Bacon's Rebellion

  • The Risk of Offshore Turbine Blade Failure

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image: Idaho National Laboratory Creative Commons

    by David Wojick

    On July 26, CFACTโ€™s President Craig Rucker sent Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin a letter warning him about the serious risk of blade failure in the giant offshore wind facility being built off Virginia. The warning builds on the recent blade failure off of Nantucket, which has littered the beaches with fiberglass fragments. Virginia is also at risk.

    In this article, I present some technical background on that risk. The Virginia offshore wind facility will be one of the worldโ€™s biggest, with 176 enormous turbines. It is just getting started with pile driving, so no turbine blades have been installed to date. This is an opportune time to undertake caution.

    The Nantucket turbines are made by GE, and they are the worldโ€™s largest in operation today at 13 MW, each driven by three huge 107-meter-long blades. That is 351 feet for those of us who do not speak metric. The Virginia turbines will be even bigger at 14 MW with blades 108 meters (154+ feet) long. They are made by Siemens Gamesa, or SG for short.

    The GE turbines and blades have been in production for going on two years, so have some operational experience. The SG turbines and blades just came into production so there is no experience with them. One could say they are being beta tested off Virginia.

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  • What Would You Have Done in 1861?

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    James A. Bacon

    by Donald Smith

    โ€œThe past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.โ€ — British writer L.P. Hartley

    โ€œBeing woke is like a magic moral time machine, where you judge everyone [who lived in the past] against what you would have done in 1066, and you always win. Presentism is just a way to congratulate yourself about being better than George Washington because you have a gay friend and he didnโ€™t. But if he were alive today, he would too. And if you were alive then, you wouldnโ€™t.โ€ –Bill Maher, TV talk show host.

    Magic moral time machine

    I am the proud descendant of Confederate cavalrymen — and I am glad the Confederacy lost. Abraham Lincoln, shortly after his famous debates with Stephen Douglas, described slavery as a cancer. The Civil War cut that cancer out of the South and started in on a long path to healing. The war was a blessing, in that it ended slavery quickly. Iโ€™ve read that the Founding Fathers hoped to put slavery on the path to eventual extinction. Well, that was great for the Fathers, but not the slaves. No one asked THEM if they were willing to wait, in chains, for slavery to die off gradually, eventually, some dayโ€ฆ.

    But, I am confident that, if I had lived in a Southern state in early 1861, I would have fought for the Confederacy. Even if I loved the Union and loathed slavery. Here are some reasons why.

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  • Will AI Obliterate Virginia Jobs?

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia is in a two-way tie with Colorado as the state whose workforce will be most impacted by artificial intelligence, concludes Journoresearch.org.

    โ€œProfessional, scientific, and technical servicesโ€ was found to be the industry most affected by AI in both states. Fifty-two percent of the industry’s workforce in each state (217,829 in Colorado and 322,493 in Virginia) are estimated to be affected,” states an email communication from Journoresearch, a journalistic research company, that entered my inbox today

    The analysis drew from Pew Research, the Bureau of Labor, and localization-management platform Centus, but the email does not explain its methodology. Still, it stands to reason that “professional, scientific and technical services” would be at greater risk of being disintermediated by AI than industries that require lots of hands-on work, such as health care, construction, or hospitality.

    I cannot evaluate an analysis I cannot access. But I can say this: Journoresearch asks an interesting question.

    (more…)

  • The New Virginia Way

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    James A. Bacon

    Figures in billions of dollars. Note: FY 2025 is an estimate.

    by James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin announced Friday that Virginia closed out FY 2024 with $1.2 billion more revenues than forecast. Needless to say, every dollar of surplus is spoken for, and none of it is going to taxpayers. The money will fund a list of “contingent” spending priorities — clean water projects, college tuition for military survivors and dependents, and improvements to Interstate 81.

    Lost in the headlines of what is happening in the here and now is how much state government spending has ballooned over the past two decades. Between fiscal 2007 and 2025 (our current year) total state spending (General Fund and Non General Fund) has increased 139 percent. That compares to 50 percent inflation over the same period.

    More money for Medicaid. More money for K-12 schools. More higher-ed tuition dollars. More taxes for transportation. What do we get for all that money?

    Look at us. Our society is a mess. K-12 student achievement is a wreck. Health outcomes are deteriorating. Traffic congestion is as bad as ever. Universities have become engines of social revolution, not learning. Virginia’s economic performance, once stellar compared to other states, is mediocre. Housing is unaffordable, suicides are up, drug-overdose deaths are probing new highs. And the list of “unmet needs” is as long as it’s ever been.

