Bacon’s Rebellers seem to have tired of commenting on DeGrowth for now. Much more on that topic later – first EMR considers what comes AFTER the Autonomobile and why small REALLY IS beautiful but before that… A short item on important reading and viewing: Bill Lucy (Prof. William H. to his friends) at UVA has…

DEGROWTH – SHRINKING TO SURVIVE THEN PROSPER (Ed Note: Thanks to a number of constructive comments here is a better version.) DeGrowth is a resurgent survival strategy for contemporary civilization: Step One: The footprint of human consumption must shrink so that most humans — and ALL other species — do not have to perish just…

DeGrowth – Shrinking to Survive THEN Prosper DeGrowth is a resurgent survival strategy for contemporary civilization. First, the consumption footprint must shrink so that most do not have to perish for a few to survive. THEN DeGrowth advocates movement to a Steady State Economy where consumption matches sustainable and renewable resources so that ALL have…

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor is a curious blend of contradictions. Aiming at the anti-government populism stirring about, he wants to be seen as an anti-tax and anti-spending guy. He’s also a Main Street Republican who is very comfortable with the captains of Virginia business at country club luncheons. Plus, he is an excellent fund-raiser.…

The Republican primary for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District is being held today. I believe that the results of today’s primary will say a lot about the elections in November. There are two candidates in today’s Republican primary – Pat Herrity and Keith Fimian. The winner will go to the general election against freshman Congressman Gerry…

Here is a must read for those who have ANY lingering doubts about the negative impact of Large, Private Vehicles on humans obtaining a sustainable trajectory for civilization. “Sustainable Transport and Liveable Community Planning” http://www.planetizen.com/node/44451 Todd Litman lays out in two short pages — with a nice graphic and lots of links for followup reading…

One of the frustrating thing about Bacon’s Rebellion is how quickly important discussions decompose to the usual dogmatic lines of the AEI or Cato Institute or what Glenn Beck or some other conservative radio jokey just said. A case in point is global warming. This red flag issue immediately draws skeptics who claim it is…

THE LONG, TORTUROUS – PERHAPS IMPOSSIBLE – PATH TO FUNCTIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENT PATTERNS This perspective was originally titled: LOCATION-VARIABLE COSTS – HOUSING LOCATION RELATED TO JOBS. The intent was to amplify the comments by TMT and others following Peter G’s post “Public-Private May Get Overhaul” on public / private transportation ‘projects.’ EMR will…

Slavery in Virginia may be taking a new form — that of human trafficking. Some 18,000 people, mostly foreign born women, are victim of the practice in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. State Department. And while local data is hard to find, there is evidence that Virginia is becoming a haven for…

As another Memorial Day comes to a close I find it noteworthy that most US troops will be leaving Haiti next Tuesday. A good synopsis of the situation can be found here. The American response to the catastrophe in Haiti seems like a rare bit of good news amidst a background of oil leaks, recession,…

There has been a lot of talk about academic freedom lately. Most of that talk has centered on a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) sent to the University of Virginia regarding various records of a former professor, Michael Mann. The CID is part of an investigative process enabled by the Virginia Fraud against Taxpayers Act. This…

Few people would confuse Ken Cuccinelli for a young Bill Clinton. Progressives (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) see Ken Cuccinelli as an ultra conservative who never strays from right wing dogma and panders to the conservative base for ongoing political support. While nobody has ever accused “progressives” of consistency, even they must…

President Obama is doing the right thing by canceling a lease sale for offshore oil drilling about 50 miles from the Virginia coast. The plan was suspect from the beginning. Obama surprised environmentalists by playing to Republicans and agreeing to the lease sale, which Gov. Bob McDonnell badly wanted to help his campaign dream of…

Since 1995, Virginia has been a leader in public-private funding schemes for transportation projects. The state has been able to fund several highway and bridge projects in the Richmond area and Northern Virginia by turning to private financing and operators and avoiding burdening taxpayers who don’t want to pay more taxes or be burdened with…

What is so ironic about the right wing law and order crowd is that they often act within a vacuum totally devoid of what the real law enforcement professionals think. Take the anti-immigration crowd including Bacons Rebellion bloggers who hail Arizona’s racist pat ’em all down law. They say they are just against “illegal” immigration…