Author: Peter Galuszka
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Spinning Virginia Coal
By Peter Galuszka There’s a predictable drumbeat in the Old Dominion that is trying to blame Big Coal’s economic weakness on federal regulators. A weekend ago, a group called the Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security, a “grass roots” group with ties to the coal industry, staged a rally in Abingdon attended by about…
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Looking for Libertarian Jokes?
How many Libertarians does it take to change a light bulb? None! If the bulb needed changing, the free market would have done it. What is a Libertarian? A Republican who has been busted. If you think the only gun permit you need is the Second Amendment, you are a Libertarian. If someone asks you…
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Hail ($6 million) to the Redskins!
By Peter Galuszka There’s something strange here: Virginia loses a major oil company and 2,100 high-paying jobs but we get to spend $6 million or more in state and local taxpayers money to keep the hapless Washington Redskins in the Old Dominion instead of Maryland and get them to practice a few weeks a year…
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Why Regulation Is Essential
By Peter Galuszka If there is ever an argument in favor of regulation in today’s anti-government political climate in Virginia, one needs look no farther than the interstate highways. Buoyed by a wave of intercity bus deregulation about 30 years ago, new bus lines started up using older vehicles, no frills and often over-tired drivers.…
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“It’s for you!”
By Peter Galuszka The coincidences are revealing. How many times have you read this blog and you find that much of the comment seems scripted from afar. The American Legislative Exchange Council, the cabal of right wing business and propagandists who draft laws for harried state legislators, pushes a template for private school tuition tax…
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UNDERCLASS LOVER
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by
in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Electoral process, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, LGBQT, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Uncategorized, Water-waste waterI want to be an underclass lover Lay it down like a big ole’ brother No mind who gets stuck With the leftover I get my F&%# Without too much workover Don’t care about the deficit Don’t give a damn about the debt ’cause when it comes to lov’in You ain’t seen noth’ yet Ya…
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How Far Will Private School Tax Breaks Go?
By Peter Galuszka Hunter Country Day School is slated to open this fall for kindergarten through fifth-grade pupils at a quaint, red-brick outbuilding of the Dover Baptist Church on a leafy Goochland County road a few miles west of the Richmond Country Club. Its founder is Ann McLean, who has an art history doctorate…
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No Big Gulp For You, Fatboy!
By Peter Galuszka Here’s something that Objectivists, Randians, Utopians and Tempermentals can all get a Big Slurp from: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is banning Big Gulps. No kidding! It’s a Libertarian nightmare. Big Apple is telling you that you can’t have that Coke, Pepsi, Mountain Dew or Sprite you want a 16-ounce cup…
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Behind Big Sister
By Peter Galuszka Reading this blog and studying the conservative political movement makes for some curious, if not hilarious, observations. It’s always interesting to note the tenets that have evolved. Selfishness is good. You must also be moral and self-disciplined. The free market is a magical corrective. All government and regulation are bad. Altruism and…
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Bad Roads Bring “C+” Grade
By Peter Galuszka Every year, Virginia FREE rates the Old Dominion’s legislators according to its definition of how well they support the lobby’s definition of what it means to be “pro-business.” Despite the free-for-all conservatism of this year’s General Assembly, the legislature only gets only about a “C-plus” grade. The big reason? Lack of progress…
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Are We Going Back to Selma?
By Peter Galuszka Imagine it is Alabama in early 1965. The Southern state, like Virginia, has for decades deployed a number of ruses such as poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent U.S. citizens and state residents from voting. These people otherwise would have been qualified voters but also happened to be African-Americans whom the…
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Virginia’s Perpetual Bigotry
By Peter Galuszka All the talk of a “new” Virginia that is somehow the apple of Richard Florida’s “New Urbanist” eye got a drubbing this week when the General Assembly voted against a gay man for a judgeship, showing just how badly the social right-wing is running amok and how more thoughtful people can’t control…
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Clarity Amid Blather on Dulles Rail
By Peter Galuszka It has always been supremely puzzling to me why this blog has taken such a strident and shrill anti-union attitude. The shining example is the smear campaign against project labor agreements (PLAs) and Phase Two of the Silver Line of Metro to Dulles airport. The attacks extend to attempts to liquidate personally…
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Something Stinks About This Tax Proposal
By Peter Galuszka Pick a number. Any number. Could 49,000 jobs be created? How about 44.000 jobs? It could be 77,000 jobs, or maybe as few as 900 jobs. These are the all-over-the-board possibilities suggested by the grandly-named Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy in Springfield, which touts itself as a non-partisan think tank, when,…
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The Drones in our Future
By Peter Galuszka The backyard of my house in the piney woods of southern Chesterfield County is shaped like a half moon surrounded by very tall and skinny loblollies and gum trees. It faces north and can be a good place for aircraft watching. I live maybe 20 miles as the crow flies from Ft.…