Bacon's Rebellion

  • Virginia Board of Education – In Loco Parentis and Headed to Court

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    sherlockj

    Mark Herring

    by James C. Sherlock

    Is your child yours or does he or she belong body and soul to the state in the person of the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE)?   

    That is a question that is not only reasonable, but absolutely necessary after reading its new transgender student regulation. That regulation represents a straight-up, in-your-face denial of parental rights.

    The quasi-religious fervor with which the radical left now pushes children to “find” their transgender selves and the state to offer “support” in that decision to very young children is as disturbing as anything in American life. They consider that gender identity is an innate characteristic that most children “declare” by age five to six. They further believe the state should take it from there to protect them from their parents.

    VDOE just released what will prove a fiercely controversial Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools pursuant to House Bill 145 and Senate Bill 161 enacted by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly. Under that 2020 law, the “policies” just released are mandatory for school boards, thus granted the status of a regulation.  

    The whole conceit that the government – read the radical progressive left who wrote this regulation for VDOE – knows best what is right for your children is on full display in the document. It presumes to enforce government decisions on the sexuality of very young children both hidden from and against the wishes of the parents.   (more…)

  • Youngkin Woos Black Voters

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    James A. Bacon

    Diante Johnson

    Glenn Youngkin, Republican candidate for governor, has launched a “Black Virginians for Glenn” Coalition, headed by Diante Johnson, president of the Black Conservative Federation.

    I have no idea if this group will gain traction. African Americans’ loyalty to the Democratic Party runs deep. But it is imperative that Republicans make the effort. The GOP cannot win a majority in Virginia without becoming a big-tent party. (more…)

  • Free Stuff for Everyone… Except the Middle Class

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Free bus fare for everyone?

    Why not? Bus passengers already pay only a fraction of what it costs to operate local and regional transit systems. Ridership is down, thanks to COVID. Besides, it costs money to collect the fares. In the name of “equity” for poor people and minorities, why not just eliminate bus fares altogether?

    That idea gets a serious airing in a column published today in The Virginia Mercury.

    Virginia is providing free tuition for lower-income students attending community college. The state is jacking up the minimum wage. It is charging middle-class consumers higher electric rates to reduce charges for poor people. It is crushing small businesses with COVID-19 restrictions. Uncle Sam is crippling small landlords with a blanket moratorium on housing evictions, no matter why people are falling behind in their rent. Why the hell not provide free bus service for the poor — even as Virginia flirts with joining the Transportation and Climate Initiative for the express purpose of driving up the cost of driving automobiles?

    This, my friends, is a war of the cultural elites upon the middle class. The elites despise us even as they plunder us. (more…)

  • Virginia Dems Have More Problems Than They’re Letting On

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    James A. Bacon


    by Shaun Kenney

    Let’s start first and foremost with the obscene amount of cash that Clean Virginia — the Michael Bills front group that has donated to many Democratic and even a few Republican candidates — is pouring onto the campaigns of Delegate Jennifer Carroll-Foy, D-Prince William, for Governor and Delegate Jay Jones (D-Norfolk) for Attorney General.

    Carroll-Foy is rumored to be closing in on the presumptive Democratic nominee and former governor Terry McAuliffe. More interesting is the scuttlebutt in Richmond where, despite McAuliffe’s presumed lead, it is Jay Jones’ candidacy that is not only closing in on Mark Herring but demonstrating a sort of strength that leads just about every insider TRS has spoken with on both parties to conclude that Herring is in serious and abiding trouble.

    Did we mention that Ralph Northam has endorsed Jay Jones as well?

    That’s right folks.

    The Democratic civil war is on in a big way. (more…)

  • Back to Normal: Old Guys First

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    James A. Bacon

    Number of cases by symptom onset. Source: Virginia Department of Health

    The COVID-19 epidemic ain’t over, and new variants of the virus may be super contagious, but most of my old-guy friends have been double-vaccinated and, by Jove, we’re busting out of the house. Tonight I’m getting together with some buddies, all of whom have been double-vaccinated like myself, and we’re going to eat indoors! Like we did in the old days!

