WHY WE FIGHT: The Berkeley City Council has banned log-burning fireplaces in new homes and other buildings, believing the warmth of wood fires comes at the cost of clean air. Jami Caseber, the Berkeley environmental activist who led the drive for the ordinance, calls it "the first step to controlling or curtailing residential wood burning." Caseber said he would have preferred restricting existing fireplaces, but the new law "was the best I could do" as a compromise with "conservatives."
Mr. Caseber's concept of "the pursuit of happiness" seems to involve telling other people what to do. He and his fellow mullahs, ayatollahs and commissars regard the concept of liberty as a quaint and tiresome curiosity. |