Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Raise Them Pitchforks High! The Rebellion is Back!

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Bacon’s Rebellion’s

rebels are back, branding their metaphorical pitchforks and gesticulating alarmingly! You can read the Oct. 15, 2007 edition here. The website contains archives of five years’ worth of back columns, profiles of our contributors, and a search tool.

Make sure you don’t miss an issue of our in-depth columns and articles — sign up for a free subscription here.

If you’re too darned lazy to click over to the website, well, we still aim to please. Here are today’s featured columns:

Taxes, Government and Prosperity
Virginia can’t tax its way to prosperity, but starving critical assets like roads and schools won’t create wealth either. The solution: Demand productivity and innovation from state and municipal government.
by James A. Bacon

A Bottle of Exhaust
An innovative Virginia could use a state R&D tax credit and a global view.
by Doug Koelemay

Tulips and the Maritime Highway
Moving goods on water rather than roads can be a good thing, but it’s only a tiny part of the solution. Creating a sustainable trajectory for civilization requires shipping goods shorter distances.
by EM Risse

There They Go Again
The Fairfax County staff used every trick in the book rebutting the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s analysis of the county budget, but there’s no hiding the fact that spending needs outside oversight.
by Michael Thompson

Election Pre-Mortem
It’s looking grim for General Assembly Republicans in this November’s election. Here’s why they’re likely to lose — and how losing can be the best thing that happens to them.
by Norm Leahy

Plato’s Cave
Some may rejoice at the decline of the “Mainstream Media” but cuts in news staffs threaten to leave us ill informed about what’s happening around the world. No number of blogs can make up for it.
by Peter Galuszka

Nice & Curious Questions
Anglers in Virginia: From Roanoke Bass to Green Sunfish
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

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15 responses to “Raise Them Pitchforks High! The Rebellion is Back!”

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    In addition to never having graduated beyond the anti-establishment revolutionary rhetoric of the sixties, Ed Riss has now become the Jack Kevorkian of the environmental movement.

  2. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    well .. I dutifully went and read
    Plato’s Cave by Peter Galuszka and here’s my take.

    Unfortunately.. nice guys/gals who also happen to be good journalists that write credible and insightful info about important issues – are .. not necessarily entitled to a job doing this…

    we all agree that teachers are worth more than they are paid and that we need more of them but we cannot afford them… life can be unfair…

    so .. the strategy of having irate readers call the media big-shots to lobby for more good (costly) journalism is .. really going to fall on deaf ears .. not because these company leaders are tight-fisted meanies shafting their journalists… but simply because over the longer term.. you can’t survive if you pay out more in salaries than you take in – with revenue and you can bend Macy’s arm all you want but they’re not going to buy more ads that they want/need… just so 3 more journalists can stay employed.

    There’s another way to think about this – and that is that the advertising world (the cash cow of MM) has not crashed and burned into a heap never to fly again… but instead is alive and well… having flown to a new venue.

    AND there are folks who are now making money from advertising that did not use to.

    The money is still “out there” but the business model has changed and media companies must adapt and evolve or go away.

    Wait until quitting time to go cry in your beer…

    I feel quite confident that we are NOT witnessing the end of good journalism though I am quite sympathetic to those whose careers are affected by the upheaval.

    The day that I hear that the NYT had to lay off Maureen Dowd is the day when I might change my mind – though.

  3. NOT ED RISSE Avatar
    NOT ED RISSE

    Ed Risse wants “fewer people” and “less consumption per capita.”

    Mother Earth is suffering from having borne too many over consuming children.

    Ed Risse is a rather large tall human who requires massive amounts of feed from Mother Earth to sustain his outsized body.

    We are talking size variable consumption costs that Risse and the Chinese government have failed to take into account in their over-population metrics.

    It turns out that the sustainability problem isn’t that there are too many people on earth; it is the outsized humans like Risse that are over-consuming and destroying the Planet’s resources.

    Perhaps China could reduce per capita consumption by genetically engineering smaller shorter humans who would consume less and thereby allow more humans to live sustainably and simultaneously on the Planet Earth.

    Actually, most socialist countries have already found another way to keep their citizens short and small, it’s called protein deprivation.

    It is too late for large tall humans like Risse. People whose bodies require more than the median human sustainable sustenance level at the A-Metric should be taxed to cover their size variable sustainability costs. (Don’t worry, if you don’t understand all the terminology, we will be publishing a dictionary in our upcoming CHINLO-G)

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    It is unfortuanate that Fairfax County is not willing to listen to any constructive criticism regarding the budget. That said, any independent, supposedly objective, analysis that starts off with a presumed correct premise is probably DOA. Tying the analysise to population growth and CPI is way oversimplistic. Thomas Jefferson should get an outside review of their recommendations before they are put forward.

    RH

  5. gooze news Avatar
    gooze news

    Larry Gross,
    Thanks for your comment on Plato’s Cave. While there is no question that the old business model is under assault, I think it needs to be pointed out that big media companies ARE still making money on news outlets — sometimes a lot of money. Not long ago, it wasn’t uncommon for tv stations to rack up gross margins of more than 50 percent. Newspapers were in the 20s. With the assault by the Web and other dicing ups, those margins have been cut but they still are margins good enough to make the newspapers a go. Pick up any metro SUnday paper and watch all the advertising pre-print fall on the floor.
    The real choice for some newspapers is whether to continuing gutting staff when margins go to 16 percent when maybe they could get by with 10 or 12 percent and still serve the public as they should. Not a good example, I know, but if General Motors ever gets to 5 percent margins, it’s a revolution.
    What’s happened is that a lot of directors of media firms have abandoned their First Amendment responsibilities and have caved to short-term minded Wall Street analysts. Contrbuting has been the lack of imagination by the corpurate suits to come up with viable, healthy revenue alternatives.

