KSCO Santa Cruz's Noon Balloon!

I was a featured guest on a local radio station this afternoon.

After the David Horowitz lecture, I was approached by a man (we'll call him 'MZ') and he told me that he was a radio host at KSCO Santa Cruz. I gave him my name and phone number, and he called me this afternoon and asked if I'd like to come down to the station and be a guest on his show from 12-2.

I obliged, as I love speaking in public (I really do, even if I am a recluse/survivalist in the making). The show concerned political indoctrination of the general student body, as well as harassment of conservative students like myself and what it's like to be a political minority at the UC. An acquaintance of mine (we'll call him 'Hank') was also a caller on the show, and it was good to hear from him.

'Hank' said that what little funding we received from the school was only acquired with a couple weeks' worth of arm-twisting: asking around, filling out forms, and waiting. Most of the money came from the Young America Foundation, a conservative organization that spends a good deal of time and money supporting conservative organizations on university campuses across the US. Now on the other hand, we have "ethnic organizations" receiving all sorts of financial support from the University. I guess that's because the University figures "hey, those people are of different ethnicity and ancestry! Whoa, hold on! They must be WAY different!" Never mind 18-25-year olds as a whole tend to listen to the same types of music (whatever shitty indie bands they heard about on Youtube or Myspace), drive the same kind of cars (the Prius their parents paid for, or maybe the BMW their parents paid for), and display very similar trends in fashion and appearance (whatever they see in the Urban Outfitters or American Apparel display window, and I can't forget the iPhone - the one thing that differentiates the airheaded hipsters from the people with at least a cursory grasp of financial wisdom). Throw race or ethnicity into the mix, and *BOOM* - you get "diversity". Never mind that a vast majority of the students are Obama voters who consider restrictions on lawful firearms owners' rights/non-binding talks with openly belligerent and autocratic regimes/raising taxes on the people who already "contribute" 50% of this nation's tax revenue to be sound policy. Whose ox is being gored here, eh?

Speaking of Obama, is it really all that healthy for university students to have such a collective hard-on for him? I mean, they act like he's the Messiah in a secular context.

Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment - this was the time - when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. [I don't know whether to laugh or cry.]

That is, if you unquestioningly vote for him and don't bother objecting to any of his policies. Dissent is only patriotic when Republicans are in power.

Now I know why college kids love the Obamessiah. He appeals to all that ingrained collectivist drivel they've been hearing in all of their classes - if you just vote for him, "all your wildest dreams will come true." Thank you, Pedro. I can sleep soundly at night knowing that you'll save us all from the evil oil companies, gun owners, white racists, Republicans, and business owners. That way we'll realize that Islamic terrorists are just good people at heart who have been misunderstood, and that they only videotape decapitations and blow up buses because of political grievances that the racist imperialist West have caused. We'll realize that taxing rich people really can bring benefits. After all, they have enough already as they'd otherwise just sit in their offices counting their gold and cackling with glee as they drink the blood of African children from wine glasses made of pure diamond.

The radio show was a lot of fun. We had a guy fax in some complaint about the station's hosts and callers. *cue lots of silly accusations about "hate speech", "conservatives", "bigots", etc.*

Hey, get this - whose fault is it if only conservatives call in on a non-partisan radio show, where the hosts encourage EVERYONE to call in and share their ideas on a topic? YOURS! If you high-and-mighty leftists are getting so butt-hurt about a radio station, call in and see if you can hack it in front of people like me! Quit your bitching and put your money where your mouth is. What's that quote you guys are always putting on your bumper stickers? "Be the change you want to see in the world" or something like that, right? You guys do an awful lot of complaining without action for a group of people who like to consider themselves "activists". Maybe you should look into putting an 'armchair' on the beginning of that. The caller tried to bring up how a privately-funded station with a majority of conservative callers is "intimidating", but I promptly asked him to think about how a conservative like me feels about expressing my own beliefs at a PUBLIC university that is dedicated (on paper) to "free speech and inquiry". I told him to switch "conservative" with "leftist" and "radio station" with "university".

Which is more damaging to society: a radio station that features a majority of conservative callers but in no way rejects leftist callers, OR a high-ranking public research university that makes it nigh-impossible for conservative groups to obtain funding and a location to host a speaker and a collective of leftist students and faculty that actively creates an intellectually and politically hostile environment for those opposed to their monopoly of thought?