Bacon's Rebellion

  • UVa’s Bait and Switch

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    James A. Bacon

    by Walter Smith

    The University of Virginia announced its COVID-19 vaccination mandate May 20. Unless students filed for a medical or religious exemption, they had to be vaccinated this fall. If they failed to comply, they would be subject to weekly testing. No mercy for COVID survivors who had developed natural immunities.

    On August 6th UVa proclaimed that due to concerns over the spread of the Delta variant it would be re-instituting a masking requirement for all students. On August 9, the university announced for the first time that students who failed to comply with the vaccine would be “disenrolled.”

    By the way, did I mention that UVa sent out its bills July 20 and the last day to arrange the semester payment plan was Aug. 5?

    Call me a cynic. (more…)

  • Liberals’ Nasty Authoritarian Streak

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    This, friends, is an actual headline in an actual daily newspaper. It ran yesterday over a “news story” about Tuesday’s Virginia Beach School Board meeting:

    After hours of vitriol and misinformation, Virginia Beach School Board votes to make masks mandatory for students, staff

    Misinformation?

    That’s liberal newspeak for any statement or point of view that diverges from the party line being spouted by Anthony Fauci and the CDC.

    They’re infallible, apparently. No disagreement with them will be brooked by corporate media. To challenge the government is to spread misinformation.

    More proof — if any were needed — that objectivity in the mainstream media is dead. Increasingly, they censor and mock opinions that are not government-approved. Is it any wonder that newspapers are circling the drain while alternative news sources are flourishing? (more…)

  • Could Solar “Sink Under the Weight of Its Own Trash”?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Solar energy is widely regarded as the most cost-effective source of electricity available today. According to financial advisory firm Lazard, the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for solar, about $30 per MWh, is nearly half that of the most cost-effective fossil fuel, combined-cycle natural gas. The great economic advantage of solar, of course, is that is has no fuel cost. The sun is free.

    Now an article in the Harvard Business Review, “The Dark Side of Solar Power,” suggests that the LCOE for solar could be four times greater when the full life-cycle cost, including recycling, is taken into account.

    The problem is that solar panels contain small quantities of potentially toxic chemicals, primarily cadmium and lead. These are the very same heavy metals that caused massive freak-outs when they were found in the coal-ash waste of power plant ponds. Worried that leachate from coal ash could contaminate the water supply, environmentalists insisted that the material had to be buried in double-lined landfills at the cost of billions of dollars. (more…)

  • Vaccine Verification Follies

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    James A. Bacon

    Vaccination cards! Vaccination cards! We got yer vaccination cards right here!

    by James A. Bacon

    The Delta variant is so easily transmitted that Virginia public health officials say it is just a matter of time before all Virginians are exposed to it. In response, employers are requiring employees to be vaccinated and businesses are turning away unvaccinated customers. Suddenly, there is a need for Virginians to to prove they have gotten their shots.

    Give credit to the Virginia Department of Health for anticipating that need. VDH is developing a tool that will allow businesses to quickly and easily verify customers’ vaccination status by scanning a QR code, reports WAVY TV. That tool will be an alternative to the existing VDH portal that allows Virginians to print out a PDF confirmation.

    State vaccination coordinator Danny Avula told WAVY that the state has no immediate plans to implement vaccine passports. The initiative is a response to private sector demands for proof of vaccination. When the FDA gives full regulatory approval to the Pfizer vaccine in September, however, he expects vaccination requirements will become more common.

    I just hope VDH’s rollout of the proof-of-vaccination initiative is more effective than its bumbling program for administering the vaccines in the first place. (more…)

  • Out of the Mouths of Fund Raisers…

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    James A. Bacon

    From a McAuliffe campaign email blast sent out under the name of Senate Mark Warner comes a remarkable confession: “Terry is having a bad week, Jim.”

    How bad?

    The Democratic gubernatorial candidate “finished off July with strong fundraising numbers,” said pseudo-Warner (I can’t believe the Senator actually laid eyes on this email). “But he told me since August started, contributions have plummeted — in fact, they’ve almost completely stopped.”

    Terry’s “Trump-endorsed opponent” Glenn Youngkin is planning to spend $75 million of his own money, warns the email. If Dems don’t help Terry get his fundraising back on pace, he’ll have no chance of catching up.

