Category Archives: Culture wars

Congress, Commission Renounce Reconciliation

The Confederate Memorial in Arlington.
(Arlington National Cemetery photo by Rachel Larue)

by Donald Smith

‘In passing the 2021 William M. “Mac” Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act, the United States Congress determined that Confederates and the Confederacy no longer warrant commemoration through Department of Defense assets.’

***

At such a time and under such conditions I thought it eminently fitting to show some token of our feeling, and I therefore instructed my subordinate officers to come to the position of ‘salute’ in the manual of arms as each body of the Confederates passed before us.

The first statement is from the Naming Commission, the body Congress created to review Confederate names and iconography on DOD installations. It appears to be the commissioners’ interpretation of Congress’ intent behind Section 370 of the FY 2021 National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA), which established the Naming Commission and outlined its mission.

The second is from Union General Joshua Chamberlain. Chamberlain commanded the detachments of the Union Armies of the Potomac and James which received the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The “such a time and under such conditions” Chamberlain found himself confronted with, was the approach of the surrendering Confederate infantry on April 12th, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

Apparently, Congress has chosen to agree with the Naming Commission, instead of Chamberlain. In so doing, it has chosen to play Jenga with American heritage and culture. Continue reading

Pleasure Activism at JMU’s Queer Teach-In

by Stu Smith

On October 4th 2023, Adrienne Maree Brown presented her work on Pleasure Activism at JMU as part of a Queer Teach-in. This Teach-in was hosted by JMU’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. As you will soon hear from JMU’s Coordinator for Cultural and Affinity Spaces, Kwyn Riley, “This conversation serves as the nucleus of the Queer resistance teach-in.” But first, how about we hear from the keynote speaker, Adrienne Maree Brown?

I’m sure most of y’all are at a total loss for words. This is who James Madison University parades out to speak to young and impressionable minds. I think the footage speaks for itself and I frankly don’t have too much to say. To me it is clear that Pleasure Activism is just Hedonism under a Social Justice lens. As a history lover, I always wonder what the namesakes and founders of these universities would think of situations like this. I can’t recall any of Madison’s thoughts on pleasure, but his ol’ pal, Thomas Jefferson said this…

“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.” Continue reading

Nooses, Masks and Double Standards

by James A. Bacon

In the fall of 2022 a furtive figure was caught on videotape draping a noose around the Homer statue on the Grounds of the University of Virginia. The university administration immediately declared the act a hate crime. University police launched an investigation, enlisting the FBI to help in the search for the perpetrator. A $10,000 award was offered to anyone who could provide more information.

“The facts available indicate that this was an act intended to intimidate members of this community,” said President Jim Ryan in a letter to the community. “A noose is a recognizable and well-known symbol of violence, most closely associated with the racially motivated lynching of African Americans.”

A noose hung from a tree branch is indeed a recognizable symbol of lynching. The meaning when hung around the neck of a statue of an ancient Greek poet, however, was not self-evident (as we noted at the time). Indeed, when the offender was discovered, it turned out he hadn’t been targeting African Americans at all. Irate at how the Homer statue placed a hand on the head of a naked youth, the Albemarle County man declared that it “glorified pedophilia.” Local authorities charged him with intimidation anyway.

That was then.

Photo credit: WUVAnews.com

The day after Hamas’ October 7 terrorist assault on Israel, the Students for Justice in Palestine at UVA issued a statement  declaring that “colonized people” had the right to resist oppression “by whatever means they deem necessary.” A poster promoting the October 12 march showed a Hamas bulldozer plowing through an Israeli security fence. “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” the poster said. Later that month, SJP held two rallies on the Grounds. Marchers waved Palestinian flags and chanted, “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.” Some insisted that the slogan was just a call for solidarity with oppressed Palestinians, but many Jews interpreted it as advocating the eradication of the Israeli state and, in the context of the Hamas massacres, the slaughter of the Jewish population.
Continue reading

A Hostile Environment for Jews

by James A. Bacon

Matan Goldstein is a rarity at the University of Virginia — a Jewish student unafraid to openly defend Israel in its war with Hamas and oppose Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a pro-Palestinian group that praised Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks on Israeli citizens. The Israeli student has appeared on local talk radio and published an op-ed in the local newspaper. He wears a kippah, openly identifying himself as a Jew, and he was one of the two students who waved an Israeli flag on the steps of the Rotunda during an SJP rally. 

