Never mind that public school test scores are plummeting and that kids from coast to coast are falling hopelessly behind. The Biden Administration is focused on one thing: โinclusion.โ
On June 21 the Department of Education issued a โtoolkitโ called โCreating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments For LGBTQI+ Students.โ
Included in the toolkit is the Biden Administrationโs recommendation that โteachers and administrators help students establish Gender and Sexuality Alliancesโ in their schools.
Those are clubs, based only on sexuality. If your local high or middle school doesnโt have one yet, itโs coming.
Count on it.
At the risk of sounding like a fossil, I need to ask: since when do schools urge kids to start clubs on sexuality? Whatโs next, the Future Dominatrixes of America club? A Furry Fan club? A Pup Play club?
For many historical and cultural reasons, America has traditionally been what sociologists call a โhigh-trustโ society. As reported in this report from the Pew Research Center, cultures with high trust (such as Canada and Sweden) usually have low crime and corruption while the reverse (such as South Africa and Peru) is also true.
Unfortunately, polls show Americansโ trust in major institutions has been on a downward slope for the past 15 years or so. Gallup first measured confidence in institutions in 1973 and has done so annually since 1993. A Gallup poll from June 2022 showed significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any.
Those who expressed โa great dealโ of confidence in the three branches of the federal government, newspapers, TV news, big tech, and the criminal justice system were all at 26% or below.
On the issue of voting, most Americans have generally trusted the system, although documented cases of stolen elections exist. One example is the 1948 Democrat primary Senate runoff in Texas. Then-Congressman Lyndon Johnson (D) was initially behind until some mysteriously โuncounted ballotsโ were found in a ballot box called Box 13. Johnson then won with an 87-vote margin, earning him the nickname โLandslide Lyndon.โ Johnson went on to defeat the Republican candidate in November and from the Senate later became John F. Kennedyโs vice president and then president after JFKโs assassination. (more…)
Virginiaโs Department of Social Services (DSS) has prepared a plan for the implementation of a cap on electricity costs for low-income customers of Virginiaโs two main utilities. My report on June 27 that the plan was โmissing in actionโ was wrong.
For the most interested, you can find the DSS draft here, and it envisions the Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) beginning in November of this year.
I owe apologies to the folks at DSS who clearly have been working on this, and obviously they were working with both utilities to get to this point. I also falsely implied it had dropped off the radar with the Glenn Youngkin Administration, and unfairly implied that the various advocacy groups who supported this had lost interest in it. My post was so irredeemably wrong and unfair I just deleted it.
Part of my reason for the post was to flush out what was happening, and I appreciate the reader who had seen the document and referred to it in a comment. He provided the link above. But the commentary was mine and I regret the errors. I will now dive in a bit deeper and perhaps file a later report on what is being proposed.
Fifty-one years ago last summer, covering my first American Legion League baseball game for the Petersburg Progress-Index, watching a local team (and being asked to keep the official scorebook) for the first time, I wrote a story that included the wrong names of the player who scored the winning run and the player credited with the RBI. The editor made me take every angry phone call. The feeling rushes back.
The Bureau of the Census has issued its estimates of the population changes in Virginia and its 133 jurisdictions since the 2020 census.
They are always of interest, but perhaps more so since 2020-2022 spanned the COVID years.
The categories of change calculated by the Census Bureau are total change, natural change (births minus deaths) and migration. They provided the raw numbers.
In the attached spreadsheet, I let Excel calculate the percentages, which I find more meaningful. Some are surprising given that it was only a two-year period, but perhaps not, since it spanned the COVID years.
Upon hearing that the Fairfax County Police Department had scrapped conventional shotgun shells in favor of “bean bag” projectiles, my initial reaction was to mock the change. Bean bags? What’s the next tool in the police arsenal — pillows? Given the approving tone of the article in The Washington Post, I was tempted to dismiss the idea as the latest excrescence of politically correct dogma.
After further examination, I have reconsidered. Tasers are one non-lethalย alternative, but they don’t always work, especially if the target is pumped up on drugs. Does anyone remember Rodney King?ย The bean bag projectiles aren’t perfect — they can cause injuries or in rare circumstances kill. Still, they inflict a lot less damage than bullets or buckshot. The Fox News clip above shows how Atlanta police used bean bag rounds to disarm a man with a hatchet and axe.
Giving police alternatives to beating recalcitrant suspects into submission is always a good idea.ย — JAB
(This was first published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy)
by Barbara Hollingsworth
Members of the General Assembly who voted for aย bill in 2021 mandating that new vehicles sold in Virginia must be all-electric by 2035 forgot to do the math to show exactly how that would work in real life.
As the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy noted in February when we unsuccessfully made the case for repeal of this ill-advised legislation, the Commonwealth simply does not have the technological capacity to make such a massive switch from internal combustion engines in such a short period of time.
Nobody told Virginians that the level of subsurface mining required to manufacture the millions of new batteries required to store electricity generated by wind, solar and other โrenewableโ energy sources will dwarf current production levels, scarring the earth.
John Butcher’s recent article on the relationship of SOL reading scores and funding per pupil prompted me to examine the most recent (2022) 3rd grade reading scores of students in Henrico County, where I live. The scores for disadvantaged students, particularly Black students, are awful.
