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Bacon Meme of the Week
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RVA 5×5: Incentivizing Derelicts
by Jon Baliles
Housing has become a vital issue all across our region; it is a pressing need, but not simple to resolve. It will be with us for some time to come and we have to seek out a multi-prong strategy to address it. But there are some steps that can be taken to set the conditions of success, one parcel at a time. Joseph Maltby in the Henrico Citizen had an interesting story with wider implications about one of those solutions.
He writes about a development along Chamberlayne Road just north of Azalea Avenue in Henrico County that will see a new, 186-unit, affordable housing development with density (three and four story buildings) along with other amenities. The interesting part of the story is that the eight-acre property was “declared derelict in 2019 and put on the county’s list of properties designated for redevelopment,” and the former Days Inn motel was demolished.
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Is a Reckoning Coming for the Management and Administrative Costs at Virginia’s State Colleges and Universities?
UVa President James Ryan. $750,000 base salary. Courtesy of the University of Virginia by James C. Sherlock
In 2015, Professor Paul Campos of the University of Colorado at Boulder wrote an op-ed for The New York Times that clarified for many a major issue in the rising costs of a college education — the exponential growth of the number and costs of administrators.
According to the Department of Education data, administrative positions at colleges and universities grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which Bloomberg reported was 10 times the rate of growth of tenured faculty positions.
Even more strikingly, an analysis by a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, found that, while the total number of full-time faculty members in the C.S.U. system grew from 11,614 to 12,019 between 1975 and 2008, the total number of administrators grew from 3,800 to 12,183 — a 221 percent increase.
With inflation putting pressure on budgets, I hope Boards of Visitors are taking a hard look at reducing expenses before increasing tuitions. (more…)
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Southern Domination and Beaver Nuggets.
by Kerry Dougherty
Sick of politics? Me too. Let’s change it up today.
I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty much an expert on roadside food joints and truck stops.
No, not that way, you perverts.
I simply love road trips, which means frequent stops for food and fuel. Most truck stops are sort of meh.
A few are memorable.
Kenley 95 in North Carolina, for instance, where I bought my first Bug-A-Salt rifle. The Nordstrom of truck stops. At least that’s what I thought until my son and I were driving through Iowa a couple of years ago and dropped into Sapp Bros. This Midwestern chain is absolutely spa-like with bidets and heated toilet seats. (Hey, don’t knock it, this was December and we’d been driving through an ice storm in an old SUV without seat heaters. Toasty toilet seats? You have no idea!)
When I’m in Mississippi, I always look for Chevron stations where the food is consistently good and unmistakably Southern. Fried chicken, fried okra, and if you’re lucky, fried pickles.
In central Virginia and West Virginia, I stop at Sheetz, where you can concoct your own sandwiches on a computer screen. They even have pesto on occasion. Very fancy.
In Georgia, I keep an eye out for Jim ’N Nick’s Community BBQ joints. There are 37 of them sprinkled throughout the Peach State, Alabama, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina. The food is great and you’ll want to stuff your pockets with the cheese biscuits. Don’t ask if I’ve ever done that.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when all else fails, I look for Cracker Barrels. The food is slow but you can get a head start on your Christmas shopping while you wait. Told you I was an expert!
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Lords of the Lie
by James A. BaconI never imagined it possible to exceed the vitriol heaped upon University of Virginia board member Bert Ellis over the past few months. I thought for sure that the nastiness would die down. I was naive. Yesterday the Democratic Party of Virginia labeled him a “eugenicist” — an advocate of the philosophy of sterilizing the genetically unfit. The philosophy was adopted by racists to purge the gene pool of Jews, Blacks, Roma and other groups deemed undesirable. In so doing, the attack groups Ellis with the worst racists of history.
The charge appears in a press release lambasting Governor Glenn Youngkin’s education policy, primarily in K-12 education. While most of the criticisms were tendentious and wrong-headed, at least they were directed toward Youngkin’s policies and actions. But in Ellis’ case, the Democratic Party of Virginia engaged in a vicious personal attack with zero factual foundation. Indeed, the DPV elevated previous libels of Ellis as a “White supremacist” to new heights of malice.
Here is what the press release says.
Appointment of a Eugenicist to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors (more…)
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Virginia is the Future
by Arthur Bloom
I want to tell you why I like The 1619 Project. It has nothing to do with the history, all of which is known to any well-educated Virginian. Of course, these things are fundamentally propagandistic exercises, any leftist worth his salt would tell you that too. But it was symbolically very important. Here’s what it did: The New York Times shifted the locus and timeline of the American Founding from Plymouth Bay to Virginia, where it belongs.
