Bacon's Rebellion

  • Energy Reliability, Cost Concern Some Democrats?

    Posted on

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.

    The Department of Energy, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Quality, shall analyze the life cycle of renewable energy facilities, including solar, wind, and battery storage components. The analysis shall assess the (i) feasibility, costs, recycling and salvage opportunities, waste strategies, and liability for the decommissioning of materials; (ii) potential impacts of underground infrastructure post-decommissioning; and (iii) potential impacts of the life cycle on farming, forestry, and sensitive wetlands.

    Now what science-denying Republican tool of the fossil fuel industry put in that silly bill? No, wait:  Senate Bill 499 is sponsored by a Democratic state senator, Lynwood Lewis from the Eastern Shore. (And, Senator, you should amend the bill to cover the life cycle impacts of offshore wind on our ocean, and those retirement costs.) (more…)

  • Hearing Footsteps in Loudoun County Public Schools Administration

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    by

    sherlockj

    Virginia AG Jason Miyares AP Photo/Cliff Owen

    by James C. Sherlock

    Word has made it to the Loudoun County Public Schools Board that the new Attorney General is coming to investigate.

    Something about the handling by the administration of rapes in two different schools by the same male student. And not properly reporting the first one.

    Seems that not only responsible leadership and common sense but also Title IX were violated.

    Attorney General Miyares’ footsteps have gotten loud enough that LCPS has offered a human sacrifice to appease him. (more…)

  • The Road to Hell in Virginia Telemedicine

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    sherlockj

    Credit; McKnight’s Long Term Care News

    by James C. Sherlock

    The road to hell really is paved with good intentions.

    The current Virginia State Telehealth Plan was published just less than a year ago.

    The purpose of the Plan is to promote an integrated approach to the introduction and use of telehealth services in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

    In 2020, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) created a process for the development of a Statewide Telehealth plan. To achieve this goal, a process was designed with multiple phases to maximize the engagement and buy‐in of stakeholders from across the state. Building upon the progress of the 2020 VDH and Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) led COVID‐19 Amplified Response‐Telehealth Workgroup, VDH convened 6 additional workgroups to bring together key stakeholders around the priority areas as addressed in HB1332 …

    A partnership between VDH and VHHA. Stakeholders. Focused on priority areas addressed in HB 1332.

    The goals of these workgroup sessions included developing consensus of workgroup members through a virtual meeting format and written survey methods for identified high priority level needs and strategies for flexible actions and lessons learned from the COVID‐19 amplified response; receiving feedback in a formal state process through public comment, identifying barriers and challenges in creating a statewide telehealth infrastructure, and establishing set goals for advancing the adoption and utilization of telehealth as a mechanism for meeting identified health needs.

    Identified barriers and challenges. Established set goals. Six core strategies.

    (more…)

  • Reframing the Debate: Diversity, Opportunity & Inclusion

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    James A. Bacon

    Angela Sailor

    by James A. Bacon

    With his latest cabinet pick of Angela Sailor as director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Governor Glenn Youngkin has reframed the debate about race in Virginia. Sailor runs the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Feulner Institute, which was founded in 2019 to help Americans “understand the uniqueness of this nation’s founding, reinstill in Americans a love for their country, and help them understand why it’s all worth preserving,”

    In the same announcement, Youngkin said he updated the office’s mission to focus on promoting economic opportunity for disadvantaged Virginians. And he proposes renaming the office to Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion.

    The name change is emblematic of Youngkin’s approach to poverty and race relations. The old formulation of “equity” in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion called for social engineering to create equal racial/ethnic group outcomes. It concentrated power in the hands of political elites. And it has proven spectacularly ineffective. “Opportunity,” by contrast, calls for providing individuals the means to build better lives for themselves. (more…)

  • Impractical Solar Power, Illustrated With the Math

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    by David Wojick

    This was first published at cfact.org and is reproduced with Wojick’s permission.

    Many states and the utilities they regulate are talking about replacing their coal and gas fired generators with solar and wind power. For example, I recently wrote about how the crazy-named Virginia Clean Economy Act already has almost 800 square miles of solar slabs in the developmental lineup.

    Given the high intermittency of wind and solar, the idea of running on solar and wind turns out to be an extremely costly prospect. It is all about reliability. Electricity must be there when we need it. Below I present some simple calculations that show just how bad this idea really is. (more…)

  • An Unmistakeable Odor of Corruption

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    sherlockj

    TOLES © The Washington Post. Reprinted with permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.

    by James C. Sherlock

    The data offered by the Virginia Public Access Project in Money in Politics have long left a perception that privileged access to Virginia elected officials is for sale.

    Perception matches reality. It is for sale.

