Monthly Archives: May 2023

One of My Pet Peeves

Posted on May 21, 2023 by | 69 comments

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

State law exempts from registration fees trucks, trailers, and other motor vehicles, used solely for farm purposes either on highways near a farmer’s land or for hauling farm products to market (see here and here).    This is one of the most abused Code provisions.

The picture above was taken in my neighborhood.  Take my word for it:  there are no farms anywhere close.

This picture was taken on one of the main streets in Richmond or Henrico (I forget which).  Unless the driver of that truck was taking a sofa that he had grown on his farm to market to sell it, he was violating the law.  Violation of the statutes is a traffic infraction and punishable by a fine up to $250.

Until 2022, law enforcement officers were authorized to require drivers of vehicles claiming this exemption to provide the address of the lands owned or leased by the vehicle’s owner and used for agricultural purposes and the address of the vehicle’s owner.  I doubt that happened often.

Beginning July 1 of this year, persons wishing to operate farm vehicles without regular license tags must attach an official placard provided by DMV to the vehicle.  To obtain the placard, the owner of the vehicle must file an application with DMV identifying the farm and the commodities that will be transported on the exempt vehicle along with a statement that the vehicle will be used only for the exempt purposes set out in law.

If this requirement is enforced, there should be fewer “farm use” vehicles seen in urban areas.

69 Comments

Posted in Agriculture & forestry, Transportation

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An Utterly Inspiring Woman

Posted on May 21, 2023 by | 3 comments

By James C. Sherlock

Lance and Cheri Shores courtesy Virginian Pilot

Cheri Shores died Saturday, May 13.

She was simply one of the most gracious, generous, skilled and inspiring people I have ever met.

Cheri and her husband Lance in 2006 opened their first Citrus restaurant in Virginia Beach a couple of blocks from where my late wife and I lived.

Jo Ann was limited in her mobility, but it was close enough for us to go together.  We came to know Cheri, who was always there, like a neighbor.

Our first visit to that restaurant the week it opened was a revelation – a breakfast and lunch place that served gourmet quality meals at a blue-collar price.

The signature home made chicken salad at the center of a plate of fresh citrus was an inspiration.

A welcoming presence, and an absolute delight, was Cheri Shores.

She was the designer of the restaurant, the source of many of the very special menu items, a co-owner, the manager, the accountant, and a teacher and confidant to her staff

She was the soul of that place.

She and her husband came up with the idea of a breakfast and lunch restaurant, she once told me, so they and their employees could spend time with their kids.

Those employees were devoted to her.  And she and Lance to them.

Before her very untimely death from pancreatic cancer, after supporting them all through COVID, she and Lance retired and gave their two, constantly-packed restaurants to their employees.

That is not a surprise if you knew them.

The Virginian-Pilot has written a touching and fitting tribute.

Read it and be moved.

3 Comments

Posted in Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Ethics, Excellence and grace

The Abortion Hypocrisy

Posted on May 20, 2023 by | 115 comments

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Republicans are hypocrites when it comes to abortion.

They base their opposition to abortion on the belief that a fetus is  a human being and killing an innocent human being is wrong. Hence, the term “pro-life.”  (This is a position on which I happen to agree with them.)

But are they pushing for an absolute ban on abortion, perhaps with exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother?  Nope.  It seems they are settling on banning abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.  They are justifying this by calling it “mainstream” and “not extreme”.

Excuse me, but why is a 13-week-old fetus worthy of protection that is not accorded a 12-week-old fetus?  Is one “more of a human” than the other?

Then there is our Governor, Glenn Youngkin.  He is pushing for banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. As I have pointed out before, that limit is not going to prevent many abortions in Virginia.  According to the CDC, only 2.2 percent of abortions in Virginia in 2020 were performed after the 15th week.  If Youngkin were truly interested in protecting unborn babies, rather than playing politics, he would push for a near total ban on abortion.

Sorry, Republicans, you can’t have it both ways.  A fetus is either a human at conception or it is not.  If it is, then what is the basis for deeming fetuses more than 13 weeks old qualitatively different from those 12 weeks or less old?  If it is not a human at conception, they why ban abortions at all?

If you believe that abortion is wrong because there is a human life involved, then push for a total ban, with some limited exceptions.  Otherwise, you are just being political hypocrites.

I don’t agree with Democrats on this issue, but at least they are being honest about their position.

115 Comments

Posted in Abortion, Feminism, Women's Rights, Culture wars

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Which of These Persons at UVa Oversees the Educational Development of the Rest?

Posted on May 20, 2023 by | 11 comments

by James C. Sherlock

In order to illustrate the truly insulting nature of the DEI program at the University of Virginia, I offer the following quiz.

