Moonbats on the March!

Well, our move is nearly complete, and I see that the forces of insanity have been very busy.

The campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz has been particularly active, students having seen fit to keep the world safe from on-campus military recruiting during a recent job fair there. The Solomon Amendment, passed in 1996, but unenforced by the Clinton administration, requires universities to grant to recruiters access equal to that accorded other employers. Failure to comply requires the withdrawal of Federal funding to the campus.

UCSC Chancellor Denice D. Denton, whose lordly salary would seem to be justified only by the acquisition of substantial funding for the campus, has apparently done nothing to correct this disgraceful behavior on the campus. Hired in 2004, at a salary reported by the Santa Cruz Sentinel as $275,000, Chancellor Denton said: "I want to find a way to bring in the resources to take Santa Cruz to the next level." Can this be what she meant?

Santa Cruz county is admittedly not among the more conventional places in the country, even allowing for some of the stranger behaviors in California. Still, this recent action brings the traditions of the UCSC campus to a new low. A taste of the local coverage can be seen on the web site of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Their opening sentence sets the tone:

"Dozens of UC Santa Cruz student and faculty anti-war activists launched protests in the rain Tuesday morning outside a campus job fair, prompting military recruiters inside to retreat from the event."

Sam Aranke, a second year student at UCSC, offered this:

"It's not just about the action today, it's about creating sustained movements that directly resist the militarization of our communities..."

Anyone who has visited Santa Cruz, much less the UCSC campus, would be hard-pressed to imagine what "militarization " has so concerned Mr. Aranke. Santa Cruz is a community that works hard to preserve its image as a throwback to '60's radicalism, a town where tie-died clothing is still considered chic, and where successful campaigns have been held to keep out such subversive influences as McDonald's from the city center. There was much moaning and wailing when their efforts failed to keep Borders Books from setting up shop, a few years ago.

The city council is determined to place on the November ballot an initiative to set a minimum wage in the city of $9.25 per hour. Subject to automatic indexing, this is expected to pass easily, given the university domination of the local political scene. UCSC is the largest employer in the county.

Once again, we see the proud actions of a small group of moonbats (reportedly some 100 or so students on a campus of about 15,000), who may now have jeopardized the continued availability of Federal funds -- reportedly $80 million for last year. (Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.)