Bacon's Rebellion

  • Parents Vs. the Political Class

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Loudoun County parents pack a School Board meeting. Photo credit: Idiocracy News Media

    by James A. Bacon

    Who is sovereign in the United States — the people or the cultural elite and political class? Whose values should be reflected in the public schools — those of the people or those of the cultural elite and the political class?

    That is the No. 1 question Virginia voters face in the gubernatorial race of 2021. Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe made the issue crystal clear — and whose side he is on — when he said during the debate with Republican Glenn Youngkin: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

    The answer begs the question. If not parents, who should tell schools what they should teach? Sure, public schools need bureaucrats who are expert in the process of devising standards, curricula, methods, and tests. Sure, teachers don’t need parents micromanaging them. But who, ultimately, do the bureaucrats and teachers answer to?

    Normally, such a question would not get people exercised. But these are not normal times. A movement of the cultural elites, originating in academia with increasing support from the political class, is pushing to convert schools from centers of learning into incubators for sweeping social and cultural change.  (more…)

  • How to Fight the Cancel-Culture Thugs

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Blaine Pardoe

    by Blaine Pardoe

    I am an established, bestselling, award-winning, Virginia author. When my latest book was announced, a conservative political thriller titled, “Blue Dawn,” I brought down the wrath of the leftist cancel culture. A very small but vocal group of ‘fans’ tried to get one of my publishers of 36+ years to cancel its contracts with me and pull my books from publication.

    Their leader claimed that I had hidden secret racist messages in the subtext of my novels, as crazy as that sounds. These people confronted me online and went after my publishers issuing demands for my purging from the publishing world. This over a book that they had not even read yet!

    I did what you would do, I blocked these people. I thought they would get tired and go away. I was wrong.

    One of them, using a fake online persona, contacted a fellow author/friend of mine and threatened my life. Other threats were emailed to me or sent as comments to my blog from this person.

    I learned a lot through this process. I worked with law enforcement, hired lawyers, worked with security professionals in the field, and I fought back. These woke-warriors came after me as they had with hundreds, if not thousands of other conservatives. Our crime is one of not capitulating, not folding, not voluntarily censoring our thoughts or work.

    I also learned how to fight these individuals, which is what I’d like to share with you. (more…)

  • More Fun and Fraud with Numbers

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Let me preface this post by stating unequivocally that eliminating Virginia’s personal income tax is a crazy idea — so crazy that no serious person has proposed it. The tax generates $16 billion a year in revenue, or 72.4% of Virginia’s General Fund expenditures. The loss of such a sum would be catastrophic to the Commonwealth’s ability to provide basic government services.

    According to Politifact, Republican candidate for Governor Glenn Youngkin briefly contemplated eliminating the state income tax. There is nothing inherently wrong with examining the possibility of doing such a thing. After all, several states — Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Washington — manage to do swimmingly without a personal income tax. However, any review of the situation would reveal that the dislocations in government services engendered by a massive re-engineering of Virginia’s tax base and budget would not be practicable, much less beneficial.

    That said, some claims made against the idea are absurd. A Democratic Party of Virginia website, cited in a recent column by Arthur G. Purves, makes the claim that “implementing Youngkin’s tax plan” of eliminating the income tax (which was never his plan) would cost 2.5 million Virginia jobs. Out of a total workforce of 4.3 million. In other words, eliminating a tax accounting for 3.3% of the state’s GDP would destroy the equivalent of 59% of the state’s jobs over 10 years. (more…)

  • About that 93% Graduation Rate…

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    This just in… Despite the travails of the COVID-19 epidemic and distance learning last year, 93% of Virginia students who entered the 9th grade in 2017-18 earned their diplomas and graduated within four years, the Virginia Department of Education announced today.

    Actions by the State Board of Education and “the emergency waivers I issued last year,” said Superintendent of Education James Lane, “ensured that students were not prevented from graduating by pandemic-related factors beyond their control.”

    Question: What percentage of students actually mastered the subject matter required to earn a diploma? Is a Virginia high school diploma worth the paper it’s printed on? Will students enter the workforce with unrealistic expectations regarding their capabilities? How many college-bound students will require remedial education? Is Virginia, in its striving for “equity,” achieving its goal by abandoning all standards?

    — JAB

  • In Fairfax, Illegal-Alien Rights Trump Citizen Rights

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Apparently, protecting illegal aliens from U.S. immigration authorities is more important to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors than safeguarding the transparency of police blotters, which have been a mainstay of local media crime reporting and public information about crime in the community.

    The Fairfax County Police Department has stopped publishing its weekly arrest blotter. Immigrant rights and civil liberty groups had been pushing for the change, arguing that the weekly compilations, which includes arrestees’ records and other details, could help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) target immigrants for deportation, reports the Associated Press.

