Monthly Archives: October 2020

Voters, Consider the Fate of the Bill of Rights

Posted on October 31, 2020 by | 183 comments

by James C. Sherlock

Before voters go to the polls on Tuesday, I think it a useful exercise to consider the future of the Bill of Rights with a Supreme Court “expanded,” as promised by Democrats if they control the Presidency and the Senate, to provide a leftist majority.

To enable that reflection, it is useful to remember that the current Bill of Rights is composed of 10 amendments offered as constraints on the national government and, by extension of most of them, to state governments.

As a general observation, the left wing of the Democratic party opposes any restraints on federal power.

We will examine the controlling Supreme Court decisions that affect the enforcement of these freedoms and would be put in jeopardy by a court that embraced critical theory.

What follows are the musings of a citizen who is not an attorney, albeit a citizen who can and does read and recounts the common understandings of the Court decisions below.

Continue reading →

183 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Elections, Governance, Individual liberties, Money in politics, Politics

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Is Love More Powerful than Hate on UVa’s Lawn?

Posted on October 31, 2020 by | 88 comments

A University of Virginia student shared the photo above and appended the following anonymous note:

I am a student at UVA. I put out these signs this morning (10/31) to show my support for the University, and to counter the hate in the messages posted on the doors behind the signs. All they say is the simple message “I love UVA.”

I put the signs up at 8:00 am. In less than 1 hr 1/2 hours, the fourth year living in lawn Room 10, with friends, ripped all the signs down. You can see my signs in Room 10 in one of the attached photos.

So much for free speech.

Please speak out. The First Amendment applies to everyone.

Question: How will the UVa administration spin this incident? President Jim Ryan says the student who posted “F— UVA” on her door is protected by free speech. Does our correspondent also have a protected right to express the sentiment on a sign that says “I ♥ UVA”? Does the occupant of Room 10, which is located near the room with the “F— UVA” sign, have the right to take down signs she disapproves of? If so, do other students have the right to take down her sign? Continue reading →

88 Comments

Posted in Culture wars

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Getting Stonewall Wrong. Again.

Posted on October 31, 2020 by | 42 comments

A 19th-century engraving of Arab enslavers.

If they’re going to write about the life of Stonewall Jackson and the statues erected to honor him, it would behoove Washington Post reporters to get their facts straight. A few days ago, Kerry Dougherty highlighted a howler of an error in an article by Post reporter Dave Phillips, who wrote that Jackson became an instructor at the Virginia Military Institute after the Civil War. (To those new to Virginia, Jackson died in 1863 after the battle of Chancellorsville.)

Ian Shapira, another Post reporter, is guilty of making a historical error. which he has repeated in more than one article. It crops up in his latest update on the latest turmoil at Virginia Military Institute, where it transpires that two board members resigned without explanation before the Board of Visitors voted to remove the Jackson statue.

In that article, Shapira writes: “Jackson, an enslaver of six people, taught at VMI before helping to lead the Confederate Army.” Continue reading →

42 Comments

Posted in Culture wars

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The War on Asians, the Death of Meritocracy, and Assault on STEM

Posted on October 31, 2020 by | 22 comments

by Asra Q. Nomani

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — This past weekend, about 100 families, students, alumni and community members Thomas Jefferson High School for School and Technology stood on the grassy lawn in front of the school and held a symbolic memorial service for the nation’s No. 1 high school.

“Remember the glory of TJ,” said Yuyan Zhou, a Chinese-American alumni mother, as friends stood around her with trophies and medals that symbolized many of the shining moments from the school’s history. “How many of you know that a high school can launch a rocket into space?” she asked, holding a medal around her neck and saying, “I have the medal…Help us preserve that spirit and keep TJ alive!”

