Category: Children and Families
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Christmas at Bacon’s Rebellion!
Christmas time is here and with a few lapses all of you bloggers and commenters have been very good little boys and girls this year. So, here is what you can expect to find under the tree or in the stocking: Jim Bacon: His very own MOOC course titled, “A conservative’s take on everything in…
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Mental Health: McDonnell’s Small Gesture
By Peter Galuszka It seems so little so late. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, apparently trying to get some 11th hour positive spin, has announced that he wants to put $38.3 million over two years to improve the state’s mental health system. He also wants to expand the amount of time an individual can be held…
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Pope Francis Slams “Trickle Down”
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in Abortion, Feminism, Women’s Rights, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka In a sharp rebuke to traditional conservative economic thought, the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics says he wants the church to rethink its strategies towards addressing income inequality and poverty and shun “the idolatry of money” and “trickle down” philosophies that give the rich far too much influence. Pope Francis outlined…
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The Dangers of the Biking Craze
By Peter Galuszka There is no question that bicycling is a hot trend, favored by fitness advocates and Smart Growthers alike. What’s not to like? Bikes don’t pollute, don’t require expensive parking lots and provide riders with lots of flexibility not to mention muscle and cardiovascular workouts. You hear a lot about it on this…
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The Ironies of Tom Clancy
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka The timing is extremely odd, but the death of techno-thriller author Tom Clancy came this week just when federal workers were being furloughed by the hundreds of thousands through Capitol Hill gridlock. Clancy, who died in Baltimore at 66, did much in the 1980s to makes heroes of the men and women…
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Henrico’s Cynical It’s-All-for-the-Children Gambit
by James A. Bacon It’s all for the children. It’s always for the children! Here’s how Virgil Hazelett, former Henrico County administrator, justified yesterday slapping a 4% meals tax on Henrico families, most of whom have seen a steady erosion of their take-home income over the past several years thanks to a sluggish economy and…
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Ask a Slave!
By Peter Galuszka Historical reenacting is a major pastime in our state and region, but it should hinge on fact. Ever since I was about six years old, my parents would drag me to Colonial Williamsburg where we got the White Toast version of what life in Ole Virginny was supposed to be like.The darkies…
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Bad Move by U. Va.
By Peter Galuszka Helen Dragas gets it. The Board of Visitors member at the University of Virginia tried to hold the line against cutting back on the school’s AccessUVA program, a highly successful endeavor that for 10 years has helped low income get a high level education with generous grants. Citing cost pressures, U.Va. President…
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Cuccinelli’s Strange Obsession
By Peter Galuszka Atty. Gen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, now running as a Republican for governor, has had a number of strange obsessions: going doggedly after a climatologist over global warming issues he disagrees with and pushing to arm investigators involved with Medicaid fraud. But nothing compares with Cuccinelli’s stubborn insistence that sodomy should be illegal even…
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“You Want Maggots With That, Hon?”
By Peter Galuszka Free trade capitalists may cheer the proposed $4.7 billion takeover of Virginia icon Smithfield Foods by a Chinese firm, but there is plenty to give pause and the blowback is creating some strange bedfellows. The major issues are whether one should want Chinese-style management in charge of American corporations given their record…
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IG of the Day: Teen Birth Rate
This map, posted by Richard Florida to the Atlantic Cities blog, shows state-by-state variations in the teen birth rate. Florida makes an unconvincing case that ties higher teen birth rates to the practice of religion, posture on birth control and red state governance, confusing correlation with causality. “Despite all the hectoring and moralizing,” he writes,…
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GiftGate: “If I Were a Rich Man . . .!”
By Peter Galuszka Richmond’s “Giftgate” scandal just gets worse. On Friday, Atty. Gen. and presumed GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli announced that he was amending his required disclosures of gifts to show that he took more goodies from Star Scientific plus previously undisclosed gifts of a $7,750 trip in 2010 to Southwest Virginia from coal…
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Factoid of the Day: 100,000 Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children in Virginia
by James A. Bacon The term “serious emotional disturbance” (SED) refers to diagnosable mental health problems that disrupt a child’s ability to function socially, academically and emotionally. Virginia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services estimates that between 85,000 and 104,000 Virginia children and adolescents have SED. Between 47,000 and 66,000 suffer extreme impairment. (Source:…
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The Tumbling Tots of Sydney
by James A. Bacon “Smart growth kills children!” quipped email correspondent Ron Utt yesterday. He proffered the sly comment in passing along a blog post describing how 169 children in Sydney, Australia, plunged from high-rise windows or balustrades to serious injury or death between 1998 and 2008. In the New Geography blog post that Ron…
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“I Got Mine from Mah Daddy!”
By Peter Galuszka One of the stranger attributes of Virginia’s conservatives is their cheesy, Calvinist streak. Their world view tends to celebrate the rich and powerful, regardless of whether the individual worked diligently and creatively to generate the wealth or if it was inherited. For example, one man (not a Virginian) whom I respect described…