Bacon's Rebellion

  • Canceled by McAfee?

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    James A. Bacon

    What the h-e-double hockey sticks?

    I have a dormant McAfee PC security app on my PC that I can’t seem to get rid of. It periodically butts into my business, notifying me of potential security issues. This morning the warning shown above popped onto my browser when I used it to call up Bacon’s Rebellion.

    The warning reads: “We tested this page and blocked content that comes from potentially dangerous or suspicious sites. Allow this content only if you’re sure it comes from safe sites.”

    Sorry, McAfee, I’m pretty sure Bacon’s Rebellion is a safe site. (more…)

  • Porn in Fairfaxxx School Libraries

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    James A. Bacon

    https://twitter.com/AsraNomani/status/1441356537163706378?s=20

    by Asra Q. Nomani

    Last night, Thursday, September 23, a brave Fairfax High School mother, Stacy Langton, walked up to the podium at a regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board, carrying with her two books and printouts from images in the books.

    She had watched a Texas school board meeting at which parents read from two books that they had found in their school library — “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. She looked for the books at Fairfax High School, and she found them at the school and throughout the county — available to minors as young as seventh grade, or as young as 12 years old, at Robinson Secondary School.

    “The books were available, and we checked them out,” she recalled.

    (more…)

  • VDOE Excels at Complying with Federal Bureaucratic Guidelines

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    For the 10th consecutive year, Virginia has earned the federal government’s “highest rating” for improving outcomes for students with disabilities and for complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Virginia Department of Education said in a press release yesterday.

    Only five states and state-level education systems have earned the “Meets Requirements” designation for ten consecutive years.

    Go the U.S. Department of Education website, and you’ll find that Virginia, 21 other states, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands earned the “meets requirements” rating. That’s a heck of a distinction! (more…)

  • Out-of-State Money in Virginia’s Election

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    James A. Bacon

    Source: Virginia Public Access Project

    Once again, the Democratic Party candidate for governor excels in raising out-of-state money, according to data published by the Virginia Public Access Project. Democrat Terry McAuliffe has raised 48% of his $15.6 million in total donations from out-of-state contributors, compared to 26% of Glenn Youngkin’s $11.4 million haul.

    The big outside money for McAuliffe comes mainly from New York  — 363 donors chipping in $1.4 million.

    Youngkin’s biggest out-of-state contributors come from Texas — 99 donors and $790,000. (more…)

  • UVa Petri Dish Update

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    About a month ago I suggested that the University of Virginia would make an interesting real-world experiment in the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination mandates during the Delta Variant phase of the epidemic. The Ryan administration required vaccinations for all students, allowing only a handful of medical and religious exceptions. Vaccinations were “strongly encouraged” for faculty and staff. Students who failed to comply were “unenrolled.” As of late August, 97% of students had gotten the jab, as did 92% of teaching and research faculty.

    So, how are things working out?

    Surprisingly, according to figures found on UVa’s COVID dashboard, confirmed cases reported during the first 15 days of September this year ran higher than during the same period last year — 306 cases compared to 232. Since the 15th, it appears that the incidence of new cases has tailed off somewhat in comparison to last year, when cases continued to rise. It is not clear, though, if the apparent decline represents an actual slowdown in the spread of the COVID-19 virus over the past several days or the difference between partial numbers due to reporting delays this year compared to complete numbers last year. (more…)

  • Intellectual Enslavement at UVa

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    James A. Bacon

    UVa memorial to enslaved laborers

    by Jock Yellott

    “This year, members of the Class of 2025 are required to attend a historical tour and debrief discussion centered around the history of enslaved
    laborers at the University.”
    — Sydney Hertzog, Cavalier Daily, Sept. 22, 2021.

    Why does this rankle? The University of Virginia, after all, has many mandates:

    • Social Sciences – 6 credits from two different departments
    • Humanities – 6 credits from two different categories
    • Historical Studies – one 3 or more credit course
    • Non-western Perspectives – one 3 or more credit course
    • Natural Science and Mathematics – 12 credits from two different
    departments

    Why shouldn’t 1st years also be forced to “learn about the University’s
    history of white supremacy and enslavement that has been suppressed for
    many years”?

    If any students objected, they were smart enough not to say so. To the contrary, according to the Cavalier Daily. Students “really enjoyed going on the tour because it has given them context of where they go to school.”

