From The Bull Elephant.
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Jeanine’s Memes
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UVa Admissions Trends: Whites Down, Asians Up, Blacks a Question Mark
by James A. BaconAs the University of Virginia community debates the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of race in higher-ed admissions, The Jefferson Council is publishing publicly available data that provide context for the discussion.
UVa’s office of Institutional Research and Analysis publishes three types of admissions data (applications, admissions, and yield) broken down by race/ethnicity back to the 2016-17 academic year. Three trends stand out:
- Once a dominant majority of UVa students, Whites officially became a minority (47%) of the entering 1st-year student body in 2023;
- Asians were the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group at UVa, applying in greater numbers, being accepted in higher percentages, and (other than Whites) accepting those offers in higher percentages;
- Despite applying and being accepted in growing numbers, the percentage of Blacks accepting their offers actually declined slightly, in contrast to the other racial/ethnic groups.
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RVA 5×5: Referendum Waiting In The Wings
by Jon Baliles
Three weeks or so ago, the regurgitation of the casino referendum got a round of approval from almost everyone on City Council in a meeting that was filled with unearned righteousness about how it was going to save the city (kudos to Councilwoman Katherine Jordan for the lone no vote).Richmond BizSense reported that:
Councilmembers contended that misinformation about the project the first go-round warranted putting it to the voters a second time. They stressed that the development (no longer being referred to as a casino), would not involve funding support from the city and would create jobs and economic opportunities for Southside and the rest of the city.
Of course, most people knew this the last go-round because the advocates of the casino spent $2.5 million on billboards, mailers, and ads telling us ad nauseam about the “benefits” of a casino and how it wouldn’t cost the city anything. Now, they want to pretend we were too stupid to know that the real reasons they were pushing the first time around weren’t what they spent $2.5 million promoting.
(more…)
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Mr. Saddam Salim’s Strange Acceptance of Political Endorsements
Saddam Azlan Salim by Emilio Jaksetic
In the upcoming November 2023 election, the Democratic Party candidate for Virginia Senate District 37 is Saddam Azlan Salim. Salim won the Democratic nomination by defeating Chap Peterson in the June 20, 2023 primary.
A profile of Mr. Salim is available on Ballotpedia. A hypertext link in the Ballotpedia profile goes to Salim’s campaign webpage. Among those endorsements are three by progressive prosecutors: Commonwealth Attorneys Steve Descano, (Fairfax County), Buta Biberaj (Loudoun County), and Parissa Dehghani-Tafti (Arlington County/Falls Church). On the face of it, those endorsements reflect the traditional practice of candidates to solicit and accept endorsements in support of their campaigns. However, the endorsements by the three progressive prosecutors are a problem for Salim because he is running for a seat in the Virginia Senate.
Soliciting and accepting the endorsement of a particular person or group does not mean or imply that the candidate is in complete agreement with every act performed or statement made by the endorser. However, the three progressive prosecutors have made a point of claiming that their “criminal justice reforms” are good for Virginians and expressing their intent to continue pursuing them.
The endorsement of Salim’s candidacy by those three progressive Commonwealth Attorneys indicates the following: (1) those prosecutors believe or know he is sympathetic to their “criminal justice reform” efforts; and (2) they want voters to consider their endorsements as a reason for voting for Salim because they believe many voters are in agreement with their “criminal justice reform” efforts. Furthermore, Salim’s acceptance of their endorsements indicates he is sympathetic to, or in agreement with, the “criminal justice reforms” of the three progressive prosecutors.
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Bacon Meme of the week
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Where Do Dems Stand on Civil Immunity for Law Enforcement Officers?
by James C. Sherlock
Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch Being a law enforcement officer is tough under the best of circumstances.
Do you think that exposure to losing your house and car in a civil suit for something you did in a split second to protect the public and yourself and did not have reason to know was against the law would deter you from a job in law enforcement?
Truth is, it would deter all of us.
Virginia Democrats in 2021 introduced legislation to eliminate under Virginia law a peace officer’s ability to offer an immunity defense in state courts against civil lawsuits for actions that violate constitutional rights:
A. Any law-enforcement officer, as defined in § 9.1-101, who, under color of law, subjects or causes to be subjected, including failing to intervene, any other person to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities granted to such person under the constitutions and laws of the United States and the Commonwealth, shall be liable to the injured party for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and equitable relief….
B. Sovereign immunity and any limitations on liability or damages shall not apply to claims brought pursuant to this section. Qualified immunity is not a defense to liability imposed by this section.
A 2017 per curiam (unanimous) opinion by the Supreme Court reiterated a long-existing legal standard that qualified immunity is an available defense for law enforcement officers unless there is “clearly established law giving each individual Officer fair notice that his particular conduct was unlawful.”
It is hard to imagine that the Supreme Court, unanimous there, would permit a state law that denied civil immunity without fair notice of the illegality of specific acts.
