Bacon's Rebellion

  • Tales of Student Success in 2023

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    Bob Rayner

    by Matt Hurt

    Virginia Standards of Learning test results remained rather flat from 2022 to 2023 (see Table 1).ย  This occurred despite the fact that many considered the pandemic over.ย  There were many contributing factors, such as (but certainly not limited to) worsening teacher shortages and continued high rates of chronic absenteeism.ย  However, among Virginiaโ€™s one hundred and thirty-one public school divisions, there were certainly some success stories.

    Table 1: Virginia SOL Results for 2022 and 2023

    Among Virginiaโ€™s public school divisions from 2022 to 2023, overall SOL pass rate differences ranged from 8.94% to -9.19%.ย  Oftentimes it is also useful to compare division rankings from one year to the next as relative measures of performance tend to control for a number of factors.ย  The division that earned the greatest pass rate rank increase surpassed the performance of thirty-seven other divisions in 2023, while the division with the greatest decrease declined forty-four positions. (more…)

  • The Californication of Virginia

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    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Does anyone really think fewer gas mowers will make a difference?

    More importantly, is it the role of government to tell citizens what they must use to trim their fescue?

    Of course it isnโ€™t.

    Why should we in Virginia care? Because weโ€™re just one car back on Californiaโ€™s crazy train.

    During the disastrous Ralph Northam era, when both chambers of the General Assembly were controlled by Virginiaโ€™s far-left Democrats, the Old Dominion linked its automotive climate policies to Californiaโ€™s.

    Unless sanity is restored in the November elections and the Senate flips to the GOP, gas-powered cars will no longer be sold in Virginia after 2035. (more…)

  • Electric Vehicles May Be Worse for the Environment than Gasoline-Powered Ones

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    Bob Rayner

    by Hans Bader

    Electric vehicles require enormous damage to the environment just to produce their batteries — 250 tons of mining is required for a single battery, according to Real Clear Energy. Switching to electric cars would require a radical expansion of mining across the world, and the minerals for the car batteries will be refined mainly using the coal-powered electric grid of China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

    Yet states are starting to mandate electric vehicles. Nine states, including California, have now decided to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035, requiring that all cars sold be electric instead. In 2021, Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed a law adopting California standards for Virginia vehicles, so Virginia also will ban gasoline-powered cars in 2035, unless that law is repealed, as Republicans seek to do (the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates voted to repeal the ban on gas-powered cars in 2023, but the Democratic-controlled Virginia state Senate kept the ban in place). (more…)

  • Resorts Like Airports

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    Bob Rayner

    by Jon Baliles

    There has been a lot of boasting from the casino advocates about their partnership with Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI). The rebranded Richmond Grand casino developer Urban One is a radio and TV conglomerate that has said they are partnering with CDI because of their huge capitalization and experience with casinos. But letโ€™s take a look at Churchill Downsโ€™ casino portfolio, because itโ€™s not what the casino advocates have been claiming.

    CDI is obviously world-famous for the running of the Kentucky Derby horse race, and they have expanded their portfolio to include more and more gaming facilities in recent years. CDI bought out Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (PPE) in a $2.75 billion deal in 2022, and PPE had been Urban Oneโ€™s original partner in the first, failed casino referendum. The deal included the Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, as well as six Rosieโ€™s Gaming Emporium historical horse racing facilities across Virginia plus two smaller casinos, one in Iowa and one in New York. But among the eleven casinos in the CDI portfolio, none are anywhere near the scale what they promise for Richmond. And none of those eleven casinos resemble anything grand โ€” except for the indisputable fact that the house always wins, even if the resort looks more like an airport.

    The Richmond Grand advocates claim their casino will have a 250-room hotel, an entertainment/concert venue with 3,000 seats, a TV and film production soundstage, and 15 restaurants and โ€œdining options.โ€ But if you look at their other casinos, they are all small casinos in small markets and are not even close to the โ€œresortโ€ they claim to be bringing to Richmond. (more…)

  • A’s for All!

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Grade inflation in American universities is a well-documented phenomenon. Nearly half of all grades handed out at Harvard are A’s. The average Grade Point Average (GPA) at the University of Virginia, having drifted steadily upward over the past 30 years, is moving higher at an accelerating rate. One possible explanation — in defiance of the downward trend in standardized test scores in K-12 education — is that the kids are just so darn smart! They deserve the A’s!

    Another explanation points to the obsession with equality and self-esteem, and to the attendant collapse in standards that would differentiate between excellence, mediocrity and failure.

    The question arises in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education which profiles a controversy at James Madison University. Six economics professors told the Chronicle that their annual evaluations have been penalized because they are handing out too many D’s and F’s. (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Foreign Student Influence in Students for Justice in Palestine Chapters at Virginia Universities and their โ€œAllies”

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    sherlockj

    Caption: “Show up, share, and support the resistance movement! Letโ€™s keep the momentum goingโ€ GMU SJP member

    by James C. Sherlock

    The SJP organizations at three Virginia state universities, the University of Virginia, George Mason University, and the University of Mary Washington, have been active since October 7th on the Hamas side.

