Bacon's Rebellion

  • Merle Rutledge and America’s Coming Political Realignment

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Permit me to introduce you to Merle Rutledge, the Republican candidate for governor that no one is talking about. To be sure, his chances of winning the nomination are just about zero, but that’s no reason to pretend he doesn’t exist. Personally, I find his candidacy intriguing — not because I share his views, which I find extreme, but because of the light he sheds on an important political dynamic that isn’t getting nearly enough attention.

    According to Essence magazine, 18% of black men voted for Donald Trump for president. That’s astonishing. Those voters didn’t attend elite universities like the people purporting to speak for the black race you see on CNN or MSNBC. They tend to be working class and middle class, they tend to be culturally conservative, and they, like their white counterparts, are worried about America’s fraying culture and the bankruptcy of Democratic Party prescriptions for society. (more…)

  • A Win-Win Transit Solution for Norfolk

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    I have been highly critical of mass transit operations here in Virginia, which has led some blog commenters to suggest that I am “anti” mass transit. To the contrary, I believe that mass transit is a critical element of Virginia’s transportation infrastructure, an absolute necessity to manage the densification that occurs in growing urban areas. However, to say that mass transit is essential is not to excuse transit operations for abysmal performance and wasting millions of tax dollars.

    When I see evidence of positive performance, I highlight it… which brings me to today’s post. Before the COVID epidemic, a major overhaul of Richmond’s bus routes gained 1 million riders, a 17% increase, by reorganizing its bus routes. Now Norfolk is hiring the same consultant who transformed Richmond’s bus routes to re-engineer its own mass transit network.

    The proposed reorganization of routes would put 140,000 more Norfolk residents within a quarter mile of a bus or train arriving every 15 minutes for most of the day, an increase of 57% over today. The average person will be able to access 31% more jobs than with the existing network. All without spending more money.

    Reportsย The Virginia Mercury:

    โ€œHere in Norfolk we have a bus system that hadnโ€™t been reviewed or updated in decades,โ€ said Andria McClellan, a city councilwoman and Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. โ€œAll the tiny changes over the years left us with a lot of spaghetti-style routes that were added for political reasons and not because they actually met the needs of our current riders.โ€ (more…)

  • Don’t Forget ODU!

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    In a recent post I addressed the issue of STEM programs in Virginia’s public universities. The column prompted a response from James V. Koch, a former president of Old Dominion University who has dedicated recent years to examining the issue of affordability and governance in higher education. Notes Koch (whose books I have favorably reviewed):

    Those who post on Bacon’s Rebellion or write for Times-Dispatch often seem ignorant of anything east of Williamsburg.ย  …ย Note that Old Dominion University ranks 4th in terms of the total number of STEM baccalaureate degrees granted and 2nd in terms of STEM intensity.

    ODU is the Rodney Dangerfield of Virginia higher ed — it can’t get no respect. Unlike Rodney, ODU deserves more respect than it gets. — JAB

  • Watering Down the SOLs. Again.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by John Butcher

    If you want to boost the pass rates of the Standards of Learning exams, you have three choices (aside from the one perfected at Richmond’s Carver Elementary): Improve teaching, make the tests easier, or relax the scoring.

    On the 2019 revision of the math tests, the Board of โ€œEducationโ€ chose the last option: They adoptedย cut scoresย in five of six cases that were less than the level necessary to retain the same level of rigor as the earlier tests. Theย resultsย were predictable (and, of course, fed the false notion that student performance was improving).

    The Board now has jiggered the English tests to the same end. The recommendationย (teacher-driven; no pretense here of objectivity) was for every cut score to be lower (easier) than the level necessary to maintain the rigor of the tests. (more…)

  • Another Higher-Ed Apologist Calls for More State Funding

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    James Socas

    by James A. Bacon

    You’d think James Socas would know better. As an employee of the Blackstone Group, he invests in technology companies. He knows what it takes to run successful business enterprises.ย He has even served two terms on UVa’s alumni association board.ย But he’s willing to cut Virginia public universities plenty of slack when it comes to the way they run their enterprises.

    In an op-ed he wrote for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Socas calls for greater state funding for Virginia’s public colleges and universities — with no strings attached and no calls for accountability. He should know better.

