Author: Bob Rayner
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An Epidemic of Stars and Medals Inflation
by Thomas M. Moncure, Jr. We live in a time when every kid gets a trophy just for participating. Grade inflation has made C’s obsolete … where we still have grades. Awards shows seemingly appear on TV every week. And – if the last session is any indication – every person and organization in Virginia…
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New Novel: Midnight’s Broken Toll
by Joe Fitzgerald All politics is personal. So it’s an open question why Mickey MacNamara runs for the state Senate. Is it to win the job or to hurt the man who holds the seat? The incumbent had a hand in the failures of Mickey’s father; Mickey has the time and resources to try and…
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Eclipsing Speech in RVA
by Jon Baliles Last month, City Council applied a few new stringent guardrails to public comment at Council meetings by altering their Rules of Procedure under the guise of “streamlining” meetings. Now, I am all for free speech, but I also understand that people showing up to Council meetings to push for a ceasefire, fight…
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Yes, MSNBC Morons, Virginia IS a Border State.
by Kerry Dougherty Remember back on the night of Super Tuesday when MSNBC’s far-left host Rachel Maddow and former Biden mouthpiece Jen Psaki convulsed in laughter as they reported that the number one issue for Republican voters was the border? “Well Virginia does have a border with West Virginia,” Maddow cackled, sending the panel of…
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Remembering Larry Maddry
by Kerry Dougherty What happens when corporate bean counters drive out all of their experienced workers and replace them with fresh-faced kids right out of school? Bad things. In the case of newspapers, it means hiring reporters who are unfamiliar with the area. It means all of the curmudgeonly grammarians are gone and there’s no…
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Small Parcel; Significant History
by Jon Baliles There was some great news last week as the Capital Region Land Conservancy (CRLC) scored another big win on behalf of the city when it announced the successfully negotiated purchase of 4.5 acres along the James River from Norfolk Southern near Ancarrow’s Landing. The parcel will be placed into the James River…
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Time for a Fairfax County Salary Freeze
by Arthur Purves Local government compensation is better than private sector. On April 30 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will vote on next year’s (FY2025) tax increase. The supervisors have advertised a 7% increase in real estate and car taxes to help pay for $360 million in raises for 38,000 school and county employees.…
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VMI Eschews Standards of Excellence, Devalues Diploma
by Joseph D. Elie As an alumnus living in Florida, I have a dearth of information about what is happening at the Virginia Military Institute on a day-to-day basis. I see the superficial social media postings from the public relations department, the Superintendent, and the Commandant; but I crave the scuttlebutt that tells the truer…
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The Letter
by Joe Fitzgerald “Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane.” Depending on your age, you may think of this as the opening to the Box Tops biggest and most iconic hit. If you don’t follow pop music, you may think any song that begins with “gimme” might be from a news story about a county school…
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The Cost of Not Voting
by Joe Fitzgerald If I were a more articulate man, I could explain what sorry shape the governments of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are in right now. Rational people have little doubt about the county. The biggest government expense, the school system, is currently being run by people who do not know what they are…
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Marriage Promotes ‘White Supremacy,’ George Mason Professor Says
by Jerome Woehrle “Marriage fundamentalism” promotes “white supremacy,” according to a professor at Virginia’s largest university. “Marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarchal supremacy,” wrote George Mason University Professor Bethany Letiecq in the Journal of Marriage and Family. “Marriage fundamentalism can be understood as an ideological and cultural phenomenon,…
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San Francisco’s “Algebra for None” Policy and How Virginia Avoided a Similar Fate
by Todd Truitt On March 5, 84% of San Francisco voters voted in favor of a referendum for San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to bring back Algebra for 8th graders, overturning their prior ill-fated math reform (a “no middle schooler let ahead” math policy). What does this vote have to do with Virginia? The Virginia Department…
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Another City Hall Fiasco in RVA
by Jon Baliles City Hall suffered another self-inflicted artillery wound last week when within a span of four days they were sued for allegedly violating state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, pledged a stout defense against the claims, and then announced they would be changing the way City Hall handles FOIA requests. Translated, the…
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Anti-Trump, Anti-Biden Votes in Super Tuesday Primaries: Will They Sway the November Election?
by Ken Reid Depending on what media you watch and read, the Super Tuesday primary results are the death knell for either presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or for incumbent Democrat Joe Biden, who is likely to be renominated, too. Both candidates had sizable votes against them in their respective primaries. I am not a…
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Electric Cars Are Harder on the Environment than Gas-Powered Ones
by Hans Bader “Electric vehicles release more toxic particles into the atmosphere and are worse for the environment than their gas-powered counterparts,” according to a study, reports the New York Post: The study, published by emissions data firm Emission Analytics … found that brakes and tires on EVs release 1,850 times more particle pollution compared to…