    Remarkably, Diane Burkley Alejandro, executive director of ACLU People Power, said she has no evidence that ICE is actually using the blotters to track down immigrants. Rather, she says, the information provides a “road map” that might allow ICE to locate them as it employs new data-mining tools.

    Citizens can still obtain the arrest data, but only by filing a Freedom of Information Act request subject to a month-long response time and possible fees. (more…)

  • Democrat Bunkum about Youngkin

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Arthur G. Purves

    In this fall’s Virginia gubernatorial campaign, Virginia Democrats are citing “a new independent study” to attack Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, when Democrat policies themselves merit scrutiny. The Virginia Democrats web page does not cite the source of the Youngkin study but does link to the the website of the Virginia Education Association (VEA), whose political action committee has endorsed the Democrat candidate. The VEA page describes a study about “… Mr. Youngkin’s proposal to eliminate the personal income tax …” but does not link to an actual study. To request it, you must contact VEA Communications.

    Try it. The reply was, “This study is being reserved for VEA members and members of the media.” (Though a long-standing member of the media, Bacon’s Rebellion publisher Jim Bacon received the same response.)

    What are the Democrats and the “independent” Virginia Education Association trying to hide? Perhaps it is that Mr. Youngkin never proposed to eliminate the personal income tax. According to PolitiFact:

    (more…)

  • Hey, CDC, Admit It: Those Are Pregnant WOMEN!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Oh look. The CDC – you know, the public health agency run by bureaucrats that just ignored FDA advice regarding booster shots – is now pushing vaccines on pregnant women.

    Boosters, too!

    Oooops. No it’s not. What the very woke CDC did was issue a health alert pushing Covid vaccines on pregnant PEOPLE.

    I read that ridiculously worded health bulletin and counted 37 references to “pregnant people” and exactly ONE mention of “women.” That must one must have gotten by the idiot editors.

    Here’s a sample of the convoluted nonsense the CDC is pumping out: (more…)

  • SOL Testing 101

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    This is the first of a series of four articles explaining Virginia’s Standards of Learning assessments, showcasing school districts have demonstrated success despite significant challenges, providing context for the 2021 assessment results, and expressing concerns about recent General Assembly and Board of Education actions that could have significant negative unintended consequences. Given the crucial necessity of producing well-educated graduates, it is vitally important that Virginia citizens understand how the assessments work. — Matt Hurt

    Virginia has administered Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments for more than twenty years. Over that period, many changes have taken place through actions of the General Assembly and the Virginia Board of Education. According to the Virginia Department of Education, the purpose of SOL testing is to “inform parents and communities about whether students — as individuals and collectively — are meeting the commonwealth’s expectations for achievement in English, mathematics, science and history. SOL tests allow the state Board of Education to identify schools that need assistance and support. The assessments also provide an objective means for measuring achievement gaps between student subgroups and for determining the progress of schools, divisions and the state toward closing these gaps.”

    The SOL tests measure skills that are foundational to students’ success in future academic endeavors. I have yet to find anyone that could successfully argue these skills are not valuable or that student success in these skills is not desired. If students cannot read, interpret, and understand written text, or reason through mathematical concepts, they will not be able to access higher level courses and will be less well prepared for post-secondary education. (more…)

  • Gubernatorial Debate Review with Winners and Losers

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    Last night’s debate between Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin was more or less like the first one on substance – pretty much the same answers but perhaps a deeper, more clarifying look at those.

    I don’t see a lot of votes changing from those who actually watched the debate but there were some notable moments which could be turned into ads that THEN might move the electorate.

    This is what campaign consultants fear and desire about debates – there is so much on the line that they are just hoping and praying their candidate makes it out clean but also that the opponent creates an opening to exploit.

    I predicted a tie, and on points it was just that. Therefore, given his strong first debate performance, Glenn Youngkin held serve by not losing. Terry McAuliffe was much better this time — less agitated and more at ease.

    Princess Blanding, the Liberation Party candidate who has qualified for the ballot, disrupted the debate about ten minutes after kick off. Moderator Chuck Todd seemed unprepared for this and eventually went to commercial breaks. (more…)

  • McAuliffe: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Shaun Kenney

    Remember the old adage — the goal isn’t to win the debate, but to make sure you don’t lose the debate.

    Former Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe was pressed on graphic textbooks — and I mean graphic — of a sexual nature being included in government school libraries, and McAuliffe exploded with rage.

    Not towards school districts, mind you — but towards busybody parents who had the audacity to look into what their children were actually being taught in the classroom.

