Tag Archives: James A. Bacon

Three Ideas for Protecting Civil Dialogue at UVa

Posted on November 14, 2023 by | 50 comments

by James A. Bacon

On Oct. 11, 2023, journalist Abigail Shrier engaged in a Q&A session at the University of Virginia discussing the transgender movement in the United States. Offended by her views, transgender militants and their allies sabotaged attendance of the event, abrogated an agreement with university authorities restricting where to hold their protest, crowded the entrance to the venue at Minor Hall, berated attendees entering the event, and harassed attendees leaving the event.

Responding to a letter from Jefferson Council President Tom Neale, the administration characterized some of the behavior as “disappointing,” but noted that there were “no arrests or injuries, and no property damage.” The administration found no grounds for follow-up action.

The Jefferson Council vigorously takes issue with the administration’s spin. We believe that protesters should be held to a higher standard than not causing injury or property damage. We have published a report detailing the events surrounding the Shrier event and offer three tangible recommendations for upholding the right of members of the UVa community to hear speakers free from disruption and intimidation. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (higher ed), Individual liberties

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Rising Costs Pushing UVa Tuition Higher

Posted on November 9, 2023 by | 5 comments

The Jefferson Council released the following press release this morning (Nov. 9, 2023):

CHARLOTTESVILLE—Rising costs, not cutbacks in state aid, are primarily responsible for pushing tuition higher at the University of Virginia. State appropriations for UVa have declined sharply between 2002 and 2022 when adjusted for inflation and enrollment. But tuition has exploded over the same time. Only one-third of the increased tuition revenue was needed to offset state cuts. The other two-thirds represented spending increases, primarily in payroll.

Those are the major conclusions of a report, “Rising Costs: The Driving Force Behind Tuition Increases at UVa,” released today by The Jefferson Council, an organization dedicated to upholding free speech, viewpoint diversity, and Thomas Jefferson’s legacy at UVa.

The UVa Board of Visitors is working this fall on how much to increase tuition in the next two academic years. The Finance Committee has scheduled a public hearing November 17 in which students and other members of the public can address undergraduate tuition & fees. The Board is expected to approve a new tuition structure in December. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (higher ed)

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Song Sung Blue

Posted on November 8, 2023 by | 123 comments

by James A. Bacon

Not every General Assembly race has been decided, according to the data displayed by the Virginia Public Access Project, but enough votes are in to conclude that the Democrats won the election. They retained their control of the state Senate and won a narrow majority in the House. Some preliminary observations:

Bye, Bye White House. Governor Glenn Youngkin can stop entertaining fantasies about running for president. Give him credit for fighting hard to win GOP control of the state legislature. But he failed. He has not cracked the code on how to turn blue states red, and, therefore, he does not create a viable alternative to Donald Trump in the GOP presidential nomination contest.

Abortion, abortion, abortion. Youngkin staked his effort to retake the General Assembly largely on a platform of banning abortion after 15 weeks (with exceptions for rape and incest). It was a more moderate plank than what we’ve seen in other red states, but it was not what most Virginians wanted. The Virginia GOP needs to decide which is more important: abortion or… taxes, government spending, jobs, crime, parental rights, public-sector unions, salvaging K-12, reforming higher- ed, and every other issue they could make progress on if Democrats didn’t have the abortion issue to beat them with. Continue reading →

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Posted in Abortion, Elections

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Things Fall Apart: Loudoun County Edition

Posted on November 2, 2023 by | 35 comments

Loudoun County is not Appalachia. Loudoun County is not the inner city. It is, in fact, one of the most affluent counties — sometimes the most affluent county — in the country. But something is very, very wrong, and you can’t blame it on poverty. From Loudoun Now:

In a statement emailed to division parents just before 8 p.m. Nov. 1, Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence said there have been 10 suspected overdoses at six of high schools [sic] this year. The news from school officials comes one day after the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office released a statement saying it was investigating eight student opioid related overdoses at Park View High School.

Referencing the Loudoun overdoses, Governor Glenn Younkin called for greater school transparency with parents. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (K-12)

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UVa’s Modern-Day Barbarians

Posted on November 2, 2023 by | 14 comments

Image credit: Bing Image Creator

by James A. Bacon

The latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has stirred up emotions at the University of Virginia more than any event since the George Floyd riots. Not only are students holding demonstrations and counter-demonstrations; faculty, parents, and alumni are chiming in.

Eighty University of Virginia professors signed an open letter proclaiming themselves to be “unsettled” by the tone of a statement previously issued by President Jim Ryan concerning events stemming from Hamas’ October 7 terror attacks on Israel. Ryan expressed sorrow for the atrocities inflicted upon Israeli citizens, the writers aver, but did not acknowledge the sufferings of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, more than 15o parents and alumni have signed a letter expressing concern for the safety of Jewish students in an atmosphere of increasing antisemitism nationally. The university, they say, needs to create a task force to eradicate antisemitism within the UVa community.

