A Question for Some Supreme Court Justices

Posted on May 2, 2024 by | 2 comments

I have a question for the originalists on the U.S. Supreme Court (Thomas and Alito) and textualists (Gorsuch):  Where in the Constitution does it say that the president is immune from prosecution (partial or full immunity)?–RWH

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At UVA, One Pro-Palestinian Protest Disperses, a Second Persists

Posted on May 2, 2024 by | 6 comments

by James A. Bacon

One of two pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the University of Virginia wound down around 5 p.m. yesterday without incident. Although the rally was marked by all-too-familiar anti-Israel chants and sloganeering, protesters dispersed at the scheduled time. A parallel demonstration, a tent-free “encampment,” continues this morning.

University officials set clear expectations from the beginning that university rules would be enforced. When a pro-Palestinian group erected tents Tuesday near the University Chapel in imitation of encampments at other campuses, university authorities quickly told them to take down the structures, for which they had not obtained permits. In other interactions, Police Chief Tim Longo personally engaged with protesters to inform them about university policy regarding trespassing and amplified sound.

“The protest activity near the University Chapel has continued peacefully and in compliance with University policy since it began Tuesday afternoon,” said University spokesperson Brian Coy. “Organizers have complied with requests to remove tents and other prohibited materials.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Education (higher ed)

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Congress Values Names More Than Housing for Service Members

Posted on May 1, 2024 by | 24 comments

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans

by Donald Smith

“Removing the last vestiges of Confederate history from the U.S. military, including renaming nine Army posts, will cost more than $62 million, a congressional commission said Tuesday.” 

That quote is from Alex Horton’s Washington Post article on the recommendations of the Naming Commission, dated September 13th, 2022. “For the base names,” wrote Horton, “the changes will require a complete overhaul for items big and small, from signs outside the main gates to the stamps used to process paperwork for new and departing soldiers.”

One year later, it was crystal-clear that the “Naming” Commission’s recommendations went far, far beyond changing some base names. (Recommendations which, apparently, Congress let pass unchallenged). By September of 2023, cranes had removed statues of Grant and Lee from Reconciliation Plaza, a memorial park gifted to the U.S. Military Academy by the West Point Class of 1961 to commemorate the reconciliation of Union and Confederate West Pointers after the Civil War. Cranes would soon show up in Arlington National Cemetery to remove the Reconciliation Memorial from the center of the Confederate cemetery in Arlington. And, across the nation, street signs were being pulled down, memorial bricks were being pulled out of monuments, software was being rewritten on classified and unclassified computer networks to reflect the new base names, etc. Undoubtedly, little-to-none of this was cheap. 

The Virginia Council, a Virginia heritage defense group created and led by WRVA talk show host John Reid, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of the Army, to see what the total cost of implementing all of the Naming Commission’s sweeping recommendations actually was. Some people I spoke with in the Army, who wish to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, think that the total costs could far exceed $62 million. 

Also in September of 2023, the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report on the quality of housing in military barracks. “In recent years,” the GAO wrote, “there have been concerns about health and safety risks in military housing and DOD’s management of its housing programs. Poor housing conditions negatively affect quality of life.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars, Defense and National Security, Federal issues, Politics

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CRT Critic Carol Swain to Speak May 15

Posted on May 1, 2024 by | 1 comment

Dr. Carol Swain speaking May 15 at the Cultural Arts Center in Glenn Allen. Purchase tickets here.

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Imagine a world where civil discourse triumphs over the divisive rhetoric saturating our daily lives. It seems this reality is slipping away, but amidst the chaos, one visionary offers a solution to the schism pervading our culture: Dr. Carol Swain.

Dr. Swain embodies the American dream. Born into abject poverty in rural Southwest Virginia, she grew up in a one-room house with twelve siblings, surrounded by chaos and hopelessness. Despite dropping out of high school, marrying, and becoming a young parent, her destiny took a remarkable turn with the encouragement of a few key individuals.