    The op-ed makes some legitimate points. Higher-ed is an engine of economic growth. And the importance of higher education will only grow as the economy increasingly revolves around information technology, data science, machine learning and robotics. “Almost 50% of all employees,” he writes, “will need reskilling by 20205 as work becomes more knowledge-intensive and higher-order cognitive skills such as creativity, critical thinking and advanced problem-solving become more important.” (more…)

  • Saving Virginia’s Old Growth Forests One Tree Stand at a Time

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Chestnut Ridge Natural Area Preserve. Photo credit: PCO Pros.

    by James A. Bacon

    This is my kind of environmentalism: The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has purchased more than 800 acres in Giles and Bland counties to preserve two old-growth forest communities dominated by northern red oak and chestnut oak.

    The old-growth communities exist in a “large matrix of nearly unbroken forest,” the extent of which is rare in western Virginia, according to the DCR website. Natural Heritage ecologists have confirmed the existence of individual trees between 300 and 400 years old.

    Originally, Bob and Darlinda Gilvary, owners of Gilginia Tree Farm LCC, established a 233-acre preserve and managed the forest, selecting and harvesting individual trees themselves. They took care to leave the oldest trees and other mature stock for regeneration, reports WXFR. They also obtained a conservation easement for the land. โ€œYears ago, my husband and I decided to keep the whole land in [the] forest. We did it to protect the environment and to protect water quality. It is important to use to leave it in good hands,โ€ said Ms. Gilvary.

    Now the state has acquired that land and added 587 acres of adjacent property. The entire 820 acres are permanently protected as part of the Virginia Natural Area Preserve System managed by the Virginia Natural Heritage Program at DCR. (more…)

  • CO2 Taxes, Gas Rationing Poll Badly With Voters

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    The Transportation and Climate Initiative plan to tax and ration motor fuels suffered a major setback just before Christmas, when eight of the eleven states considering it decided not to move forward in 2021. Less than two weeks earlier, advocates had released polling that claimed to show overwhelming popularity for the idea.ย  (more…)

  • Hedge Fund Moves on Virginian-Pilot Parent Company

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    If you think The Virginian-Pilot is just a shadow of what it once was, just wait.

    It may get worse.

    A lot worse.

    Perhaps you heard, Alden Global Capital – a hedge fund that Vanity Fair once described as โ€œthe grim reaper of American newspapersโ€ – is poised to buy The Tribune Publishing company, the parent of The Pilot, The Daily Press and 75 other newspapers.

    Terrible news for Southeastern Virginia, which could find itself essentially newspaper-less in the future.

    This move has been in the works for more than a year. The New York Times reported the alarming news this way: (more…)

  • Equal Opportunity Versus Equal Outcomes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Equality

    by James A. Bacon

    The greatest ideological division in the United States today separates those who support policies geared to creating equal opportunities for all and those who support policies geared to creating equal outcomes. Each orientation reflects contending views of human nature and prescriptions for making the world a better place.

    I believe — and I think most Americans believe — in equal opportunity. I believe that public policy and civic endeavor should be directed to giving all Americans access to the tools that allow them to improve their stations in life. An equal opportunity agenda would articulate pragmatic, achievable goals that lead to incremental but steady gains over time. I do not believe in harnessing the power of the state to achieve equal outcomes. A world of equal outcomes is an unachievable utopia. The path to utopia is strewn with violations to individual liberties. Equality is never achieved. The only thing that changes is the people in power.ย ย 

    An opportunity agenda seeks win/win solutions to society’s ills. While it sees a role for collective action through civic groups and government, the opportunity worldview recognizes that there is no substitute for individuals acting to optimize their own good and that of their loved ones. The engine of the opportunity agenda is individual initiative and personal responsibility. It is forward-looking and optimistic. It is win-win. One person’s gain does not come at the expense of any one else. (more…)

  • The Gray Lady Backs School Testing

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    James Lane
    Superintendent of Public Instruction

    by James C. Sherlock

    I wrote in a column not long ago that it will be impossible to create plans to make up for COVID-related learning losses if we cannot benchmark those losses and their subsequent mitigation.

    I recommended standardized testing as the only readily available and proven way to take those measurements.

    For most readers of this space, the concept that standardized testing (SOLs in the case of Virginia) is required this spring to establish a baseline for learning losses is simple common sense. For the national teachers unions and for much of the woke left, standardized testing is considered unfair to the poor, a vestige of systemic racism and a violation of dogma.

    What is unfair to disadvantaged children is to mask their educational needs by burying the evidence.

    That is why it is good to see that the editorial board of the New York Times, in this morningโ€™s lead editorial, has written that we need standardized testing for benchmarking of learning losses. (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Jeanine’s week in memes.

