Category: Uncategorized
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Is Washington and Lee Committing Suicide?
by Kenneth G. Everett One of my ’64 classmates, and a good friend throughout our four years at Washington and Lee University, grew up in a Chicago suburb and graduated from a top high school there. Once during an idle moment while we were studying for a Charlie Turner exam in European history, I asked…
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RVA 5×5: Monopoly on Richmond
by Jon Baliles There has been a lot of chatter this week about Monopoly doing a Richmond version featuring notable places and landmarks to replace the well-known properties like St. James’ Place, Reading Railroad, and Boardwalk. According to Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the creators of Monopoly want to hear from YOU about what…
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Engaging Differences — or Imposing Conformity?
by James A. Bacon In its March board meeting, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors addressed the topic of intellectual diversity. The unspoken assumption among some board members was that there is precious little diversity in the philosophical outlook of UVa’s faculty, which skews heavily to the left, or the courses they teach. But…
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RVA 5×5: Incentivizing Derelicts
by Jon Baliles Housing has become a vital issue all across our region; it is a pressing need, but not simple to resolve. It will be with us for some time to come and we have to seek out a multi-prong strategy to address it. But there are some steps that can be taken to…
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Is a Reckoning Coming for the Management and Administrative Costs at Virginia’s State Colleges and Universities?
by James C. Sherlock In 2015, Professor Paul Campos of the University of Colorado at Boulder wrote an op-ed for The New York Times that clarified for many a major issue in the rising costs of a college education — the exponential growth of the number and costs of administrators. According to the Department of Education…
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Southern Domination and Beaver Nuggets.
by Kerry Dougherty Sick of politics? Me too. Let’s change it up today. I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty much an expert on roadside food joints and truck stops. No, not that way, you perverts. I simply love road trips, which means frequent stops for food and fuel. Most truck stops are sort…
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Lords of the Lie
by James A. Bacon I never imagined it possible to exceed the vitriol heaped upon University of Virginia board member Bert Ellis over the past few months. I thought for sure that the nastiness would die down. I was naive. Yesterday the Democratic Party of Virginia labeled him a “eugenicist” — an advocate of the…
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Virginia is the Future
by Arthur Bloom I want to tell you why I like The 1619 Project. It has nothing to do with the history, all of which is known to any well-educated Virginian. Of course, these things are fundamentally propagandistic exercises, any leftist worth his salt would tell you that too. But it was symbolically very important.…
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Soft-On-Crime Va. Democrats’ Offal Proposal
by Kerry Dougherty Oh look. Another garbage bill courtesy of Virginia’s soft-on-crime Democrats! Want to see what’s coming our way if Dems regain control of the General Assembly and Governor’s Mansion? Check out SB1080. Yep, a gaggle of Virginia’s leading lefties pushed a measure that would classify felons younger than 21 as JUVENILES. Virginia law…
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“Anti-Racism” in Action: Fairfax Schools Edition
by James A. Bacon Do you have an 8th grader who wants to go to college? Does he or she fall into one of several marginalized groups, including Black or Hispanic racial/ethnic identity? If so, Fairfax County has a special College Partnership Program to help. Although the program apparently allows Whites and Asian students to…
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Massive New Bureaucracy in JMU Faculty Hiring Procedures
The Academic Affairs Guidelines for Recruiting and Hiring Instructional Faculty manual provides a glaring look into the bureaucratic and deeply troubling hiring procedures for faculty at James Madison University. Highly bureaucratic systems and policies are nothing new in American higher education, but this manual of edicts from the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice…
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RVA 5×5: Restoring A Richmond Treasure
by Jon Baliles One of Richmond’s favorite architectural wonders and spooky places is the Pump House along the Kanawha Canal and adjacent to the Boulevard Bridge. It has been the target and talk of renovations and adaptive reuses for almost a century since it closed in 1924 (the city wanted to tear it down in…
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RVA 5×5: RVA = DIY
by Jon Baliles Jack Jacobs at Richmond Biz Sense has an update about the ongoing fallout from the collapse of the Enrichmond Foundation last summer. All of the small organizations that used Enrichmond as a fiduciary lost access to their money (which may be gone for good; stay tuned) and other things like insurance coverage.…
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Putting Victims First. For A Change.
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that you are the victim of a violent crime. The perpetrator has been arrested and you thought he was about to go on trial when you learn that your local prosecutor — one of those squishy soft-on-crime types who was bankrolled by George Soros — already entered into…