Month: July 2021
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DHR Sets the Fiscal Benchmark for Statue Removal
by James A. Bacon Let us all praise Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources. The department may be part of the culture-cleansing machine taking down historical statues and moving them to locales where they don’t offend people, but at least it is looking out for the taxpayer. The Northam administration, acting through DHR, made national news…
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Why So Much Vaccine Hesitancy?
by James A. Bacon Only a month ago, it seemed as if we were putting COVID-19 behind us. With the emergence of the super-virulent Delta strain, all bets are off. Even vaccinated people and virus-resistant school children are being called upon to start wearing masks. I have no set opinions on the proper course of…
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Out of Many, Weakness
by Donald Smith John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s press secretary, wrote that Stonewall Jackson’s temperament and personality reminded him of John Brown. Hay didn’t mean that as a complement. But he did have a point. Jackson was an eccentric. At times he looked silly — sucking a lemon, wearing a beaten uniform, losing control of his…
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Dazed and Confused: The CDC
by Kerry Dougherty Confused? Of course you are. Anyone watching the hair-on-fire ninnies at the CDC is dizzy by now. They lack common sense, their pronouncements are irrational, their messaging is bizarre. Oh, and they clearly have no idea what they’re doing. One day these “experts” are experiencing scary “feelings of impending doom.” Next they…
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If No Better Ideas Emerge, Go With These
By Steve Haner First published Tuesday by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. In 1972, a Virginia taxpayer needed a taxable income of $12,000 before the state’s maximum income tax rate kicked in. Adjusted for inflation, that threshold should be $78,000 today. There has been one adjustment since, to $17,000 in income before the…
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COVID and Labor Shortages Are Aggravating Virginia’s Mental Health Crisis
by James A. Bacon The story made big headlines earlier this month when the Northam administration announced that five of the Commonwealth’s eight mental health institutions have stopped taking new patients. Two things are happening to make a chronically bad situation worse. First, the number of patients referred to state hospitals through Temporary Detention Orders…
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What Would We Do Without Experts and “People Familiar with the Matter”?
by James C. Sherlock Headline: “The CDC is expected to recommend that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates, according to people familiar with the matter.” Einstein had it right. But, then, he went to in-person school.
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Hopewell Public Schools Blazing a Trail for At-Risk Children
by James C. Sherlock In 2015, over 2 million U.S. students attended school on year-round schedules every year in around 3,000 schools in 46 states. Half of those were in California, four-fifths in Western states. Hopewell school district joined them on Monday in the first district-wide implementation of a year-round public school schedule in Virginia.…
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Election Law Changes: Sept. 17 is Now Key Date
by Steve Haner If the current COVID-19 surge continues into the fall, and Governor Ralph Northam once again declares a health emergency, absentee ballots returned by mail will not need a witness signature. Now it will be by General Assembly fiat, not a judge’s order. That alone ought to motivate a bunch of hesitant Republicans…
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What? No Amendments Permitted to a $4.3 Billion Budget Bill?
by James C. Sherlock Del. Luke Torian, D-Woodbridge, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee in the House of Delegates, has announced that there will be no member amendments allowed for the budget that the governor sends down during the upcoming special session. Three things about that: Torian is the king of budget amendments. Look at…
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UVa, Wokeness, and Rooms on the Lawn
by James A. Bacon Once upon a time in a galaxy far far way, it was considered a great honor among 4th-year University of Virginia students to be selected for residence on the Lawn — the architectural heart of the university designed by Thomas Jefferson and now designated a world heritage site. The accommodations were…
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Recidivism: The Rest of the Story, Part 2–Explanations for Increase
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A previous post discussed how Virginia’s most recent recidivism rate was an increase over the prior year’s rate. The Department of Corrections (DOC) offers two major possible explanations for the increases in recidivism: more technical violators and more “jail-only” offenders. Technical violators. A recidivist who is a technical violator is someone who has…
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Wokeness at the Table
by Kerry Dougherty Do you wake up every morning wondering what mundane aspect of ordinary life will suddenly be declared racist and evil? Me too. Gird your loins, here’s the latest: Table manners. Do you teach your children and grandchildren good manners? You know, napkin on lap, elbows off the table and the proper use…
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What Is a Farming Landowner to Do?
by Jim Kindig My 3rd great grandfather came to Augusta County in the 1820s, cleared land and established crops on land that is still in our family. Several of my neighbors could tell similar stories. We love farming, but it’s a hard life. Incredible increases in productivity have kept agricultural commodity prices depressed for 80…
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Fredericksburg’s Tree Tyrants
by James A. Bacon I was driving up Interstate 95 to Fredericksburg one Saturday in April when I got a call from my mother. Pick up a rental chain saw on the way into town, she said. She wanted me to cut down a crape myrtle in front of her house. I knew well the…