I’ve been pretty tough on my alma mater in the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, but I’m detecting positive auras and penumbra emanating from Charlottesville these days. In a recent speech, Meredith Woo, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, said some surprising things. First, she extolled the value of “virtue…

Virginia universities as leaders in the 21st century free speech movement? Who woulda thunk it? Kudos to the new university presidents, Teresa Sullivan at the University of Virginia and Taylor Revely at William and Mary (replacing the smarmy William Casteen and odious Gene Nichol respectively) for taking stands against the banning of politically incorrect speech.…

Barely a week before mid-term elections, the incredible, shrinking Richmond Times-Dispatch has launched a new reporting service called “PolitiFact Virginia” which is a spin off of a service begun in 2008 by the highly respected St. Petersburg Times for which it won a Pulitzer in 2009. The idea is to check the veracity of what…

The Obama administration has doled out a record amount of college loans this year to help students cope with the affordability crisis in college tuitions. Meanwhile, college tuitions became even more unaffordable. Gee, do you think there could be a connection? Uncle Sam gave out $28.2 billion in Pell grants to students in the 2009-2010…

I hate Virginia’s senseless love of Dillon’s Rule. As Baconators know, Dillon’s Rule is a century old legal philosophy which holds that localities have no inherent political power since locality rights are not specified in the US Constitution. The vast majority of states have diluted Dillon’s Rule by overtly granting localities some level of home…

“Young Gun” Congressman Eric Cantor could see his blossoming political career grow even bigger next Tuesday if Republicans win control of the House of Representatives where Cantor serves House Minority Whip. Some 116 seats are in play and pundits are betting on a GOP victory with Democrats keeping the Senate. If that happens, Cantor, 7th…

At about this time in just seven days the polls will start closing. This evening strong front is blowing in from the heartland. Which way are the tea leaves blowing? Today a CNN.com poll (all-be-it a ‘non scientific’ one) has a stunning 84 percent saying it is time to scrap the two party system. If…

For those who do not have time to read “AntiPartisan Voters Guide” as revised, here is THE BOTTOM LINE in 500 words, more or less. Over the past 200 years human’s have evolved economic, social and physical systems that depend on competition and consumption in the pursuit of safety and happiness. The practical result has…

With only nine days until the election, EMR re-posted “The AntiPartisan Voting Guide” with corrections and changes suggested by those who read the original post on 8 October. There is reason to believe that AntiPartisanism has the potential to take root. There is the press coverage cited in the revised post, as well as coverage…

Alert! Alert! Danger! Danger! Bacon is playing with fire! Once again, I am experimenting with new media forms– this time making a brief animated “movie” based on topics debated on this blog, vivid proof that I have too much time on my hands. All my prejudices are on display. I make no effort to be…

Popular histories about the Confederate States of America can be dodgy, as a recent controversy over a school textbook approved for Virginia fourth-graders shows. In her book “Our Virginia: Past and Present,” author Joy Masoff claims that thousands of Southern blacks fought fo the Confederacy, including two entirely black battalions under the command of the…

American liberals are big fans of the European welfare state. They point to European models of national health care, rich pensions and generous unemployment benefits as worthy of emulation in the United States. Europeans may not make as much money as Americans, the liberals say, but they have created a more humane way of life.…

There’s been a torrent of misinformation on this blog ever since the mid-term elections edged their head ever so slightly on the horizon. We’ve seen a wave of deficit hysteria, bashing Obama for just about everything from TARP to the Lindberg kidnapping and the specter of rising regulations and taxes. That’s why the front page…

As mid-term elections approach, the Conventional Wisdom has it that the U.S., thanks to President Barack Obama’s excessive spending on stimulus measures and other things, is presenting the U.S. with up to $2 trillion extra in long term debt. Thus, we are being set up for a big financial mess later on. There’s also a…

When Meredith Whitney speaks, Wall Street listens. Whitney is the financial analyst who first warned that the real estate crash spelled disaster for the U.S. banking system. In a new, 600-page report, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” she sounds the alarm for a second-wave financial crisis afflicting state and local government. Whitney sees scary parallels…