use "azure" to their face), smoky riot shields and black truncheons. No doubt the protest years were unique, stimulating, inspirational. I realize now, as I walk the wide paths near the Life Sciences Building in the cool air, that it would have worked wonderfully just as, you know, a college.

Amazing what an "all-volunteer army" will do. We faced the draft and a meat grinder called Vietnam. It concentrated the mind wonderfully, reminded us that we were, after all, the parties with "standing" to raise a ruckus. That we'd better do it ourselves, since if we didn't, who would? History, I submit, has proven us correct. The narcoleptic American society of 2006 just lets it all happen. We blog about it, we read other blogs about it, but mostly, if Jamaal and Jose want to toss in the wrench at Jiffy-Lube and give military life a spin -- hey, dudes, nobody made you. It's the Pentagon's private affair, and they've got their own mercenaries to enforce America's business plan.

But such thoughts weren't really on my mind as I stopped by the Free Speech Movement Cafe for a decaf cap. Or capp. See how cosmo I've gotten? I didn't know that when I was an undergrad. Of course, I didn't know anything. Over to Benjamin Ide Wheeler Hall for Day Two of the China-USA Climate Change Forum. I just had to hear Amory Lovins, the "soft energy paths" guy of the Rocky Mountain Institute. As a bonus, there was Peter Schwartz of Smith & Hawken, formerly a rocket scientist (literally - studied fluid dynamics), formerly at SRI, formerly everything. Essentially, he and Amory are brilliant for a living. I didn't know what Amory would look like, but I should have known. Nebbishy, thick black walrus mustache, glasses, balding, designer/nerd shoes, short, abrupt, supremely confident. When he was done with his half hour, you really wanted to ask: where's the problem? Let's get on with these carbon composite cars that get 111 mpg running on switchgrass booze and move on to the next thing! Why was Inez Fung, the Lawrence Berkeley Absolute Whiz on all things globally warmed so bummed yesterday? Why did she begin her talk on the science of climate change, which she commands with a mastery Michelangelo brought to that church ceiling -- why did she say she was "worried. Very worried"? Amory to the rescue!

Maybe it was because of something Peter Schwartz said. There were two people left in America who aren't sure about global warming. Unfortunately, they're George Bush and Dick Cheney.

So for two days in a row, I'm left scratching my head. How, exactly, did we get in this predicament? The problem is real, the solutions are not only here, but exciting! capable of reversing America's balance of trade problem! fun! interesting!

And on the news, a car bomb exploded in Baghdad, killing 8 and wounding 15.