The Jefferson Council members with whom I am in contact — and I have heard from many — are unanimously supportive of Israel. The Jewish state is far from perfect when measured against a utopian ideal of pluralistic, democratic, rights-respecting nations, but Hamas, a terrorist organization masquerading as a state, bears no comparison. It is in the same league as the Huns, Vandals, Goths, Vikings and other ancient barbarians who laid waste to the settled societies around them. Council members have chosen to side with the heirs of Western Civilization and against those who seek to destroy it. Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed)

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A’s for All!

Posted on October 29, 2023 by | 28 comments

by James A. Bacon

Grade inflation in American universities is a well-documented phenomenon. Nearly half of all grades handed out at Harvard are A’s. The average Grade Point Average (GPA) at the University of Virginia, having drifted steadily upward over the past 30 years, is moving higher at an accelerating rate. One possible explanation — in defiance of the downward trend in standardized test scores in K-12 education — is that the kids are just so darn smart! They deserve the A’s!

Another explanation points to the obsession with equality and self-esteem, and to the attendant collapse in standards that would differentiate between excellence, mediocrity and failure.

The question arises in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education which profiles a controversy at James Madison University. Six economics professors told the Chronicle that their annual evaluations have been penalized because they are handing out too many D’s and F’s. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (higher ed)

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Lee Statue Meltdown

Posted on October 27, 2023 by | 89 comments

by James A. Bacon

At one point during the decade-long debate over Confederate statuary, the logic of the Taliban, er, progressives, was that the statues should not be commemorated in highly visible public spaces, but could be relegated to battlefields, cemeteries and museums. If the statues and memorials must be removed, that seems to be a reasonable fallback position, and we’ll see if and where it is honored.

But the statue to Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, where the leftist electorate is infected by a rabid animus towards its enemies, will never be seen again. Not in a battlefield, not in a cemetery, not in a museum. In the Peoples’ Republic the attitude seems to be: we’ve got the power, we’ve got the statues, you can’t have them back, and by the way, f— you, we’re going to destroy them, and you can’t stop us.

The news is out that organizers of the “Swords into Plowshares” project has melted down the Lee statue, which had been torn down in 2021 and the fate of which had long been the subject of litigation. The deed was done at an out-of-state foundry; the metal will be recycled into some form of progressive artwork.

John Reid, chair of The Virginia Council, released the following statement:

The Virginia Council denounces in the strongest possible terms the vile, vengeful, and repugnant act of destroying in a blast furnace the Robert E. Lee statue that stood for decades in Charlottesville.

Rejoicing in the destruction of historic statues and paintings and gleefully comparing it to the “execution” of a “rabid dog” reveals an alarming and juvenile belligerence. Only a weak and sick society allows this to happen, and it ought to be an extraordinarily disturbing sign about the future of this country. Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars

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Free Speech and Advocacy of Genocide

Posted on October 26, 2023 by | 57 comments

by James A. Bacon

Chanting “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” hundreds of pro-Palestinian students held a protest on the Lawn at the University of Virginia yesterday. As reported by The Washington Free-Beacon, they demanded the Biden administration defund aid to Israel. The event was part of a national “walkout” organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, and the second demonstration in Charlottesville since Hamas unleashed a wave of terrorist attacks on Israel earlier this month.

“We, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), are sickened by the on-going, escalating genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Zionist forces,” said the organizing group in a formal statement signed by two dozen other leftist student groups in the aftermath of the Hamas assault. “We stand in solidarity with Palestinians in the fight for liberation and in their struggle against settler colonialism.” 

While the protesters were not explicit about their ultimate aim, the slogan “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” can mean only one thing: the eradication of the Israeli state and the dispossession — or worse — of the Jews within it. Hamas’ slaughter of innocents in its wave of terrorist attacks earlier this month foreshadows the likely fate of the Jewish population should Hamas carry the day.

Even Adolph Hitler did not call for the extermination of the Jews in his antisemitic tract, Mein Kampf. Even the senior Nazis attending the Wannsee Conference to organize the “final solution” for the Jews spoke in euphemisms and knew that their program was too gruesome to reveal to the German people. Hamas is far more open about its aims. The genocidal impulse is all too clear. Continue reading →

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Posted in Individual liberties

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“Hate” Speech Does Not Make Students “Unsafe”

Posted on October 25, 2023 by | 21 comments

Scene from “Clockwork Orange”

by James A. Bacon

There is a widespread notion among militant leftists at the University of Virginia, as there is in universities across the Commonwealth, that exposure to objectionable ideas causes “harm” to those who hear them and, thus, should be suppressed. This logic is a totalitarian wolf in sheep’s clothing. While I do not countenance the banning of speech — even the speech of those who would happily ban mine — I do believe this leftist trope must be combatted forcefully in the marketplace of ideas.

We observed this thinking in the run-up to the speech by Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which highlights the role of social contagion in the spread of transgender identity among teenage girls and the potentially irreversible damage of hormone treatments and sex-change surgery.

Shrier is Public Enemy No. 1 to transgender activists, and their social media accounts lit up once word got out that The Jefferson Council and its partners were holding a Q&A event with Shrier on the Grounds. I won’t bore you with the serial misrepresentations of Shrier as a transphobe and a hater. Rather, my intent here is to explore the logic that speakers with views like hers are unwelcome at UVa. 

