There are quite a few interesting things about this incident.

The first is that there are still Republican students and a Republican Club at Stanford these days.

The second is that involves a male college student filing assault charges against a female one, for pushing him in the chest during a political discussion.

The third—and to me the most surprising thing of all about it, by far—is that the male student, president of Stanford College Republicans, is apparently Susan Rice’s son.

As far as number one goes, I’m surprised mostly by the fact that Republican students are brave enough to come out into the open and reveal themselves, in the current university climate.

As far as number two goes, of course females sometimes assault males. But there’s a stigma against a male filing charges unless the assault leaves visible injuries. Even then, a great many men would just keep quiet about having been assaulted. Women are used to having their pushes and shoves and hits ignored as being of little consequence, because of their lesser physical strength. Of course, a woman can do great damage and even kill when armed with any sort of weapon. But even with just her hands, an assault is an assault is an assault and women should get used to the fact that if they assault a person it ought to be treated exactly the same as it a man had done it.

As for number 3, I think the reason for my surprise is probably obvious. I would love to hear the story of how John Rice-Cameron came to be a Republican, and an activist Republican at that.

NOTE: I had no sooner written the above post, and its last line, when it occurred to me that I could easily look it up. And here’s the answer to my question:

John David Rice-Cameron can trace his conservative roots to his middle school years. Back then, his father would often have talk radio on during rides home from school or tennis practice.

“Sometimes my dad would listen to Rush Limbaugh and he would kind of argue with him,” recalls Rice-Cameron, 20, a sophomore at Stanford University. “I just found myself agreeing with basically everything Rush Limbaugh was saying.”…

… despite his parents’ political leanings, “they believe extensively in debate and engaging the other side and exposing people to different viewpoints,” he said.

Well, good for them.