Regardless, under the 2021 Democratic bill in Virginia, officers were to be in jeopardy in civil suits whether or not they had fair notice that their actions, split-second or otherwise, were unlawful. They were specifically to be required to judge the constitutionality of specific actions.
With a gun in their face.
It draws a very clear line for political debate. (more…)
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Speaking of Banning Books
by John Massoud
Earlier this month, a Warren County resident was complaining about a “small group of people who wish to ban books” from the Samuels Library. The writer talked about how many of the speakers that evening were not Warren County residents, or may have just purchased a library card so they could speak.
The writer may not be aware of this, but by that last statement, he was trying to suppress free speech. Several of the speakers who were supporting allowing these books in the children’s section of Samuels Library were trying to suppress free speech. One of the more egregious examples was a young lady who early in the meeting said that “churches should not be allowed to speak” because they “don’t pay taxes.” What she meant to say was that no person who attends a church should be allowed to speak. So people who attend church, who pay their taxes, should not be allowed to speak, yet anyone who agrees with those wanting to show porn to kids should be allowed to speak as they wish. This according to the logic of those who want to show porn to children.
People like the writer say they are 100 percent for free speech. Yet they want anyone who disagrees with them to not be allowed to speak. The writer does not support free speech. He supports free speech if you agree with him. With that being said, here are the books that many leftists want banned (and in some cases have gotten banned):
Of Mice and Men
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
To Kill a Mockingbird
Six books written by Dr. Seuss
For the record, I, like pretty much every person today, finds use of the N word despicable. Yet, the fact is that “Huck Finn” is an American classic. Should Huckleberry Finn be banned because Mark Twain used a word which may have been acceptable in the late 1800s but is now rightly seen as disgusting? Of course not. Dr. Seuss is coming under fire because some radicals’ sensibilities are offended over artwork. Dr. Seuss was the least racist person of his time. (more…)
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Democrats Tiptoe Towards an Education Platform
By James C. Sherlock
Northern Virginia’s morning newspaper, The Washington Post, arrived on lawns and driveways on Monday with cautious suggestions for Democratic education platforms for the 2023 and 2024 elections.
Virginia Democrats, having lost the Governorship to education issues, are running in 2023 and have the first shot nationally at trying to find a winning message.
Right now Democrats like Lashrecse Aird are running on a single-issue education agenda – more money. She offers that, exclusively, as her vision for education.
Teachers’ unions find additional funding to be the single acceptable “reform.” And they run Democratic education policy.
Every Virginia Senate Democrat likely to have more comprehensive views of education reform lost in primaries. To teachers’ union-backed candidates.
The Post’s Jennifer Rubin has helpfully broken Democratic elite silence on some education issues, but not the most important one.
In her circles, she is otherwise relatively fearless.
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Civic Engagement
Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch Governor Youngkin gave blood yesterday. The Commonwealth’s top elected official publicly setting an example for this vital activity sends a strong signal for others. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, blood donations are slowing down during the summer, so Youngkin’s active endorsement through participation is welcome.
RWH
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The Chinese Are Coming?
Photo credit: Va. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Remember when Gov. Glenn Youngkin was warning us about the dangers of the Chinese owning “the rich and vibrant agricultural lands God has blessed us with?”
Even the publisher of Bacon’s Rebellion thought that was far-fetched.
At Youngkin’s urging, the General Assembly passed legislation prohibiting any “foreign adversary” from acquiring “any interest in agricultural land in the Commonwealth.” The legislation required the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to issue an annual report, beginning July 1, 2023, on the amount of total farmland in the Commonwealth under foreign ownership.
The first report has been issued. As of 12/30/2021, there were 45 different countries identified as the nationality of the foreign interest in parcels of agricultural land in the Commonwealth. The parcels totaled 254,494 acres, 1.2 percent of the total privately-held agricultural land in the Commonwealth. The country identified with the most parcels was France.
Companies or individuals from China owned 13,890 acres, 5.5 percent of the total foreign-owned acres. Of the Chinese holding, 13,389 acres, 96 percent, were farms that were included in the Smithfield Foods acquisition. The acquisition of those acres in 2013 was the last time any corporation or individual associated with China acquired farmland in the Commonwealth.
It seems that Virginia’s “rich and vibrant agricultural lands” are safe from the Chinese. Those Canadian solar and timber companies are another matter, however.
Because the requirement for the report is embedded in the Code, this report will take its place alongside many other reports that agencies are required to spend time preparing, only to have them be ignored.
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Where Does Freedom of Speech End?
by Dick Hall-SizemoreI have a question.
