The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have graded Virginia universities D grade overall in its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings. That was actually better than the national average of F.
The University of Virginia was tops in the state with a 21st-place ranking out of 250 institutions, largely on the basis of its formally adopted policies — good enough to garner a grade of C-. However, that represents a significant decline from its No. 1 ranking last year. Virginia Tech and James Madison University garnered Fs for grades.
Virginia ranks 22nd in education freedom among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in the Heritage Foundation’s Education Freedom Report Card. The Old Dominion scores high in transparency (No. #2) and civic education (No. #3), but not so well for teacher freedom (No. #25), education choice (No. #33) or return on investment (No. #33).
Citing a divine source for American rights was “deeply troubling,” he said, the kind of kooky thinking associated with theocratic regimes, such as Iran.
Instead, these freedoms come from “our governments.”
Senator Kaine’s opinions are not unusual in today’s secular age. Claiming that rights come from God is archaic and anti-progressive.
But that’s exactly what the Founding Fathers believed. Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence states it best:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln also cited divine right in explaining the American Civil War:
Move over, Lizzie Borden. Former House Speaker Filler-Corn charges Delegate Sam Rasoul with “(f)ueling one of the oldest forms of hatred in the world, repackaged in the language of activism.”
She is referencing antisemitism. This is one of the harshest criticisms anybody of the Jewish faith can direct at anybody. Particularly someone with Rasoul’s bio. She is in effect calling him a Jew hater. By doing so, she likewise implicates the Roanoke Democratic Committee and others for their support of him.
Ms. Filler-Corn is entitled to her opinion. But she has neither the stature nor the record to make herself out as some moral authority on such matters. Being Jewish doesn’t automatically make you an authority on antisemitism, the Middle East, or a true advocate of equality for all. Credibility comes from the heart of your record, not your circumstance of birth.
In 2023, I was subjected to antisemitic attacks making headlines as far away as California. The fact I led the opposition to their casino infuriated Richmond Mayor Stoney, labor unions, RVA’s Black leadership, and Democratic Party officials. The only successful opposition in the Commonwealth. A lot of people were going to make a lot of money from that project. I was called the usual anti-Jewish names, the Judas Jew, whatever, over the public airwaves by a person working for the pro-casino forces. My anti-casino campaign won citywide 62% to 38%.
If anyone can find an image of the West Point Lee portrait, please post it in the comments. — JAB
America is coming to its senses.
After a tumultuous period of temporary insanity following George Floyd’s death in 2020, when hundreds of statues and memorials were removed—often by violent mobs—passion is giving way to reason. Things are (thankfully) getting back to normal.
The latest sign of America’s restoration is the return of the 20’ portrait of Robert E. Lee to the library at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The painting of Lee in his Confederate uniform had been removed as part of the Orwellian “Naming Commission” that purged the military of any memorials to former Confederates.
Announcing the return of Lee’s portrait, an Army spokesperson said, “At West Point, the United States Military Academy is prepared to restore historical names, artifacts, and assets to their original form and place. Under this administration, we honor our history and learn from it — we don’t erase it.”
The damage done by cancel culture in the post-George Floyd frenzy was unprecedented. Reminiscent of the French Jacobins, Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolutionaries, or the Afghani Taliban, woke radicals gave no quarter to Southerners who chose to defend their homeland in the Civil War. Historical figures like Lee were universally and unfairly demonized, then systematically eliminated.
In his September 2 contribution to Bacon’s Rebellion, John Butcher offers a tight analysis of the performance of students on the 2025 Standards of Learning tests. It was good to see the byline of my former Northside neighbor, who decades ago could always be counted on to purchase far more Boy Scout popcorn and peanuts than he could possibly consume.
John rightfully ignores Governor Glenn Youngkin’s fabulous statements that the statistical noise captured in the 2025 pass rates on the 2025 Reading and Math SOLs somehow represents improved performance despite more difficult assessments.
