As part of the ongoing dialogue on Bacon’s Rebellion about illegal immigration, I am perfectly willing to highlight facts and incidents that don’t conform to my “narrative” of the controversy. In past posts and comments, I have objected to those who stereotype the foes of illegal immigration (including myself, on occasion) as motivated by racial/ethnic…

In an exciting convention battle with more than 1,000 participants, Del. Rob Wittman, a first-term lawmaker from the Northern Neck, won the Republican nomination to fill the congressional seat of the late Rep. Jo Ann Davis of Gloucester. Wittman, a state employee for the Division of Shellfish Sanitation, touted his experience in local government. He…

The latest uproar over racism in Virginia is taking place at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg. There has been a huge outcry over the following: On Oct. 15, a freshman posted a flier, downloaded from the Internet, on the refrigerator of a dormitory lounge. As reported by the Free Lance-Star, the flier pictured a sobbing…

Here’s how I tell if a music CD is any good. I pop it in the computer and listen to it as background music while I work. If I like a song, I’ll play it over. If the tunes leave me with a good feeling, I’ll play the whole album over. If some of the…

Bacon’s Rebellion columnist Jim Bowden is engaged in an eleven-way race for the Republic nomination to fill the House of Representatives seat left vacant upon the passing of Jo Ann Davis. Bacon’s Rebellion does not endorse candidates for office, but it would be churlish of us not to highlight the high-profile political activities of our…

Photovoltaic solar cells capture the public imagination as a renewable energy source for homeowners, but nothing beats geothermal heating/cooling for proven efficiency and reliability. My dad installed a geothermal system when he built a house in Norfolk some two decades ago. As far as I know, it has worked trouble-free all those years, quietly racking…

It didn’t take long for the finger pointing to begin. Richard Viguerie, the Northern Virginia direct-mail guru who bills himself as “the funding father” of the conservative movement, maintains that Republicans lost eight General Assembly seats this week because its leaders had failed to stay true to their core values. Writes Viguerie in an e-mail…

I never got emotionally involved in this year’s General Assembly campaign, but I did my civic duty yesterday and voted. Last night, I didn’t bother to turn on the television and watch the returns. It wasn’t until this morning that I checked the Internet that I discovered that the Democrats have taken control of the…

I haven’t voted yet, but will after work. In the meantime, here’s a few things I’m going to be paying attention to in tonight’s returns: 1. Chesterfield County. The local races for the Board of Supervisors has been particulary heated and the main issue is growth. The Roanoke Times has taken a look at absentee…

As Virginians head to the polls today, traffic congestion is the number one issue on the minds of Northern Virginia voters, according to a recent poll conducted by the Dulles Corridor Rail Association. Illegal immigration is number two. Presumably those concerns will be motivating voters in key battleground districts up for grabs in today’s election…

Former Mexican President Vincente Fox opened his address to the Richmond Forum last night with an encomium to the Juans, the Marias, the Joses and all the other brave Mexicans who have immigrated to the United States to work hard and build a better life for themselves and their families. It was a heart-felt and…

Joining the Hispanic-bashing craze, Chesterfield County officials will hold a public hearing Nov. 14 to get public comment on “illegal immigrants” whom county officials claim cost more than $2 million annually in local services. This expense to local taxpayers is apparently so profound that county officials are considering a variety of punitive measures to stop…

On Wednesday, I posted a blog questioning the commitment of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to a “green” agenda in areas where it comes into hard conflict with the backers of Business As Usual. (See “The Greenwashing of the Kaine Administration.”) I wasn’t entirely fair. I need to set the record straight, at least regarding the…

Clayton Roberts, with the Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education, provides as concise a summary of the 2007 elections as anything I’ve read in the newspapers. I can add little insight, so I reproduce verbatim some of his comments made in an e-mail distribution today. Partisan control of the state Senate is up for…

Roanoke has launched a bicycle sharing program. It’s not quite the scale of the initiative in Paris, France, with its 10,000 bicycles, but the ShareBike initiative does let people sign out two-wheelers at “between five and 10 area businesses and organizations” to ride wherever pleasure or work takes them, reports the Roanoke Times. The rules…