Bacon's Rebellion

  • New Estimate of State Tax Cut with Conformity: $2.3 Billion in 3 years

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Virginia’s Department of Taxation has now released its estimates on the revenue changes that would result if the state’s tax laws were amended next year to conform to the new federal tax rules signed by President Donald Trump. 

    To taxpayers, the question is will they get a big tax cut at the state level. To the politicians in Richmond and the headline writers at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the question is how much money the state will “lose.” The money won’t be lost; it can be found in people’s pockets.   

    The amounts in question are similar to but more reliable than those estimated earlier this summer by The Tax Foundation and reported here. The staff at the Department of Taxation also examined more of the provisions of the complicated OBBBA, including some which could be viewed as pending tax increases on state residents. The net impact according to the state’s projections is $2.3 billion over three years (lost revenue to some, tax savings to others). 

    Deputy Commissioner Kristin Collins had the Tax Department’s usual easy-to-follow slide deck for the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee Tuesday. 

    Anticipating that major federal changes were coming following Trump’s inauguration, the General Assembly disconnected the state’s normal process for conforming to federal tax changes. Virginia’s state income tax starts its calculation with federal adjusted gross income, and the OBBBA changed that multiple ways.

    (more…)

  • Is Online Civility Possible?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    A colorful and cartoonish illustration of a grinning troll-like character with green hair, wearing glasses and a white shirt, sitting at a cluttered desk filled with various humorous characters and a computer displaying online comments.
    Internet troll. Image credit: Bing Image Creator

    There are days when I simply can’t read many of the comments on my own website.

    Yesterday, for instance.

    When I glanced at the post late in the day I saw 166 comments. That should be a good thing. Imagine, 166 thoughtful folks weighing in to affirm, augment or argue with my position on fascism.

    Indeed, there were some excellent, intelligent observations. Some clever comments.

    By afternoon, however, the comments had degenerated into a predictable back and forth between the same  handful of folks who sit at their computers to bicker and attack each other all day.

    Some people need jobs.

    Backbiting and endlessly trading insults may be entertaining for the participants, but it’s tedious for the rest of us.

    Jim Bacon told me recently that he was thinking about terminating comments on baconsrebellion.com. In fact, this week he wrote a post similar to this one, asking for thoughts about the move before shutting down the comment feature.

    When I worked at The Virginian-Pilot we encountered a similar problem. The anonymity that comes with online comments – which allows readers to voice opinions without fearing repercussions – also allows petty keyboard warriors to say nasty things they’d never utter if their names were attached.

    Eventually The Pilot just shut it down.

    I really don’t want to do that. Continue reading.

  • Are Urban Heat Islands Behind “Global Boiling”?

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Two prominent American climate researchers who focus on data rather than models have examined 40 years of summer temperatures at Reagan National Airport. They found the hottest summer days are barely warmer than in the 1980s, an imperceptible change, but the coolest overnight temperatures have gotten dramatically warmer. 

    The change in the hottest daily highs amounted to half of one degree Fahrenheit but the coolest of the overnight lows were 5 degrees warmer.  This is not the first time it has been demonstrated that mainly what has happened over recent decades is the nights are less cool, especially in urbanized areas. But this was a key Virginia weather station in Virginia’s most populous region reinforcing the point.

     John Christy and Roy Spencer have long been interested in and published about the impact of human urban development on the “climate change” or “global warming” so widely reported. They are also two of the five authors of a recent Department of Energy report on the claims that greenhouse gas emissions are the culprit, a report that disputes the alarmist conclusions. The “scientists” who accept the “consensus” are in court trying to suppress the report, so I wanted to give you a chance to download and read it.

    Christy was cited in a previous Bacon’s Rebellion post of mine making similar points about how what is seen as overall global warming was really about the nighttime temperatures. If greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide or methane are the main cause of the rise, it ought to be uniform with no big disparity between daytime and nighttime changes, Christy says.

    (more…)

  • Sign of the Times

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From the Winchester Star:

    The Winchester Star has made the difficult decision to end online commenting on stories posted to our website, beginning today.

    Unfortunately, most of the comments had become back-and-forth personal attacks between screen names, which we enabled by providing an anonymous forum, but we’re no longer comfortable continuing it.

    We know the comments had a following from those who saw them as lively and entertaining. We enjoyed many of them, too, but the level of rancor among a small group of regular commenters dissuaded others from entering the discourse, defeating the intent of commenting and turning our comments section in a fight club for a select few.

    I’ve considered taking the same step at Bacon’s Rebellion, and for precisely the same reason. I’d like to hear from readers first, though. Occasionally, we hear from people who have remarkable stories to tell and insights to add based on their personal experience, and I’d hate to lose that. But I wonder how many BR readers actually view the comments. And I’d like to know if many are dissuaded from participating by the rancor they see there.

    Leave a comment or contact me directly at [email protected]. — JAB

  • From Hong Kong to Hampton Roads — Financial Sense with Neena Moorjani

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Neena Moorjani smiling, wearing a green dress and earrings, promoting financial literacy and education.
    Neena Moorjani

    Jim Bacon launches the Oinkonomics podcast with Neena Moorjani, an advocate for financial literacy who volunteers on tax preparation and teaches practical money skills to low‑income and military families in Virginia Beach. You don’t have to be wealthy to build wealth in America, Neena says.

    The episode covers Neena’s immigrant background, the importance of starting savings and investing early, tax tips for lower‑income households, credit and debt pitfalls, negotiating medical bills, and simple steps parents can take to teach children good financial habits.