    No one denies that:

    • a republican form of government is based on a rough equality of influence among its voting members;
    • unlimited campaign contributions in Virginia and only ten other states secure privileged access to elected officials ; or
    • privileged access brings with it the perception and perhaps in some cases the reality of undue influence on legislation and votes.

    Some may think that large donations are only given to kindred spirits, legislators who favor the causes of the donors.

    I am sorry to inform them that many large contributors give to each of two opposing candidates to secure influence on the winner. Or they give to the winner immediately after the election if they supported her opponent during the campaign. Or both.

    What could go wrong in a system like that?

    Yet, as Dick Hall-Sizemore reported earlier today, legislators from both parties have just voted in the Virginia Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections to sustain it. (more…)

  • Fact Checker Accusing Youngkin of Leaving Out Important Context … Leaves Out Important Context

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    In his first speech to the General Assembly, Governor Glenn Youngkin stressed the need to upgrade academic standards in Virginia’s public schools. “Education standards for math and reading are now the lowest in the nation,” he said.

    Warren Fiske with VPM News “fact checked” the statement. Citing the National Center for Education Statistics, he noted that, yes, Virginia’s 4th-grade proficiency standards for reading are the second lowest among the 50 states and 4th-grade math standards are the lowest. But Youngkin leaves out critical context, Fiske contends. The scores of Virginia students in national standardized exams are “near the top” for 4th graders, and “high” in math and “average in reading for 8th graders.

    “Youngkin’s claim, without elaboration, wrongly suggests that Virginia students are being taught less than their colleagues across the country,” writes Fiske. “So we rate his statement Half True.”

    Translation: “Technically speaking, Youngkin’s statement was 100% accurate. But I’ll read between the lines and decipher what he was hinting at, and the meaning I impute to his words is wrong.”

    Even then, Fiske’s context needs context. As it turns out, Virginia’s recent performance in national standardized test scores is heading in the wrong direction. (more…)

  • Hands Off My Donations!

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) Photo credit: Virginia Mercury

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Virginia Senators wasted little time killing off an attempt to limit campaign contributions. On its first day of meetings, the Privileges and Elections Committee took up Senator Chap Petersen’s bill to place a $2o,000 cap on campaign contributions (SB 44). Voting to report the bill were five Democrats: Deeds (Bath), Ebbin (Alexandria), Mason (Williamsburg), McClellan (Richmond), and Boysko (Fairfax). The ten Senators voting to kill the bill included all seven Republicans on the committee: Vogel (Fauquier), Reeves (Spotsylvania), Ruff (Mecklenburg), Peake (Lynchburg), McDougle (Hanover), Bell (Loudoun), and Hackworth (Tazewell). Joining them were three Democrats: Howell (Fairfax), Spruill (Chesapeake), and Surovell (Fairfax).

    This does not bode well for Petersen’s headliner campaign bill that would ban campaign contributions from public utilities (SB 45). The legislation is obviously aimed at Dominion Energy. Petersen has called on the Governor to support the bill. It will be instructive to see if (1) Youngkin comes out publicly in support of the bill and (2) if he does, whether that will be enough to sway enough senators, Democrats and Republicans, to vote for the bill.

  • A Taste of Tyranny

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Leviathan

    Testimony of Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, at a hearing held by the Fairfax delegation to the General Assembly January 8.

    Thank you for this hearing. I have five topics.

    First, it was 19 degrees this morning, and we just had a 20-hour, 50-mile shutdown on I-95 due to snow and ice. You should claim victory in your war against global warming, withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and repeal the Virginia Clean Energy Act, which drive up the cost of living and replace reliable with unreliable energy. Solar panel production is not clean.

    Why does Germany, a leader in clean energy, need a new natural gas pipeline?
    The evidence for a climate change crisis is sketchy. For example, when I asked an employee who had worked at a ski resort for 32 years if the ski season had been shortened, the answer was no. For another example, Bangladesh flooding is the result of silt runoff due to deforestation, not rising sea levels. (more…)

  • AG Miyares and Safe Schools

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Jason Miyares. Photo credit: Washington Post

    by Kerry Dougherty

    On Day One in office, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that his office would be investigating Loudoun County schools. He’s vowed to learn exactly how an accused sex offender who allegedly attacked one girl in May 2021 at Stone Bridge High was quietly moved to another Loudoun County school, Broad Run High School, where he was able to attack a second girl in the fall.

    The public has an absolute right to know how this happened and who covered up the sex crimes.

    When Miyares finishes with Loudoun County he should turn his attention to another school district: Newport News.

    In September of 2021 a 15-year-old student at Heritage High School brought a gun to school and opened fire on two Newport News classmates. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the head and hand, a 17-year-old girl was shot in the leg. (more…)

  • General Assembly Education Bills of Interest in 2022

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Legacy Public School, Ashburn, Va.

    by James C. Sherlock

    I have reviewed the bills on the subject of education filed in this session of the General Assembly. Interesting and important legislation there, no question.