    Some attempt to thread two needles simultaneously: to separate Gazans from their elected government, the terrorist organization Hamas, and to separate Israelis from Jews.

    In celebrating the October 7th slaughter, those are distinctions without a difference.

    Weโ€™ll look at the influence of foreign students in Virginia universities’ SJP chapters, then the GMU chapter, and then briefly examine the progressive/Marxist โ€œintersectionality” of SJP to see the extent of who and what we are dealing with.

    The results are interesting, but not surprising. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Hey NCAA, Let JMU Go Bowling!

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    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty

    File this under โ€œEven A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut Occasionallyโ€:

    Louise Lucas, one of the worst members of Virginiaโ€™s General Assembly and the ringleader of the obstructionist โ€œbrick wallโ€ in the state Senate that blocked chunks of Gov. Glenn Younginโ€™s popular agenda, is on the right side of an issue.

    For once.

    She recently posted this on X, the website formerly known as Twitter:

    Let me remind the @NCAA that they are required by their charter to follow state laws where they operate. If they continue to hold @JMUFootball hostage to a technical rule and stop them from competing in the postseason they will face a very unfriendly future from our legislature.

    Iโ€™m not sure thereโ€™s much to her veiled threat of โ€œunfriendlinessโ€ from Virginiaโ€™s General Assembly, but her heartโ€™s in the right place on this one. Until she brings race into it. As she always does. Sigh.

    Sheโ€™s one of many Virginia politicians – Republicans and Democrats – who are lobbying the NCAA to allow James Madison University to become bowl-eligible this year.

    Letโ€™s back up. In 2022 JMU moved up to Division 1 football after dominating the FCS for many years. This week the Dukes broke into both the AP and Coachesโ€™ Polls national rankings in the 25th spot. The only Virginia college football program in the top 25.

    No surprise, considering that after seven games, the university in Harrisonburg remains undefeated.

    For most football programs, hitting six wins promises an invitation to play in one of the 41 bowl games. Seven wins? Itโ€™s a lock.

    But NCAA rules prevent programs from participating in bowl games until theyโ€™ve been in the higher division for two seasons.

    (more…)

  • Lee Statue Meltdown

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    At one point during the decade-long debate over Confederate statuary, the logic of the Taliban, er, progressives, was that the statues should not be commemorated in highly visible public spaces, but could be relegated to battlefields, cemeteries and museums. If the statues and memorials must be removed, that seems to be a reasonable fallback position, and we’ll see if and where it is honored.

    But the statue to Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, where the leftist electorate is infected by a rabid animus towards its enemies, will never be seen again. Not in a battlefield, not in a cemetery, not in a museum. In the Peoples’ Republic the attitude seems to be: we’ve got the power, we’ve got the statues, you can’t have them back, and by the way, f— you, we’re going to destroy them, and you can’t stop us.

    The news is out that organizers of the โ€œSwords into Plowsharesโ€ project has melted down the Lee statue, which had been torn down in 2021 and the fate of which had long been the subject of litigation. The deed was done at an out-of-state foundry; the metal will be recycled into some form of progressive artwork.

    John Reid, chair of The Virginia Council, released the following statement:

    The Virginia Council denounces in the strongest possible terms the vile, vengeful, and repugnant act of destroying in a blast furnace the Robert E. Lee statue that stood for decades in Charlottesville.

    Rejoicing in the destruction of historic statues and paintings and gleefully comparing it to the โ€œexecutionโ€ of a โ€œrabid dogโ€ reveals an alarming and juvenile belligerence. Only a weak and sick society allows this to happen, and it ought to be an extraordinarily disturbing sign about the future of this country. (more…)

  • In Defense of Painful Free Speech

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    James A. Bacon

    by Allan Stam

    The horrific attacks of October 7th on Jews in Israel have prompted pro-Palestinian groups, including several at UVA, to rally in support of Hamas. In recent days, we have heard growing calls for support of Palestinians and condemnation of Israel as the Israeli Defense Forces and Iranโ€™s proxies โ€“ Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement in Yemen) wage the most significant war in and around Israel in years. This is a war precipitated solely by Hamasโ€™ surprise terror attack of unprecedented scale and proportion on unarmed Israeli civilians.

    A common theme across the statements of pro-Palestinian groups and many university administrators and faculty is an explicit or implicit assertion of some moral equivalence between the suffering of human shields in Gaza and the victims of barbaric terror attacks in Israel. The linguistic turn that Hamasโ€™ apologists employ most commonly is the โ€˜yes, butโ€ฆโ€™ device.

    Some responded to these abhorrent statements with calls to restrict free speech, to sanction the terroristsโ€™ enablers formally, and to quell somehow this pruriently hateful speech. I disagree. Most vehemently. Let the antisemites have their say. Why? Because now we know with certainty what they believe and how they genuinely feel about others in our community.