    Listen and subscribe on Podbean.

    Transcript (lightly edited)

    A cartoon pig wearing glasses and a suit stands at a podium, gesturing towards a chalkboard filled with mathematical formulas and graphs.

    James Bacon: Hello, everybody. I’m Jim Bacon, and this is the Oinkonomics Podcast.

    By the latest count, there are 4.6 million podcasts worldwide. Why does the world need another podcast?

    Well, here in Virginia, there are only 60 podcasts worth listening to, according to FeedSpot, which fancies itself an authority on the subject. Only a handful of those are devoted to politics and public policy, and only one of those, from what I can tell, routinely explores conservative points of view. Virginia needs more than one conservative voice in the pod-osphere.

    (more…)

  • Introducing the Oinkonomics Podcast

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A pig wearing glasses and a suit stands at a desk in front of a chalkboard with mathematical equations and a graph.

    It’s never too late to teach an old pig new tricks. In 2002, I launched Bacon’s Rebellion as a digital newsletter. In 2005, I switched to blogging. Now, as the world has moved decisively to podcasts, I’ll give podcasting a try. I’ll be interviewing people involved in the arts, sciences, culture, business, and politics on matters of interest to Virginians. I like the idea of engaging in conversations that allow the participants to explore an issue in depth. Old guys like me may not be technologically savvy — it will take me ten times longer to master the technology of producing a podcast than most young people would — but perhaps my decades of lived experience will yield a few insights worth sharing.

    Although the podcast will lean libertarian/conservative, I plan to hold conversations with thoughtful people across the partisan/ideological spectrum to explore what ails our society and what Virginians can do to build more prosperous, livable and sustainable communities. While seeking to understand our differences in our increasingly fractious society, I’ll also be looking for common ground.

    Why name the podcast Oinkonomics? In part, it’s an homage to my name, Bacon. But it is also suggestive of my partiality for using economic frames of reference — resource scarcity, alternate opportunity cost, return on investment — for analyzing public policy issues. At the same time, I acknowledge that people are not always economically rational. Human nature is a stubborn thing. In combination, economics and human nature are pretty useful prisms through which to view the world. I hope listeners will agree. — JAB

  • Being Normal Doesn’t Make You a Fascist

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    An illustration of four figures in military-style uniforms marching together against a backdrop of sunburst rays.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    This is going to be short. It’s early Sunday morning and I’m writing from a small town in Mississippi where I stay when I am lucky enough to get to Ole Miss football games. 

    These are my thoughts on a sunny September morning before I head to church and then home:

    People who hold normal opinions – or those that were normal until America went woke about 15 years ago – are not fascists.

    Holding traditional values is not fascist.

    Believing that countries should have borders and control who crosses them is not fascist.

    Wanting to keep more of what you earn is not fascist.

    Patriotism is not fascist.

    Love of God is not fascist.

    A belief in American exceptionalism is not fascist.

    Wanting to protect unborn children is not fascist.

    Wanting to punish criminals is not fascist.

    Supporting cash bail is not fascist.

    Cheering traditional families is not fascist. Continue reading.

  • Youngkin: “Nobody who would cheer murder should be allowed within 100 yards of a student.”

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Scott Dreyer

    Governor Glenn Youngkin

    Many across Western Virginia and our nation have had nerves raw and on edge, first since the chilling video of a man knifing to death Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska, 23, on a light rail train in Charlotte, NC, and then the outrageous news that the killer had been arrested and released 14 times previously. Then, on the eve of the 24th anniversary of 9/11, an assassin who turned out to be a 22-year-old student killed conservative icon and free-speech advocate Charlie Kirk.

    Perhaps most gruesome of all has been a chorus of voices that have publicly seemed to justify, condone, or even celebrate Kirk’s murder, an act that left his wife a widow and two young children fatherless. As some have pointed out, a survey of those postings shows an inordinate number seem to come from people who work in education, medicine, or counseling, fields that should imply caring and nurture, and that have large access to impressionable children. Moreover, a disproportionate number of the posts are coming from women.

    The reasons and implications of this are still unclear.

    The Old Dominion has not been spared the vile, heinous posts celebrating or even glorifying violence.

    Chesterfield County is a wealthy, suburban area on the south and west sides of Richmond, and School Board Chairperson Dot Heffron allegedly made comments on a personal Instagram account after Kirk’s assassination, “Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when we used to be okay with shooting Nazis.”

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous cartoon featuring a man on a stretcher in an ambulance asking if he is being taken to the hospital, and a paramedic responding that they are taking him to the comments section instead.

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • The Times-Dispatch’s Slow Suicide Must Be Near Its End

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    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. 

    (more…)

  • Impersonal Medicine, But There Are Bright Spots

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    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. 

    (more…)

  • A Turning Point for American Discourse

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    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.

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous image showing a cow and a pig cuddling with the text 'BEST FRIENDS' above and a delicious cheeseburger with bacon underneath, labeled 'FOREVER'.

  • The Most Important Issue Not on the Ballot in November

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by J. Kennerly Davis

    A historical painting depicting a gathering of Founding Fathers in a room, with one figure gesturing passionately while others listen intently around a table.
    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.

    (more…)

  • Letter from UVA College Republicans

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Letter addressing the assassination of Charlie Kirk, expressing sorrow and concerns about freedom of speech and recent violence on campus. Signed by the Executive Board of College Republicans at the University of Virginia.
    (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.

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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