One of the consistently dreadful attributes of Media General is how, under its new management of marketing hacks, it tries to shed its racist past. This is especially evident the morning after the announcement of the death of James J. Kilpatrick, the pro-segregation editorial page editor of the defunct Richmond News Leader. For his years…

Once again, Virginia wins national kudos for excellence… this time for its fast-food hamburgers. The burgers made by Lorton-based Five Guys Burgers and Fries were voted America’s favorite in a Zagat survey of fast food and full-service restaurants. I can personally attest to Five Guys burgers. They are unbelievably good. Coming soon… Virginia’s rating in…

The Carilion Health System, headquartered in Roanoke, is betting its future on a new concept embraced by the Obama administration in the Accountable Care Act: Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The idea is to shift the delivery paradigm from a fee-for-service system, which encourages excess utilization of health resources, to a paradigm that rewards Carilion for…

Baconauts and Boomergeddons are something of a cult. They have their own leader, their own religion, their own pecking order and at times, their own Kool-Aid. Since it is a somnambulent August Monday morning, here are a few things to wake you up. Happy Birthday, Social Security! That’s right! The federal program that has proven…

How quickly will Virginia’s employment bounce back from the mother of all recessions? That will depend upon the extent to which employment is “structural,” in the sense that there is little demand for the skills that unemployed workers have, as opposed to the skills required for new and emerging jobs. The skills mismatch is particularly…

How bad is the gap between promised entitlement benefits and the taxes that Congress has appropriated to pay for them? The International Monetary Fund has taken a look, and the results are scarier than anything you’ll read in “Boomergeddon.” It appears that I am not alarmist enough. Says the IMF in its 2010 “selected issues”…

First there was “Boomergeddon.” Then “Grovergeddeon.” And now, “Goozergeddon.” As with the other two, “Goozergeddon” is an apocalyptic image is what will happen in our future if the titanic struggle between two political and economic theories results in the wrong side winning. Here are the 10 outcomes of “Goozergeddon:” (1) Barack Obama is voted out…

Virginia politicians from Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb are mobilizing to block the closing of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which could result in the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in Hampton Roads. (Read the Washington Post story here.) At the risk of incurring universal…

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s announcement of his plans to close the Norfolk-based U.S. Joint Services Command, end or change the jobs of 6,300 and save $704 million a year, has brought howls of protest from Virginia’s elected officials. Republican Bob McDonnell has held press conferences with U.S. Congressmen Randy Forbes and Glenn Nye and…

Beware the Boomerang Through all the talk of the financial crisis, the housing crisis and various other crises I’ve developed a real misconception. Ok, some of you would say a whole host of misconceptions. However, for the sake of brevity, let’s focus on one of my misconceptions. I thought that once a homeowner had their…

I just read an opinion piece which was slathered with invective against a sitting politician’s economic policies. The piece was titled, “The Flimflam Man” and described the politician as a charlatan and a member of the “audacity of dopes”. The politician’s financial plans were described as “leftovers drenched in flimflam sauce” and “a sham”. At…

From my latest Washington Times column: After a three-month delay, the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds have finally published their annual report. Now we have an explanation for the wait. Thanks to program changes made by the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), the report summary says, “The outlook for Medicare has…

There’s fascinating news in TV Land — only 1.38 percent of the viewers of Fox News are African-American. I raise this because so many bloggers, readers and commenters on Bacon’s Rebellion swear by the “Fair and Balanced” news channel. Fox keeps them in their comfort zone. It is like a down quilt and warm milk…

It’s only 2-3 weeks before the “Boomergeddon” publication date. If you pre-order your copy now, Amazon.com will give you a discounted price — $10.08, or half the list price. (For those who have pre-ordered already, Amazon.com will honor the lower price.) If you’re not quite ready to make that big $10 investment, you can download…

The U.S. Senate approved another bail-out Wednesday, this one for state governments. In a 61-38, mostly party-line vote, Virginia Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner agreed to provide $26 billion in aid to the states, nominally to save the jobs of some 145,000 teachers and prop up state Medicaid programs. Approval by the House of…