Earlier, I forecast a dire future for Hampton Roads. Now it’s time to issue a jeremiad about Richmond. The recession is battering the economy severely. When the wind and rain dies down, the corporate landscape will look very different than it does today. LandAmerica, a Fortune 500 company that provides real estate-related financial services, is…

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Hussein Obama for his symbolic victory. However ill gotten the gains, a black man was elected President of the United States of America. There is no racial barrier to the most powerful position in the world. That’s good news for anyone who imagined there was such a barrier in 2008. It…

Del. David Poisson, D-Loudoun, has introduced legislation that would establish a joint subcommittee “to study the desirability and feasibility of replacing the state motor fuel tax with a mileage-based fee predicated on vehicle-miles traveled in Virginia.” Needless to say, I am excited to hear this news, as I have been advocating a mileage-based tax for…

Fellow bloggers, Call me crazy, but according to Page 16 in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, John McCain beat Barack Obama 54,013 to 14,548. Jim Gimore got 54,013 to Mark Warner’s 14,548. Now how can that be? I thought Richmond would go blue. And each set of Republican victors got exactly the same votes — ditto…

My 24-year-old daughter, Sara Bacon, went to the polls in Richmond yesterday to vote. She’d never had much interest in politics before, but she’d made the effort this year to research both of the presidential candidates and make a choice. But when she arrived at the polling station, she was informed that there was no…

Tuesday night’s triumph for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party is truly a turning point for the nation and the Old Dominion, even though saying so sounds as trite as a newspaper headline. For Virginia, it was the first time that the state voted for a Democratic president since 1964 and, in doing so; it…

Fool that I am, I thought I’d beat the crowd to the polls this morning. I showed up at the Tuckahoe precinct voting station in Henrico County around 6 a.m. only to be greeted by a long line snaking out of the building and into the parking lot. I guess a few other people were…

Autumn in Chesterfield County has finally taken on its dusky, orange and yellow beauty, just in time for tomorrow’s election which promises to be historic. Early in the morning, I’ll go down to the rural Methodist Church, slide past the aggressive campaign workers, show my driver’s license and do my duty. Here in largely white…

In my new capacity as SVP-publishing at The Boomer Project, one of my jobs is to scan the horizon for emergent trends relating to the sociology and psychology of Baby Boomers and other generations (Silent Generation, GenX and GenY) and blog about them on the Boomer Consumer blog. Those insights, and those culled by Boomer…

Our very own James A. Bacon wrote a blog about a week ago predicting tough times for Hampton Roads. Although Jim claims to be independent, that’s BS. We really know where his sympathies lie. Basically, Jim believes that an Obama win will be bad for Tidewater. He wrote: “I’m not making a partisan statement or…

Some of you have noticed that the format of the Bacon’s Rebellion blog has changed. Here’s the story: Blogger “upgraded” its software and induced me to incorporate the new features. In so doing, the blog roll, “about us” text and other features that had been part of the old blog disappeared. My HTML skills are…

Here’s a puzzle. Why is it that Virginia has so many cosmopolitan advantages useful in the global economy yet there is so much reactionary xenophobia particularly in areas where the thinking should be more advanced? The Old Dominion is next door to the nation’s capital, has a plethora of U.S. government and non-governmental agencies, top-ranked…

Last week Thomas L. Friedman’s most recent book was at the top of WaPo’s nonfiction best sellers list. This week it is number four. Footnote: EMR got his hands on a nonsanctioned lite book –a LARGE PRINT version – so he went to the Greater Warrenton Borders for one that is easier to read. In…

Congratulations to “darrell…Chesapeake” on a 15 percent profit in 30 minutes. And thank you for documenting EMR’s point. You make all those who say the stock market is not a gambling venue look like duffuses. James Atticus Bowden says one could made 7 percent (compounded?) from the stock market over the period 1790 to 2008.…

Running a cost-efficient government means paying attention to the details. In his latest column, Mike Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, describes one idea that has saved the state millions of dollars — and points to other reforms that can save millions more. Thompson serves on the Regulatory Reform Commission, a…