    Now, I realize that no fund-raising letter lets on that its candidate is rolling in dough and doesn’t really need your help. But admitting that the money raise has dried up, even for a week, is not something you see very often. No candidate likes to show weakness. I wonder if McAuliffe really does have a problem.

    — JAB

  • Dominion Plans Low-Carbon Vehicle Fleet

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    James A. Bacon

    100% electric, baby!

    by James A. Bacon

    In pursuit of its goal to achieve net-zero carbon-dioxide and methane emissions, Dominion Energy will transform its fleet of more than 8,600 vehicles across 16 states. After 2030, all new vehicles purchased, from passenger cars to heavy-duty vehicles, will be powered either by electricity or alternative fuels, the company announced today.

    No word on how much the initiative will cost, or what impact there will be on Virginia ratepayers. (more…)

  • Loudoun’s Golden Goose Lays Fewer Eggs

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    James A. Bacon

    Data Center Alley. Photo credit: Loudoun Now

    by James A. Bacon

    Data centers may not support a lot of jobs, but they sure do pump up the tax base. In Loudoun County, home to the world’s largest cluster of server farms, the facilities were expected to support $11.2 billion in taxable assets. When the actual number came in $1.1 billion shy of forecasts this year, a mere $10.1 billion, the county generated $60 million less in tax revenue than expected, reports Loudoun Now.

    Other Virginia localities that have been banking on data centers to bolster their tax base may encounter the same issue. They should consider themselves forewarned. (more…)

  • VCU to Crack Down on Fraternity Hazing, Drinking

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    James A. Bacon

    Toga!

    by James A. Bacon

    A year after the death of a student in a fraternity hazing incident, the Virginia Commonwealth University administration is poised to enact sweeping reforms of the fraternity/sorority culture. Key changes in effect or under consideration include cracking down on hazing, prohibiting alcohol at fraternity events, and implementing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan.

    Nineteen-year-old Adam Oakes died after drinking heavily during a hazing incident at the Delta Chi fraternity, falling, and hitting his head on a tree. VCU suspended the fraternity and hired an outside consulting firm to study the university’s Greek culture and submit recommendations. That Dyad Strategies report, along with an internal VCU report, were released last week.

    Greek life at VCU plays a smaller role than at some other Virginia public universities. Only 5.4% of undergraduate students are members of a fraternity or sorority, compared to 35% at the University of Virginia 24% at the College of William & Mary, and 19% at Virginia Tech, according to a VCU “Greek Life Review” released last week. (more…)

  • Time to Rein in America’s Governors

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Hey, I think I’ve found it.

    I’ve discovered the one good thing to come out of our national COVID nightmare: a horrifying awareness that we’ve given our governor too much power.

    Far too much.

    As the months ticked by and draconian emergency orders were extended over and over again, it was maddening to watch one man decide which businesses could operate and which could not. One person in Richmond decreed that schools and churches had to close. One man decided that weddings had to be cancelled and the dead buried without mourners. One man ordered Virginians into their homes after midnight.

    It wasn’t just Virginia, of course. All around the country, livelihoods were lost, children were academically left behind, the elderly died alone due the arbitrary proclamations of state executives acting on their own whims. (more…)

  • Desperately Need Facebook Help

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    James A. Bacon

    I have spent hours trying to make Bacon’s Rebellion eligible for running Facebook “Issue, Electoral or Political Ads.” Without obtaining the necessary permissions, I cannot promote the blog. Basically, I have to prove I am not a Russian bot. I have completed most of the steps in the process, but I have gotten hung up on the task of “designating a page owner.”

    I find Facebook “help” to be totally thoroughly unhelpful, and there is no chat or telephone support that I can find. If it weren’t a monopoly, Facebook’s user unfriendliness would be a big problem.

    Is anyone out there conversant in how this process works? Please contact me at jabacon[at]baconsrebellion.com.

    — JAB

  • Digging Deeper into Vaccine Hesitancy

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    James A. Bacon

    Correlation between COVID-19 case rate and percentage of population vaccinated in Virginia localities. Source: “Analysis of COVID-19 in Virginia July 21th, 2021.

    by James A. Bacon

    There has been a lot of discussion about the causes of vaccine hesitancy: Trump-voting evangelicals are idiots, Blacks are still scarred by the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, social media is spewing disinformation, people have lost faith in the “experts,” etc. Here’s a clue: People are most influenced by their interactions with the people around them.

