Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Bacon Bits: Jerry Reed Tribute Edition

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by

James A. Bacon
in , ,

When you’re hot you’re hot.

How hot is the data center industry in Northern Virginia? It’s so hot that vacant land in parts of Prince William County is nearing $1 million per acre. “They are just building like crazy,” said Tim Leclerc, Prince William County’s assistant finance director, as reported by the Prince William Times. “We’ve seen land purchases on a per acre basis up in the Loudoun County area that are approaching $2 million. We’ve seen them approaching $1 million here.” The surge in real estate assessments in parts of the country where the data-center use is allowed by right is “being driven principally by developers and speculators who are scooping up land as fast as they can because they know data centers are willing to pay just about any amount for it,” he said.

When you’re not you’re not. Virginia’s eight public mental hospitals for adults are operating at 96% capacity, prompting them to delay admissions and straining the ability of law enforcement officers to maintain custody in psychiatric crisis, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered an exodus of employees from state hospitals, which are “overwhelmed” and operating at only 60% to 75% full staffing. The staff shortage has spillover effects. Sheriffs deputies have to stay with patients for hours or days at a time before beds become available.

You can explain it all down at city hall. The State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to ask the Richmond Commonwealth Attorney to look into accusations that City of Richmond electoral officials violated state law in the November 2020 election. Republican election watchers said Democrats improperly opened sealed envelopes on election night and completed the vote count at a board member’s home a few days later. Denying wrongdoing, Democratic Party officials have counter-charged that Republicans were unhappy with a decision to replace former Richmond Registrar Kirk Showalter, who had run-ins with Democrat officials during her 25-year tenure. Claiming a lack of resources to investigate the conflicting claims, the electoral board asked Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin to get to the bottom of the dispute, reports the Virginia Mercury.

Jerry Reed composed the funniest lyrics of the past half century (maybe ever). When You’re Hot You’re Hot was a classic.

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9 responses to “Bacon Bits: Jerry Reed Tribute Edition”

  1. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    I am partial to Amos Moses.
    Computing coming to NoVa because we give cheap electric to businesses. But we all agree to homeowners will mainly foot the bill for mega bucks of expensive offshore electric? Right?

    Now see an “Alligator bit it” that Bacon Bit.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7GyLr7Cz2g

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      I’m partial to Famous Amos and Grandma Moses, but the museum guards get ticked about the crumbs.

  2. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    East bound and down…
    The more outrageous the claim… better have evidence.

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    A bacon bit, not a Virginia ham, but a tasty bit from Nassau County, NY.

    The term “McMansion” did NOT result from large houses being knocked out like cheap burgers, but from this

    https://i.redd.it/kel1v9u49yj21.jpg

    It has been there since 1985 and is THE McMansion. You should see inside.

    Correction, owned by MD since 1985. They wanted to raze it, but since it was on the Historical registry, agreed to restore it and opened in 1991.

  4. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    If you want to compare costs to taxpayers, residential is way, way more tax-intensive than datacenters. In fact, commercial is said to subsidize residential.

    Speaking of “cheap electricity” – would we be opposed to electricity power sources because it’s not “available” 24/7?

    I speak of hydro. We can’t use as much hydro as we’d like simply because it’s not available as much as we like. So do we call it “unreliable” , nope.

    It’s a cheap source of non-polluting electricity that we do use when it is available without being opposed to it because it’s not “available” all the time.

    1. James A. Bacon Avatar
      James A. Bacon

      Your analogy makes no sense whatsoever. Of course hydro power has a place in the energy mix. But no sane person would want to have 100% of their electricity dependent upon hydro power. Similarly, solar has a place in the energy mix. But no sane person (at the current level of technological development) would want 100% of their energy mix from solar.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        And that’s the point – both are valuable sources of power and neither of them are “available” 24/7 and yet we talk about solar being not “reliable” because it’s not available 100% of the time.

        Neither is Hydro – but it’s never cast as “unreliable” because you can’t depend on it 100% of the time.

        1. James A. Bacon Avatar
          James A. Bacon

          As much as you have criticized my arguments, it never ceases to amaze me how little you have absorbed. I have repeatedly said that solar is the best electric power source — up to 30% of the power supply, which is how much PJM says the grid can handle. That percentage likely will rise as new technologies come online and investments are made. But a mandate of 100% with an arbitrary deadline? That’s reckless.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            And as much I have said we’re not going to get to 100% and will continue to need gas – you have failed to “absorb”.

            Now, come on. How many posts have you written about solar not being “available”24/7 , as if that makes it unreliable and not dependable?

            And all I have said all along is that it is a valuable low-pollution fuel that we SHOULD use when we can.

            And now I’m saying that hydro is similar in that it’s not always available either but when it is , we should use it instead of more polluting, more expensive fuels.

            But really, do I need to go back to prior posts to get extracts that purport solar to be not reliable?

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