It’s a common gripe of Virginians that when most Americans today think of the Founding, they tend to think of pilgrims in black-and-white, with buckles on their shoes, even though we were there first. The 1619 Project is helping to rectify this situation. I’m holding out for a 1607 Project. Give it time, the actual Jamestown fort wasn’t even rediscovered until around 25 years ago.
The New York Times was engaged in some powerful voodoo, not to be trifled with — if you look at everything through the lens of race you won’t see it — but it’s very real. Catholic education molded Nikole Hannah-Jones, and she went on to strike a hammer blow against Yankee cultural power. The Empire of Guadalupe rises.
This was necessary, because if the affirmative action lawsuit at Harvard is successful, Harvard will become even more Chinese, and its prestige will fall. Our people won’t go there anymore. That’s why I’m rooting for Conservative, Inc.’s devious plan to turn Harvard into a Chinese enclave, it’ll be the greatest thing they’ve ever done. These two things are mortal blows to the cultural prestige of Massachusetts. And as Massachusetts falls, Virginia rises.
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Private Hospitals show Virginia’s State Hospitals, Colleges and Universities the Way to Efficiency
Valley Health Winchester Medical Center by James C. Sherlock
We read far too often about funding “crises” in government institutions and programs.
The general public, me included, would be far more attentive and sometimes supportive if government would follow the lead of private companies and continually right-size itself and emphasize customer-facing services.
The health care industry — or rather the private healthcare industry — consistently shows the way.
Even not-for-profits are not for losses.
Count, if you can, the number of times in your life that a government organization has announced job cutbacks in administration in order to optimize expenditures and provide better service.
Yeah, me neither.
Students at one of my favorite state schools (it is northwest of Richmond and west of Orange County) are protesting that their faculty is underpaid.
The solution to that problem, if indeed the Board of Visitors considers it a problem, writes itself. (more…)
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Breaking Virginia’s Energy Impasse
by Bill O’KeefeWith the two chambers of the General Assembly politically divided, there is no hope for a bipartisan compromise on changing the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Without change, we are stuck with a radical energy policy that will enrich Dominion and leave consumers holding the bag. VCEA will stand as a monument to hubris.
There is one course of action that the Democrat-controlled Senate might be willing to accept, and that is subjecting Dominion’s approach to a “Red Team” review. If the GA can’t agree to do that type of review, the SCC could undertake it on its own.
The “Red Team” concept was developed by the Department of Defense to provide a means to realistically validate the strength and quality of strategies or policies by employing an outside perspective. A Red Team’s review evaluates whether a proposal is robust and complete. The use of red teaming has expanded broadly within government and the private sector.
Dominion and the Democrat Senate are by now so deeply committed to the offshore wind farm and to the VCEA mandates that it is impossible for either to take a fresh, objective look at either.
There are a number of reasons why a “Red Team” analysis is needed. (more…)
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Black Students Disappearing from Classrooms Disproportionately in Ten of our Largest School Divisions
by James C. SherlockFor those who support local control of schools no matter what, I will offer you a “what” to consider.
For those who are nervous about even discussing why some jurisdictions in Virginia have failed to ensure “an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained” for Black children, that works for Black children no matter their circumstances, you are reading the wrong article.
Twenty percent of Virginians are Black, as were 22% of our public school students in 2022.
Virginia lost 4% of its Black public school student registrations in the last three years, compared to 2.6% of all students including Black students. Black chronic absenteeism statewide jumped from 13.1% to over 25%. All student chronic absenteeism including Black students was 20%.
Ten jurisdictions with at least 2,000 Black students at the start of that period lost higher percentages of their Black students than the state average. Some much higher.
Those ten lost 8,668 Black student registrations. The entire state lost 10,674. Chronic absenteeism of black students in those jurisdictions increased in line with statewide increases.
Without even bringing up school quality, this is unacceptable if we care about the futures of Black kids.
We have to get them in school. I say “we” because it will be a long-term disaster for both these children and Virginia if we don’t.
Lots of different things have to be done to get them there, which is where school quality comes in. But I will share some of the raw numbers. (more…)
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Soft-On-Crime Va. Democrats’ Offal Proposal
by Kerry Dougherty
Oh look. Another garbage bill courtesy of Virginia’s soft-on-crime Democrats!
Want to see what’s coming our way if Dems regain control of the General Assembly and Governor’s Mansion?
Check out SB1080.
Yep, a gaggle of Virginia’s leading lefties pushed a measure that would classify felons younger than 21 as JUVENILES. Virginia law currently calls those criminals older than 18 ADULTS.
Because that’s what they are.
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Virginians Ship Another 22 Ambulances to Ukraine
Departing from Harrisonburg, a convoy of 22 ambulances arrived at the Port of Baltimore this morning and boarded a cargo ship bound for Ukraine. In total now, non-profit Ukraine Focus, founded by former USAID official Brock Bierman, has shipped 112 of the life-saving vehicles to Ukrainian medics on the frontlines of Russia’s aggression.