Goldstein, who was drawn to UVa by its classics program, was surprised upon coming to Charlottesville by the prevalence of antisemitism and the impotent handwringing of the UVa administration in dealing with it. University officials have declined to criticize the eliminationist rhetoric of pro-Palestinian students and faculty. Instead, the University has created a religious diversity task force to investigate discrimination against Jews… and Muslims… and other religions. Two of the eleven task-force members had signed a faculty letter faulting Ryan for his failure to sufficiently acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinians.

Goldstein’s account is echoed by other members of UVa’s Jewish community contacted by The Jefferson Council, although he was the only one willing to speak on the record. A law school student spoke off the record, while parents, alumni, a professor and a rabbi conveyed the sentiments of many other Jewish students whom I was unable to contact for first-hand accounts. Jewish students are so reticent to speak publicly that the signatories to a letter in The Cavalier Daily identified themselves only as “a group of Jewish students.”

During his first-year orientation in September, Goldstein participated in a group discussion in which students told others about themselves. He mentioned that he was Israeli. A classmate, a student from Egypt, spoke up. He said he was angry at the Jewish state and the Israeli Defense Force. He thought Abdul Gamal Nasser, an Egyptian dictator who sought to destroy Israel in the Six Day War, was a hero. “He said we could never be friends.” Continue reading

Virginia Army National Guard Switches from Red to Blue


by Thomas. M. Moncure Jr.

Confederate statues have come down and in some cases – to assure they will never rise again – have been melted down. Schools and roads have been purged of Confederate references. Army bases likewise are renamed in this cultural cleansing. This rewriting of history – Soviet style – would make Joseph Stalin proud. This eradication of one of the most significant events in American history – the formation of the Confederate States of America – has been done more swiftly and with greater success than even George Orwell might have envisioned.

Even symbols must be dispatched down the memory hole. The old unit patch of the Virginia Army National Guard (above left) showed a spear cutting thru the chain of tyranny in a St. Andrews Cross on a field of red. This is a subtle but somewhat obvious nod to the Confederate Battle Flag; any vague resemblance to anything Confederate must be purged.

The new National Guard patch shows Virtue over the dead body of Tyranny, imitating the Seal of Virginia on a blue field. Symbols do underlie and emphasize political realities. In addition to removing Confederate taint, the Guard has -intentionally or not – fallen in with the transition of the partisan makeup of the General Assembly. As Virginia has gone from Red to Blue, so has the Guard.

Thomas Moncure lives in Colonial Beach. He is an attorney and former Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates. 

Virginia Child Victims in the Left’s War on the Enlightenment and Science

Richard Bernstein, a founder of American critical theory.

by James C. Sherlock

Modern progressivism is religion, defined by Webster as “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.”

The critical theory progressive, that is to say the modern American progressive, rejects proudly and publicly, root and branch, both the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolutions of the 16th through 18th centuries in Europe.

Critical Theory developed into a synthesis of Marx and Freud. The Frankfurt School which birthed it studied the sources of authoritarianism. Their followers, as in much of human experience, wound up as practitioners.

By contrast, the leading lights of Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution awakenings, bravely in their time, stressed the belief that science and logic give people more understanding. And with understanding came freedom and the rights of man.

Logic is the principles of reasoning; science provides the principles of investigation and proof.

They led much of Europe, and the American colonies, to develop more successful systems of governance, economics, mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, and education than did tradition and religion.

One development, capitalism, has raised more people out of poverty than any economic system ever.

Some of the rest of the world followed. Some did not. Those that did, prospered, and improved the lives of billions of people.

But success in those twin intellectual revolutions came too slow for some.

