Author: James A. Bacon
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Beach School Board’s Clown Show
by Kerry Dougherty It’s tempting to call the latest shenanigans by the Virginia Beach School Board a clown show. I probably shouldn’t, though, since that insults the proud tradition of clowning and implies that there is something humorous about the board’s ham-handed attempts to circumvent open meeting laws and its quiet determination to infect the…
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Yes, Virginia, There May Be Alien UFOs — Off Your Coast!
by Bruce Majors If you spend any time on the internet, you will almost daily see geographical rankings: the best colleges, the best small towns, the best places to retire, the cities with the worst drivers, the states with the worst tippers or the rudest residents. Apparently whoever or whatever is behind the UAPs (the…
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Craven UVa Board Cancels More History
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia Board of Visitors took another big step in purging its “white supremacist” past by voting Friday to take down the statue to George Rogers Clark. The Clark statue, critics say, perpetuates “the myth of brave white men conquering a supposedly unknown and unclaimed land.” The cost of…
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UVa Affirms Commitment to Free Speech… at Least in Theory
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia Board of Trustees has voted to approve a statement affirming the university’s commitment to free expression and free inquiry. “All views, beliefs and perspective deserve to be articulated and heard free from interference,” states the Statement of the Committee on Free Expression and Free Inquiry. “Free and…
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Southwest Virginians Rebel Against “Defund the Police” Rhetoric
by James A. Bacon Southwest Virginia, long the most consistently “red” in its voting patterns, has become downright scarlet over the past year with the switch of three county sheriffs from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. The most recent of the three defectors, Sheriff Chip Shuler of Smyth County, filed a formal membership…
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Why the Need to Slant Stonewall Jackson’s Legacy?
by Donald Smith If you were asked to describe Stonewall Jackson in just a few words, what would you say? Apparently the Washington Post would say — an enslaver of six people. Ian Shapira, a member of the Washington Post’s Metro section, is the paper’s most prolific writer on the ongoing controversy at VMI over allegations of…
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W&L Board Keeps Lee in University Name
by James A. Bacon In a 22-to-6 decision, the Washington & Lee Board of Trustees voted today to keep the Lee in its name. There is no consensus in the W&L community regarding the name change, said the board in a statement. But the board explicitly repudiated racism, apologized for the university’s past veneration of…
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Independent Higher-Ed Governance in Virginia Is Dead
by James A. Bacon A special review board appointed by Board of Visitors President John Boland will study the recommendations contained in the Barnes & Thornburg investigation into racism and sexism at the Virginia Military Institute. The reviewers will report back to the Board of Visitors before its next meeting scheduled in September. Among its…
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COVID-19 Killed the American Work Ethic
by Kerry Dougherty Sometimes nothing will lift a kid’s mood like a McDonald’s Happy Meal. On Tuesday I was running a raft of errands with a 5-year-old strapped into the back seat. As it crept past lunchtime and she was clearly starving, I saw the blessed Golden Arches. While we idled in a long ribbon…
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Progressives’ Justice: Criminalize Small Business, Descriminalize Theft
by Hans Bader Progressive “reform” prosecutors want more criminal prosecutions of businesses for red-tape violations and so-called “wage theft,” and fewer felony prosecutions of criminals for stealing from businesses and homeowners (such as shoplifting, which some progressive prosecutors have essentially stopped prosecuting, resulting in an explosion of shoplifting). Prosecuting “wage theft” was one of the…
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The Fix Was In: Burying the Athlete Issue
by James A. Bacon Ascertaining the state of race relations is a tricky task in these politically polarized times. The job is made all the more difficult at the Virginia Military Institute by a factor that exists few other places: tension between athletes and other students. Athletes enjoy exemptions from participation in parades, inspections and…
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Vicky Manning: Tuesday’s School Board Meeting Was Illegal
by Kerry Dougherty There was an empty chair at Tuesday’s Virginia Beach School Board meeting. Not that the public could see. It appears the meeting wasn’t televised. That seat should have been occupied by Vicky Manning, one of a handful of good government types on that alarmingly woke body. Manning refused to attend because she…
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The Fix Was In: Use and Abuse of Survey Data
by James A. Bacon The Barnes & Thornburg final report into racism at the Virginia Military Institute has done its job of generating loads of negative headlines about the military academy. “Run by White men, for White men,” seems to be the most quotable quote. Predictably, there is no evidence that a single reporter read…