    This is not Woke faculty indoctrination, or at least not directly. Says the Cavalier Daily: “This program was built purely by students.”

    Why should it bother us? (more…)

  • Pandemic and Pounds. Buy Bigger Belts

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    I’m shocked.

    Who could have predicted that closing fitness centers, filling public parks with sand, draining public pools, curtailing youth sports, shuttering schools and telling workers to stay home would result in a sharp increase in obesity?

    And who would have guessed that being obese would contribute to more serious outcomes for anyone infected with COVID?

    Actually, those of us with common sense knew this 19 months ago. Seems government health officials are finally catching on.

    The CDC just released an alarming study billed as “the largest and first geographically diverse analysis” of the effects of the pandemic on BMI. The report confirms that extreme measures taken during the pandemic resulted in troubling weight gain that will likely result in long-term health problems for millions of Americans.

    Well done, governors. (more…)

  • Kick Out the Punks Before They Kill Someone

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    School officials are wringing their hands in Newport News right now, wondering what they could have done to prevent a shooting at Heritage High School that left a 17-year-old boy and girl with bullet wounds.

    On Monday morning, outside of the school cafeteria, the boy was shot in the head and leg, the girl was also shot in her leg and several other students were injured in the chaos that followed the incident.

    Frightened kids were herded out of the school to Heritage’s tennis courts, where they waited for their parents.

    News reports initially said the suspect and the victims knew each other, but the injured boy told detectives he didn’t know the shooter. The Daily Press reports that much of the crime was caught on school surveillance cameras. After a brief fight in the hallway, which was broken up by a teacher, the suspect reached into his backpack, removed an item and minutes later pulled a gun out of his waistband and began shooting. (more…)

  • How We Got Here…

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    James A. Bacon

    by A.L. Schuhart

    The explosive spread of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in American education can be traced in large part to the changes made to the Principles of Accreditation for Colleges and Universities and Schools during the Obama Administration. These changes have reoriented the mission of American colleges from individual learning to social change and indoctrination.

    American colleges and schools are “accredited” by supposedly independent regional bodies that monitor and regulate standards of education. These entities once were apolitical, but this is no longer the case. Ideally, their memberships (appointed by state governors) should reflect the diversity of competing political views in our Democracy and, in doing so, prevents the education system from being controlled by any one ideological group. That check no longer exists.

    Virginia Colleges are accredited by SACSCOC (the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges). Let’s look at some key language changes between the “SACSCOC Principles of Accreditation” from ante-Obama (2012) and post-Obama (2018) versions of the documents. (more…)

  • Redistricting: Voting Rights Act

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    After the population issue of “one man, one vote,” the next priority the Virginia Redistricting Commission must consider in the drawing of new election districts is compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act.  This post will lay out the main principles that need to be considered.

    I need to make this caveat clear up front:  I am not a lawyer and I am certainly not an expert in the field of election law or the Voting Rights Act.  Election law is a complex and, at times, Byzantine, area.  In addition to the statutory language, there is a large body of case law, some of it conflicting, that has developed around the Voting Rights Act.  The following discussion is a distillation of the main points presented to the Virginia Redistricting Commission in a report by its consultants and a joint memo from its Democratic and Republican attorneys entitled:  Voting Rights Act Legal Primer.

    As the attorneys note:  “Section 2 [of the Voting Rights Act] prohibits what is referred to as ‘minority vote dilution’—the minimization or canceling out of minority voting strength.”  It is important to note that the “dilution” need not be deliberate for there to be a violation of Section 2.  It is sufficient that there be a diluting impact, intentional or not.  In summary, Section 2 requires that members of a minority group have a fair opportunity “to elect representatives of their choice.” (more…)

  • The Environmentalist Case Against Renewables

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    James A. Bacon

    If you missed the Virginia Energy Consumer Conference last week, here’s your chance to catch up. The highlight is Steve Haner’s interview of Michael Shellenberger, author of “Apocalypse Never.” Addressing the energy debate from a national perspective, Shellenberger makes the case that renewable energy sources are no panacea for the environment. Subsequent presentations in the conference provide conservative perspectives on Virginia-specific issues. — JAB

  • Bacon Bits: The Fraying Social Fabric Edition

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Honor is an antiquated slaveholders concept anyway. The University of Virginia’s student Honor Committee has voted to alter the honor code to eliminate the single sanction against lying, cheating and stealing from expulsion to a two-semester suspension. Before the change can be adopted, it must be approved by a vote of the student body. Third-year law student Christopher Benos proposed the plan. “This is a system that maintains the integrity of the Honor system, while offering the multi-sanction system that prioritizes rehabilitation, recommitment and Honor education.” The Cavalier Daily student newspaper describes the debate here. Prediction: If this proposal is enacted, few students actually will be “rehabilitated,” and lying, cheating and stealing will get worse. The “community of trust” is eroding as it is, even without the change. Sign of the times: Rocking chairs outside rooms on the Lawn have to be chained down.

