Bacon's Rebellion

  • Why Haven’t More Asians Been Vaccinated?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Vaccination stations at the Richmond Raceway around noon today.

    by James A. Bacon

    Asians comprise 7% of Virginia’s population, but according to the latest Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard, they account for only 3.6% of confirmed COVID cases, 4.5% of hospitalizations, and 1.5% of deaths.

    That would seem to be good news for Asians and Asian-Americans. But never fear, the intrepid social-justice reporters at the Richmond Times-Dispatch can always find an angle supporting their narrative of racial oppression. An article published this morning focuses on the fact that Virginians with an Asian background are getting vaccinated at a lower rate than Whites, Blacks and Hispanics.

    The RTD identifies some genuine obstacles that hinder Asians from getting vaccinated, such as the spread of rumors that non-citizens don’t qualify to get the vaccine, and limited proficiency in English, which makes it more difficult for public health authorities to combat misinformation. But the article also postulates some nonsensical reasons, such as the supposed “model minority” myth that all Asians are well educated and financially well off, and, in a total non sequitur, a supposed wave of of anti-Asian violence. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    Hat tip: John Butcher

  • Recommendations for “Equity” in Virginia Public Schools Will Destroy Them

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I just received my March edition of “EdEquityVA Monthly Newsletter” from Governor Northam’s Department of Education. Here are the opening paragraphs:

    The Office of Equity and Community Engagement is pleased to share that the Virginia Board of Education has revised its teacher performance standards and evaluation criteria to add a standard on culturally responsive teaching and equitable practices.

    The action during the Board’s March 18th meeting aligns to stated goals outlined in Virginia’s Education Equity Framework, and carries out legislation approved by the 2021 General Assembly (House Bill 1904 and Senate Bill 1196) requiring that teacher evaluations include an evaluation of cultural competency. The following performance standard was added to the Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers: “The teacher demonstrates a commitment to equity and provides instruction and classroom strategies that result in culturally inclusive and responsive learning environments and academic achievement for all students.” (Academic achievement was not defined.)

    (more…)

  • Spring Has Sprung, the Grass Is Ris…

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    James A. Bacon

    … I wonder where the boidies is
    The boid is on the wing,
    But that’s absoid
    From what I hoid
    The wing is on the boid!

    The so-called Brooklyn National Anthem was on my mind this afternoon when I strolled through my neighborhood. Yesterday, it was still winter. Today, it’s spring. Trees had exploded with red bud and white cherry blossoms. The forsythia and periwinkle were in full bloom. And the frogs in pond, normally very reclusive, were croaking their little hearts out in mating rituals. As for the boids, I did notice a red-breasted robin or two. (more…)

  • Contract for Experienced STEM Professionals to Teach in Virginia Schools

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    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    James Lane
    Superintendent of Public Instruction

    Every time the shortage of STEM teachers is taken seriously, as it was in William C. Lyons’ terrific article yesterday, the Departments of Education and local school boards come up with what they consider to be a cool name for a program to entice retired military officers, most of whom have engineering and other STEM degrees and are still relatively young, to teach STEM classes as a second career.

    They get some takers.

    Those officers have their military pensions to reduce the impact of low wages on their families. They already have the health insurance and other benefits they need, so that is not an attraction to teaching.

    But teaching is very worthwhile and under the right conditions can be quite fulfilling. Sounds like a perfect match.

    Yet I have three Navy friends who tried it for all the right reasons a couple of decades or more ago, and none of them lasted more than a year. If left to teach, they would have been fine.

    But none of them ultimately could put up with the daily annoyances that passed for management and administration in the public schools. It was the meetings, committees, “training,” and what some considered less than professional environments and treatment that drove them away. (more…)

  • The Transmission Bottleneck for Renewable Energy

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    You want more renewable energy? You’re going to need more high-voltage transmission lines to move intermittent wind and solar power around the country to balance fluctuating supply and demand. And you’d better get started. Transmission planning and construction involves long lead times, typically between seven and ten years.

    “The window may be closing to develop the needed transmission expansion to enable the optimization of clean energy, meet state clean energy objectives, and other ‘voluntary’ demand for low-cost renewable energy,” summarizes a new study, “How Transmission Planning & Cost Allocation Processes Are Inhibiting Wind & Solar Development in SPP, MISO, & PJM.” (more…)

  • Look in the Mirror, Fairfax School Board

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    After months of condemning Asian students for dominating the merit-based testing process for admission into the Thomas Jefferson (TJ) High School for Science and Technology, the Fairfax County School Board has issued a statement condemning anti-Asian racism… which it blames on others. Stated the resolution:

    The Fairfax County School Board condemns violence and discrimination targeting the Asian and Asian-American community; and rejects any language that associates the ongoing public health crisis with a particular national or ethnic group, recognizing that discriminatory language is counterproductive to defeating a virus that observes no national or ethnic boundaries.

    But some parents of TJ students aren’t buying the proposition that COVID-19 has anything to do with the supposed surge in anti-Asian incidents. Helen Miller sent this message, widely copied, to the Fairfax school board, Secretary of Education Atif Qarni, and governor Ralph Northam. (more…)

  • Roving Bands of Whites Steal COVID Shots?

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    by

    Steve Haner

    Shocking News: People afraid of death will drive to get vaccines!

    by Steve Haner

    Call out the militia!  Roving bands of white people are rushing to Danville to steal COVID vaccines from more deserving blacks and Latinos!  That’s the big news according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, although it lacks the courage to write that headline directly.