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  • T.J. Loves Bacon

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    James A. Bacon

    In his weekly email missive, Derrick Max, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, led with the following quote from Thomas Jefferson to Alexander Donald in 1788:

    I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.

    My esteem for Jefferson knows no bounds. — JAB

     

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Day

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    James A. Bacon

  • Fight the Culture Wars — Get Married!

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    James A. Bacon

    The institution of marriage is under attack in popular culture. Celebrating the single life, childlessness, and the pursuit of individual self-fulfillment, many journalists, academics, and Hollywood script writers view marriage and parenthood as barriers to happiness. But Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, says they’ve got it all wrong. The sociological data show that married people live longer, healthier, wealthier, happier lives on average than their unmarried peers.

    Wilcox makes a powerful case in his new book, Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization. I was privileged to interview him in a Jefferson Council webinar earlier this week. Bacon’s Rebellion readers will especially enjoy Wilcox’s explanation of why conservatives, religious people, Asian-Americans, and “strivers” (which admittedly includes college-educated liberals) have stronger marriages on average than other Americans.

    Watch the half-hour video, buy Wilcox’s book, check out the Jefferson Council website, and donate to the Council so it can bring cool interviews to your attention. — JAB

  • A Project 2025 Revolution at GMU?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Lefty professors are fearful that a new Board of Visitors, now comprised of a majority of Youngkin appointees, is about to unleash a right-wing revolution at George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public university.

    Six of the 12 Youngkin-appointed board members are, or have been, affiliated with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, which recently produced a detailed document, Project 2025, laying out policy options for the next Republican president. Many on the left have decried Project 2025 as a dystopian blueprint for ending democracy and imposing a right-wing autocracy if Donald Trump is elected.

    Bethany Letiecq

    An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education catalogs concerns articulated by Bethany Letiecq, a professor in GMU’s College of Education and Human Development and chair of the state American Association of University Professors (AAUP) conference.

    Letiecq avoids the apocalyptic rhetoric typical of “progressive” media voices, but she warns that GMU is โ€œincredibly vulnerable as a test case for what Project 2025 could look like on campus…. My feeling is, we’ve been captured.”

    Letiecq is worried that the new board will bring a new governing philosophy to GMU. โ€œAll the ingredientsโ€ appear to be in place for “real change,” she said. “Weโ€™ve had a strong sense as faculty that once the board shifted to 12-4, the gloves would come off.โ€

    She might be right about that. I hope she is.

    (more…)

  • Give Charter Schools a Chance in Virginia

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    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Braunlich

    The Youngkin Administration is trying to jumpstart the creation of independent public charter schools in Virginia, in order to provide students additional high-quality options for their education.

    This effort is long overdue. But the road to quality choices in Virginia is a steep climb.

    Public charter schools were first established in Minnesota 32 years ago. Now, more than 7,800 public charter schools serve 3.7 million students โ€“ eight percent of all public schools in the United States. Charter schools also attract diverse student populations (29 percent white, 24 percent black, 36 percent Hispanic) and because they are not bound by public school boundaries, each school often attracts a more diverse population both geographically and racially. Public charter schools also better deliver the goal of quality education.

    Stanford Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Educational Outcomes (CREDO) has studied charter school performance for 15 years. In a study published last year comparing two million charter students with two million comparable traditional public school students, the center noted that in reading and math charter schools provide stronger learning for students, with reading advancing by an additional 16 days and math an additional six days each year.

    Those are badly needed outcomes for educationally at-risk children. But here in Virginia, only seven such schools exist today.

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  • Every State Is a Border State

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    File this under โ€œIllegals Committing Crimes.โ€

    Anibal Guzman

    I know, I know, the Democratic Party line is that illegals commit fewer crimes than American citizens. Frankly, one violent crime by an illegal alien is too many.

    Fact is, if the southern border closed, crime rates would drop dramatically. Including in Virginia.

    Last weekend the body of an Hispanic man aged 20 to 30 was found in a wooded area off Rte. 29 near Oakton. Heโ€™d been bludgeoned and stabbed to death.

    Two men were arrested, and guess what? One was an illegal from Honduras: Maudin Anibal Guzman-Videz.

    Was this the suspectโ€™s first brush with the law since he snuck into the country?

    Of course not.

    He was arrested in Fairfax in March for malicious assault, but never showed up for his court date. ICE issued detainers for him, which the Fairfax County Sheriff ignored. Now this same man was allegedly involved in a murder. Continue reading.

     

  • Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Dave Singer is a radiologist at a Virginia hospital. He’s not a front-line physician with primary responsibility for patient care, but, as an in-house expert in reading x-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, and other medical images, he reviews hundreds of cases weekly. His vantage point allows him to spot patterns that might elude physicians who, by the nature of their jobs, focus on individual patients.

