Bacon's Rebellion

  • The โ€œOccasional” Butchery of Children

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    sherlockj

    By James C. Sherlock

    Chloe Cole after childhood surgical transition to a boy (left) and de-transition to a girl (right) – Courtesy of Chloe Cole and the New York Post

    The New York Post wrote recently:

    At 12 years old, Chloe Cole decided she was transgender. At 13, she was put on puberty blockers and prescribed testosterone. At 15, she underwent a double mastectomy. Less than a year later, she realized sheโ€™d made a mistake.

    Note the gracious acceptance of agency by this young woman, even though she made a โ€œdecisionโ€ at 12 that she was transgender. ย Some clearly think that a child of twelve is mature enough to make such a decision.

    We see no such agency proclaimed by her parents, pediatrician, endocrinologist or psychologist. ย I am sure they were โ€œsupportingโ€ that child.

    No agency is apparently accepted by the state in which she lived. ย The state in which her doctors were licensed.

    Letโ€™s examine the agency of the adult players in such matters in Virginia.

    (more…)

  • A Senseless Fight

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Sometimes I shake my head in dismay at the Democrats in the General Assembly.ย  They sometimes seem so eager to score points against Governor Youngkin that they end up shooting themselves in the foot.

    Current case in point is Budget Amendment No. 9 sent down by the Governor.ย  Rather than summarize it, I will set in out in full:

    1. ย As part of the biennial six-year financial plan required in the provisions of เธ‡ 23.1-306, Code of Virginia, each public four-year institution of higher education, Richard Bland College, and the Virginia Community College System shall include in its six-year plan and amendments to its plan submitted to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) an official commitment and set of policies and practices to support freedom of expression and inquiry, free speech, academic freedom, and diversity of thought.
    2. Each public four-year institution of higher education, Richard Bland College, and the Virginia Community College System shall also submit an annual report on freedom of expression and inquiry, free speech, academic freedom, and diversity of thought to the Secretary of Education, including related incidents and statistics from the prior academic year.

    (more…)

  • Let’s Get Out of Here

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Petersburg Federal Correctional Institution

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that four prisoners escaped from the federal prison complex near Petersburg early Saturday morning.ย  No details were released on how they escaped.

    Undoubtedly, it is important for federal officials to discover how the prisoners escaped and take steps to tighten security.ย  However, there is another question that is almost as important:ย  how did it come about that these particular prisoners were housed in that particular facility?

    Three of the four had long sentences resulting from their convictions on drug distribution charges (fentanyl, cocaine, or heroin). Also included among the charges were possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, possession of a stolen firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Their sentences ranged from 10 to 16 years.ย  In summary, these were serious offenders who had shown a tendency toward firearm violence. (more…)

  • Update: Richmond Could Still Close Gas Works

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    Steve Haner

    Pending Termination

    by Steve Haner

    The Senate of Virginia, after long avoiding a vote, has now approved a bill that would require a Virginia local government to try to sell its municipal natural gas utility before simply closing it.ย  The watered down conference report was all that remained of a more robust bill protecting the natural gas business in Virginia from the climate catastrophe fanatics.

    It offers little to no real protection to municipal gas users beyond notifications. (more…)

  • Naming Rights, Wrongs, Multiple Choices and โ€œMalicious Misgenderingโ€ in Fairfax County Schools

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    sherlockj

    By James C. Sherlock

    A recent meeting of the Fairfax County School Board

    I believe that we can agree by acclamation that Ms. is the greatest English-language honorific devised since Agincourt.

    The fact that it has its origins in its co-honorific โ€œmistress” is beside the point.

    โ€œMs.” has mitigated millions of social discomforts by letting people address a woman without knowledge of her marital status.

    The pronouns โ€œheโ€ and “sheโ€ are more fraught of late.

    (more…)

  • Picking the Wrong Fight

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Buta Biberaj, Loudon County Commonwealth’s Attorney

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    One of the new Commonwealthโ€™s attorneys in Northern Virginia has gotten into serious trouble.ย  Circuit Court Judge James Plowman, in a highly unusual move, has removed the office of Loudoun County Commonwealthโ€™s attorney Buta Biberaj from the prosecution of a case.

    In his order, Judge Plowman said that the prosecutorโ€™s office had entered into a plea deal with a defendant without a โ€œfull review of the factsโ€ of the case and was โ€œdeliberately misleading the court, and the public, in an effort to โ€™sellโ€™ the plea agreement for some reason that has yet to be explained.โ€

    Judge James E. Plowman, 20th Judicial Circuit, Loudoun County

    In addition to removing and disqualifying Biberajโ€™s office from prosecution ofย the case, the judge rejected the plea agreement, appointed the Fauquier County Commonwealthโ€™s attorney to prosecute the case, and recused himself from the case โ€œunless the parties agree otherwise.โ€

    The case involves a 19-year-old man charged with three misdemeanors (two counts of destruction of property and one count of providing false ID to law enforcement) and two felonies (burglaries).ย  The prosecution recommended a sentence of six months in exchange for guilty pleas. (more…)

  • How Many Pieces Did You Say It Will Take To Build This Plant?

