See more memes at The Bull Elephant.
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Jeanine’s Memes
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The Times-Dispatch’s Slow Suicide Must Be Near Its End
The Richmond Times-Dispatch must be on its last legs. The out-of-town investors are just running some pricing algorithm to see how much addicted fools will pay to keep their access to a shrinking amount of information. There are many people, as we all know, who pay no attention to the billings that just show up on their credit cards.
The former Richmond Times-Dispatch building, already sold off. Two months ago, a snail mail letter announced the cost of our online access would rise “temporarily” from $28.99 per four weeks to $33.98. Billing every four weeks rather than every month means 13 hits in a calendar year, so they were imposing an increase to $442 annually. Having been billed the new amount exactly once, a new letter appeared today.
This one announced an immediate increase to $43.98 per four-week billing cycle, an additional $130 per year. That takes the e-edition price above $1.50 per day. There is almost nothing left in terms of local or State Capitol content worth reading. I know the names of two of their remaining Capitol Hill reporters, one of whom when he calls me is often at home in Maryland.
Unlike most readers, I know where to find the legislative meeting video archives and the meeting PowerPoint slides. I don’t need to pay for a subscription and can find what I want on my own if I think to look. The benefit of the subscription mainly is it reminds when me to look.
Friday’s online edition included some other interesting and depressing information. An inside page included the annual U.S. Postal Service subscription public notice. For the previous 12 months the newspaper was down to an average of 40,400 paid subscribers, about equally divided print and electronic. For the date closest to the filing, the total had dropped to 38,600. The greater Richmond metropolitan region had 540,000 households in 2020, and the RTD used to circulate out to the Shenandoah Valley.
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Impersonal Medicine, But There Are Bright Spots
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Eye exam
Benny Lambert Many years ago, I went to Benny Lambert for my regular eye examinations. His optometry office was in a small building in Jackson Ward across the way from downtown Richmond. No one was ever in the small waiting room when I got there. There was one receptionist. Behind the receptionist’s desk, there was a large room, which comprised Benny’s office and his examining room. There was one chair for patients, surrounded by the usual optometry equipment.
Benny had no assistants. He conducted the entire eye exam himself; having me look through the special lens apparatus and telling him which image looked sharper, image no. 1 or image no. 2, for example.
Benny was also a Virginia State Senator. He was always friendly and talkative. He and I had first met when I worked for county governments. Although I had moved on to the Dept. of Planning and Budget, he seemed still to view me in that former context. All during the exam, we talked about the legislature and state politics.
After some time, probably after Benny retired, I found other optometrists. For various reasons, I have settled on one at the Virginia Eye Institute, a large practice, which has offices all over the Richmond area, quite different from Benny’s little office.
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A Turning Point for American Discourse
by Kameron M. Spivey
Charlie Kirk speaking in W&L’s Lee Chapel in 2019. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Charlie Kirk, a steadfast champion of conservatism and a guiding voice for college students everywhere. It is hard to gauge the full impression he left on Washington and Lee University, where he spoke in both 2019 and 2024.
Not everyone on campus agreed with him. Quite the contrary, Kirk openly sought opposition to his views and reinforced an often-neglected principle of American discourse: that personal opinion is subject to critique, and that no ideology is free from debate.
Kirk’s no-nonsense rhetorical style resonated exceptionally well with the rising generation of young adults who have grown tired of the inculcation of progressive doctrines. From COVID-19 shutdowns to Critical Race Theory and transgender ideology, Kirk has challenged them all and inspired his listeners to do the same.
But, like so many activists before him, Kirk’s work is left unfinished. His logical approach to debate, though in no way harmful to his opponents, has been silenced through his assassination.
The barbarity of this action is sickening, and we all are praying that the perpetrator(s) are brought to swift justice. But is there more we can do?
As tragic as Kirk’s death is, yesterday was a turning point in American discourse.
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Bacon Meme of the Week
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The Most Important Issue Not on the Ballot in November
by J. Kennerly Davis
Debating the origin of rights and freedoms. Image credit: Bing Image Creator As our fall elections rapidly approach and we consider the differing positions taken on particular issues by the individual candidates competing for our votes, it is vitally important that we first carefully consider a fundamental question not on the ballot but tied closely to the deeper meaning of this and every election. It’s a deceptively simple question, but one that encompasses the essence of every significant policy issue that confronts our Commonwealth.
The question for us to ponder before we vote is, simply: Where do our rights come from?
The most basic decision that the members of every society must make is how to define the place of the individual in the society, and from there to determine the relationship of the individual to the group, the distribution of legitimate authority, and the system of government.