See if you can pick out the person pictured who:

directs a range of educational programming focused on educational development for staff, faculty and students.

Nana Last, Professor of Architecture

Ira C. Harris, Professor, McIntyre School of Commerce

Sankaran Venkataraman, Professor, Darden School of Business

Sandhya Dwarkadas, Professor and Chair Department of Computer Science

Tisha Hayes, Professor of Education

Trinh Thuan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy

Kelsey Johnson Professor of Astronomy

Haibo Dong Professor Aerospace Engineering

Sly Mata, Director of Diversity Education, Division for DEI

Nicole Thorne Jenkins, Dean, McIntyre School of Commerce

Devin K. Harris, Professor of Engineering

Mool C. Gupta, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Tomonari Furukawa, Professor of Engineering

Allan Tsung M.D., Professor and Chair Department of Surgery, Medical School

Sallie Keller, Professor of Data Science

Harsha Chelliah, Professor School of Engineering

 

 

 

 

 


Bottom line.  Good guess.

There is every evidence that Mr. Mata is a fine man. His biography is inspiring.

But the people pictured above who are not Mr. Mata excelled and earned their plaudits and appointments before there was a UVa Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).  Even before James Ryan was President. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, DEI, Education (higher ed), Marxism, Race and Race Relations

Christie Using FERC Pulpit for Dire Prophecy

Posted on May 19, 2023 by | 54 comments

FERC Commissioner Mark Christie

by Steve Haner

Virginian Mark Christie is using his position on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a national pulpit to preach a message of energy reliability doom, and he is being heard.

It helps that he is not alone in spreading the alarm. It also helps that he is basing his warning on actual instances of energy shortages, from Texas’s deadly experience two years ago to the problems in the eastern United States just before Christmas 2022, which merely came close to catastrophe. Continue reading →

54 Comments

Posted in Energy, Environment, Regulations and Government Oversight, Utilities

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Read It and Weep – DEI at UVa

Posted on May 18, 2023 by | 124 comments

Navy helicopter overflies UVa Disharoon Park as team stands at attention for national anthem. Photos By Sanjay Suchak, sanjay@virginia.edu

by James C. Sherlock

Kerry Daugherty’s column this morning was heart-wrenching for anyone who cares at all about kids’ educations.  The Norfolk School Board voted 6-1…

to begin teaching gender ideology, masturbation, sexual identity, homosexuality, abortion and lesbianism in middle and high schools.

To kids who cannot read or perform mathematics at grade level.

Now we get a look at what awaits any kid who escapes Norfolk public schools with sufficient skills and diversity credits to get accepted into the University of Virginia (UVa).

They will be welcomed by a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy so large, powerful and widely distributed that a DEI factotum will:

  • review and grade their application in the recruitment process;
  • exercise authority over the curriculum and faculty;
  • monitor their progress; and
  • interview each candidate for graduate school and meet with each annually to assess political views.

If I just told you how this works as above, you would think I was making it up.

So I will quote from UVa’s website. Continue reading →

124 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Government workers and pensions, Marxism, Taxes

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Hey Norfolk: Do Kids Really Need Classes In Masturbation?

Posted on May 18, 2023 by | 38 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

You might think that a mediocre school system where barely half of all schools are fully accredited would put all of its energy and money into academics.

Oh, Bambi, you have no idea how public schools work, do you?

Norfolk School Board – which oversees a division where just 57.1% of the schools are fully accredited – voted 6-1 last night to begin teaching gender ideology, masturbation, sexual identity, homosexuality, abortion and lesbianism in middle and high schools.

Oh, and there will be a fun condom demonstration for all of the kiddies, too!

Sigh.

The curriculum is called “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works” and will be directed at kids in grades 6 through 10. It’s published by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts so you know it won’t contain a whiff of Judeo-Christian values.

According to WTKR, most of the speakers at last night’s meeting were opposed to the expanded sex ed program:

The vast majority of speakers were critical of the curriculum for Norfolk middle and high school students, and believe the focus should be on other areas in schools.

“Get on the academics! Get off the sex,” one resident said before school board members.

Like so many who have pushed back against having an LGBTQ+ agenda foisted on their children by the government, concerned Norfolk parents were ignored by the wokes on the board. Continue reading →

38 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12)

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Saving a Piece of Virginia History

Posted on May 17, 2023 by | 5 comments

by Robin Beres

Chincoteague Island would probably be just another quiet little town on a quiet little barrier island overlooked by beachgoers and tourists if weren’t for a 1946 visit from children’s author Marguerite Henry. The writer arrived intending to pen a book about the wild ponies on nearby Assateague Island and the annual Chincoteague pony penning and auction.