Dr. Swain’s journey saw her earning five degrees, starting from community college. With a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S.L. from Yale, she attained early tenure at Princeton and eventually a full professorship at Vanderbilt, excelling as both a political scientist and law professor. Today, she’s a sought-after cable news contributor, best-selling author, and national speaker, renowned for her expertise in critical race theory and higher education, cited three times by the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading →

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Unmask the Death-To-America Rioters

Posted on May 1, 2024 by | 22 comments

by Kerry Dougherty 

It’s time.

Time to burn the last foul-smelling remnant of the Ralph Northam regime.

Actually, it’s long past time to once again enforce an important part of the Code of Virginia: 18.2-422. “Prohibition of wearing masks in…any public place.

This law was active from 1950 until Northam the Awful – the doctor who forced Virginians to wear cloth bandanas on their faces in 2020 (he idiotically demonstrated how to tie a rag around one’s face) because he apparently didn’t know that homemade masks would literally do nothing to stop a virus.

Once the useless mask mandate ended in May 2021 there seemed to be some sort of agreement that law enforcement wouldn’t arrest the hypochondriacs who continued to wear them.

I realize that masks are de rigueur for rioters. Combined with an oversized keffiyeh they offer anonymity to the Hamas and Hezbollah wannabes. Take a gander at any footage from the nationwide campus protests and most of the anti-semites are wearing masks.

Look, the pandemic is over. There is no need for anyone to be wearing a mask in public. Especially not the Death-to-America crowd that’s rioting and trespassing on the grounds of Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University. Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars

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UNC’s Lee Roberts Gets My Vote for Best University President in America

Posted on May 1, 2024 by | 8 comments

At UNC-Chapel Hill the Palestinian flag comes down, the American flag goes up.

Hear the chants of “USA! USA!” I haven’t heard anything like that on a Virginia campus in quite a while. Maybe it’s time to become a Tar Heel.

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Posted in Culture wars

Amid Arrests on Other Campuses, Tensions Mount at UVA

Posted on May 1, 2024 by | 11 comments

by James A. Bacon

As a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments rolled across Virginia college campuses yesterday, university presidents held firm in enforcing rules governing the orderly conduct of protests. The day after Virginia Tech shut down an unpermitted “liberation zone” Sunday, arresting 82, Virginia Commonwealth University closed an encampment last night, arresting 13. At the University of Virginia, pro-Palestinian groups were ordered to take down their tents, erected before the main event today called for by protest organizers, but were allowed to continue their vigil.

Media reports indicated, however, that protests spread yesterday to Mary Washington University, where they had died down from a previous eruption, and to Christopher Newport University.

The Virginia protests were overshadowed in national media Tuesday night by resolution of the standoff at Columbia University, where New York police broke up a liberation zone and evicted students who had barricaded themselves inside a building.

If university presidents in the Old Dominion needed any stiffening of resolve, they got it from Governor Glenn Youngkin who, appearing on CNN Sunday, said, “We’re not going to have encampments and tents put up and yes, we will protect the ability to peacefully express yourself, but we’re not going to have the kind of hate speech and intimidation we’re seeing across the country in Virginia.”

After the knock-down of the encampment at VCU Tuesday, the main action in Virginia shifted to UVA. Continue reading →

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Beach College Weekend Was a Dud: The Good News & The Bad.

Posted on April 30, 2024 by | 12 comments

by Kerry Dougherty 

Talk about spinning until you’re dizzy, get a load of the local coverage of last weekend’s taxpayer-subsidized Audacity Oceanfront Concerts:

Describing the anemic “crowds” as “smaller-than-expected” The Virginian-Pilot added “That’s not to say those who attended didn’t have a good time.”

Oh please.

We, the taxpayers, gave the organizers of this dud $750,000 to bring the show to the oceanfront, plus an untold number of “in-kind-city services” in return for an advertising campaign showcasing Virginia Beach.

Judging from the virtually empty resort area last weekend even that p.r. offensive fell flat.

The organizers blamed the weather for the poor turnout, but there wasn’t a drop of rain, just chilly late April temperatures.