They (and I, as a TJ parent) were also grieving something else: a war on Asian Americans by educrats and activists pushing the controversial ideology of critical race theory that is sowing racial discord and division in K-12 school districts around the country. Today, parents and community members launched a Change.org petition to have Fairfax County Superintendent Scott Brabrand and TJ Principal Ann Bonitatibus lose their jobs, following months of behind-the-scenes activities by the two officials supporting the anti-Asian attack on the school’s students and families. Yesterday evening, the Chinese American Parents Association of Fairfax County sent a three-page letter to the Fairfax County Board of Education, opposing the lack of “respect” that Asian Americans have been facing in the debate over TJ admissions. Continue reading →

22 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12), Race and race relations

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Virginia Beach Schools Ignore One of Nation’s Best Records in Equity to Force Through New “Educational Equity Policy”

Posted on October 30, 2020 by | 15 comments

by James C. Sherlock

You know how people sometimes fail to tell the truth when the truth matters, but you don’t know whether they are lying by omission or are simply ignorant? This is one of those times.

In this case, the Superintendent of Virginia Beach Schools will need to provide the answer.  

This summer he presented to the School Board a new “Educational Equity Policy,” which it approved in September. The policy decries the inequitable achievement outcomes for races in Virginia Beach schools and appoints a Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (of course) to correct them. Fair enough if true, but it is not.

The superintendent failed to mention, and eight of eleven members of the school board failed to notice, that, according to state records, Black and Hispanic students in Virginia Beach Schools tested proficient in some of the five subjects tested statewide as often and in some cases more often than white students in Virginia Beach in both 2017-2018 and 2018 – 2019 school years.

Not only that, but all three racial categories of Virginia Beach students showed remarkable progress in subject matter proficiency across the board between 2017-18 and 2018-19.  See Pass-Proficient-Rates-Virginia-Beach-Schools-2017-18 and 18-2019. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12), Uncategorized

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Bacon Bits: Government, Race, and Poverty

Posted on October 30, 2020 by | 16 comments

Whites need not apply. The initial draft of a Loudoun County Public Schools “student equity ambassador program” barred white students from admission to the program. The selection guidelines said specifically, “This opportunity is open to all Students of Color,” reports The Virginia Star. The guideline was deleted after whistleblowers called public attention to it, but the draft reveals the mindset of the Critical Race Theorists running Loudoun public schools. “Anti-racism” is transmogrifying into anti-white racism before our very eyes.

Your tax dollars not at work. Virginia’s unemployment insurance program ranks worsts in the country for processing claims that require staff review. The backlog has increased to more than 90,000 cases, reports The Virginia Mercury. Additionally, Virginia was the second-to-last state in the country to issue $300 weekly supplements authorized by President Trump. State officials attribute the delays in a decision early in the COVID-19 epidemic to prioritize helping people submit and complete applications that can be automatically validated using state payroll data; 86% of routine applications have received their first payment within three weeks, the fifth best in the nation.

Testing the guaranteed-minimum-wage theory. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney has announced a pilot program to give $500 a month to 18 families over the next two years. Recipients will be randomly selected from families that no longer qualify for public benefits programs. The Robins Foundation, a local nonprofit, is splitting the $480,000 bill for the test with the city. “Poverty is symptom of centuries of injustice, not a result of personal failure. Richmond must lead the way in lifting hard-working families up,” Stoney said. “This is part of something much bigger: a national movement toward economic stability and the fight for a living wage.” The program will test the theory that families will use the extra money to improve their situations or avoid spiraling further into poverty. Let’s hope the city is keeping close track of the results to determine if the program works as designed.

— JAB

16 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), Labor & workforce, Poverty & income gap

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America’s New Ruling Class: Washington Post Edition

Posted on October 30, 2020 by | 104 comments

So long, Stonewall

by James A. Bacon

That didn’t take long. In the wake of Washington Post articles alleging systemic racism at the Virginia Military Institute, the Board of Visitors voted Thursday to remove the statue of Stonewall Jackson from its campus. The action follows the Monday resignation of J.H. Binford Peay III, the institute’s superintendent, who had resisted calls to remove the statue on the grounds that Jackson, one of America’s iconic military geniuses, had been an instructor at the Institute before the Civil War.