During her stay, Henry met a rancher by the name of Clarence Beebe who invited her to visit his ranch. There she met his grandchildren, Maureen and Paul Beebe. She also met a young filly named Misty who stole her heart. The pony was the daughter of Phantom, one of Assateague’s wild ponies that the Beebe children had worked hard to purchase during a previous auction.

When Henry learned the story of Phantom and Misty, she wrote the book, Misty of Chincoteague. It instantly became a best seller and was recognized by the American Library Association as Newbery Honor Book. In 1961, the book was made into a movie, Misty.
Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Virginia history

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There Were Giants in the Earth

Posted on May 17, 2023 by | 51 comments

If one gets off the interstates and four-lane highways, there are interesting things to see along the roads of Virginia.  This fellow watches over traffic on Rt. 45 between Farmville and Cumberland Courthouse.

51 Comments

Posted in Humor, Uncategorized

Clear Violations of Title IX in Employment at UVa

Posted on May 17, 2023 by | 33 comments

Courtesy UVa Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights

by James C. Sherlock

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

It covers employees as well as students.

There is clear work to do at UVa for its Title IX staff.

We’ll sample the problems.

Arts and Sciences. A look at the leadership team of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences must especially be troubling to the Title IX staff, if indeed they examine it.

Dean Christa Acampora, her senior special assistant, her chief of staff, and Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Planning are all women.

All six of the Associate Deans are females:

  • Associate Dean for Social Sciences (Professor)
  • Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities (Professor)
  • Associate Dean for the Sciences and Research (Professor)
  • Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs (Professor)
  • Associate Dean for Graduate Education (Associate Professor)

Correct. In Arts and Sciences, a female Associate Professor is Dean for Graduate Education, not a professor.

Since A&S does its own hiring and promotions, it should be pretty easy for the Title IX office to find the people to interview about discrimination on the basis of sex in that department.

School of Education and Human Development. The Dean and four of the six members of her leadership team at the ed school are women.

One of the two males among those seven people in leadership positions in that school is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Which is almost amusing if you think about it.

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Compared to those two schools, the engineering school leadership is relatively balanced. It includes:

  • a female Dean;
  • a female Senior Executive Assistant;
  • women hold four of the eight department chairs;
  • women are two of the seven Associate Deans;
  • a female Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs;
  • a female Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs;
  • a female Director of Operations, Engineering Systems and Environment;
  • a female Director, Center for Applied Mathematics.

Bottom line. I believe in enforcement of all laws.

And I am not even a male professor trying to get promoted in UVa’s School of A&S or of Education.

Nor am I Rachel Spraker, Senior Director for Equity and Inclusive Excellence, who leads UVa’s employment equity team.

It will be interesting to see what role the Provost, the immediate past Dean of A&S, plays in this.

Title IX is there to be enforced. Perhaps the Title IX office at the federal Department of Education will be interested in enforcing it.

I’ll check.

33 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Education (higher ed)

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Leapfrog Group Safety Scores for Virginia Hospitals

Posted on May 16, 2023 by | Leave a comment

by James C. Sherlock

The latest Leapfrog Group safety grades are out for 72 of Virginia’s hospitals.

The Leapfrog Hospital surveys are the next-best source to the ratings based on broader data offered by  Medicare Compare. Leapfrog Group data accuracy measures are explained here.

The grades represent cumulative scores of hospital safety, quality, and efficiency measures assessed by an organization founded to improve patient safety.

We’ll examine the just-posted scores for Virginia hospitals. Continue reading →

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Posted in Health Care

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Major Actions to Reduce Corporate Overhead Offer Lessons and Opportunities to Virginia Government

Posted on May 16, 2023 by | 27 comments

Courtesy Wall Street Journal

by James C. Sherlock

The chart above shows that management and administrative overhead growth has been a trend not limited to government. The difference is that corporations are making quick and decisive strides in reversing the trend.

It is axiomatic that government should minimize overhead to maximize efficiency in delivery of services. And to lower its costs.

Efficiencies need to be found:

  • to maximize value for citizens;
  • to speed decision-making;
  • to minimize administrative consumption of the time and attention of front line workers; and
  • to restore freedom of speech suppressed by government bureaucracies assembled for that purpose.

All senior government managers would sign up for those goals — as theory. But execution is hard. Internal pressures against change are seldom exceeded by external ones that demand it.

An excellent report in the Wall Street Journal makes an observation that they may wish to consult for inspiration.

Companies are rethinking the value of many white-collar roles, in what some experts anticipate will be a permanent shift in labor demand that will disrupt the work life of millions of Americans whose jobs will be lost, diminished or revamped partly through the use of artificial intelligence.

‘We may be at the peak of the need for knowledge workers,’ said Atif Rafiq, a former chief digital officer at McDonald’s and Volvo. ‘We just need fewer people to do the same thing.’