In any system of government, ultimate authority, or sovereignty, must be located somewhere in the system for the government to function. For most of recorded history, in most places, sovereignty has been located in anti-democratic authoritarian rulers supported by the dominant classes from which they emerged: monarchs and their nobles, military strongmen and their armed forces, party leaders and their ruling political parties.
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Letter from UVA College Republicans
(20+) Facebook “As we watched Charlie Kirk lose his life yesterday, many of our professors, teaching assistants, and peers met this gruesome news with joy, laughter, cheering the violence on, and wishing it upon us conservatives.”
But renowned political science professor Larry Sabato was not among them.
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Can Virginia Save $2.6 Billion in Medicaid Spending Through One Simple Fix?
Brad Hart is co-owner of Forest Park Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy. He has a few things to say about Medicaid spending in Virginia. Independent pharmacies have a big stake in state Medicaid policies, but the dude is from Fort Worth, Texas! Click here to listen.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/177wc6wQga/ Hart’s commentary is based on a report by Arlington-based Strategic Directions, an advocacy group that “give[s] stakeholders—whether they’re state Medicaid programs, independent pharmacies, or legislators—the strategic insight and advocacy they need to create meaningful change.” So… probably not a disinterested group. However…
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More Evidence the VCEA Is Based On a False Premise
By Derrick Max
For several years now, Virginians have been told that the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is necessary to save Virginia and is a necessary step to save the planet. We’ve been told that rising seas, worsening storms, and other supposedly catastrophic impacts of man-made climate change justify a radical restructuring of Virginia’s entire energy system. But what if that very premise — the idea of accelerating climate danger — rests on faulty or potentially unreliable data?
A recent peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering entitled, “A Global Perspective on Local Sea Level Changes” cuts right to the heart of the green extreme narrative. Contrary to the drumbeat of alarm, the Dutch researchers found no evidence that sea level rise has accelerated due to climate change. Sea levels have been inching upward since the end of the last Ice Age, but the data shows no sudden spike in recent decades. If rising seas are not accelerating, then the doomsday clock that climate advocates use to justify economy-wrecking mandates simply isn’t ticking as loudly or as fast as they claim.
Nowhere is this misunderstanding more evident than in Hampton Roads and Norfolk, often held up as “ground zero” for sea level rise in Virginia. What is rarely mentioned is that much of the measured change there is the result of land subsidence (the ground itself is sinking) rather than oceans rapidly rising. That distinction matters. It means local challenges in Norfolk are largely geological and infrastructural, not evidence of global climate collapse.
Streets in Norfolk routinely flood during heavy rains and tides, and the region’s naval installations are grappling with the need for improved stormwater management and hardened infrastructure. These are serious local concerns, but they stem from subsiding land and aging drainage systems, not accelerating global sea rise. Addressing them requires targeted investments in drainage, stormwater systems, and coastal defenses, projects that could be undertaken for a few billion dollars, far less than the $20 billion or more Dominion plans to sink into offshore wind (including a yet to be started Phase II).
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Maybe We Can Just Let AI Do Our Thinking For Us
Average NAEP 12th-Grade Reading scores nationally broken down by percentile: Top 10%, Top 20%, Average, Bottom 25%, and Bottom 10%. Largely overlooked in the furor over stabbings and assassinations the past few days, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has reported more dismal data about educational achievement of today’s youth. The latest updates report on 12th-grade reading and math as well as 8th-grade science.
Average scores for top and bottom performers alike were lower in 2024 than the pre-COVID, pre-George Floyd year of 2019. Overall, only 35% of 12th-graders scored proficient in reading and 22% in math. In other words, young people are losing ground in acquiring the verbal and mathematical skills required to thrive in the burgeoning knowledge economy.
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Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind
“I told you so” leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, but the tragic news yesterday about Charlie Kirk took my memory back immediately to the debate on Bacon’s Rebellion after another tragedy in Charlottesville. Far too many of the usual suspects rejected my argument then that the condemnation of political violence had to go both ways or it would be worthless. A failure to jointly condemn violence right or left, KKK or Antifa, would simply feed the fire.
One of the speakers in favor of Dominion’s proposed natural gas plant in Chesterfield at Monday night’s public hearing told me someone from Roanoke on the other side quite openly and forcefully said any person who supported building the plant should be condemned to Hell. Similar attitudes appear in every political quarter and forum. It should sicken us all, but sadly it does not.