    As you might expect, most of the high profile legislation was filed in the newly Republican House.

    I am listing only highlights here. I have not read each bill in full, and therefore I am not sure whether or not I support them. But I intend to track them. It should prove interesting to see how each fares.

    • HB 319 Virginia Literacy Act; early student literacy, evidence-based literacy instruction, etc.
    • HB 344 Public charter schools; applications, review and approval 
    • HB 346 College partnership laboratory schools; application and establishment
    • HB 938 Public schools; evaluation & recommendations for certain current and proposed policies.
    • HB 1068 Public elementary and secondary schools; curricula and instruction.
    • SB 125 Public schools; regional charter school divisions. 
    • SB 275 Public school libraries; printed and audiovisual materials, selection, evaluation, checkout, etc.

    There may be bipartisan support for at least some of these. Expansion of charter schools has some Democratic support in the Senate.

    Then there is the Budget Bill developed by the Northam administration. The education components will draw a lot of scrutiny to both the money and the language.

  • Has Omicron Peaked?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Source: Virginia Department of Health

    by James A. Bacon

    The news media today is chock full of stories about school boards in Northern Virginia and other blue localities defying Governor Glenn Youngkin’s executive order ending mask mandates. The confrontations won’t be settled until the courts rule definitively whether Virginia’s Governor or the school boards have the last word. By the time that happens, the issue may be moot. It appears that the Omicron wave of COVID-19 has peaked and, though daily infections are still extremely high, they are receding.

    According to the Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard, new confirmed cases of COVID-19 hit a high of 36,928 in the week ending January 8. Last week, ending January 15, new cases fell to 27,798. The latter number may miss a few stragglers in the reporting system, but it is evident that the number of infections, after leaping to unprecedented levels in Virginia, is easing off — as was predicted by the experience in South Africa and the United Kingdom. (more…)

  • Why Would Any Self-Respecting White Male Attend College Today?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by A.L. Schuhart

    Why should a White male attend any American public college today? If I were a young man, being White and male, it would not be in my interest to go to college, at least in America.

    The most important reason is that it is not necessary to get a college education, as so many people claim, to be successful in America. The statistics that say so reflect the bias of academia, not reality. A college education is necessary for only some careers, not all of them, and not even most of them. My electrician makes more money than I do, for instance. He does not have a college degree, and he is not still paying off his student loans as I am. In fact, a college education for many young people is a modern form of indentured servitude, not opportunity. For a White male who values hard work, merit, self-reliance, and mastering a skill, college is a complete waste of time and money.

    Next, consider the culture of American public education today. It is an overwhelmingly biased environment that does not accurately reflect the diversity of thought, belief, and world views that exists in American society. Thus, it represents an incomplete version of American culture and society, one that is overwhelmingly “progressive,” and anti-west, anti-democratic, anti-Christian, and anti-conservative. Of course, not all White males fit these categories, but the ones I am talking about do. (more…)

  • Youngkin’s Reform Goals Threatened by the Board of Education

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    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Jim Bacon yesterday was relatively pessimistic about the prospects of Governor Youngkin and his administration rolling back regulations.

    The number of regulations not mandated by federal or state law is miniscule.

    A mandate in law is not the only test of a regulation.

    The current Virginia Board of Education’s regulations have gone well beyond the texts of the laws of Virginia to challenge parental authority and completely redesign standards and curricula in service to progressive dogma.

    Most of those regulations can be modified to eliminate or change the most radical passages and still be responsive to the underlying laws as written.

    The issue is that the current Board membership won’t do it. I recommend the Governor replace its membership. (more…)

  • “Second Look” Bill Would Cut Sentences for Violent Criminals

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Hans Bader

    The District of Columbia has a violent crime rate that is five times Virginia’s. In 2018, the violent crime rate was 995.9 per 100,000 inhabitants in Washington, D.C., compared to only 200 per 100,000 in Virginia.

    Yet some politicians want to make Virginia more like the District of Columbia. A bipartisan bill would give Virginia a more extreme version of one of Washington D.C.’s most controversial pro-crime policies: “second look” legislation. A second-look law lets judges cut sentences for criminals, or release them, after they have served 10 or 15 years — no matter how serious the crime they committed. Even if a criminal has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering several people, he can be let out after 10 or 15 years if he files a petition seeking release, and convinces the judge that he has been rehabilitated.

    The Virginia bill would let inmates who have committed even the most violent crimes such as murder seek release after ten years in prison if they committed the crime before age 25, or after 15 years in prison if they committed their crime after turning 25. By contrast, Washington, D.C.’s law allows only people who committed their crimes at under age 25 to seek release, after they have served 15 years in prison. (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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