Conservatives are the real campus radicals. While many leftist college students think that they are somehow countercultural, in reality, they are as conformist as a high school cheerleader. It's the easiest thing in the world to be some campus blowhard protesting the World Trade Organization. It's the young conservative who is swimming hard against the tide.

I can't tell you how much I love this story. Or at least the actions of the conservative students in the story.

As it happens, the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at Southern Methodist University decided to hold an affirmative action bake sale. According to the story:

A sign said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks.

Since, of course, universities are bastions of free speech, where flags can be burned and eggs can be thrown under the First Amendment, SMU stepped in and shut down the sale after 45 minutes:

A black student filed a complaint with SMU, saying the sale was offensive. SMU officials said they halted the event after 45 minutes because it created a potentially unsafe situation.

As it turns out, a number of students, including black ones, were incensed by the sale. Ironically, they seem to have taken offense at the obvious patronization of being charged only 25 cents for a cookie that cost others more. Yet few are offended by a lowered standard for college admission or employment.

I read Dinesh D'Souza's entertaining little book Letters to a Young Conservative a few months ago. I don't have it in front of me, but if I recall correctly, the plan for exactly this kind of bake sale was laid out there, along with some other eyebrow-raising events campus conservatives could do for fun and awareness. According to the news story, sales like this have happened on at least four or five other campuses this year.

Man, do I wish I had been mature and gutsy enough to have been a conservative in college. These guys are countercultural.