To that table came two prominent 19th and 20th century experiments in rejecting the Enlightenment: communism and national socialism.

They proved the deadliest political movements in human history. Continue reading

W&L Students Trained in Privilege, Identity, and Intersectionality

Once upon a time university students spent their college years, to use the vernacular of the time, “finding themselves.” It was a journey they undertook on their own by sampling from a wide range of courses, experimenting with sex, alcohol and drugs, and floating ideas — and shooting them down — in dormitory bull sessions.

Now they have help. Whether they want it or not.

In November the entire Washington & Lee University freshman class was required to participate in mandatory training titled, “Continuing Education: Diversity, Inclusion and Community.” Under the direction of university representatives, students were walked through an exploration of their “identity” using a leftist oppressor/victim paradigm by race, class, sex, gender, age, ability, etc., according to The W&L Spectator. Continue reading

How Unbiased Is UVa’s Religious-Diversity Task Force?

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia task forced assigned the job of ensuring that UVa is “welcoming” to all religions includes two faculty members who signed an open letter criticizing UVa President Jim Ryan for failing after the October 7 terrorist rampage afflicted upon Israel to acknowledge the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Ryan denounced Hamas terrorism but declined to take sides in the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Jews. The task force’s aim, according to the announcement in UVa Today, “will be to understand how Jewish and Muslim students, faculty and staff, as well as those of other religious backgrounds, experience life on Grounds.”

“We want every student, faculty member and staff member to understand that they are a vital part of this place and how profoundly they enrich our common life as we take on that fundamental work of the University,” Ryan said.

The task force is headed by College of Arts & Sciences Dean Christa Acampora. She will be supported by 10 faculty, staff, students, and other members of the UVa community. Christians, Muslims and Jews are all represented. A challenge will be keeping the focus on how Jewish and Muslim students are experiencing UVa without getting infected by the emotional debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that gave rise to the task force. Continue reading

Virginia’s a Frequent Battleground in the Expanding Culture War

by Nelson Fegley

To discuss this subject properly we first need to define the phrase “Culture War.” With the help of Wikipedia, it may be described as “a cultural conflict between different social groups to impose their own virtues, beliefs and practices over society. Culture wars often delve around wedge issues, often based on values, morality and lifestyle.” Other terms often used in discussing these values include: diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and in the corporate world: environmental, social, and governance (ESG). The social part of ESG is often taken to mean involvement of DEI. 

Why is it important to consider this issue? The phrase “Culture Wars” was coined by James Davison Hunter, a prominent educator at the University of Virginia. In his book on this subject he describes a battle for control of American culture and social institutions pitting conservative religious groups against opposing politically progressive counterparts. The progressive movement has adopted far left concepts of identity politics which are changing our society in ways that are anathema to conservatives who are concerned about the future of our democracy. The conflict in values and practices between these two groups will be major issues in the 2024 presidential election. More about this below.

Virginia has significant constituencies on both sides of this polarized political spectrum. Progressives are dominant in the highly populated northern counties. Critical Race Theory (systemic racism) became the recent hot button issue when parents discovered its use in the Loudoun County schools and confronted the school board. The issue received national exposure when the FBI was reportedly directed to monitor the parents’ activities. CRT is typically embedded in the normal activity of class instruction, and therefore difficult to recognize. In this regard, the Loudoun parents were exceptional. The publicity accorded this case alerted the residents of the state and likely contributed to Glenn Youngkin’s winning the gubernatorial election. While the citizens in Virginia’s northern suburbs tend to support progressive issues, much of the rural parts of the state tend to be politically more conservative. When my wife and I moved to Bumpass from New Hampshire in 2020, the many signs on front lawns and on the shores of Lake Anna clearly showed strong support for Trump (2020 election) and disdain for Biden. Continue reading

Another Murderer Released On Parole!

Elbert Smith, second from right, and family.

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

The Parole Board just released a convicted murderer. Yes, this Parole Board. The one that Glenn Youngkin appointed to crack down on the release of all those violent criminals. And not a peep out of Kerry Dougherty or Hans Bader, who ordinarily go on a rant when a convicted murderer is released on parole.