    That’s when McAuliffe decided to say the quiet part out loud:

    That sound you heard last night was the simultaneous squealing of wheels on the mental pavement of a million Virginians. (more…)

  • Of Course Tax Hikes Grew the State Surpluses

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Senate Finance Committee data illustrated the expected state revenue boost caused by 2017 federal changes. Predicted and seen in 2019 and 2020, it carried over into 2021.

    by Steve Haner

    At Tuesday night’s debate Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe dismissed the 2021 $2.6 billion general fund revenue surplus as entirely due to extra federal COVID relief funds, which is absurd on its face. By definition, every dollar is general fund state tax revenue. It came from some form of state tax.

    Why do Virginia Democrats continue to deny that recent state tax law changes are in part responsible for almost-embarrassing large cash surpluses recently announced? At the time the deeds were done, nobody was denying the big revenue impacts. The really big hit was a totally bipartisan decision, so Democrats can share the credit or blame.   (more…)

  • Universities as Prestige Maximizers, and the Growing Disconnect with the Public

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Yale University

    by James A. Bacon

    I have long observed that nonprofit colleges and universities, by virtue of being nonprofit, behave very differently than for-profit enterprises. Having weak systems for accountability, higher-ed institutions are captured by their internal constituencies whose interests they place of those of students and their families. Instead of endeavoring to maximize profits, as profit-seeking enterprises do, university leaders seek to maximize prestige compared to other institutions. The result is an endless “arms race” treadmill that misallocates billions of dollars across the industry.

    Now comes some empirical support for my hypothesis from Peter Q. Blair and Kent Smetters, with Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania respectively, in a paper entitled, “Why don’t elite colleges expand supply?”

    In a word, universities don’t expand supply because it increases institutional prestige to not do so. (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Intolerable Behavior

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Good neighbors. Janique Martinez and her family, who are Black, moved into a Virginia Beach cul-de-sac on Jessamine Court five years ago. Some time ago, “constant” banjo music began emanating from the house next door. Then in July, sounds of a monkey screeching came through a window every 15 to 30 seconds. The loud noise was a nuisance, but multiple visits by police to the neighbor brought only temporary respite. Then in September, Martinez said she started hearing the n-word. Virginia Beach officials say they can’t do anything more than they already have. But the community has rallied around the Martinez family. Last Friday about 25 people gathered on the street Friday chanting, “Spread love, not hate,” according to The Virginian-Pilot story. Apparently, the neighbors didn’t need indoctrination sessions under the guise of “training” to know racism when they see it, to stand up against it, and to show solidarity with their Black friends.

    Bad neighbors. Chad Wolf, who served as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under Donald Trump, writes today in The Daily Signal how he was targeted last year by protesters outside his house week after week. The “protest” played out the same way every day: the demonstrators would organize a quarter mile away, march through neighborhood streets, holding up traffic, then remain for an hour or more while shouting through loudspeakers. They never applied for a permit, which was required in the City of Alexandria. But there was a difference from the Martinez case. City Councilman John Chapman joined the protesters on several occasions. And so did some of Wolf’s neighbors.

    — JAB

  • Youngkin V. McAuliffe

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Photo credit: Fauquier Now

    by Kerry Dougherty

    No one who knows my political leanings would expect me to watch a debate between Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe and declare the Democrat the winner.

    And I’m not going to do that.

    But I was worried before the cameras rolled. I’ve met McAuliffe. I’ve seen him work a room. The guy Larry Sabato once dismissively called “a bag man for the Clintons” can be rather charming.

    That Terry McAuliffe was not on stage last night.

    In his place was a man who was positively Nixonian: angry, dour and rude. He engaged in name-calling – repeatedly calling Youngkin “clueless” – and yapped incessantly about Trump. (more…)

  • Northam’s Scare Tactics

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    It was a gird-your-loins kind of day in Virginia on Monday. While we were on the radio in the morning, our producer handed me a bulletin announcing that Governor Ralph Northam was holding a press conference in the afternoon, on the subject of COVID.

    Uh-oh.

    I can’t repeat what I said off the air. But on the air, I reminded listeners that these press conferences fill many of us with dread.

    The point of yesterday’s presser? To scold and scare Virginia’s unvaxxed. To begin pushing vaccines for children, even though they aren’t yet approved. And to field a couple of softball questions from the poodles in Virginia’s press corps. (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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

About

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.

Fund the Rebellion

Shake up the status quo! Your contributions will be used to pay for faster download speeds and grow readership. Make a one-time donation by credit card or contribute a small sum monthly.

Can’t wait until tomorrow

For your Bacon’s Rebellion fix?

Enter your email address to receive immediate notifications of new posts by email.

SUBSCRIBE

Search Bacon’s Rebellion

Categories

Archives

The Jefferson Council

Protecting Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy at the University of Virginia

Forgot Your Password?

Shoot me an email and I’ll generate a new password for you.

Latest