Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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What Happened to All the Water?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Mountain Lake in Giles County has two claims to fame. First, it was the location at which much of the 1987 hit movie Dirty Dancing was filmed. Second, it is one of only two natural lakes in Virginia. (Lake Drummond in the Dismal Swamp in Chesapeake is the other one.) However, the…
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Caves, Hokie Stone, and Crayons
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This year’s Virginia Geological Field Conference was held in Radford the weekend before Election Day. Like the one I attended last year in the Mt. Rogers area, it was an opportunity to go back in time as well as get a brief respite from the drumbeat of politics. The tenor of this…
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The Changes, They Are Here
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Now that the Presidential election is over, Virginians can do what we always do at this time—start seriously considering the next election. Jason Miyares has taken care of one big unknown; he has announced that he will run for reelection as Attorney General. For those of us who have been around Virginia…
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The Words of George Will
George Will is one of my favorite columnists. Although I don’t always agree with him, his arguments are well-constructed and laid out. And the man has a way with words that few others have. Combined with a dry wit, his mastery of the language can be devastating (and hilarious) when he targets someone. Hence, his…
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Surprising Results
by Dick Hall-Sizemore As explained by Todd Truitt in his well-argued article regarding the new school accountability system developed by the Virginia Dept. of Education, the state has posted a listing of how each school would currently score under that system if it were in effect today. (It does not go into effect until next…
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Who Cares?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore FROM THE SOAPBOX A New York Times news analysis outlines the sad condition of government and politics in the modern United States. Over the last two years, the Republican-led House of Representatives was essentially dysfunctional. A Speaker was ousted and a long, bitter fight ensued before a replacement Speaker could be elected.…
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An Expensive Test
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In one of the rare trials in Virginia for voter fraud, a Nelson County jury recently found a man not guilty. As reported by Cardinal News, on Nov. 4, 2023, Richardson Carter Bell voted early for the General Assembly and local races. On Nov. 7, Election Day, he went to his precinct…
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Immigrants: The U.S. and Virginia Need Them
(Last in a series of articles) by Dick Hall-Sizemore The United States, including the Commonwealth of Virginia, has a demographic problem. Luke Rogers, chief of the Census Bureau’s Population Estimate Branch explains,“The first Baby Boomers reached 65 years old in 2011. Since then, there’s been a rapid increase in the size of the 65-and-over population, which grew…
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Undocumented Immigrants: Responses to Objections
Third article in a series by Dick Hall-Sizemore The politicians raising the alarm about the large number of immigrants in the United States, as well as those trying to get in, cite several reasons for blocking their entry or deporting those who have gotten in. They are criminals. They bring in fentanyl. They are terrorists. They are a…
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Undocumented Immigrants: How Many? Who? How Do They Get Here?
(Second article in a series) by Dick Hall-Sizemore Immigrants are human beings. The Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian tradition declares that God created human beings “in his own image.” One of the founding documents of the United States declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed…
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Immigration: The Open Borders of the United States
(First article in a series) by Dick Hall-Sizemore “Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus How quaint! Today’s sentiments toward immigrants range from Donald Trump labeling them as…
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Election Obstructionism Comes to Virgina
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Two Republican members of the Waynesboro Electoral Board, a majority, have asked a court to declare the use of voting machines a violation of the Virginia Constitution and of state law. The constitutional complaint is based on the provision in the constitution that votes shall not be counted in secret. The electoral…
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Elon Musk Stirs the Pot
by Dick Hall-Sizemore They won’t let it go. On Oct. 6, Elon Musk reposted a tweet from November 2023 claiming that there was election fraud in Henrico County in the 2020 election. According to the tweet, “election integrity leaders” had discovered that, in ten Henrico precincts, more people voted than there were registered voters in…