    Since the COVID-19 epidemic, or, more precisely, since the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines, Singer has observed dozens of anomalies. Medical syndromes that he encountered rarely — uncommon types of internal bleeding, blood clots, and cancers, especially among younger patients — have surged in frequency at his hospital.

    Drawing upon large bodies of data, scientists in other countries have drawn increasing attention to the risk of vaccine side effects. According to these high-altitude studies, many countries are experiencing higher-than-expected, or “excess,” mortality rates even as the COVID epidemic has receded. Some of the elevated mortality may be attributable to suicides, drug overdoses, delayed medical diagnoses or other repercussions of the COVID shutdowns. Vaccine side effects may be another contributing factor.

    Singer’s experience provides a ground-level view. He believes that side effects are far more common than the U.S. medical establishment is willing to acknowledge. One reason — not the only one, but a big one — is that there is no system for capturing information about possible vaccination side effects. There is a system for reporting COVID infections and vaccinations, but doctors and hospitals don’t collect data on potential side effects in the same comprehensive way. Some actively suppress such reporting.

    Our COVID statistics, Singer says, are “artifacts of how we measure COVID infections and COVID deaths” — not an accurate reflection of reality.

    (more…)

  • Richmond Planned Parenthood in Expansion Mode

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Virginia League of Planned Parenthood website

    by James A. Bacon

    Richmond City Council voted Monday night to sell the old Brookhill School to the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood (VLPP) for $10. The nonprofit organization, which provides abortions among other reproductive services, plans to construct a $6 million, 10,000-square-foot womenโ€™s facility on the property, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, which has resulted in abortion restrictions in nearby states like West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, abortion has become a booming business in Virginia.

    Statewide, there has been a nearly 85% increase in clinician-provided abortions since 2020, according to the RTD, and much of the growth has come from outside the state. In 2016, only 6% of Planned Parenthoodโ€™s Virginia clients came from out of state, a percentage that had remained roughly the same since 1980. Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood reported 30% of its clientele comes from out of state.

    The RTD article does not say explicitly that the new facility is being built to meet the increased demand for abortions, but the VLPP website does pitch its services to out-of-state residents:

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  • Not a Healthy Development

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Gun rights rally in downtown Richmond. Photo credit; Virginia Public Media

    by James A. Bacon

    As conservative as I am, right-wing “militias” make me nervous. I’m sympathetic to some of what these citizen groups say they want to accomplish — keep neighborhoods safe, provide backup to local law enforcement in emergencies — but I don’t see why they need to parade around with guns to do that. I don’t hear sheriffs and police chiefs crying out for assistance from an armed citizenry.

    A basic precept of any well-ordered society is that government maintains a monopoly on violence. Any other arrangement is an invitation to anarchy.

    In an article describing the rise of self-described militias, Virginia Public Media highlighted the Virginia Kekoas, a militia group in Eastern Virginia that was formerly affiliated with the Bugaloo movement but broke away over disagreements with the Bugaloos’ white-supremacist ideology. Writes VPM:

    Virginia-based militia members VPM News spoke with considered their activities legal and said they had organized primarily to protect themselves and their families from criminals, an overzealous federal government and natural disasters.

    I distrust an “overzealous federal government,” too, but I’m not attending monthly meetings to conduct weapons training and learn how to patch up bullet wounds.

    (more…)

  • Donโ€™t Politicize Cell Phone-Free Education

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Photo credit: U.S. News and World Report

    By Chris Braunlich

    Governor Glenn Youngkinโ€™s Executive Order for developing policies restricting or eliminating cell phones in schools โ€“ a concept garnering widespread support among parents, with 61 percent favoring requiring students to leave their phones in secured locations during the day โ€“ responds to a clear and rising mental health, academic and behavioral problem.

    Seventy-two percent of high school teachers say cell phones in the classroom are a major distraction. Ninety percent of principals support restrictions on middle- and high-school cell-phone use during the day. And 68 percent of all American adults believe that smart phones should not be allowed in school.

    The reason for this level of support is self-evident: more than 80% of American adults โ€“ young and old โ€“ are concerned about the impact of social media on todayโ€™s children. This concern is supported by the evidence.

    According to the American Psychological Association, 41% percent of teens with the highest social media use rate their overall mental health as poor or very poor, compared with 23% of those with the lowest use. Ten percent of the highest use group expressed suicidal or self-harm intent in the past 12 months compared with 5% of the lowest use group; and 17% of the highest users expressed poor body image compared with 6% of the lowest users.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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