    The downside of strict censorship is uncertainty about peoplesโ€™ actual beliefs. For example, by making the use of the n-word utterly forbidden, we protect the sensibilities of Black people who would suffer, at a minimum, great offense and possibly some genuine harm. However, the cost of that protection is that it enhances the ability of the faithful or casual racists to hide in our midst. (more…)

  • Free Speech and Advocacy of Genocide

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Chanting “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” hundreds of pro-Palestinian students held a protest on the Lawn at the University of Virginia yesterday. As reported by The Washington Free-Beacon, they demanded the Biden administration defund aid to Israel. The event was part of a national “walkout” organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, and the second demonstration in Charlottesville since Hamas unleashed a wave of terrorist attacks on Israel earlier this month.

    “We, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), are sickened by the on-going, escalating genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Zionist forces,” said the organizing group in a formal statement signed by two dozen other leftist student groups in the aftermath of the Hamas assault. “We stand in solidarity with Palestinians in the fight for liberation and in their struggle against settler colonialism.”ย 

    While the protesters were not explicit about their ultimate aim, the slogan “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” can mean only one thing: the eradication of the Israeli state and the dispossession — or worse — of the Jews within it. Hamas’ slaughter of innocents in its wave of terrorist attacks earlier this month foreshadows the likely fate of the Jewish population should Hamas carry the day.

    Even Adolph Hitler did not call for the extermination of the Jews in his antisemitic tract, Mein Kampf. Even the senior Nazis attending the Wannsee Conference to organize the “final solution” for the Jews spoke in euphemisms and knew that their program was too gruesome to reveal to the German people. Hamas is far more open about its aims. The genocidal impulse is all too clear. (more…)

  • Crime and Punishment in Charlottesville

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    UVa and Harvard are the two campuses most often cited by the national and world press as homes to the worst actors after October 7.

    It is easy work.

    I posted a column on Saturday making a series of recommendations for actions by the University of Virginia to protect its Jewish community and rid itself of those that threaten it.

    That was my response to the infamous support of UVa-funded organizations for the slaughter of innocents in Israel by Hamas, a group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.

    Kill Jews โ€œby any means necessaryโ€ they wrote.

    Read the column. ย I named them.

    Now I have been told by the Executive Director of Hillel at UVa, Rabbi Jake Rubin, that the President’s office and law enforcement “have been incredibly responsive, helpful, and present during this difficult time.”

    Good start, and Virginians thank them for it, but it does not answer the questions about enforcement of state and federal laws.

    So, there is more to do. (more…)

  • “Hate” Speech Does Not Make Students “Unsafe”

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    James A. Bacon

    Scene from “Clockwork Orange”

    by James A. Bacon

    There is a widespread notion among militant leftists at the University of Virginia, as there is in universities across the Commonwealth, that exposure to objectionable ideas causes “harm” to those who hear them and, thus, should be suppressed. This logic is a totalitarian wolf in sheep’s clothing. While I do not countenance the banning of speech — even the speech of those who would happily ban mine — I do believe this leftist trope must be combatted forcefully in the marketplace of ideas.

    We observed this thinking in the run-up to the speech by Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which highlights the role of social contagion in the spread of transgender identity among teenage girls and the potentially irreversible damage of hormone treatments and sex-change surgery.

    Shrier is Public Enemy No. 1 to transgender activists, and their social media accounts lit up once word got out that The Jefferson Council and its partners were holding a Q&A event with Shrier on the Grounds. I won’t bore you with the serial misrepresentations of Shrier as a transphobe and a hater. Rather, my intent here is to explore the logic that speakers with views like hers are unwelcome at UVa.ย 

    “Unfortunately, knowing that the university is OK w allowing hateful ppl to come to this school (pence, pompeo, other hateful republicans) it is clear that ‘free speech’ and ‘bipartisanship’ is valued over the safety of their students,” messaged one writer in a QSU (Queer Student Union) account. [My bold face.] (more…)

  • Voters Will Decide Virginia’s Future Direction

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by Derrick Max

    In two weeks, the people of Virginia will decide on two competing visions for the future of Virginia. Will they elect a General Assembly favoring Governor Glenn Youngkinโ€™s more freedom-oriented policy vision, or will they elect a General Assembly returning the Commonwealth to the statist policy vision of former governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam?

    While much of the current debate in the Commonwealth has focused almost solely on abortion, the number of issues โ€œon the ballotโ€ in this election is much broader and ought to be more closely considered by voters. If readers want a deeper dive into these issues, links to the Thomas Jefferson Instituteโ€™s work in these areas are included.

    Surpluses are on the ballot inย Virginia.

    Earlier this year, faced with an historic $5.1 billion surplus, Governor Youngkin and Democrats in the Virginia Senate reached a deal to cut $1.05 billion in taxes and allocate $3.7 billion in new, one-time spending. This $3 in new spending for every $1 in tax cuts is backward.

    Budget officials in Virginia just reported that in the first quarter of this fiscal year, surpluses are continuing to be amassed in Richmond. Coupled with the official projections for spending and revenue for the next few years, the next General Assembly will almost certainly be faced with large cash surpluses. (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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