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    There is more good news for the Commonwealth.ย  As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Youngkin announced on Wednesday that the Lego Group will invest at least $1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County.ย  It would be Legoโ€™s only manufacturing facility in the United States.

    The company projected that the 1.7 million square foot plant would create more than 1,700 new jobs over a period of ten years.

    The company currently has a manufacturing plant in Mexico, but, because the United States is a key market, the company wants to shorten its supply chain issues and reduce its overall carbon footprint.ย  Along these lines, the plant will be designed to be โ€œcarbon neutralโ€.ย  To accomplish this, it will use some offsets.ย  According to the news report, โ€œThe factory will also be paired with a solar park, which will be built by 2025 and generate the energy needed for the plant to run.โ€ย  From the news report, it is not clear whether the electricity produced by the solar farm will be used directly by the factory or whether that is one of the offsets. (more…)

  • Sen. McClellan Charges Racism as Va. Health Commissioner works to Improve Health of Black Mothers and Babies

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    sherlockj

    By James C. Sherlock

    The left will not be swayed from invoking racism in every situation, everywhere.

    They deploy that charge especially disgracefully when conservatives attempt to help poor people be healthier, better educated, safer and more successful.

    Because those actually are not the objectives of the left. ย They simply donโ€™t care about such things. ย They offer public policies that have the opposite effects.

    They want poor people radicalized. Period. ย Full stop. ย When some die or have their lives ruined in the process they are considered collateral damage in a higher cause.

    The Washington Post has published “Black lawmakers โ€˜outragedโ€™ over Va. health commissioner demand actionโ€, an utterly predictable screed.

    Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond) is quoted there as saying:

    (Health Commissioner Dr. Colin) Greeneโ€™s views made her (McClellan) question work done to try to reverse the disparities, including the stateโ€™s April 2021 Maternal Health Strategic Plan, which says ‘structural racism is at the root of maternal health disparities just as it is for many other health disparities.’ (emphasis added)

    As if that perfect embodiment of progressive virtue signaling will somehow improve the health outcomes of poor Black women and their babies. ย For progressives, words are actions. ย The tactic is called “truth by repeated assertionโ€ used to frighten political opponents into silence.

    Sen. McClellan and the entire General Assembly Black Caucus are complete hypocrites in this matter.

    (more…)

  • Hoos the Best Software Engineering School?

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Sometimes we get nice surprises. Yesterday was one of those days.

    A friend on the UVa Board of Visitors sent me a reportย by CodeSignal.

    Founded in 2015, (CodeSignal is) the first company to develop an objective skills-based assessment platform that can be used as a standard for technical hiring.

    The report presents that organization’s ranking of the 50 colleges and universities with the highest concentration of students who received a top score underย  CodeSignalโ€™s General Coding Framework, “the industry-standard assessment taken by more than 50% of graduating computer science students in the United States”.

    It is meant for corporate recruiters and hiring managers. ย Here is the list of the top 30 universities.

    Ta da!

    I am a UVa grad but, alas, in 1962 I did not major in software engineering.

    Congratulations to the Hoos.

  • Only Part of the Gas Tax Would Be Suspended

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    The gas tax in Virginia today is 33.8 cents per gallon and the diesel tax is 34.7 cents per gallon. ย The fresh proposal from Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) for a 90-day suspension of those taxes does not eliminate Virginiaโ€™s full fuel tax bite.ย  The oft-ignored wholesale tax will remain while only the retail tax goes away.

    Baconโ€™s Rebellion has plowed this ground before.ย  The Division of Motor Vehiclesโ€™ posted information on taxes remains intentionally misleading, listing the retail taxes in one place and mentioning the wholesale taxes somewhere else.ย ย  These taxes are also set up by different sections of the Code of Virginia.ย  Youngkinโ€™s proposal would amend only one of those Code sections. (more…)

  • More Legislating Through the Budget

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Since Governor Youngkin was successful in getting into the budget bill a provision establishing a criminal penalty for possession of more than four ounces of marijuana, he apparently has decided to go evenย  further in using the budget bill as a means to amend the criminal code without having to go through substantive committees.

    The Governorโ€™s proposed amendments to the budget bill include three provisions that would expandย  existing criminal procedure and provisions related to offenders in prison and create a new felony offense.ย  None of the provisions has any relationship to state expenditures or revenues, which is the usual subject of the budget bill. (more…)

  • Americaโ€™s Petroleum Refining Capacity in the News – What is Going On?