The circumstances surrounding this offender, Elbert Smith, certainly justified his release on parole. He did not fire the fatal shots that resulted in a man’s death. The man who did fire the shots accepted a plea deal — voluntary manslaughter and a sentence of five years. Smith, acting on the advice of his court-appointed attorney, refused the deal. A jury convicted him of second- degree murder and imposed a sentence of 44 years. Convicted in 1996, he had served 27 years in prison. During that time, he had had only one serious infraction. During the last ten years, his record had been clean. The warden in the prison in which he was being held did not recognize his name when asked about him. Continue reading

Fairfax School Board Chair Takes Oath of Office on Stack of Porn

by Kerry Dougherty

Ah, December. That marvelous holiday month, when Jews and Christians celebrate joyous holidays.

Of course it’s also the season when those who loathe religion spring into action. This is their moment too.

This year’s crop of religion haters is especially ugly.

According to the New York Post, Harvard University officials — who have done almost nothing to protect Jewish students who were threatened and harassed by pro-Hamas radicals — told a rabbi that he could light a menorah on campus but warned him to take it down and hide it at night, lest those who hate Jews vandalize it.

On our campus in the shadow of Widener Library, we in the Jewish community are instructed, ‘We’ll let you have the menorah, you made your point, OK. Pack it up, don’t leave it out overnight because there will be criminal activity we fear and it won’t look good’, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi said at a Hanukkah lighting Wednesday night.

Zarchi, the founder and president of Harvard Chabad, said the university has asked the group to take in the menorah each night since the first Hanukkah lighting on campus.

And in the Iowa State House last week, The Satanic Temple erected an altar to Satan alongside a nativity and menorah, claiming they had a right under the First Amendment to slap their hideous Satan-worshiping abomination alongside the religious ones.

As if THAT was what the Founders had in mind when they penned the founding documents that established  America’s principle of freedom of worship.

A Navy vet and devout Christian beheaded the statue of Satan and knocked down the altar before turning himself in to authorities. The man has been charged with a misdemeanor criminal mischief.

In Hanover County, a parent has objected to the Bible being in the school library because of the stories contained therein.

You couldn’t make this garbage up.

More madness in Fairfax County — where else? — where several school board members, including the chair, mocked those who take the oath of office with their hand on a Bible, Koran or other holy book by pledging their oaths on stacks of secular books or porn. The Washington Post points out that all 12 of the new board members elected in November are Democrats. Color me unsurprised. Continue reading

Racism Comes in All Colors

by Kerry Dougherty 

What follows here is fiction. Totally imaginary. Still, picture this with me:

The mayor of Virginia’s largest city — that would be Virginia Beach, population 458,000 — decides to hold a holiday party for city council members on city property.

The mayor — and let me remind you this is hypothetical, it did not happen — sent out invitations characterizing this in some kind of strange pidgin English as a party for “white electeds,” which meant that the four black members of council were not welcome.

Because of their skin color.

What would the reaction be when the whites-only party became public?

I can tell you.

There would be loud cries of “racism”! Calls for the mayor’s immediate resignation. There would be  protests in the streets, with both whites and blacks denouncing the mayor’s shocking behavior. The local newspaper would call for the mayor to be removed from office and the editorialists would lament that Virginia hadn’t progressed from the days of Jim Crow.

The news would make national headlines and no doubt state and federal prosecutors would be looking at the civil rights violations in an exclusive, all-white Christmas party for elected officials.

It would be — pardon the expression — a poopstorm.

Odd then, that when something similar actually happened, not in Virginia, but in the largest city in Massachusetts, Boston — there is just a mild outcry. And lots of folks defending the move.

Could it be because the Boston mayor excluded whites, not blacks? Continue reading

Oh, That Song of Solomon!

