It was such a strange scene, I had to pinch myself. Here at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the middle of Richmond, that “hotbed of civil rest” about a thousand students held signs touting “Keep Your Gospel Off My Gonads” and other slogans as they listened to a professor note how the father of computer science…

Just when you think Virginia’s finally entering the 21st century, it takes a major step backwards. Take gay rights. Much of the rest of the country has come to terms with gays and lesbians and is accommodating them not as sinful folk but worthy individuals who can make big contributions to society and its economy.…

EMR has NEVER been able to figure out why Jim Bacon gets SO upset about Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). He has his hands full getting out Bloomergeddon, why take on this windmill? Of course, in the end Jim is correct: The University of East Anglia scientist’s arrogance has not DISPROVED anything, This dispute will leave…

Lots of observers were skittish with the election victory in November of Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a staunch social conservative unafraid to rattle cages. The Washington Post editorialized that he might prove an “embarrassment” for Virginia as did The Virginian-Pilot. More conservative editorial writers were delighted with him. Well, it hasn’t taken long.…

In the 16 February post on the Affordable and Accessible Housing Crisis Groveton said: “I want a smaller national government, a much smaller state government and a much larger local government.” As EMR noted in a comment on that post: “Groveton is RIGHT but there are two Vocabulary problems with his statement. We will get…

A steady refrain on this blog is a kind of Protestant guilt trip about deficit spending (see Boomergeddon). We are supposedly responsible for our own lives and destinies and we have failed miserably because we listened to irresponsible liberal dogma from the likes of Barack Obama and we are so covered with government debt that…

In the previous post, EMR referred to International Living’s quality-of-life ranking, in which the U.S. scored only No. 7. Not bad, but not exactly consistent with the mantra of many that “We’re No. 1!” As it happens, Gallup has just produced a “well-being” ranking for the 50 U.S. states (though using a different methodology). What…

Before the comments on “Haiti’s Last Chance” (5 Feb 10) were deflected into the dysfunctional governance structure quagmire, Larry G. asked: “well in the case of Haiti, we think their GDP is too low – for the resources they have. That’s the implication, right?” “You’ve got two countries on the same island with about the…

Since revenues and taxes are on just about everyone’s minds these days, new ideas are always welcome. Here at Bacon’s Rebellion, all kinds of strategies have been pushed, including some rather complex ones such as a per-mile gas tax. Why not consider the most obvious tax of all — tobacco. Anti-smoking lobby the Campaign for…

Creating jobs in this jobless economic recovery is the priority for every politician of either party. It was President Barack Obama’s major goal during his State of the Union speech as it was for Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell who gave the rebuttal that was televised nationwide. Neither man seems to have much to offer in…

Sunday newspaper reading is always fun on a snow-bound morning. Amazingly my newspapers arrived on the driveway, except for The Washington Post which I had to drive to WaWa to buy. Of course, my mind is filled with the musings of Baconauts on Baconomics, which is actually a fairly simple body of knowledge. All you…

Here’s a fascinating online test being conducted by Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues at the University of Virginia that explores the differences in moral values between liberals and conservatives. You can take the “Moral Foundations Questionnaire” here. Here are my results. Fairness values: Fairness as egalitarianism (e.g., “ideally, everyone would end up with the same…

The speech President Obama will deliver in a few hours may be his last chance to make a difference over the next three years. In order to get elected he had to offer hope and belief in a change for the better. After an inspiring Inaugural speech, instead of taking on a thousand windmills, he…

One of the troubling things about this blog are the perceptions revealed by some of the commentators, especially about economic policy. There’s a steady drumbeat from some who take a rather unsophisticated view that President Barack Obama is some kind of wild socialist out to ruin free market economics. Dark and hidden agendas abound from…

There’s a scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” in which Eric Idle plays a corpse collector making the rounds of a plague-ridden village in the Dark Ages, crying “Bring out your dead, bring out your dead.” One peasant tries to pass off an old fellow as dead. The old guy moves, saying “I’m…