Bacon's Rebellion

Fellow bloggers, help me out. The rash of “social” legislation during the current General Assembly session has created a strong impression on me. Is Virginia getting more culturally conservative?

Virginia is part of the Bible Belt, of course, and I know the history of the blue laws and gambling restrictions and all that. But within the past 30 years or so, the political center of gravity seemed to shift decisively towards a more libertarian, live-and-let-live philosophy. Virginia never embraced a liberal, nanny-state agenda (except in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, which are the southern-most cultural extension of the Northeastern U.S.) During the Allen and Gilmore administrations, cultural conservatism expressed itself in more broad-based concerns such as the war on crime and reforming welfare. Now, it seems, the focus has shifted to highly symbolic culture-war issues — prayer in schools, sex on campus, sartorial regulations, etc.

One possible explanation: The electorate is getting more conservative, and the changing preoccupations of legislators reflect that shift. Another possible explanation: Having won the big legislative battles of the 1990s (Virginia is now tough on criminals and shows tough-love to welfare moms), culturally conservative legislators are retreating to the more hard-core issues because that’s all they have.

I don’t know the answer. I’m just inviting your observations.

Voting 9-6, a Senate committee today defeated Delegate Dick Black’s ‘fetal pain’ bill after medical experts testified that administering pain-killers to a fetus could endanged the life of the mother.

Many of the good-governiks who write for Bacon’s Rebellion have pointed out the deleterious effects of gerrymandering on Virginia. Some would say the problems are on display in Capitol Square right now.

There’s an anti-gerrymandering movement gaining a small head of steam in California. The Golden State often leads the way for the nation on “reform,” for good or ill. Mickey Kaus of Slate reminds us that the California initiative bears watching and we should follow the motives of those who support or oppose the current redistricting process.

Mickey cites two Stuart Taylor articles on the subject that should be required reading for any who would debate the issue, here and here.

Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor at Slate and, if I’m not mistaken, a Charlottesville area resident, has a good analysis of the church-state issues raised by a recent Staunton School Board decision. The board has allowed a program of religious instruction for elementary students to continue. Here’s the rub:

Several Staunton parents—many of them new to an area often described as “Virginia’s Bible Belt”—have come to feel that their children should not have to choose between being evangelized or ostracized on public school time. Their bonus yuppie spin on all this: Taking time away from regular classroom instruction disadvantages all of the children on the state standardized testing regime, as well as on meeting the requirements set out by No Child Left Behind.

Lithwick is one of my favorite writers, whether I agree with her or not. Her Slate coverage of the Supreme Court is both learned and entertaining.

The Senate Finance Committee today gutted the House of Delegates proposed billion dollar transportation package in a move one observer described as a ‘bitch slapping.’

The Senate Courts Committee this afternoon killed Delegate Dick Black’s bill that would have required adoption authorities to ascertain whether prospective adoptive adults had ever engaged in homosexual behavior. There was no vote. The bill died for lack of a motion. Or lack of emotion. Or lack of interest. Or of boredom. There just seemed to be very little support for this….zzzzzz.

As expected the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon killed a proposal by House Republicans to finish implementation of the car tax cut by phasing out the remaining 30% over the next six years. The move leaves intact state reimbursement for the locally-imposed property tax at an aggregate of $950 million annually. At present, that amount covers approximately 70% of the tax for the average affected car owner. The commitee action comes two days before House and Senate budget conferees are expected to begin negotiating differences in the respective proposals.

Vince Callahan (THE chairman)
Lacey Putnet (Senior member, 44 years, token ‘Independent’. Wink. Wink.)
Kirk Cox (Herr Ideologue)
Leo Wardrup (Fearless old salt, UNC graduate)
Phil Hamilton (Token Centrist. For real!)
Johnny Joannou (Has chip implanted in his head to receive messages from the Speaker.)

On page 1A above the fold and on page 1B (Metro) The Washington Post does it again today. Instead of helping citizens understand how to overcome congestion and lack of mobility, they spend prime media exposure and resources on the funding of transport facilities.

Nowhere do they indicate that building new roadways or rail extensions will only make congestion worse on a regional basis unless there is Fundamental Change in human settlement patterns. That is true no matter how the facilities are financed.

No new roadway, toll or not, and no new rail extension, no matter how funded, can be “built around” or “bypass” congestion. The reason is that the root cause of immobility and lack of access is a dysfunctional distribution of travel demand.

EMR

Prolific Chris Graham over at the Augusta Free Press is reading the fine print of an economic development announcement. I don’t think the powers that be want anybody doing that.

Oh, and is it just me, or is Del. Chap Peterson the AFP‘s darling?

Is this really a safety measure, or a clever way of discouraging hunting by taking all the fun out of it?

While Arlington and Loudoun Counties roll in dough, Bristol appears to be seriously hurting.

Update: Norm Leahy over at One Man’s Trash has some suggestions for Bristol.

In a little-noticed piece of legislative sleight-of-hand today, members of the House and Senate amended General Assembly rules in a manner that gives them until midnight Wednesday, Feb. 16 to agree on state spending (the budget bill), but two additional days, until midnight Friday, Feb. 18 to identify where the money comes from! What’s the signal? The spending side is seen by the players as relatively easy, a scuffle could be shaping up on the revenue side. At least it’s going to take longer to hug and kiss. Whose ox gets gored? Stay tuned! If Friday deadline holds, conferees likely will begin cutting and pasting minor differences Saturday. A programming note: they changed the rules today. Can do same thing tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. Read all about it: see HJR 944 (patron is Griffith). You read it here first.

Unfortunately our conservative Virginia is becoming the ultimate nanny state.

We covered the droopy drawers bill ad infinitum—enough said on that. Today The Washington Times reported on the following caretaker bills:

• A bill to fine drivers $250 for showing X-rated videos in their vehicles if passersby or other motorists are exposed to them
• A bill to require libraries that receive state funding to install Internet filter systems on their computers that will prevent children from being exposed to porn websites
• A bill making it a misdemeanor to fondle oneself in public
• A bill that bans “up-skirt” photography

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor and support all these initiatives. But do we need to create laws for just about everything? What comes next, codifying common sense and good manners?

Becky Dale, a Virginia FOIA savant who wears the Bacon’s colors and writes out of this stable, rounded up–as an independent study project–a collection of E. B. White’s New Yorker pieces while completing her MA in English at VCU. The collection was published by HarperCollins in 1990 as ‘E. B. White: Writings from the New Yorker 1925-76.’ So yesterday, I get home to find this week’s New Yorker, the 90th anniversay issue, and therein a splendid profile on White by his step-son Roger Angell–a long-time New Yorker scribe himself. White wrote mostly short stuff and children’s books–notably ‘Charlotte’s Web’–but is probably best known as the re-write genius of William Strunk’s ‘The Elements of Style,’ famously referred to now by devotees as simply ‘Strunk and White.’ It is to simple, declarative, active-voice writing what the Old Testament is to the Bible. A slender volume–I’d guess less than a hundred pages–it has been a whiskey-drinking-frame-of-mind companion to me for 35 years.