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    sherlockj

    By James C. Sherlock

    This is a note about perhaps the highest profile national inflation issue, the price of gasoline and diesel.

    The President is demanding more supply from U.S. refineries. ย Headlines like this one blare at us today:

    Biden threatens oil companies with ’emergency powers’ if they don’t boost supply amid inflation spike.

    The letter behind such headlines, which is exactly what it seems to be,ย was sent to the largest refiners in the country. ย Among other things, the President wrote:

    My administration is prepared to use all reasonable and appropriate Federal Government tools and emergency authorities to increase refinery capacity and output in the near term, and to ensure that every region of this country is appropriately supplied.

    I looked up the data on oil refining that Mr. Bidenโ€™s Energy Information Administration has published.

    From the numbers on American refinery input and capacity, Mr. Biden will need more than โ€œemergency powers” to increase refining output.

    He will need a a genie.

    (more…)

  • The Continuing Transformation of Virginia Politics

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Toscano, David.ย  Bellwether:ย  Virginiaโ€™s Political Transformation, 2006-2020.ย  Lanham:ย  Hamilton Books, 2022

    In this book, David Toscano, whose prior work was Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives (2021), turns his focus on Virginia.ย  The author is a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2006-2020) from Charlottesville and served as the House Minority Leader from 2011 to 2018.

    The book can be viewed from several perspectives.ย  At the highest level, it is an analysis of the changes in Virginiaโ€™s demographics and corresponding changes in its electoral politics in the first two decades of this century.ย  On another level, it is partly a political memoir.ย  Finally, it is an insiderโ€™s account of the legislative personalities and process in Virginia.

    It needs to be said up front that this is not a nonpartisan account.ย  Toscano is a liberal Democrat and he does not try to disguise that fact.ย  He revels in the expansion of Medicaid, Democrats taking control of the House, and the legislation enacted in the 2020 and 2021 Sessions.ย  However, he does not demonize Republicans.ย  His attitude is that Republicansโ€™ positions are legitimate and sincerely held, but generally wrong-headed. (more…)

  • A History Lesson for the Governor

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    In announcing the latest revenue collections (they are high), Governor Youngkin renewed his pitch for tax cuts, commenting, โ€œThis report confirms that the time is now to deliver meaningful tax cuts to Virginia families who are getting crushed by five-dollar gas and record-high inflation.โ€

    That statement gave me pause.ย  โ€œRecord-high inflationโ€?ย  I am old enough to easily remember the late 1970โ€™s and early 1980โ€™s when mortgage rates were in the mid-teens and, I seem to remember, inflation was high as well.ย  (I realize that Mr. Youngkin was only 14 years old in 1980, so he probably was not paying attention to such things.)

    A little research confirmed my memory.ย  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), inflation peaked in March 1980, with the CPI 14.8 percent higher than it had been 12 months earlier.ย  Inflation was 11.35 percent for calendar year 1979 and 13.5 percent for calendar 1980.

    The BLS data provides additional historical perspective.ย  During the period of July 1916-November 1918, the inflation factor was 19.1 percent on an annualized basis.ย  From November 1918-June 1920, it โ€œdroppedโ€ to 17.3 percent.ย  For the 12-month period of March 1946-March 1947, overall prices increased 20.1 percent.ย  For the 24-month period of Dec. 1972-Dec. 1974, the annualized inflation rate was 10.5 percent.ย  There was the period in the late 1970โ€™s and early โ€˜80s already mentioned.ย  Even as recently as Oct. 1989-Nov. 1990, the inflation rate was 6.3 percent over each 12-month period, not that much lower than todayโ€™s current rate.

    Todayโ€™s price increases are causing hardship for many people.ย  However, that is no reason for politicians to exaggerate them for their own purposes.

  • Time to Play Hardball

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    James A. Bacon

    by Carol A.O. Wolf

    The recent dust-up concerning the fate of the Arthur Ash Jr. Athletic Center is, in the words of the great baseball philosopher Yogi Berra, “dรฉjร  vu all over again.”

    Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney is once again pitching a big canโ€™t-lose — this time promising a brand new mini-city complete with state-of-the-art baseball stadium, restaurants, retail shops, microbreweries, and apartments for both the rich and unrich.

    Because those who donโ€™t know their history are doomed to repeat it, I am obliged to offer this sad and shameful history lesson about a 2012 “big canโ€™t-lose deal” involving previous Richmond City Mayor Dwight C. Jones, the pro football team now known as the Washington Commanders, the Bon Secours Health System and the cityโ€™s Economic Development Authority.

    Basically, they stole the Westhampton School property.

    Blinded by the glitz of Washington team owner Dan Snyderโ€™s PR folks and many local cheerleaders, the very people charged with protecting Richmondโ€™s public-school children decided to sacrifice them instead. (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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