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

A Hanover County parent has submitted a complaint to the school system’s Library Materials Committee about a book in school libraries, writing that its “vulgar and inappropriate” content depicts rape, prostitution, sexual assault, violence, illegal activities and sexual activities. The book:  The Bible;  specifically, the New International Version of the Bible.

To emphasize the harm she feared emanating from the accessibility of The Bible to her child, she stated, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, that she feared “it would absolutely turn my child into a groomed, immoral, prostituting, violent, polygamist and/or rapist.”

Under the Hanover County School Board’s  book review policy, amended last summer, any parent of a child in a Hanover County school or any resident of Hanover County “may file a challenge regarding any material located in a school’s comprehensive library or within a classroom library which is believed to contain sexually explicit content.” If the school principal or librarian determines that the challenged material meets the criteria for “deselection,” the material is removed from the school libraries. If the principal or librarian determines that the material does not meet the criteria, the challenge is forwarded to the Library Materials Committee, which reviews the material and makes a recommendation to the School Board. The School Board, by a majority vote, in its sole discretion, may remove any material from school libraries or classrooms. Continue reading

The “Chanukah Dilemma”: Is the Menorah a Religious or Political Symbol?

Chabad-Lubavitch of Williamsburg Rabbi Mendy Hebor leads a menorah lighting at William and Mary.

by Ken Reid

Thursday night is the final night of Chanukah, the eight-day Festival of Lights that I (and millions of Jews across the world) celebrate, to mark the miracle that occurred when the 2nd temple was restored following a rebellion by religious Jews against secular Hellenistic Jews and their Greek-Syrian allies in the 160’s BCE.

Because of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis and other nationals were murdered by Hamas thugs, Chanukah has a really special meaning this year – bringing “light” to conquer the “dark” (i.e. Hamas).

But while the ongoing war has united Israelis, and probably most Jews worldwide, there is a deep divide in the U.S. and other nations on whether Israel’s response in Gaza is inhumane; some 18,000 Gazans have died in Israel Defense Force (IDF) aerial bombing and ground attacks.  The pressure, mostly from the far Left, for a permanent ceasefire keeps pressing on,  

Enter the controversy about lighting a menorah in public at a recent Williamsburg arts festival.

There, the board of the festival voted not to allow CHABAD of Williamsburg to light a menorah at the festival, thinking it was a one-sided political statement for Israel.  Arguments also were made that this is a religious holiday, and the festival was to be secular – although Christmas decorations and Christmas stuff abounded there  But then a sop was thrown at Rabbi Mendy Heber to have a pro- ceasefire message there as equal time.

Kerry Dougherty’s  article on the controversy is here  but a more detailed article in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is worth reading. too  

Chabad moved the menorah lighting to the William & Mary campus, but the incident went viral.  Gov. Glenn Youngkin denounced the arts festival’s ban and Chabad has complained to the Virginia attorney general’s anti-Semitism task force.

Is the menorah a religious or political symbol, both, or neither? Continue reading

Insufferable and Dangerous Nonsense in Academia – Antisemitism Sector

A rally on the steps of the University of Virginia Rotunda calls for a free Palestine amid the war in Israel on Thursday, Oct. 12. CAL CARY, THE DAILY PROGRESS

by James C. Sherlock

I read this morning in the latest issue of Chronicle of Higher Education a particularly smarmy article by a Keith E. Whittington.

He is, among other things, “professor of politics at Princeton University and founding chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance”.

Good to know.

He addressed in his article the Congressional hearing that put the presidents of Penn, Harvard and MIT on the hot seat for the unaddressed antisemitic turmoil on their campuses.

Other articles in the same issue called the hearings a disaster for the colleges.

“Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, administrators have struggled to respond. Many issued statements that faculty members, students, and others saw as tepid, while protests drove deep rifts into campus communities.”

Whittington’s was titled:

“Colleges Can Recommit to Free Speech or Double Down on Sensitivity – The congressional hearing on antisemitism presents a stark choice.”

He offered a false, self-serving choice of only two ways forward.

If President Ryan of UVa had joined the others in front of the committee, they could have gotten past statements to actions, and lack of them. Continue reading