Category: Uncategorized
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Car Tax Redux
The Fifth Dimension Beckons Once More by Gordon C. Morse There’s a “sign post up ahead.” Planet car tax looms before us. Once again, we’re on a journey to a wonderous land whose boundaries are only that of imagination. Jim Gilmore -– a cosmonaut of the first order — launched this trip in 1997, when…
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Pathetic Gloating Over Stoney’s Loss
by Paul Goldman This trashing of Levar Stoney’s over his loss should be a cautionary tale to Democrats and commentators. Is everyone becoming infected with the Trump gloating and belittling disease? One of the most damaging aspects of the MAGA crowd is the joy they take kicking people when they’re down. Indeed, they take so much…
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Storm’s Coming. Where’s FEMA?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore At his press conference in the Virginia Emergency Operation Center last fall in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, Gov. Glenn Youngkin introduced “my newest best friend”—the representative from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (The “best friend” comment can be found at the 13:15 mark in the video.) When a major disaster…
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A New Outbreak of Covid-19 Hysteria
by Carol J. Bova The Covid-19 pandemic may have faded from public consciousness, but controversy over how best to fight the virus rages unabated. For the week ending, June 7, 2025, The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reported Covid-19 was responsible for 0.3 percent of emergency room visits — compared to 0.2 percent for influenza…
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UVA Board Passes Status-Quo Budget for 2025-26
by James A. Bacon Fending off a bid by fiscal hawks to cut spending on administrative overhead, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors Friday approved a $5.8 billion operating budget for 2025-26. The sum covers $3.3 billion for the UVA medical center and $2.5 billion for academic operations in Charlottesville and Wise. The board…
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How Youngkin Can Help the GOP Win This Fall
by Paul Goldman Governor Glenn Youngkin says he’s a team player. He desperately wants the Virginia GOP ticket to win this fall. That’s why his backers say he pointed out the risks of nominating John Reid for lieutenant governor. Without a lie detector test or some magical discovery, there’s no way to know whether this…
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DEI for Conservatives?
by James A. Bacon Defenders of the higher-ed status quo don’t dispute the imbalance of partisan and ideological views in college faculties, a reality that is so well documented that there is no sense in pretending otherwise. Rather, they’ve adopted a rhetorical gambit to put their critics on the defensive — painting them as hypocritical…
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Kernels
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Chicken Tacos, Please Many Virginians, including this writer, have been warily following the financial markets and their investment portfolios as President Trump’s tariff policies change almost daily, seemingly on a whim sometimes. They should be encouraged by a term coined, as reported by the New York Times, on Wall Street to describe…
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Chipping Away at the Rule of Law: Scott Jenkins Edition
by James A. Bacon From time to time, I highlight the bad behavior of Virginia elected officials as warnings that the public must remain ever vigilant in protection of honest government. These days, I can’t keep up. Wrongdoing has become so widespread that I could make it the subject of a blog all its own.…
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Warned Again of Energy Shortfalls, Democrats Again Pretend to Care
By Steve Haner Here we go again. As the 2025 election year heats up and warnings rise about electricity shortfalls this summer, the legislators behind Virginia’s coming ban on hydrocarbon electricity are pretending they see the problem. A May 22 headline out of a recent legislative meeting on energy claimed that “Democratic leadership signals willingness…