If public education were organized along the lines of Holy Mother Church, a swarm of bishops would be in Richmond investigating this apparent miracle.
Historically, pass rates always fell with the introduction of more rigorous tests. I used to tell reporters — I left VDOE in 2023 after 20+ years as communications director. I now amuse myself by delivering news and snark on WRVA — that if you raise standards and there is no impact on pass rates then you haven’t raised standards. Over time, pass rates recovered and increased as more and more students met and exceeded the higher benchmarks.
“Honey, I shrunk the property tax bill.” Image credit: Bing Image Creator
If you own property in the City of Richmond, you likely received your new assessment in the mail this week, and in almost every neighborhood, property values have once again gone up, with some areas seeing double digit increases. Many areas saw increases above the citywide average increase citywide of 5.74%.
That means the city’s budget will grow this year once again as it has over the last decade+, with property owners as the Sherpas carrying most of the weight. The city’s total general fund budget in FY2018 when Mayor Stoney took office was $542 million, with $238 million of that revenue (about 44%) coming from real estate tax payments. This year, the Fiscal Year 2026 general fund budget (which took effect July 1) was $1.056 billion with $607 million coming from real estate taxes (about 57% of the general fund budget).
In that time, few at City Hall have seen fit to try and help relieve the burden of property owners as the city becomes more and more costly and expensive on so many levels. Renters are paying more, too, because of the higher assessments (among other reasons). Councilwoman Trammell’s repeated efforts to lower the rate by even a couple of cents has earned a few votes but not enough to successfully reduce the rate or burden. It is driving people out of the city to the counties (or elsewhere) where tax rates are being reduced without a corresponding reduction in services (or an amplification of excuses).
In 2017, the median home price in the city was about $247,000 and the median annual tax bill was $2,964 ($247 per month). In 2024, the median price was about $370,000 according to Virginia REALTORS with a tax bill of about $4,440 (about $370 per month) while the real estate brokerage firm Redfin showed a 2024 median price around $423,000, with a tax bill of about $5,076 (about $423 per month). Any way you slice it, the city is spending more than ever before and taxes are correspondingly rising.
(Written in response to Kerry Dougherty’s column “Tim Kaine Needs a Copy of the Declaration of Independence.” — JAB)
by Paul Goldman
Kerry, you can’t trust AI. Let this be a good lesson. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence — later edited by Franklin and Adams to keep the Southern states all-in on the Revolution — what did he mean by “inalienable rights?”
No need to bore anyone with too many details. Especially when Kerry’s asking Senator Tim Kaine to resign for failing to read a founding document.
Since President Trump regularly claims the Constitution says what it doesn’t say, I guess Kerry’s asked him to resign too. I consider myself a good Kaine supporter. But if Kerry’s willing to throw Trump under the bus along with Kaine, I’m sorry, Timmy, but I gotta take that deal. Like the president says, all things are transactional. Even inalienable rights.
Kerry is right on one thing: Our public school system will now actually have to go back to teaching these historic documents once again. But what does Kerry think they’re gonna teach exactly?
Jefferson and his boys were really playing a word game back in the 18th century. We need to ask ourselves: When they wrote those stirring words in the Declaration of Independence, they also knew only a handful of Americans actually had actual access to those rights. So yes, technically, all the slaves, all the white women, all the indentured servants, all the White guys with little property, had those rights in theory. But they never had those rights in reality for centuries. Most importantly, however, they would have no chance of getting them at least here in America unless the Revolution succeeded and actually gave us a democracy.
Spanberger loves RGGI. Electricity will cost more.
Based on the most recent carbon tax imposed on the member states of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Virginians will pay about $500 million more per year for electricity if Virginia again becomes one of those member states. Your vote in November may determine that.
Democratic nominee for governor Abigail Spanberger has pledged to rejoin the RGGI compact and reinstate the carbon tax. Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears has promised to maintain the policy of Governor Glenn Youngkin and stay outside of RGGI. There is also a pending lawsuit that challenges Youngkin’s actions in withdrawing.