    Refund the police. Arlington County, which competes with the City of Charlottesville for being the most “woke” locality in Virginia, is hemorrhaging police officers, and City Manager Mark Schwartz proposes setting aside $3 million in the 2023 budget for retention and recruitment. So far this calendar year, 46 officers have announced their intention to leave the force, either resigning or retiring. “Please don’t leave, we need you,” Schwartz said, according to WTOP News. Describing the situation as “critical,” Schwartz said many police officers are leaving for better-paying positions in the private sector, including Amazon’s new Northern Virginia headquarters.

    The best of a bad crowd. The College of William & Mary scored 10th in the latest Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) / RealClearEducation college free speech ranking. Among the 159 colleges surveyed, George Mason University snagged 12th place, and the University of Virginia came in 22nd. Virginia Tech dragged up the rear among Virginia institutions with a 107th-place score. The findings were based upon a survey of 37,000 undergraduate students. Students were queried about their comfort discussing controversial topics, tolerance for liberal and conservative speakers, and tolerance for conservative speakers, and administrative support for free expression. I don’t know enough to comment about W&M or GMU, but if UVa ranked 22nd freest in the survey, U.S. higher-ed has a real problem. Many students, faculty and staff do not feel free to express conservative ideas.

  • Virginia Schools Grappling with COVID After-Effects

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Straw in the wind #1: Two students were wounded in a shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News Monday. The incident didn’t fit the profile of a mass shooting by a mentally distressed student lashing out at random. The shootings, in which a male student was shot in the side of the face and a female was shot in the leg, stemmed from a dispute between two youths who knew one another.

    Straw in the wind #2: Nearly 10% of Richmond Public School students are “no shows” for the 2021-22 school year, the city school system reports. Nearly 2,400 students have failed to show up to class this year. Of those 359 are “virtual learners” who have yet to check in online.

    What we are seeing here is the fallout from last year’s disastrous policies of shutting down in-person learning. Most Virginia families were equipped to handle the shift, but many were not. Tens of thousands of children were left at home unsupervised as their parent (or parents) worked. Left to their own devices, many made a sham of studying and occupied themselves by interacting with each other on social media. (more…)

  • Ignore the Fun Police. Football Is Safe.

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Travel back in time with me to the first weekend in September. Anyone remember what the COVID fear peddlers screamed when they saw packed college football stadiums during Week One of the 2021 season?

    Just wait two weeks!

    Super-spreader events!

    Masks! Where are their masks?

    And then there was the leader of America’s lockdowners, Anthony Fauci.

    When the stadiums were rocking from Blacksburg to College Station to Ann Arbor, Fauci disapproved.

    He likes his stadiums empty. (more…)

  • A Malicious Prosecution

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Carol J. Bova

    During the Bob McDonnell administration, the Commonwealth of Virginia preserved 232,000 acres through conservation easements or donations, falling short of the governor’s 400,000-acre goal because of the tight economy. Seizing on the deficit in his 2013 gubernatorial campaign, Terry McAuliffe promised that he would “preserve at least 400,000 acres of open space.” He repeated the number in his first speech to the General Assembly after taking office in 2014.

    By 2015, it became obvious McAuliffe could not meet his goal. Scrambling to save face, he announced in April 2015 the launch of “Virginia Treasures,” a strategy for conserving land and expanding access to public outdoor recreation. The goal was to identify, conserve, and protect at least 1,000 “treasures” by the end of his term.

    It soon became apparent to many residents of Mathews County that their property and their homes fell within the pale, blue-coded areas of the map where McAuliffe hoped to find his Virginia Treasures. And so began a seven-year nightmare for the Eubank family as the local government tried to bully them, in what they saw as a grotesque abuse of bureaucratic power, to diminish the value of their private land so that it could be acquired for a public access site. (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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