Bacon's Rebellion

  • Shopping Mall Melee

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    As a rule, I pay scant attention to social media rumors. But a video clip circulating Sunday on Facebook showing a nasty altercation at Lynnhaven Mall appears to be authentic. The rampage was bad enough that the mall was reportedly forced to close early Saturday night.

    Not good.

    The footage shows a fight involving a throng of teenaged girls and mall security. In the short clip, it appears that a guard is on the ground being pummeled by at least one of the punks. It seems this took place inside near the main entrance. (You can see a “Verizon” sign reflected in the glass near the ruckus).

    Calls to the Virginia Beach Police on Sunday for details were mostly fruitless. They confirmed that police were called to the mall at about 7:30 Saturday, but other than that they would release no details because — get this — “It isn’t breaking news.”

    Of course, it was breaking news on Saturday, but because we didn’t phone while the event was unfolding, the officer I spoke with Sunday said we’d have to wait until Monday to call for details. (more…)

  • Media Bashing at Bacon’s Rebellion

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    by

    Peter Galuszka

    by Peter Galuszka

    Two recent blog posts critical of The Washington Post and The New York Times are way out of line.

    They assume that two leading newspapers have a definite agenda on race.

    Jim Bacon goes after the Post for reporting about the bad experiences a Black student, Rafael Jenkins, endured during  ‘”Rat Week” hazing at the Virginia Military Institute.

    When Jenkins was reluctant to recite the names of 10 VMI graduates who died while fighting for the Confederacy during the Civil War, a senior cadet screamed at him that he’d be lynched and his body would be used as a punching bag.

    Jenkins, who had been suspected of cheating during his ACT entry exam, was accused of cheating on a test at VMI. He was convicted of what seems largely circumstantial evidence and left the school. The Post piece lays this all out.

    Is this a story? Of course it is. Black alumni have made vigorous calls to investigate systemic racism at the state-supported school. The president has resigned. Gov. Ralph Northam has ordered a probe of what is going on.

    This blog skirts these issues by claiming there is no racism and not questioning why Virginia taxpayers are footing the bill for such behavior. Why pay for such ridiculous hazing? If the state wants a Parris Island, then erect one. It is so odd that conservative VMI gets a pass while the more liberal University of Virginia is the devil incarnate. (more…)

  • The Thought Police Have Her on Video

    Posted on

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    sherlockj

    Rapper Jay Z

    by James C. Sherlock

    You know how some things play out exactly as you expect and you still can’t figure out why they happen? Such a thing happened to me this morning when I opened the New York Times.

    On the front page was an article that was a rehash of reporting that had been done in Virginia and Tennessee newspapers in early June of this year.

    It was, of course, about racism (or close enough for the Times). In Leesburg, Virginia. Nearly five years ago. By a then newly 15 year-old girl. Who sent a three-second video to her girlfriend on which she celebrated getting her learner’s permit by saying “I can drive, N—–“.  In which she was imitating the language used on the rap music that dominated her and her friends’ play lists.

    Mr. Daniel Levin writes about how that incident got blown up on the internet and ruined a young girl’s life.

    If it did not when the story was originally published, Mr. Levin and his editors have assured it. The story has gone national, six months after it was first reported, complete with the young girl’s name and picture, part of “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” Sunday front page version. (more…)

  • WaPo Convicts VMI of Racism. Again

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    VMI Ratline. Credit: Beth Dooley Williams Instagram account

    by James A. Bacon

    Sigh. I am weary of writing about race in Virginia, I really am. But the Washington Post never tires and never rests. America-as-endemically-racist nation has become a dominant narrative of 2020 and the newspaper’s enthusiasm for stories alleging racism everywhere (but itself) shows no sign of abating. This is profoundly discouraging for anyone who, like I do, sees America as a flawed but fundamentally good and decent nation. So, 0nce again, I take to my keyboard to engage in some critical analysis.

    This morning the Post devotes a third of its front page and two full inside pages to an article about Rafael Jenkins, a freshman who was subjected to a racist taunt during Hell Week at the Virginia Military Institute and then, months later, was expelled for an alleged honor violation. My problem is not the reporting that went into the story but how staff writer Ian Shapira and his editors framed the facts and the sweeping conclusions they drew from them.

    Here’s the headline in the print edition: “A lynching threat, a cheating charge. A black cadet at the Virginia Military Institute was subjected to racism during his initiation. Later, it was his integrity that the schools questioned when it placed him under investigation.”