  • 2020 Was To Be Year of Climate Doom

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    So, letโ€™s take another trip down Climate Catastrophe Memory Lane. Maybe 2020 was not such a bad year after all. It was certainly better than it was supposed to be. The pandemic might have been just a footnote to Climate Doom.

    In 1987, the official Jeremiah of the movement, NASAโ€™s James Hansen, predicted the worldโ€™s average surface temperature would be 3 degrees Celsius hotter in 2020. Remember, only 2 degrees C of added warmth is now the Line of Doom in the Paris Climate Agreement.

    Instead, the 40-year increase, by satellite measurements, has been less than one half of a degree C. All other measurements fall short of the warning.

    In 1978, we were warned that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere would double by 2020, but they have risen from just over 310 parts per million to over 410, up about a third. They did not drop during the COVID recession despite major drops in human energy emissions. Interesting.

    The optimists at the Associated Press published a claim in 2009 that China and India would have lower CO2 emissions by 2020 then they had reported in 2005.ย  China was supposed to go down 40% and India 205. Nope, failed again. China is up 85% and India up 150%. Both are building new coal power plants apace.

    These are the first three failed predictions about 2020 climate catastrophe in a list of ten doozies compiled on JunkScience.com. Now there is a video (above). Miami was to be underwater by now (meaning Virginia Beach, too).ย  The citations are solid, and similar examples abound in the literature. (more…)

  • Who’s Getting the Vaccine in Virginia?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    More than 80,000 Virginians have been given the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, according to data reported today by the Virginia Department of Health. Presumably, the overwhelming majority has been administered to health care workers, who are most likely to be exposed to, and to spread, the virus. Very few vaccines have been given to the elderly. Less than 2% of the doses have been given to the 80-year-old-and-up demographic that is most likely to die from the virus.

    We can also see from the VDH data that the vast majority of people getting the vaccine are white. Blacks are under-represented, accounting for 8.6% of those vaccinated by 20% of the state’s population. Whether that shortfall can be attributed to the percentage of blacks in the healthcare workforce, fear of vaccination in the black population (you know, Tuskeegee and all), or some amorphous structural racism is too early to say.

    The other obvious disparity is between men and women. Women are getting vaccinated at twice the rate of men — even though men are slightly more likely to die from the disease. (more…)

  • A New Fad: Bashing Offshore Wind Turbines

    Posted on

    by

    Peter Galuszka

    By Peter Galuszka

    ย Offshore wind power is becoming a whipping boy even as the technology involved becomes more advanced and its costs go down.

    Northwestern Europe is offshore wind headquarters globally and countries such as the United Kingdom have wholeheartedly embraced it.

    Yet some critics, some of whom are supported financially by the fossil fuel industry, refuse to accept its growth and see its potential. They insist on keeping fossil fuel generating stations going that contribute to dangerous climate change. They also back nuclear plants that have a high capacity factor.

    The problem is that any generating station can go offline for any number of reasons. Considering nukes, there are a few points to be made. Consider this from Power magazine:

    โ€œNorth Anna Power Stationโ€™s 1,865-MW twin pressurized water reactors were at full power when the quake struck on August 23, 2011, at 1:51 p.m. The quakeโ€™s epicenter was 11 miles southwest of the station in Mineral, Va. Both of the stationโ€™s units shut down immediately, automatically, and safely. As a result of the earthquake, the plant lost off-site power from the switchyard, but back-up power from diesel generators picked up the load within 8 seconds, as designed. The station returned to off-site power later that evening.โ€ (more…)

  • A Giant Wind Turbine, but Not for Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The issue of wind energy is pretty much out of my field of knowledge, much less expertise. I follow the discussion on this blog with a lot of interest.

    In this vein, I found a story in todayโ€™s New York Times most interesting. It is about a giant turbine that GE is developing that is much bigger and more powerful than what is now available and is apparently shaking up the industry. That is interesting enough, but what really struck me was this passage about the advantages of the new machine:

    โ€œThese qualities create a powerful incentive for developers to go for the largest machine available to aid their efforts to win the auctions for offshore power supply deals that many countries have adopted. These auctions vary in format, but developers compete to provide power over a number of years for the lowest price.โ€

    That just underscores the point that has been frequently made on this blog: Virginia has made a huge mistake in granting Dominion Energy a monopoly in building offshore wind power.

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