SUNY day...

Now this story is truly sad and disappointing.

As folks in Madison, Wisconsin, are accomplishing something positive by conducting one of the biggest demonstrations in modern American history, New York's state university system - SUNY - is dominated by a contingent that prefers to whine and selectively defend lawbreaking.

Several years ago, right-wing state lawmakers all over the country adopted a gimmick in which they'd introduce "academic fairness" bills that they said would combat alleged liberal bias at state universities. But they always abandoned the effort before the bills could pass. That's because they knew universities had no liberal bias and the bills would actually hit conservatives harder if they passed. By submitting these bills, they were just grandstanding and trying to make people think leftists dominated higher education.

But stories like this make me wish their bills had become law, because then we might be able to chip away at colleges' right-wing tilt.

An unsigned article distributed by a SUNY newspaper is demanding that the state drug-test welfare recipients. The piece admits that this policy is unconstitutional - and that it was ruled so when Michigan tried it - but endorses it anyway.

Plus, although the piece says that it "cannot condone illegal drug use by any individual", it doesn't thunderously condemn it either - just as long as the person abusing drugs is financially secure enough to not need welfare. But when the poor do it, it's a different story.

Look, I think the War on Drugs is a joke, a fraud, and a failure. But let's at least be fair here. If the poor are attacked in a university-funded article just because a small percentage abuse drugs, why aren't the rich and middle class assailed just as vehemently? Rich folks who do drugs face less condemnation in this article than poor people who don't! What makes people with more money so special? And why does this article cry about taxpayers funding welfare when this article is itself distributed at taxpayer expense? A little hypocritical, isn't it?

If a university accepts taxpayer dough, shouldn't it agree not to try to advance a political agenda? Especially one that it admits flies in the face of the Constitution?

Make no mistake: We're at war with extremists who hold the Constitution and the values of a free people in contempt. This war has been ongoing for years. But usually they're a little more adept at not letting the mask slip.

We know SUNY's anonymous gatekeepers of political debate have no desire to find real solutions, because they squandered a perfect chance to do so. I guess that would be no fun. By contrast, I have found solutions. I endorse legal recognition of the right of everybody of full age to hold a job - and to not have their job shipped overseas. Which would do more to cut the welfare rolls? Punishing welfare recipients for crimes they didn't commit, or making sure everybody has a job?