    The story dominates the print front page and the on-line paper, complete with a map (above) showing the distances these despicable Privilege Recipients are willing to drive to avoid hospitalization or death from a disease which everybody who reads the paper knows is only truly dangerous for People of Color.  (more…)

  • “Drunk with Power”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Drunk with power.

    That might as well be the Northam administration motto.

    Those three words reportedly appear in a chain of internal emails among parole board members and staff that was obtained by WTVR CBS-6 Richmond.

    CBS claims it obtained internal Virginia Parole Board emails detailing their deliberations.

    “Dated April 2020, one showed then Parole Board Chair Adrianne Bennett telling a parolee his early discharge certificate was “not normal protocol.”

    Another instance showed an email chain between Bennett and board employee Laura Hall, who at the time was going through a report of everyone in the Commonwealth on parole supervision. (more…)

  • New Antitrust Laws Promise Scrutiny of Virginia’s Healthcare Monopolies

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    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I have written here extensively on the necessity to enforce federal antitrust laws against the anticompetitive activities of some of Virginia’s regional healthcare monopolies. 

    I am happy to report federal legislative changes from the past year that will strengthen the enforcement of those laws. 

    First, the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act (ACPERA) was reauthorized. It incentivizes corporations to self-report and cooperate pursuant to DOJ’s corporate leniency policy.

    Congress also passed the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act that prohibits employers from retaliating against certain individuals who report criminal antitrust violations. DOJ had been waiting for that for a long time.   (more…)

  • VEC Gets the Booby Prize

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    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    There has been considerable discussion on this blog as to which agency has been the biggest failure in the face of the pandemic. Many have placed the heaviest blame on the Department of Health. I would award the prize for the being the biggest failure to the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).

    The Department of Health certainly has had its problems and failures, but it has had to face a complex environment. For examples, it was dealing with a disease about which little was known at first, including its major method of transmission; the most vulnerable citizens were those in nursing homes, which are controlled by private owners; and it is dependent on other actors, such as hospitals and local health departments, for its data.

    On the other hand, VEC has one primary mission—get out checks promptly to people who have lost their jobs. It largely failed at that job. (more…)

  • $15,000 an Hour to Peddle Racist Stereotypes? Not Bad Money If You Can Get It.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Glenn Singleton

    by Hans Bader

    School systems now routinely subject students and staff to racist scapegoating under the guise of promoting “diversity” or “anti-racism.” Radio broadcaster Rob Schilling reports on one example in Virginia: the Albemarle County Public Schools’ hiring of diversity-trainer Glenn Singleton. Singleton’s firm is getting paid a whopping $15,000 to give a one-hour seminar. Singleton blames white teachers for poor performance by black students, even as he promotes offensive racial stereotypes, claiming that “white talk” is “verbal, impersonal, intellectual” and “task-oriented,” while minority talk is “emotional.”

    As Schilling notes, progressive Albemarle County requires “all school division employees” to “participate in a compulsory one-hour race-intensive Zoom seminar” by Singleton on March 26. The schools are paying “$15,000 (plus additional technology expenses of approximately $1,000)” for this brief seminar. And that’s not the whole cost: “A schools’ spokesperson was unable to ascertain” the cost to pay hundreds of “employees not otherwise working at the time of the presentation.” (more…)

  • Yuck. Virginia Politics Need a Car Wash.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Spray ‘er down, buddy.

    by Chris Saxman

    Spring in Virginia politics is like the daily pollen car wash. It’s that morning muck that cakes up the windshield worldview.

    This is when political campaigns send out unmitigated crap attack ads that make no sense but try to instill just the tiniest element of angst and fear in order to generate a negative response towards an otherwise decent person.

    The Virginia GOP dominant majority in General Assembly actually managed the Commonwealth well over the last twenty years as it had to work with a Democratic governor 75% of the time. But eventually, the engine of innovation wears down. They could use some of the Ideas Retreats of the past vs. conventions which boil down to who is more pro-gun, anti-gay, or anti-abortion. As if there are no other issues that matter to Republican convention goers.

    On the other hand, we have many Democratic candidates who seem content on coming up with Elizabeth Warren-level of detail in their policy proposals. (more…)

  • VCU Bows to Reality, Proposes to Hold Tuition Flat

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Data source: State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV)

    by James A. Bacon

    Miracle of miracles! Virginia Commonwealth University President Michael Rao is proposing to keep tuition flat in the next academic year. Assuming the Board of Visitors concurs, the university will have declined to increase the cost of tuition for three years running.

    VCU students have among the greatest needs in the state, said Rao, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the university is committed to remaining accessible to them.

    It’s refreshing to hear such concern for the well being of VCU’s students, 58% of whom are “people of color” and many of whom are first-generation college attendees. The sentiment is a welcome change from previous years in which VCU increased tuition and fees more aggressively than most other public Virginia four-year institutions, leaving it with the fifth highest tuition and fees in the state. (more…)

  • Remember the 38th!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    T. Travis Hackworth

    Congratulations to the citizens of the 38th state senatorial district — you have been re-enfranchised. Republican T. Travis Hackworth handily won the special election to replace former Sen. Ben Chafin, who died in January, garnering 76% of the vote.

    Better late than never, I suppose. But due to Governor Ralph Northam’s failure (or refusal) to schedule a special election immediately after Chafin’s death, Hackworth was not instated until after the 2021 General Assembly session, one of the most consequential of recent legislatures in years. Hacksworth’s absence gave Democrats a 21 to 18 margin in the Senate instead of a 20 to 19 margin, meaning that it took two middle-of-the-road Democrats to side with Republicans instead of one to block the Northam administration’s left-wing agenda. (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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