Ukraine Focus estimates that each ambulance will save the lives of up to 200 soldiers per month. (Due to Russian targeting and theft of ambulances on the battlefield, however, the average lifespan of an ambulance in Ukraine these days is only 30 to 60 days.)
Find out more about Ukraine Focus here.
— JAB
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Dems Block Bill to Maintain Safe and Effective Classrooms
by James C. SherlockI have written earlier about a Democratic bill in this recent General Assembly with broad Democratic support that did not pass.
Let’s look at another bill that did not pass, this one from a Republican, and with broad Republican support.
Article VIII. Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution requires the General Assembly to “seek to ensure that an educational program of high quality is established and continually maintained.”
This bill, HB 1461, was an attempt to carry out that responsibility.
It required the Department of Education to establish, within its regulations governing student conduct, a uniform system of discipline for disruptive behavior and the removal of a student from a class. The bill included criteria for teachers to remove disruptive students from their classes:
- It instituted a requirement for a teacher to remove a disruptive student from a class if the disruptive behavior is violent; or
- If the student persisted in disrupting the class after two warnings.
It added a prohibition against holding a teacher liable for taking reasonable actions or utilizing reasonable methods to control a physically disruptive or violently disruptive student. Every school board would be required to adhere to these provisions.
That was it.
The “ensuring an educational program of high quality” thing.
Every Democrat in both bodies voted against it. (more…)
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Virginia Democrats Want to Deal With Criminals 18-20 in the Juvenile Justice System
by James C. SherlockI received an update yesterday from the NAACP on legislation that caught their interest in the 2023 General Assembly.
One bill that did not pass, but got party line Democratic support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, in turn caught my eye.
It was SB 1080 Juvenile and domestic relations district courts; adjudication of delinquency. Patrons were Senators Edwards, Boysko and Surovell. It was not some fringe bill. This is a mainstream Democratic goal.
The NAACP wanted me to know they wanted it reintroduced next year.
Delinquency is currently defined as criminal complaints for felonies or misdemeanors filed against a juvenile age 17 and under.
Democrats, unanimous in the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to create a newly-defined class of “underage persons,” 18-20, and handle them in the juvenile justice system as well.
Seriously. Twenty-year-old felons in juvenile detention facilities.
They voted for that. (more…)
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“Anti-Racism” in Action: Fairfax Schools Edition
by James A. BaconDo you have an 8th grader who wants to go to college? Does he or she fall into one of several marginalized groups, including Black or Hispanic racial/ethnic identity? If so, Fairfax County has a special College Partnership Program to help.
Although the program apparently allows Whites and Asian students to participate if they qualify as an English learner, first-in-family to attend college, economically disadvantaged, or having a learning disability, only Blacks and Hispanics are entitled on the basis of their race to participate.
Enterprising journalist/crusader Asra Nomani has the story here. Nomani engages in slight overreach by stating that Asian-American students are “excluded.” But the Fairfax County criteria are clearly racist. Blacks and Hispanics are granted a race-based privilege not given Whites and Asians. (more…)
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Is CPAC Shrinking?
by Bruce Majors
CPAC2023 was noticeably smaller than CPAC has been in previous years, with a half-empty ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort on the shores of the Potomac in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It’s CPACtrophy.
Although you could see the Masonic Temple in Old Town, Alexandria from the Gaylord, there were few Virginia politicians. Former Congressman Dave Bratt and Lt. Governor Winsome Sears made appearances. Like Florida Governor DeSantis, Governor Youngkin was not a speaker. (Lots of Virginians crossed the bridge to attend and vote in the CPAC straw poll however.) Richmond radio talk show host John Reid was spotted at an ancillary event on Capitol Hill where Trump’s Ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, spoke before appearing at CPAC on a panel with Democrat Jennifer Palmieri of Showtime’s The Circus.
In 2010, one of the last years CPAC was held in Washington, D.C., at the Woodley Park Marriott, 2,300 registrants voted in the CPAC presidential straw poll. CPAC’s registration kept growing, its stated reason for moving out to the Gaylord, where 3,000 registrants voted in the straw poll in 2015. After spending a few COVID lockdown years in Florida, CPAC is back at the Gaylord on the Potomac waterfront this year.
This year only 2,028 people took the straw poll. This is only a proxy for registration, as some people may not have voted. But it is only two-thirds the number who voted in 2015.
There are fewer workshops and panels outside the main hall, and the main Potomac Ballroom is noticeably half empty.
A reporter acquaintance asked me about the low attendance and whether I thought it was due to the “Schlapp scandal.” I did not see this, but according to a Washington Times article, CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp was chased through the halls Thursday morning by reporters asking him about a $9 million lawsuit against him for a sexual assault. (more…)
