Author: James A. Bacon
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Is It Still a Hate Crime If the Perp Was Protesting Pedophilia?
An Albemarle County man, Shane Dennis, has been charged with intimidation for placing a noose on the statue of Homer at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville news media are reporting. Dennis, who appeared for a bond hearing Tuesday in Albemarle County District Court, also has been charged with contempt of court for misbehaving in the…
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The Virginia Media’s Astonishing Response to the NAEP Scores
by James A. Bacon The release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores has hit Virginia’s mainstream media outlets like a backhand across the face. Presented undeniable evidence of a catastrophic decline in the educational performance of Virginia’s 4th- and 8th-graders by an impeccable and unbiased source, The Washington Post, Virginian-Pilot, Richmond Times-Dispatch and…
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Virginia’s Test Scores at The Bottom of the Nation’s Steaming Heap
by Kerry Dougherty Geez. Who could have predicted this: Only one thing wrong with The New York Times reporting on yesterday’s horrifying report that showed the sharpest drop in national test scores in three decades. It’s this: the devastating failure of American education isn’t due to the pandemic.
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A “Catastrophic” Collapse in Virginia Test Scores
by James A. Bacon The big news today from the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), which administers a common test for all 50 states, is that student test scores nationally saw stunning declines in math and reading over the past two years. The drop in math scores was the biggest decline ever recorded for…
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Square Peg, Meet Round Hole
by James A. Bacon I love it when The New York Times tries to explain to its liberal and progressive readers what makes Republicans tick. Viewing the world through their woke lens of intersectional oppression, an article published yesterday concludes that the depravity of White Republican political views reflects their ignorance and racism. The Times…
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Virginia Beach: Notoriously Hard to Poll
by Kerry Dougherty Polling is an inexact “science.” In fact, it shouldn’t be called a science at all. I say this as someone who graduated with a BA in political science and who always found the “s” word amusing when applied to my area of undergraduate studies. We’ve seen polls that once the votes were…
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Racism at VMI? Not That This Hispanic Alum Ever Saw
Virginia Military Institute alumni share much of their correspondence with me. I can’t come close to publishing it all on this blog. But sometimes a letter illuminates aspects of the ongoing discussion about VMI’s future that have not yet made it into the public domain. The letter below comes from José J. Suárez, an Hispanic…
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Wins Defends LGBTQIA+ Performance Artist at VMI
The rhetorical battle at the Virginia Military Institute rages like the Bloody Angle in the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. In this ongoing war of words, VMI Superintendent Cedric Wins is like the corps commander who wanders dangerously close to the battlefront. Rather than rely upon subalterns and proxies to speak for him, he has waded…
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Diversity Done Right… and Wrong
by James A. Bacon The drive to institutionalize Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in elite colleges and universities is profoundly destructive, according to presenters at a Friday conference of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). Far from contributing to intellectual diversity, as it purports to do, DEI constrains free expression and free inquiry. It…
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Data of the Day: Lusting for Luxury Lifestyles
Virginia scores 8th nationally in the frequency of Google searches for “luxury,” “luxury cars,” “Luxury goods,” “luxury travel,” and “luxury apartments,” according to Chrono24, the maker of luxury watches. The fascination with luxury goods appears to be mainly an East Coast phenomenon, with New York topping the list. Lest you think that the metric of…
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“The City Is Shaming Itself”
by Jon Baliles It was cold at night this week but not as cold as it will soon get, and a warming trend over the next week looks likely (never trust the weather forecast more than 48 hours in advance). That is good news for those who seek a warm place to sleep at night,…
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At Last, an Educational Success Story!
by James A. Bacon A major theme of Bacon’s Rebellion is that governors and lawmakers should cease chasing chimera like “equity” and “social justice” and focus on programs that demonstrably improve peoples’ lives. The question we should be asking is, “What works?” One program that works, we are told by no less a left-of-center authority…