Yes, one of the worst offenders now sits in the White House, and the reports this morning are he issued on social media a list of recent shameless political attacks, omitting the attacks on liberals from his concern. It was just June when a murderer motivated by ideology killed one Minnesota legislator and wounded another, and it wasn’t that long ago that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was wounded by someone seeking to kill her.
It will never leave us entirely. Political violence goes back to the beginning, and within the past couple of days I reread Shelby Foote’s account of Lincoln’s assassination. But if all agree that all such acts are equally reprehensible, and if all agree to openly condemn such actors from within their own supposed camp, it will be a start. There are people who responded to that earlier debate over Charlottesville who totally lost my respect, and eight years later I doubt they have learned a thing. Let’s see.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7 — SDH
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UVA’s FIRE Ranking Worse Than It Looks
Statement from The Jefferson Council:
The truth is finally catching up with the myth. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) just published its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, reflecting FIRE’s new focus on the actual reality on the 257 college campuses surveyed rather than stated policy. While the Ryan administration often talked the talk on free expression issues, they rarely walked the walk. The past administration often pointed to UVA’s high position in FIRE’s rankings as support for its policies, but now that the real world is being taken into consideration, UVA’s ranking has tumbled from 1st to 21st place.
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The new report even more clearly highlights the disparity at UVA between formal written policy and how the students actually perceive the reality. Thus, the report significantly summarizes UVA’s student experience as follows:
“Student perceptions are poor with UVA failing to rank in the top 100 for any area. UVA ranks in the bottom 50 for both “Comfort Expressing Ideas” and “Administrative Support,” signaling relative unease and skepticism toward leadership despite strong written policies.”
Other very important findings of the new FIRE report show that UVA has decreased in five of the six main criteria analyzed–including receiving an “F” grade in three of the six: “Self-Censorship”, “Administrative Support”, and “Political Tolerance.”
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Do Apportionment Rules Short-Change Virginia?
Graphic source: Restoration News Hayden Ludwig at Restoration News analyzes the impact of rules for apportioning congressional districts in the United States. Assigning seats on the basis of the number of citizens in a district, rather than total population, would yield Virginia an additional congressional seat, he argues. California, Texas and Florida would be big losers under a citizens-only apportionment, but nearly a dozen other states (including Virginia) would be winners. — JAB
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SCC Staff Sees Need for More Gas Because Wind Will “Collapse”
by Steve Haner
SCC reveals Dominion has low confidence in its wind plant on the coldest of days. The staff of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) has concluded that Dominion Energy Virginia cannot meet the energy demands of our data- center based digital economy with renewable energy projects alone, and “does not oppose” adding natural gas.
“It is unlikely, in Staff’s opinion, that renewable energy development alone will suffice to serve the Company’s forthcoming energy and capacity needs caused by data center demand,” wrote Public Utility Division manager Andrew T. Boehnlein in testimony filed back on August 19. Boehnlein in part focuses on the unreliability of offshore wind.
The testimony is part of the utility’s pending application to build a new natural gas plant in Chesterfield County, subject to a full SCC hearing starting September 23. The staff analysis concluded “there is reasonable support for the claim that the Company is currently resource deficient, and that the Company will be significantly more resource deficient if the projected data center load growth materializes in whole or in part.”
That testimony came from Steven E. Smith, a Public Utilities Division analyst, but in both cases it is clear they were signing off on consensus opinions. Smith reported they were “not opposed” to the application but noted that the company’s application had not really proven that the proposed 944-megawatt peaker plant, only slated to run on high demand days, was the best choice to address the coming energy shortage.
In similar testimony in another case, this one dealing with Dominion’s application for a rate increase, the SCC staff chose to highlight the deficiency of utility-scale solar projects when reliable energy is in short supply. As previously reported, it noted all of Dominion’s big solar projects were failing to meet promised output. All of them.
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Viva Abigail!
The revolt to normal
by Gordon C. Morse
It all comes down to leadership, we’re forever told. In that regard, two national newspapers recently took measure of Abigail Spanberger, the clear front-runner in the race to become Virginia’s next governor.
“Welcome to the year of the national security mom,” The New York Times announced.
Spanberger’s biography “helps convey a gut-level grasp of Virginians’ everyday anxieties about schools and crime and providing for their families and experience making tough calls in life-or-death situations involving national security,” wrote commentator Michelle Cottle.
This “hits the sweet spot of making her seem simultaneously exceptional and relatable,” Cottle wrote. “A butt-kicking résumé.”
“Message: Here is a leader both formidable and approachable, tough and caring, driven by her commitment to service.”
Oh, help.
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