There is a clear demarcation between the political parties on rejoining RGGI and adding this cost to Virginia’s electricity customers. Getting us out of RGGI was Youngkin’s most successful initiative to lower electricity bills. Every Virginia generator – both utilities and independent generators – had to buy an allowance (pay a tax) for every ton of carbon dioxide its plant emits from using coal, oil or natural gas.
RGGI held its third 2025 auction for carbon emission allowances September 3 and the results were released today. The clearing price to purchase an allowance was set at $22.25 per emitted ton. The peak was a year ago at $25.75 per ton. The first two 2025 auctions cleared at just under $20 per ton.
by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora Republished with permission from IWFeatures
Fairfax County Public Schools is issuing new guidance to public school registrars, telling them to purge copies and digital uploads of students’ personal documents from school records.
Schools have long required these legal documents to prove a student’s identity, residence, and relationship to his or her parents and caregivers. Yet, on July 1, Dave Anderson, Fairfax County Public Schools’ senior district manager for student registration, who earns an annual salary of about $150,000, sent an email to school-based registrars that states, “Based on recent Division Counsel guidance … FCPS will no longer retain copies of identification documents, including the student birth certificate, in the student’s cumulative file. … For clarification purposes, identification documents refer to copies of a parent’s photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, etc.”
The email did not provide registrars with a reason for this policy change, and there has been no official communication with parents about the change. This leaves moms like me, who have three children currently enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools, wondering why the leaders of the largest public school district in Virginia are suddenly determined to destroy student documents proving students’ identification, residency, citizenship, and relationships to parents.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. From the Declaration of Independence.
Ladies and gentlemen, l present Tim Kaine, U.S. Senator from Virginia. At the Senate confirmation hearing for Riley Barnes to be Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, he belched out the following.
This was in reaction to Barnes’ statement, “We are a nation founded on a powerful principle, and that powerful principle is that all men are created equal, because our rights come from God our Creator — not from our laws, not from our governments.”
Kaine found Barnes’ view of civil rights, “troubling.”
The most famous line in the Declaration of Independence reads as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Virginia’s junior U.S. senator Tim Kaine takes exception to that view.
“The notion that rights don’t come from laws and don’t come from the government, but come from the Creator — that’s what the Iranian government believes. It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Bahá’ís, Jews, Christians and other religious… pic.twitter.com/XcrPHbVplp
In a humanistic age in which an increasing number of Americans don’t believe in God, does Kaine have a point? If human rights don’t come from God (or other deity), where do they come from? Conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz have attacked Kaine for the statement, the context of which is missing in this clip (and which readers are encouraged to provide). Whatever prompted Kaine to present this argument, it is consistent with humanistic principles and undoubtedly represents the views of many. Feel free to debate in the comments. (To reach the comments, click on the headline then scroll to the bottom of the page. — JAB
Enemy submarines and drones could exploit points of vulnerability, experts warn
Dominion ship installs wind turbines off Virginia coast. Photo credit: Energynews.us
by Kevin Mooney
Offshore wind projects could potentially enable foreign adversaries to hide submarines in U.S. territorial waters and penetrate U.S. air defenses, according to national security and energy policy analysts.
For this reason alone, they would like to see President Donald Trump’s administration pull the plug on projects up and down the East Coast located near to where military exercises take place. The U.S. Air Force and Navy have in the past expressed concern over how wind farms might impact radar and sonar operations to the point where they compromise defensive and offensive capabilities.
The Trump administration seems to be listening.
Officials have already reversed at least some of the prior approvals President Joe Biden’s administration extended to offshore wind plans. Trump’s January executive order called for a temporary cessation and immediate review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices. The decision dealt a blow to several projects that were either already in motion or in the planning stages.
“The U.S. Navy has good reason to be concerned with offshore wind because there could be interference with Navy sonars. Imagine a scenario where China and Russia could park their submarines in the seabed right outside the Chesapeake Bay because our sonars cannot operate as they should.”
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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