    Life is still far from normal. People are getting stressed about the new virus variants, and the number of new cases is inching back up. Our neighborhood gym is still closed, which is a huge bummer because I’m yearning to get back in shape. I wear a mask at the grocery store and other places of trade, not because I think I need one but to avoid freaking other people out. My wife and I are still cautious interacting with younger people who may or may not have been vaccinated. But Virginia is inching back towards normality, and the old guys are leading the way! (more…)

  • Child Endangerment at Home and on the Border

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Baby Boomers are fond of social media posts that glorify their raised-by-wolves childhoods.

    They usually go something like this:

    We drank out of garden hoses, rode in the back of pick-ups, didn’t have seat belts let alone car seats, came home when the street lights went on, thought Howard Johnson’s was fine dining, played with BB guns and knives and earned our immunization to chicken pox, mumps and measles the old fashioned way. The fat kid in our class would be considered skinny today.

    The implication? We’re tough. Today’s youngsters are pampered.

    It’s worth remembering that not everything was wonderful when Boomers were growing up.

    Suitcases didn’t have wheels.

    Telephones were tethered to the wall.

    Televisions received only three channels.

    I could go on.

    But one thing I remember well from my childhood in a small New Jersey town was that by the time I was six my mother would routinely send me to a corner store to buy her Pall Malls. The shop was probably about half a mile from our house. (more…)

  • One of the Good Guys

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Former Del. A.R. “Pete” Giesen died last Friday. He was one of the good ones.

    He served in the House of Delegates from 1934-1974 and 1975-1996, representing the Staunton-Waynesboro area. He was a moderate Valley Republican.

    I have somewhat of a bias. He chaired the first legislative committee I staffed when I joined the Division of Legislative Services. Back in the those days, the major study committees ran through something called the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council, comprised of the leadership of the General Assembly. It was the Study Committee on the Needs of Young Children that he chaired that year.

    Pete was smart and a savvy politician. But, most of all, he was a nice person who had a kind word for everyone he came into contact with, including staff. He also had a great sense of humor and a great sense of perspective.

    After he retired from the legislature, he lobbied some for Harrisonburg and Rockingham County and taught political science part-time at James Madison University.

    The General Assembly could use a lot more Pete Giesens.

  • COPN Monopolies Depress Income for Virginia Healthcare Professionals Without Lowering Costs

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    sherlockj

    The Business of Healthcare

    by James C. Sherlock

    Virginia is among the richest states in the country.  

    We are ranked ninth among states with the highest median household income in the 2019 (latest) Census Bureau American Community Survey. Virginia median household income was $74,222 and the U.S. as a whole was $62,843.

    But Virginia has a Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law among the most stifling of competition in the nation. The law itself and the regional monopolies created combine to suppress both opportunity and income for healthcare professionals.  

    The monopolies don’t just control the healthcare delivery market, they also control the labor market.  

    This essay will illustrate the effects of COPN and COPN-generated monopolies in depressing wages, and thus on the willingness of medical professionals to practice here. And then show you those lower wages don’t save consumers a dime. (more…)

  • Selling Virginia Pot? Expect A Union Label

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    by

    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    When Virginians begin to buy marijuana from state-licensed providers, if Governor Ralph Northam has his way, along with his smiling visage on every baggie of grass you may also find a union label.

    I’m kidding about getting high with the governor’s image on the package but using the legalization bill to promote union political goals through a back door is no joke. Future state marijuana licensees may be in danger of losing their ability to sell pot if they fail to live up to various union-driven labor law requirements, set out below.  (more…)

  • The New Racism at a Danville Vaccination Clinic

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Remember that COVID-vaccination clinic in Danville where so few locals were getting shots that people, mostly students, were driving in from out of town to avoid the long waits elsewhere? Concerned about the “equity” implications of all those white people getting vaccinated while blacks and Hispanics were not, the Northam administration restricted access for walk-ins. Only people properly scheduled through the state registration system would be allowed.

    So, how’s that working out?

    Danville’s state-run vaccination clinic has the capacity to administer up to 3,000 vaccinations per day. According to the Danville Register & Bee in an article published Saturday, it had averaged only 184 daily shots over the four previous days.