    The headline in the online edition puts it even more baldly: “A Black VMI cadet was threatened with a lynching, then with expulsion.”

    Polish up that Pulitzer. It looks like The Washington Post is vying again for the big prize in journalism. (more…)

  • COVID, Stimulus Checks, and Babies with Guns

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Every week Jeanine Martin with The Bull Elephant publishes a compilation of the week’s memes and cartoons. Just as the late night shows are funnier if you’re a Democrat, it helps to be a Trump fan — or at least lean Republican — to find the humor in Jeanine’s Memes. I thought the one above was hilarious. The Internet has liberated comic genius that would never make it in corporate media. — JAB

  • “Anti-Racist” Teacher Harasses Minority Parents

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Asra Q. Nomani

    FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va — In a series of attacks in mid-October, a troll using the anonymous account @AntiRacist14 lashed out at Harry Jackson, the Black father of two local students. When Jackson called him out, the troll responded: “Motherfucker how is this me trolling you? I’m the OP [original poster], the victim narrative is trite, give it a rest. Sell segregationist bullshit elsewhere, snowflake.”

    What is shocking here is that the attack didn’t come from some random troll, and it doesn’t fit the narrative that civil rights activists challenge white racist bigots hurling insults at minorities. The person behind the account is a white self-described “Dirtbag Left” Fairfax County Public Schools teacher, pressing the “anti-racist” politics that have become politically correct — and divisive — today from California to Virginia. (more…)

  • Merry Christmas from the Bacon Family

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    The Bacon family has a tradition of assembling every year to take a Christmas card photo. In the COVID epidemic, that wasn’t possible in 2020, so we gathered on Zoom. We’ll miss our other tradition, reuniting for a Christmas Eve feast with friends and relatives. Still we are profoundly thankful for how blessed we are. We have our health, we have gainful employment, and we have each other. We yearn for the day when all Virginians can say the same. — JAB

  • The Year Santa Went Soft

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Far be it from me to say anything bad about Santa Claus, especially on Christmas Eve. But there was a Christmas, ages ago, when I was a tad disappointed in the old boy. In fact, I thought Mr. Claus — Father Christmas, Ole St. Nick — was getting lazy.

    You see, back when Eisenhower was president, when TV shows were in black and white and movies weren’t rated because they didn’t need to be, Santa not only brought toys. He brought the family Christmas tree.

    At least to our house. Maybe we were special, although at the time I assumed he did the same for every family in the world.

    That’s right, Santa dragged a 7-foot fir down the chimney along with the toys. Then he set it up, tossed on the lights, hung every ball and draped every icicle. And he still found time to eat a plate of cookies.

    What an industrious guy. (more…)

  • A Threat to Due Process Comes from…(Drum Roll)… Virginia’s Division of Human Rights

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Emilio Jaksetic

    On November 18, 2020, Attorney General Mark R. Herring informed NAACP Loudoun Branch and Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) that a Final Determination (Determination) had been made by the Division of Human Rights (DHR) in DHR Case No. 19-2652. In making its Determination, DHR used a procedure that poses a serious threat to due process, specifically using confidential witness statements as evidence against the LCPS.

    The case addressed the admissions policies at the elite Loudoun Academy, where African American students were enrolled at lower rates than Asians and whites. While describing how the DHR collected information regarding the witnesses offered by the NAACP, the Determination makes the following statement:

    Because of apparent witness concerns surrounding confidentiality and retaliation, the Division includes below a select group of pertinent narratives reported to the Division by the fact witnesses who responded to the Division’s inquiry through correspondence or interview.

    Following that statement are slightly more than six pages of extracts from multiple sources who are identified only generically. Nothing in the Determination indicates whether LCPS was provided with a copy of the statements from which the quoted extracts were taken. Even if LCPS counsel received a copy of those statements, the testimony might well have been redacted to protect the identity of confidential witnesses (1VAC45-20-82 and 1VAC45-20-83.C).  (The Department of Law’s regulations implementing the Virginia Human Rights Act are available here.)  (more…)

  • Xmas Present for Metro

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Bill Tracy

    Season greetings to Bacon’s Rebellion readers, and the Happiest of Holidays to the D.C. Metro system.

    In a major coup for Virginia and its Metro partners, Senator Mark Warner and friends have secured $830 million for Metro in the to-be-approved-someday COVID stimulus package, thus avoiding the Doomsday scenario of severe schedule cutbacks, reports WJLA.