    The graph above, compiled by the Virginia Biocomplexity Institute (VBI), shows the correlation between the incidence of COVID-19 in a locality around July 20 and the percentage of the population that had been vaccinated. In its latest update, VBI observes that there is “some” correlation between vaccination rates and the rate of spread. But if you eyeball the graph, you can see that the correlation is a weak one. (more…)

  • Bacon Bits: Invisible No Longer

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    James A. Bacon

    “We are invisible.” Albemarle County resident Diana Kim, who has Korean ancestry, thinks Virginia public schools don’t teach enough Asian-American history — little beyond the contribution of Chinese laborers to building the trans-continental railroad. Now she’s petitioning the General Assembly to pass legislation requiring more Asian-American history in Virginia schools, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. “The current state is that we are invisible,” says Stewart Kwohm director of the Asian American Education project. “And we need to change that so that we are visible, so that Asian American history is part of American history.”

    But wait, what’s this? Virginia Beach will get a new historical marker honoring Filipinos in the U.S. Navy, reports The Virginian-Pilot. Asian and Pacific Islanders, said Governor Ralph Northam, “have made significant contributions to our commonwealth and our country, but too often their stories remain untold.”

    And then the Chinese… Yan Huiqing, known to classmates as W.W. Yen, will be honored with a highway historical marker, one of five across the state. Yen was both the first international student and first Chinese student to earn a degree from the University of Virginia — in 1900, reports the Daily Progress. (more…)

  • Loudoun School Board Flouts Law, Constitution

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    James A. Bacon

    Loudoun County School Board meeting… before the restrictions. Photo credit: Loudoun Times

    by Emilio Jaksetic

    According to The Virginia Star, the Loudoun County School Board has issued new procedures for its public meetings that improperly restrict the right of Virginians to comment at public meetings.

    Citing “ongoing security threats” the school system website declared: “Only people signed up to speak to the School Board will be allowed to enter the building. For everyone’s safety, no public viewing area will be open during the public comment portion of the meeting.” Also: “Although the School Board is committed to public input, there remains concern about the safety of all participants in the public-input process. The safety and security of all staff, students and visitors remains our highest priority.”

    Any School Board rules or procedures limiting speech at public meetings must comply with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. (See the Attorney General Opinion of April 15, 2016.) Further, criticisms of governmental officials — including personal attacks — are protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Accordingly, public criticisms of Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County School Board are protected by the First Amendment and cannot be impeded by the School Board. (more…)

  • Monuments to Bravery and Sacrifice, Not White Supremacy

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    James A. Bacon

    Statue of Confederate soldier in Winchester, Va.

    by Donald Smith

    My family has lived in western Virginia since the mid-1800s. Six relatives — my great-grandfather, four great-uncles and great-great grandfather — served in the Confederate Army. Five were in the same unit, the 14th Virginia Cavalry. The sixth was in the 25th Virginia Infantry. (We suspect he couldn’t find a horse.)

    In the early 1900s, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and other groups erected statues around the South to honor the sacrifices and service of a passing generation of soldiers and sailors like my ancestors — just as their counterparts did in countless towns and cities across the North.

    In the past year, having succeeded in taking down the statues to Confederate icons like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, America’s cultural cleansers want to expunge the memory of anyone who fought for the Confederacy — no matter their rank or their reason for fighting. They claim the statues the UDC and others erected were meant to glorify the “Lost Cause” and romanticize the Confederacy. In some cases that’s probably true. It’s undeniable that the UDC glorified the Confederate cause for decades.

    But some statue opponents offer another reason for pulling down all the Confederate statues: they are, and were meant to be, monuments to white supremacy. (more…)

  • America Is Tired of Elitism

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    There is nothing that members of the corporate media hate more than being told they’re elites.

    Thing is, they’re so elite they don’t even realize it.

    Take The New York Times White House correspondent, Annie Karni, for instance.

    It isn’t simply her job to report what’s going on in Washington, she’s also the self-appointed  defender of former presidents not named Trump.

    On Sunday, CNN’s Jim Acosta took time out from attacking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — apparently it’s the anchor’s job to try to damage a likely GOP frontrunner for president in 2024 — to give Karni a chance to blow kisses to the Obamas.

    Acosta pointed out that there was criticism of the party Barack Obama threw for himself at his Martha’s Vineyard $12 million estate Saturday night. Leaked photos showed a crowd of unmasked revelers, including Obama, dancing inside a crowded large tent.

    Criticism of the party was “overblown” according to the NYT reporter. (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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