What happened was actually good news: it appears that Beach College Weekend, an annual headache for the Resort City, may have moved on. Continue reading →

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Posted in Economic development, Media

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A Creative New Way to Use Children as Human Shields

Posted on April 29, 2024 by | 18 comments

Stu Smith, producer of StuStuStudios, captured this video yesterday from the Virginia Tech encampment. University police were threatening to shut down the event for violating various university rules and protocols, and the pro-Palestinian demonstrators trotted out this precocious young militant to lead the mindless chanting.

“I’m not leaving,” sing-sang the tyke into a loudspeaker.

“We’re not leaving!” responded the crowd.

Undeterred by the pint-sized protester, Virginia Tech police shut down the event anyway, arresting 82 in the process, according to numbers released by the university. Fifty-three were students, according to the statement. It’s not clear if any were faculty. But it is a reasonable supposition that the vast majority of the 29 others were outside agitators.

Which raises warning flags for Virginia Commonwealth University, where protesters have set up a “liberation zone” and issued demands to the administration, and the University of Virginia, where pro-Palestinians have announced their intention to set up a liberation zone Wednesday, the day before exams. President Rao and President Ryan: how many outside agitators are heading for your campus? Continue reading →

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Give Me this Kind of Accountability

Posted on April 29, 2024 by | 10 comments

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Frequently, some commenters on this blog complain about politicians not being accountable and hold up the private sector as a model for accountability.  (For purposes of this discussion, we will ignore the fact that politicians have to go before the voters periodically and get reelected.)

Here is a recent example of accountability in the private sector, as reported in The New York Times. Over the last year the stock of Paramount has fallen 48 percent. The CEO did not pursue a possible deal that would have been lucrative for Paramount. The owner of a controlling share of the company is reported to feel that the CEO has not moved with enough urgency to get Paramount on firmer footing. She was unhappy with a long-range plan he had prepared and gave approval to three other senior executives to address the board of directors and express their misgivings about the direction of the company.

Today, Paramount announced that the CEO was stepping down effective immediately. In other words, he was fired.

But there is no need to shed any tears for him. He won’t need to file for unemployment benefits. Reportedly, “he is entitled to a severance package of $50.6 million, with $31 million of that in the form of cash for the two years after his employment is terminated.” Yep, that is some accountability.

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Posted in Business and Economy

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Virginia Tech Cleans up Encampment. UVA Faces Similar Test.

Posted on April 29, 2024 by | 57 comments

by James A. Bacon

Virginia Tech arrested two dozen or more students Sunday night while dispersing an “encampment” similar to other anti-Israeli protests spreading around the country, according to media reports.

The gathering of several hundred people on the lawn of the Graduate Life Center was “not a registered event consistent with university policy,” Tech officials stated in explaining its actions.

“Given these actions by protesters, the university recognized that the situation had the increasing potential to become unsafe,” the university statement said. First, protesters were asked to disperse voluntarily. Then university police approached those who did not comply, warned them that they would be charged with trespassing, and asked them again to leave. At 10:15 p.m., police gave protesters five minutes to disperse. Those who remained were subject to arrest.

Tech President Timothy Sands deserves kudos for handling a difficult situation in a firm but restrained manner.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan likely will face a similar test. Left-wing groups at UVA have announced a May Day event Tuesday (April 30, the day before May Day) on the Lawn to show commitment to “Palestinian Liberation.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed)

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Souped Up on the Mountain

Posted on April 28, 2024 by | 18 comments

En route from visiting my grandson in college in Kentucky, I stopped at Breaks Interstate Park.   I will save a discussion of the park for another post, but, in the meantime, this vehicle was parked at one of the overlooks.  I immediately thought that WayneS, one of the active BR participants, would appreciate it.

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Whoops.

Posted on April 28, 2024 by | Leave a comment

I accidentally published a working draft of a profile I’m writing about John Reid, host of the WRVA radio talk show. It was far from ready for publication. I have taken it offline until I can finish. My apologies. — JAB

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Jeanine’s Memes

Posted on April 28, 2024 by | 48 comments

From The Bull Elephant

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Bacon Meme of the Week

Posted on April 27, 2024 by | 2 comments

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Posted in Bacon and Pigs

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