After the board’s capitulation, Chairman John “Bill” Boland told the Washington Post, “It’s time to move forward. [The monument] was drawing a lot of fire and distracting from what our true mission is. The most important thing to me is to maintain our mission and our methods.”

The board also voted to create a diversity office and a diversity inclusion committee. Of its 17 board members, three are black, noted reporter Ian Shapira. Also, he observed, “All of the school’s top officials, including the VMI chief of staff, the faculty dean and the inspector general/Title IX coordinator, are White men.”

I got to thinking, how diverse is the Washington Post editorial staff? Does the Post live up to the standards it imposes on others? The newspaper lists its newsroom leadership here. You can click on the names, and in most cases you will find a photograph by which you can discern the individual’s gender and race. But I’ll save you the trouble. Scroll down and see if you detect a pattern. (To read my wrap-up, scroll all the way to the bottom.) Continue reading →

104 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Media

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Big Tax-Hike Push Coming

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 51 comments

by Chris Saxman

Earlier today I was asked by Virginia Business Magazine what the business community could expect in the 2021 General Assembly Regular Session. I talked about the construct of the short session with a gubernatorial election, House of Delegates staving off primary challenges, bills that were not passed last session, and the prospects of the changing political dynamic should Joe Biden win the presidency armed with a majority in the U.S House and Senate.

That interview will be out in January.

Not a half an hour after that call ended, a job was posted on line that will actually define the 2021 Session “and potentially beyond.”

Ohhh….what’s that you ask?

A tax increase campaign driven by The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis Continue reading →

51 Comments

Posted in General Assembly, Taxes

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Northam’s Non-COVID Non-Update

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 130 comments

Note: video starts at 4:50

by DJ Rippert

Northam fiddles. As a resurgence of COVID-19 spreads across Europe and the United States, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam held a press conference ostensibly to discuss the pandemic. The presser provided little new information about the coronavirus or Virginia’s plans to combat the disease. Northam did review statistics from the five health regions around the state but failed to provide any new guidance for Southwest Virginia where cases are spiking and the positivity rate has reached 8%. Northam’s useful advice was to wear masks, maintain social distance and wash your hands regularly. Continue reading →

130 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Disasters and disaster preparedness, Health Care

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Ryan Defends UVa’s Diversity of Viewpoints

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 20 comments

Earlier this week, University of Virginia alumnus Joel Gardner wrote a letter to President Jim Ryan outlining his concerns about the decline of intellectual diversity at the university. Writing in response, Ryan defended the diversity of viewpoints found at UVa. He cites numerous instances which have not gotten play on this blog, and I present them in the interest of… viewpoint diversity. What follows is an excerpt from a longer letter. — JAB

University of Virginia President James E. Ryan

The problem you identify is not unique to UVA, and I also believe there are some very bright spots at UVA. As I mentioned on our Zoom call, UVA is a place that fosters debate and discussion across lines of difference, through our curriculum — including the new College curriculum; student groups that intentionally bring diverse groups together to discuss issues; a wide range of student political groups; faculty who work hard to encourage robust conversations; and faculty who are themselves diverse ideologically. This may be why UVA is ranked in the top ten by national organizations that assess universities based on their protection of free speech and viewpoint diversity.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars

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Indoctrination U

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 28 comments

Photo credit: Washington Post

by James A. Bacon

This January the University of Virginia offers what it calls “signature” courses, which address inter-disciplinary topics that are “timely and of enduring significance.” The University has just released a preliminary list of 11 courses for the 2021 term. Four appear to be devoid of overt political bias. But judging from the course descriptions, the rest have leftist perspectives baked in. Not one of the courses explicitly addresses conservative, libertarian or traditional perspectives on society. This is what passes for intellectual diversity at UVa today.