I decided to present my findings to the school board and confront them with the failure of the schools they oversee. However, at their meeting this past week, I had only three minutes to speak. I do not talk fast enough to get much said in three minutes. Accordingly, I have sent them copies of the prepared remarks set out below.ย I do not have hope for much of a response. (more…)
If you are traveling through the middle of the Commonwealth this summer and want a break for some ice cream, this is the place.
Just north of Culpeper on Rt. 29 is Moo Thru.ย The claim is that the operators make the ice cream using fresh milk from cows in the region.ย It is very good and they have a wide assortment of flavors.
You can drive through or order from the window and eat on picnic tables under an open shelter.ย ย It is a popular place and, on weekends, there are usually cars backed up for the drive-through and people lined up at the window.
Weโve been hearing about the post-COVID declines in scores on the National Assessment of Educational Process (NAEP) tests. The NAEP database offers some (in fact, an abundance of) details.
Here, as a small sample, are the 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics data for the nation and Virginia.
Itโs no secret that I was thrilled to watch Glen Sturtevantโs name replace Amanda Chaseโs on the election night ticker. However, this isnโt about my disdain for Chase, nor my approval of Sturtevant; I donโt even know him.
This is about simple math and what I believe to be a last-ditch effort at a con job by a professional.
Iโm sure not many people expected Amanda Chase to do the right thing and concede with grace. No, most of us expected some post-primary cry of foul. I did expect, however, that her foul cry would be based on something that made sense, and it doesnโt.
Since Tuesday, Chase has hit the airwaves and social media with the claim that the early voting in Chesterfield County was rigged. This accusation is ridiculous on its face to anyone who knows about elections in Chesterfield. The registrarโs office has been run like a Swiss watch for years, but even that doesnโt matter in this case. (more…)
Credit: Bing Image Creator. Sacagawea scratching her head, in the style of Frederick Remington.
by James A. Bacon
In the spring of 2022 University of Virginia alumnus Warren Lightfoot emailed Rector Whitt Clement, a fraternity brother, to share the experiences of a friend and friend’s daughter during a university tour. Among other negative observations about UVa, reported Lightfoot, the student tour guide had made a point of noting that the university was built on land taken from Indians, that it was built by slaves, that its plans were “stolen” from slaves, and that the University had caused little but harm to the residents of Charlottesville over 200 years. “Needless to say, my friend and his daughter were unimpressed, shocked and offended,” recounted Lightfoot, who, as a former student tour guide himself, had been proud of the institution he represented.
Clement thanked his frat brother for the email. “I have heard similar, but less disturbing, accounts. I am going to look into this โ totally unacceptable.”
True to his word, Clement talked to Greg Roberts, associate vice provost of enrollment and undergraduate admission. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions coordinated with the independent, student-run Student Guide Service to brief prospective students about the university. Typically, officials with the university would meet with prospects and their parents, and then turn them over to guides for tours of dormitories, student amenities and Thomas Jefferson’s architectural masterpiece of the Lawn.
Reporting back to Lightfoot, Clement reiterated his concerns. “I have expressed my dismay about this tour guide and am told it is an isolated event and that the guide is gone. This episode is totally unacceptable. Even if the tour guide program is part of student self-governance, which I am told is the case, then they must do a lot better job in self-selection and with the content of their tours; otherwise, serious intervention and changes would be in order in my opinion.”
But by August 2022 nothing had changed. Frustrated by the lack of concrete action, Lightfoot got back in touch with Clement to say that “the nonsense with the student guides has not stopped at all.” (more…)
Two recent signs of the deterioration of journalism. One is this comment from President Biden to a gaggle of reporters:
I hear some of you guys saying is, โWhy doesnโt Biden say what a good deal it is?โ Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote? You think thatโs going to help me get it passed? No. Thatโs why you guys donโt bargain very well.
The second is this, from Harrisonburg Patch, a news aggregator:
A 33-year-old teacher at James Madison Middle School has been accused of soliciting inappropriate pictures from a student, leading to criminal charges against him. The alleged incident involved the teacher requesting pictures from a student at the school where he was employed, according to the police. The teacher has been arrested.
The first is obvious. Biden mocked the press corps for its reporting skills, and the press corps reported it as a Biden idiosyncrasy instead of as a failing on their part. The second, a little less so. The algorithm saw James Madison and thought Harrisonburg, even though the school is in Maryland. And it showed up in my email as a local story, which is a little jarring considering my wife, Deb, chairs the School Board. (more…)
Virginiaโs November elections for control of the General Assembly may be the most important in a generation.
Will Virginia become Berkeley east? Or will it return to being a sane, moderate commonwealth?
Great news! Tuesdayโs primaries saw the GOP cut loose its clown candidates, while Democrats embraced theirs.
A look at this weekโs primary results are an excellent sign for those on the right who support reasonable restrictions on abortion, school choice and parents rights.
Put simply, Democrats gave the boot to more moderate, bipartisan members of the state legislature to nominate wacky, far-left candidates. Republicans rejected the far right and nominated common-sense conservatives who were endorsed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. In fact, every one of the 10 candidates endorsed by Youngkin won their races. (more…)
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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(This was first published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy)
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
by Kerry Dougherty