Continue reading →

27 Comments

Posted in Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Labor and Workforce, Public-Employee Unions

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Is This Cartoon Racist?

Posted on May 16, 2023 by | 53 comments


by James A. Bacon

Is the cartoon above, drawn by Virginia Military Institute alumnus Matt Daniel, racist?

Former Governor L. Douglas Wilder thinks so. “It’s clearly racist,” he told Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira after Shapira showed it to him.

Shapira evidently thinks so, too. “Some say” the depiction of Martin Brown, Virginia’s African-American director of Diversity, Opportunity & Inclusion, “resembles a monkey,” he wrote.

Wilder is one person. The word “some” implies that there are others. None are named or alluded to. In a long-standing Washington Post reportorial tradition of the scribe attributing his own opinions to nameless others, Shapira appears to be referencing himself.

Shapira was decent enough to quote Daniel, who happens to be chairman of the Spirit of VMI PAC and a defender of VMI traditions that Shapira has relentlessly assailed as racist and sexist. “It is not a monkey. That doesn’t even make sense,” Daniel texted. “It is a voodoo doll in a business suit being harassed by a hostile writer.”

So… whom do we believe? Let’s undertake a critical examination of the cartoon to see whose interpretation — Shapira’s or Daniels’ — makes the most sense. Continue reading →

53 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Media

To Teach Is To Touch the Future

Posted on May 16, 2023 by | 11 comments

by Bill Bolling

As most of you know, I left my professional career in the insurance business behind in 2018 to pursue a passion for teaching. For the past five years I’ve had the privilege of teaching young people about politics and government.

I started out guest lecturing at James Madison University, and for the past four years have taught my own classes at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University.

I have great respect for my colleagues who have traditional academic backgrounds, but I really appreciate universities like GMU and VCU who are also willing to give teachers like me, who are more “professors of practice,” an opportunity to share my experience with students in the classroom.

Teaching is hard work, but it’s also extremely important. The greatest reward as a teacher is when you connect with a student and have an impact on their future direction. Toward that end, I thought I would share an email I received this week from one of my students:

Professor Bolling, I’ll be graduating this week and just wanted to write and thank you for all you have done to help advance my educational journey. I took my first class from you totally by accident, and was shocked to find out that my professor was the former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

I loved that class. I learned so much, not just from the textbook, but from someone who had actually been there, working in government at the state and local level. Since then I have taken every class you have offered. You quickly became my favorite professor, and I have learned so much from you.

I’ve already been hired to go to work on Capitol Hill, and I can’t wait to get started. I know I will put much of what you taught me into practice, and I promise to do my part to make government work! You taught me a lot, and for that I will always be grateful.

Folks, that’s exactly why teachers do what they do. They don’t do it for the money or the prestige. They get very little of either. They do it to have an impact on the lives of the students they teach.

At least for today, I feel that my journey as a teacher has had an impact. That’s all I ever wanted, and it’s all any teacher can ask for.

Bill Bolling spent 22 years in elected office including eight years as 39th Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This column was originally published in Bearing Drift and is republished here with permission.

11 Comments

Posted in Education (higher ed), Uncategorized, Virginia Law

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Virginia Judge Defends Handgun Purchases For 18-20 Year-Olds In New Ruling

Posted on May 15, 2023 by | 77 comments

by The Republican Standard staff

In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a ban on handgun sales to individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 is unconstitutional, citing last year’s Supreme Court Bruen decision.

Fox News reports:

In a 71-page ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne said that since adults under 21 have the right to vote, join the military and serve on a federal jury, there is no reason why federal law should restrict them from buying a firearm. “If the Court were to exclude 18-to-20-year-olds from the Second Amendment’s protection, it would impose limitations on the Second Amendment that do not exist with other constitutional guarantees,” Payne wrote. “Because the statutes and regulations in question are not consistent with our Nation’s history and tradition, they, therefore, cannot stand,” he wrote. … This class action lawsuit was brought by John Corey Fraser, 20, and other plaintiffs who said the Gun Control Act of 1968 and subsequent regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were unconstitutional because they excluded all adults under 21 from “exercising the right to keep and bear arms.” Fraser, 20, had attempted to purchase a Glock 19x handgun from a licensed dealer but was turned away, according to the lawsuit.

The ruling was derided by a number of gun control advocacy groups, including Everytown for Gun Safety which believes that “the federal law prohibiting federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to individuals under the age of 21 is not just an essential tool for preventing gun violence, it is also entirely constitutional.”

It remains to be seen whether the Biden Administration will challenge the ruling.

This article is republished from The Republican Standard with permission.

77 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Gun rights, Uncategorized, Virginia Law

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