“Unfortunately, knowing that the university is OK w allowing hateful ppl to come to this school (pence, pompeo, other hateful republicans) it is clear that ‘free speech’ and ‘bipartisanship’ is valued over the safety of their students,” messaged one writer in a QSU (Queer Student Union) account. [My bold face.] Continue reading →

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

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Transgender Issues — Whose “Centerpiece,” Youngkin’s or the Post’s?

Posted on October 24, 2023 by | 26 comments

by James A. Bacon

The latest Washington Post spin on its recent public-opinion poll about transgender issues in Virginia schools is a window into the unconscious biases of WaPo reporters and editors.

Here’s the lead (my emphasis):

Education is an important factor for many Virginia voters this fall, but transgender issues, one of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s most controversial education cornerstones, is a low priority for voters, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll.”

A 70 percent majority of registered voters say that education is a “very important” factor in their vote for the Virginia legislature this year, whereas about half as many (34 percent) say transgender issues are very important to their vote.

“I’m not seeing in the data that the trans issue and how that is playing in public schools is a big driver right now in the electorate,” said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

The message: Youngkin has made transgender policies a “cornerstone” of his education policy, but Virginians aren’t going along. Continue reading →

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

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The Incomplete Case for Higher Tuition at UVa

Posted on October 21, 2023 by | 3 comments

by James A. Bacon

As the Board of Visitors ponders how much to raise tuition & fees in the next two academic years, the University of Virginia is grappling with strong inflationary pressures and a long-term shortfall in state aid, senior university administrators said Wednesday.

Even so, administrators told the Board’s Finance Committee, UVa offers a great “value proposition” compared to other Top 50 universities. Its in-state tuition is lower than that of top private universities, and its four-year graduation rate is the highest of any public university in the country.

The Finance Committee meeting yesterday marked the beginning of a two-month decision-making process. The purpose of the initial meeting, said Committee Chair Robert M. Blue, was to provide “context” for the discussion. A November hearing will allow students and others to express their views about college costs. The Board is scheduled to adopt a new tuition structure in December. 

Although university officials did not say explicitly that a tuition increase is justified, the “context” presented was geared to supporting such a conclusion. Board members offered no pushback during the one-and-a-half-hour session, asking only a few questions for purposes of clarification. They did not drill into the data proffered by administrators, nor, despite assurances that UVa was working assiduously to achieve efficiencies and reduce redundancies, did they ask for specifics. No one addressed faculty productivity, administrative overhead, or other drivers of university costs. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education (higher ed), Efficiency in government

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Bacon Bits: Ungovernable Virginia

Posted on October 19, 2023 by | 46 comments

It’s not just the big stuff we need to worry about — broken borders, riots, crime waves, school shootings — we need to pay attention to the little stuff, too: small things that betray the fraying of the social fabric. Some instances in today’s headlines:

From WAVY-TV: “Video shows man choking county attorney at Gloucester Co. meeting.” Cell phone video taken at a public meeting to discuss a bond referendum shows Gloucester County resident Lawrence Cohen with one hand holding a microphone and the other choking Gloucester County Attorney Edwin N. “Ted” Wilmot. I know nothing about the issues or personalities involved, but that’s just not acceptable. Choking people in public hearings is not the kind of thing that used to happen.

Meanwhile, Arlington County Public Schools is rolling out a new “electronic campus management platform” at several schools, reports ARL Now. The platform will allow schools to regulate the number of students in the halls and going in and out of buildings. Sounds like Orwellian overkill for a school disciplinary problem. What’s next? Artificial Intelligence to decide who gets a hall pass and who doesn’t? Continue reading →

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Posted in Individual liberties

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Quote of the Day: Abigail Spanberger

Posted on October 17, 2023 by | 42 comments

“For me there is no equivalence between armed, individual militants going into a home, shooting parents in front of their children, killing children, lighting babies on fire, burning down entire kibbutz and military action going after military targets, terrorist perpetrators of a horrible massacre. Those are different things.”

So said Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger in an exchange with a University of Virginia student yesterday. The Daily Progress has the story here. — JAB

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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up…

Posted on October 16, 2023 by | 30 comments

Hmmm…. Gendered negotiation of urban spaces among transgender persons in Pakistan: dismantling the colonial binary. Sounds interesting.

Actually, I’d be more interested in gendered negotiation of rural spaces among transgender persons in Pakistan…. as in, rural spaces controlled by the Taliban. I’d also like to know more about dismantling the pre-colonial binary. You know, the binary in traditional Pashtun culture that cloaks women in burkas, denies them education, and sentences them to death when they commit adultery.

Even more fascinating would be discussing the Pashtun practice of bacha bazi, in which adult men have sex with boys. That would make a riveting lecture.

Does anyone in Women’s and Gender Studies programs anywhere in the country study that?

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Posted in Culture wars, LGBQT

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Bacon Meme of the Day

Posted on October 14, 2023 by | Leave a comment

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Posted in Bacon and pigs

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