    Was the Doomsday scenario announced as a scare tactic to get the funding package? Food for thought. (more…)

  • The Use of Racial Prisms

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    By Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The perception that progressives and the “cultural elite” view  “every public policy issue through a racial prism” has become a favorite whipping boy on this blog. Those raising this objection would prefer that race and ethnicity not be used as criteria for shaping or evaluating public policy.

    I, too, am sometimes uncomfortable with the insistence that public policy be evaluated in racial terms. What I am also uncomfortable with is what seems a pretension by some that liberals and progressives have been the first to view policy and society through a “racial prism.” (more…)

  • Is CovidWise Worth a Tinker’s Damn?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Last Thursday my son tested positive for COVID-19. The previous Sunday evening, he and I had cooked dinner together and watched “Mosul” on Netflix. (Worth viewing, by the way.) We were in close proximity for three hours or so. If he was infectious at that time, I was certainly at risk of catching the virus.

    As it happens, both my son and I are registered with CovidWise, the state-sanctioned app that is supposed to alert users if they have been exposed to someone with the virus. The app uses a Bluetooth signal on your smart phone to know how close and how long you are to someone else with the cell phone app. If someone tests positive for COVID, the health department gives you a PIN, which you enter into the app. The app identifies everyone who was exposed to you within six feet for 15 minutes or longer within 24 hours within the past 14 days.

    That’s the theory…. (more…)

  • UVa and Tech — Less Intolerant than Other Elite Universities

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    I have been critical of Virginia’s colleges and universities, especially the University of Virginia, for the intolerance of conservative political and cultural viewpoints. But there’s another side to the story, and I believe in presenting all the evidence, not just the facts that fit my narrative. By the standards of other elite U.S universities — admittedly an extraordinarily low bar — UVa and Virginia Tech are less intolerant of diverse viewpoints than most.

    Indeed in the College Free Speech Rankings based on a survey of 20,000 college students at 55 top universities, the University of Virginia scored 6th and Virginia Tech scored 8th for freedom of speech and expression. Both fell far short of the University of Chicago, which sets the gold standard, but they far exceeded Ivy League institutions like Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth.

    Jim Sherlock has already taken a bite of this apple here. I’m circling back for a second look at the data generated by the rankings, a joint project of College Pulse, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and RealClear Education. First the scores, then an explanation of how they were derived, and then a deep dive into the data.

    (more…)

  • The New Face of Virginia’s GOP

    Posted on

    by

    Peter Galuszka

    Amanda Chase. Credit: Scott Elmquist, Style Weekly

    By Peter Galuszka

    If ever one photo best describes what 2020 was like in Virginia, this shot, by the brilliant veteran photographer Scott Elmquist at Style Weekly, shows it.

    The photo is of state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, at a July 4 rally at the capitol. Her defiant expression, the assault-style rifle and the over-the-top elephant skirt tell you what has become of the Virginia Republican Party, which hasn’t won a statewide public office in about a decade.

    Chase is a pistol-packing, foul-mouthed, tough-talking show girl who is running for governor and backs the dangerous authoritarian tendencies of outgoing President Donald Trump. Chase is so extreme that her county GOP kicked her out.

    Republicans were still so frightened of her that they decided to hold conventions and not a primary to decide between her and Kirk Cox, a more moderate politician and perhaps anyone else who runs. Now Chase has announced she will run as a Republican. Doing so gives her a leg up. (more…)

  • COVID Has Exposed Massive Failures in Governance

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    In a comment to my previous post, we saw a statement “most parents are happy with the education their kids are getting.”   That is no longer true. Polls say overwhelmingly it is not.

    On a personal note, my two grandsons in Albemarle County schools, twin seniors, haven’t set foot in their high school this year. Albemarle County has during this same time period declared itself the state’s first antiracist school district. Excellent timing. Shows where the superintendent’s head was. The school board rubber stamped that policy. No one noted that black students were and are unable to go to school.

    COVID has exposed a fatal lack of government imagination, planning and execution in good times. It simply did not do the blocking and tackling.

    Remember my story about the decades-long lack of hospital and nursing home inspectors? Remember the nursing home deaths that resulted?

    Remember the University of Virginia Board of Visitors more than a decade ago fired the president of that school in part because she would not invest enough in distance learning? Remember that the board itself was then threatened with firing by the Governor and she returned triumphant? Now remember what happened when that school and others had to switch to remote learning under COVID? (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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