    Well, that’s one way to ensure “equity” in vaccinations — prevent too many white people from getting them. (more…)

  • Public Schools Should Accommodate Religious Diversity

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    James A. Bacon

    Sikh religious observance

    by James A. Bacon

    Diversity may be our greatest strength, as we commonly hear, but it also creates problems that need to be worked out. A case in point is the public school calendar, which was set when the United States was an overwhelmingly Christian nation. When 99% of the population was Christian, it was simple common sense to organize school breaks around the observance of Christmas and Easter. Today, with immigrants from around the world, public schools are filled with Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs whose holy days are not accommodated by school schedules.

    The Fairfax County School Board made a stab at compromise, directing teachers to continue holding classes on a list of 15 days marked by non-Christian religious and cultural observances, but to postpone tests and social and athletic events on those days. The board also voted to let teachers take two holy days off, but only if they made up the 16 hours missed, according to an opinion piece by Joyce Winslow published in The Washington Post. Winslow, who is Jewish, was not happy. She writes:

    In effect, the board created a two-tier education system by establishing a “separate but equal” policy for minority faiths that is not equal and will continue to add to children’s “feelings of inferiority.” The Supreme Court found this unconstitutional for race in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. The same should apply for religion.

    (more…)

  • Virginia Democrats Govern in the Service of Dogma and Power

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    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Karl Marx

    Socialism and communism are so 19th and 20th centuries.  

    Under socialism, individuals would still own property. But industrial production, which was the chief means of generating wealth, was to be communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government.

    Socialists sought change and reform, but sought to make those changes through democratic processes within the existing social and political structure, not to overthrow that structure.  Socialism was to be based on the consent of the governed. Communism sought the elimination of personal property and the violent overthrow of existing social and political structures.

    So what has changed for today’s progressives who have taken over the Democratic party, especially in Virginia? 

    A lot. (more…)

  • Inside the Bubble the Slightest Breeze Is a Threat

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    James A. Bacon

    This is the fourth column in a four-part series about COVID-19 at James Madison University.

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    The Breeze was always the “award-winning student newspaper” in JMU public relations — until the paper began filing Freedom of Information requests with the administration. The battle became public when the school decided to give the local paper, The Daily News-Record, first access to COVID data The Breeze had been requesting repeatedly. The university spokesperson broke one of the first rules of PR: don’t become the story. The explanations for dissing The Breeze were convoluted, at best. They boiled down to The Breeze had called every day, but it hadn’t called before the DNR that day.

    The administration lashed out at The Breeze again when the paper reported Alger skirting the FOIA. At one point the Richmond newspaper said the JMU spokesperson had provided inaccurate information. And when the Richmond paper ran an editorial lambasting state universities for the way they’d handled the beginning of the fall semester, they illustrated it with a photo of Alger. Later The Breeze requested the number of COVID cases broken down by dorm. JMU consistently refused. It would have been a service to parents all over Virginia, not to mention New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to know where on campus the infections were most prevalent. But the university didn’t have to release those numbers if it didn’t want to. (more…)

  • Teachers, Your Commute Puts You at More Risk than In-Person Classes

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    James A. Bacon

    The fatality risk of teaching a class in-person during the COVID-19 epidemic last fall was comparable to the risk of driving 16 miles in a car.

    That is the top-line conclusion of a study based on extensive data from North Carolina, Wisconsin, Australia, England, and Israel covering almost 80 million person-days in school. That study. “The Incidence and Magnitude of the Health Costs of In-person Schooling during the COVID-19 Pandemic,” by University of Chicago economics professor Casey B. Mulligan, was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

    For perspective, the average commuting distance (both ways) in Virginia is about 44 miles. (more…)

  • Will Virginia Republicans Rebound This Fall?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Chris Saxman

    Virginia is just 38 short days away from its first statewide nomination as the Republicans are finally set to pick their candidates for the Big Three — Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General on May 8th in an “unassembled convention.”

    Sticking with the date of May 8th is the smartest decision the Virginia GOP has made this year, as it gives them a 31 day head start on likely Democratic nominee, former Governor Terry McAuliffe.

    And they need it.

    As Ward Bond’s Father Lonegan says to open one of my favorite movies, “The Quiet Man”:

    “Well, then. I’ll begin at the beginning.”

    It has been 512 days since the Democrats won the majority back from twenty years of Republican control of the House of Delegates. In just 223 days, Virginia’s citizens will decide if they merit a return to power. (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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