These excerpts are taken verbatim from the course descriptions:

ARTS 1505 The Art of Resistance
Faculty: Mona Kasra & Lydia Moyer (Drama and Art)

This course will focus on the role of the contemporary visual culture in staging social movements and the ways in which grassroots activists employ visually-oriented practices as a means of political resistance and collective mobilization. … Guest lectures will include activists, artists, and protesters from recent social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Appalachians Against Pipelines, and Extinction Rebellion, many of whom have connections to local Charlottesville and surrounding Virginia communities. Students will be evaluated based on reflective writing assignments on course content and a collaborative project-based final assignment. Continue reading →

28 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed)

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How Title IX Created the Campus Sex Police

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 16 comments

Teresa Manning

by James A. Bacon

When Congress enacted Title IX in 1972, the intent of the federal law was to ban discrimination against women at higher-ed institutions receiving federal funds. The application of the law morphed over the years to require equal funding of women’s athletic programs, ban “hostile” workplace environments, and in 2011 under Obama administration administrative guidance, root out sexual violence.

In a new report published by the National Academy of Scholars, “Dear Colleague: The Weaponization of Title IX,” Teresa Manning documents how at James Madison University, George Mason University and Virginia Tech, among other higher-ed institutions, the law is no longer applied to equal access issues, which are no longer a concern, but is used to advance a feminist agenda.

“By [President Obama’s] stroke of a pen, an educational equal access law was transformed into a campus sex crimes law,” writes Manning, a pro-life GMU law professor who was appointed in 2018 to a post in the Trump administration’s Office of Population Affairs. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Individual liberties

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All Public Order, Like All Politics, Is Local

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 6 comments

Richmond Riots – credit JAMES H. WALLACE/TIMES-DISPATCH

by James C. Sherlock

Progressives everywhere consider their precious theories more important than actual outcomes. The fact that people get hurt along the way is part of the price they willingly pay for political power.

To paraphrase James Lindsay:

In fact, you only need to know two key ideas: critical theory is radically skeptical that objective truth exists and can even approximately be known, and it forwards the competing view that knowledge is just an assertion of politics by other means. 

That is, the key of critical theory as a social philosophy is that whether a claim is true or not doesn’t matter and misses the point. All that matters is how that claim can be used politically to gain power.

So let’s look at critical race theory in action in public security. Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Crime , corrections and law enforcement, Culture wars, Education (K-12)

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Radical Idea: Elections Should End on Election Day

Posted on October 29, 2020 by | 77 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Here are four words Democrats don’t want to hear: “Elections must end sometime.”

They were written by Justice Neil Gorsuch in a recent ruling that required Wisconsin to stop accepting ballots after 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Pity that rule doesn’t apply everywhere in the United States.

I know, I know. States get to make their own election rules. But a little consistency might be nice. In federal elections, anyway.

That way we’d have some hope of knowing who will be the next president during the first week in November rather than getting the news on Thanksgiving. Or worse, Christmas.

The post-election season is going to be crazy this year. Lawyers, start your engines.

Continue reading →

77 Comments

Posted in Electoral process

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Connolly: Expel VMI Students Guilty of Racist Conduct, Track Thought Crimes

Posted on October 28, 2020 by | 74 comments

Rep Gerald Connolly: Expel VMI students guilty of racist conduct. Question: Who decides what’s “racist” — the Washington Post? Photo credit: Stream.org.

by James A. Bacon

Representative Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and other congressional Democrats have written Governor Ralph Northam, calling for the expulsion of students at the Virginia Military Institute who have been found guilty of “racist or discriminatory conduct.”

Citing a Washington Post article that alleged the existence of “relentless racism” at the military institute, the letter from the House Armed Service Committee decried “lynching threats, professors openly reminiscing about the Ku Klux Klan, a campus culture that venerates the Confederacy and little to no disciplinary action by VMI.”

“We are dismayed that racism is tolerated and has been allowed to persist throughout VMI,” says the letter. The congressmen made three requests:

  1. Remove any statues or symbols that memorialize leaders of the Confederacy.
  2. Conduct regular climate surveys of cadets and recent alumni “to gauge the prevalence of racist beliefs, experiences of discrimination, and harassment within the institution.”
  3. Immediately expel “any offending cadet or faculty member who breaches the honor code through racist or discriminatory conduct.”

Continue reading →

74 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Media, Race and race relations

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