Category: Uncategorized
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Chap Petersen Is Rescuing Virginia’s Kids
by Kerry Dougherty State Senator Chap Petersen of Fairfax is a Democrat. I often disagree with his positions. But not when it comes to Covid restrictions. Especially the forced masking of school children. Former Gov. Ralph Northam was promiscuous in his use of executive orders, which stripped Virginians of many of their basic civil liberties.…
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Don’t Californicate Virginia Schools
The author was raised in Virginia and attended college here before moving to California. He and his wife have lived in Silicon Valley for 25 years but they follow news in Virginia with great interest. He has consented to let me publish his letter on the condition that I not provide his name. — JAB…
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What Was More “Political”: Heaphy’s Firing or His Hiring?
by James A. Bacon The Richmond Times-Dispatch ramped up the mainstream media’s criticism of Attorney General Jason Miyares in a story published over the weekend. The headline: “Jason Miyares removed the head lawyer at 3 state colleges. Professors and Democrats say he’s wielding excessive influence.” The initial wave of Miyares-critical stories, most prominently in The…
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Infrastructure Bill, Meet Richmond’s United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
by James C. Sherlock The President and members of Congress have celebrated the enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act into law. In Virginia and the other states (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia) of the federal Fourth Circuit, good luck with that. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit just published two…
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How to Befuddle an Old Lady
My 92-year-old mother takes this COVID business very seriously, as one would expect from someone in a high-risk group. She’s double vaxxed and boosted. And she is assiduous about testing herself and others who enter her house. At the same time, she’s frugal, and a testing two-pack costs about $25 at the drug store. So,…
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Jeanine’s Memes
From The Bull Elephant I don’t normally comment on memes, but this one provides a jumping off point to ask, what the hell were they thinking when they picked that name? Half the country is sick and tired of the self-righteous edicts, diktats and decrees emanating from Washington, D.C. — and the Washington football team…
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Boomergeddon Watch: We’re Right on Track
by James A. Bacon The U.S. national debt has passed a symbolically important milestone of $30 trillion. That’s up from the $13-$14 trillion when I wrote my book, “Boomergeddon,” in 2010 warning that the U.S. government was heading to functional insolvency by the late 2020’s or early 2030’s. I argued that higher deficits and debt…
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UVa Free Speech Committee Could Use Some Transparency
by Walter Smith In February of 2021 University of Virginia President Jim Ryan appointed a committee to articulate the university’s commitment to free speech and free inquiry. With great fanfare, the Board of Visitors “unequivocally” endorsed the tepid, politically correct statement on June 4, 2021. On June 7, 2021, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act…
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Atif Qarni’s Alternate Universe
by James A. Bacon Atif Qarni, Virginia’s recently- departed secretary of education, has penned an opinion piece for The Washington Post that raises an important question (and I’m not being hyperbolic here): Is the man who oversaw Virginia K-12 and higher-education system for four years under Governor Ralph Northam totally disconnected from reality? The thesis…
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Need an Organ Transplant? No Religious Exemptions from COVID Mandates
by James A. Bacon During an annual consultation with the University of Virginia organ transplant team in January, Shamgar Connors met with a social worker as part of a “psychosocial assessment.” The 42-year-old Stafford County resident, who was undergoing kidney dialysis 12 hours a day, was on the waiting list for a donor kidney. Hospital…
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The Games Have Begun
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Senate Democrats are up in arms over Governor Youngkin’s nomination of Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural Resources. Today, The Washington Post reports that Republicans have upped the stakes. It seems that a member of the State Corporation Commission is up for election. Angela Navarro was elected by the Democratically controlled 2021…
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Some Virginia Senate Democrats Vote in Committee to Define Deviancy Down
by James C. Sherlock The primary obligation of government has always been to protect its populace from harm. That is the basis of the social contract. The people give up absolute individual liberty to achieve group safety. Necessary restrictions on government power started in English-speaking countries with the Magna Carta. In the United States Constitution they…
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Makary on Mandates
by James A. Bacon For insight into Governor Glenn Youngkin’s approach to managing the COVID-19 epidemic, read the latest column by Marty Makary, a research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, in The Wall Street Journal. He argues that society is paying a high cost for disparaging the immunological resistance that arises from exposure to…
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Don’t Delay Electric Vehicles in Virginia
by Alleyn Harned In the 2022 General Assembly, Delegate Tony Wilt, R-Harrisonburg, has introduced legislation which will increase consumers’ transportation costs and maintain our dependence on foreign oil. Both consequences are unacceptable in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley region, which produces no oil and stands to benefit greatly from access to renewable technologies. On Friday, January…