Under the recent Supreme Court case ruling that a wedding website designer could refuse to provide her services to a gay couple because to do so would require her to write something that she did not want to say, thereby violating her First Amendment right to free speech, if I were the owner of a sign shop could I refuse to make signs for Democratic candidates because I do not want Democrats to win elections and to require me to design a sign that says “Elect ______, Democrat for State Senate” would violate my freedom of speech? What if I refused to make such signs for Black candidates because I don’t think Blacks should be elected to office? Or women candidates? Or Catholic candidates? Or Jewish Candidates?
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Equal Protection, Affirmative Action and Effecting Generational Change
by James C. Sherlock
America is the most successful nation in the history of the world because of the freedoms and rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
More than a hundred other nations have emulated the American Constitution.
Without constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights, we would be chained to the whims of the state. Most immediately to the whims of the executive branch. There would be precious little for the judicial branch to protect.
A recent Supreme Court decision found affirmative action in college admissions to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, Section 1:
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Justice Roberts for the majority ruling that the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause:
Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.
Three justices disagreed.
Justice Sotomayor read her opinion from the bench — a sign of strong disagreement. An excerpt:
Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits. In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.
Note that Justice Sotomayor, as always careful of the words in her opinions, chose “endemically” to modify “segregated.” Oxford dictionary: “regularly found and very common among a particular group or in a particular area.”
That is different than the word “systemically” — Oxford: “in a basic and important way that involves the whole of an organization or a country and not just particular parts of it.” (more…)
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One Hand Applauds for Dominion “Bill Relief”
by Steve HanerDominion Energy Virginia’s customers still owe it $1.26 billion for fuel they have already used, as of the end of June. The utility is going to give us either seven or ten years to pay off that debt, but at a total cost of over $1.54 billion if we take seven years or almost $1.7 billion if we take the full decade.
The difference, of course, is interest, a return on investment (profit) for the lender, almost $300 million on the seven year plan or $400 million on the ten year plan. And that initial $1.26 billion already includes some interest. It was clear from the beginning that extending this debt out like a credit card balance would produce a profit for the lender. (more…)
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Info-Wars in the College Admissions Debate
Credit: Bing Image Creator. Pry the data from my cold dead digital fingers. by James A. Bacon
It will be exceedingly difficult to hold an honest conversation in Virginia about the role of race in higher-education admissions and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. College administrators are the gatekeepers of data critical to the discussion and they will not share it.
I have been stymied twice this week in my efforts to acquire admissions data: once by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and once by the University of Virginia. SCHEV and UVa officials cite various justifications for being unable to supply the numbers, but I believe the underlying reason is that university administrators simply don’t want to make the data available. Why? Because he who controls the data controls the narrative.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in admissions, I have embarked upon the mission of laying out the data available in the public domain: how have admissions and enrollment patterns evolved over the past 1o to 20 years? How have preferential policies for selected minorities fared, as tracked by measures of student thriving such as feelings of “belonging,” drop-out rates, student-loan debt burdens and post-graduate income?
In recent posts, I have documented that males and Whites are slightly under-represented in entering classes at UVa, while my colleague Walter Smith has described UVa’s use of the Landscape platform to provide school- and neighborhood-specific “context” for applicants. Last year Smith shed light on the new racial calculus in UVa admissions by showing how offers to applicants vary by race/ethnicity and legacy status. The Office of Admissions, which was commendably open with its data last year, stopped providing it after we published his article.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) maintains a searchable online database of higher-ed statistics regarding enrollment, admissions, tuition & fees, financial aid, student debt, retention rates, and degrees awarded. SCHEV breaks the data into dozens of different reports that are searchable by individual institution. It is an invaluable resource for anyone analyzing higher-ed in Virginia. (more…)
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VMI Superintendent Praises Student Journalists
by James A. BaconI increased my respect for Cedric Wins. In his personal Facebook page, the Virginia Military Institute Superintendent congratulated Lt. James Mansfield (class of ’22) and Cadet Russell Crouch (class of ’24), co-editors of The Cadet student newspaper last year, for winning the Virginia Press Association’s Journalist Service and Integrity Award.
That couldn’t have been easy. The student journalists had been critical of the Wins administration’s implementation of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and its approach to student mental health. But Wins proved he is capable of setting aside any personal pique he might have and applaud the cadets for their significant accomplishment.
Wrote Wins: “The Virginia Military Institute lauds these cadets’ commitment to the free exercise of expression and looks forward to working with those cadets who follow in their footsteps.”
Yes, this the same student newspaper that The Washington Post slammed with allegations of plagiarism and conflict of interest — perhaps the first time in history that a newspaper of such global stature stooped to undermining a prestigious award for a student newspaper of a small college. The Post’s vindictive criticisms — I use the word “vindictive” because The Cadet articles contested a racial-oppression narrative peddled by the Post for two years — successfully triggered a VPA investigation into the allegations. The findings of that investigation, however, found that the contest rules provided no mechanism for reversing the award.
Wins looks like a bigger man, and The Washington Post looks petty and mean- spirited. (more…)