    -Peter Galuszka

  6. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    NOTE TO NOT ED RISSE

    We are sure you had a lot of fun writing this but the free market is already way ahead of you.

    As you know there is a direct correlation between height and income. Being tall means that one earns more on average and thus can pay the extra cost for added consumption.

    For the record we support the recent airlines bid to charge extra for heavy passengers.

    We also support food establishments that change by weight for meals. Stop by Wegmans for lunch. The best buffet in Warrenton changes by weight.

    Most cheap Autonomobiles have substandard leg room and head room. Being tall we have always been required to buy larger and more expensive vehicles and pay more for gas.

    We are all for paying a fair allocation for being taller or heavier.

    At 6 foot 4 and 230 we are 10% over average plus or minus. You may have noted that free choice and better food has increased the average size of humans so we are becoming more average.

    If we lived at one person per acre average at the Alpha Community scale we would have to pay 10 times as much for the total cost of locations variable costs as we would at 10 persons per acre at the Alpha Community scale. That is almost 100 times worse than being 10% over average.

    We will be happy to pay our fair share if everyone else does.

    EMR

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    EMR,
    Please don’t ask me to ask the obvious question.

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Oh his head is bigger, no doubt about that.

    Glad to see Risse admits he consumes more than the average person.

    Obviously being required to “buy larger and more expensive vehicles and pay more for gas” as Risse admits is just a reluctant admission that NER is on to something when he proposes that outsized humans like Risse pay higher taxes to offset their admittedly higher carbon footprint.

  9. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    BREAKING NEWS!

    Ed Risse blows the whistle on himself.

    “We also support food establishments that change by weight for meals. Stop by Wegmans for lunch.”

    So Risse, the apostle of the small, admits he patronizes the biggest BIG BOX grocery store in America!

    Guess he needs the discounted food to keep that outsized hulk alive.

  10. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Anonymous, I would suggest that you would be more effective if you criticized Ed Risse’s ideas than try to lampoon him personally. It’s open season on Ed’s arguments and facts. Fire away. But I discourage personal attacks and insults on this blog — they add nothing to the debate.

  11. NOT ED RISSE Avatar
    NOT ED RISSE

    E M Risse wrote, “Creating a sustainable trajectory for civilization requires shipping goods shorter distances.”

    Most economists would argue the opposite.

    Creating a sustainable healthy prosperous world requires global free trade and specialization that only comes with shipping goods longer distances.

    Eat locally, ship globally.

    To maintain optimal health, I want my blueberries available at my local grocery store year round.

    Last time I checked, there aren’t many bananas, oranges, kiwis, avocados, etc. grown within 100 miles of Risse’s rural Virginia home office.

    Risse’s ideas continue to be dangerous to those of us who love freedom and the prosperity it brings.

  12. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    E M Risse wrote, “Creating a sustainable trajectory for civilization requires shipping goods shorter distances.”

    Most economists would argue the opposite.

    MOST ECONOMISTS, BUT NOT ALL. “MOST ECONOMISTS” WORK FOR LARGE ENTERPRISES AND LARGE AGENCIES AND LARGE INSTITUTIONS (E.G. UNIVERSITIES) THAT PROFIT FROM MASS OVERCONSUMPTION.

    Creating a sustainable healthy prosperous world requires global free trade and specialization that only comes with shipping goods longer distances.

    SHIPPING SOME THINGS, NOT MORE AND MORE THINGS.

    Eat locally, ship globally.

    To maintain optimal health, I want my blueberries available at my local grocery store year round.

    WITH A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD THE BEST BUY IN BLUEBERRIES WOULD BE FROM A LOCAL GREENHOUSE HEATED WITH WASTE HEAT FROM THE LOCAL SEWERAGE TREATMENT PLANT

    Last time I checked, there aren’t many bananas, oranges, kiwis, avocados, etc. grown within 100 miles of Risse’s rural Virginia home office.

    THERE IS NO “RURAL” IN VIRGINIA, BUT THERE IS WASTE HEAT TO GROW THINGS FOR WHICH THERE IS A MARKET.

    Risse’s ideas continue to be dangerous to those of us who love freedom and the prosperity it brings.

    WHICH IDEA IS DANGEROUS? FREE MARKET OR DEMOCRACY?

    EMR

  13. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    At 9:04 PM, Anonymous said…

    Oh his head is bigger, no doubt about that.

    Glad to see Risse admits he consumes more than the average person.

    Obviously being required to “buy larger and more expensive vehicles and pay more for gas” as Risse admits is just a reluctant admission that NER is on to something when he proposes that outsized humans like Risse pay higher taxes to offset their admittedly higher carbon footprint.

    WE WILL BE HAPPY TO PAY FOR CONSUMPTION OF GASOLINE WITH A CARBON TAX.

    WE DRIVE LESS THAN 2,500 MILES A YEAR PER VEHICLE.

    At 9:10 PM, Anonymous said…

    BREAKING NEWS!

    Ed Risse blows the whistle on himself.

    “We also support food establishments that change by weight for meals. Stop by Wegmans for lunch.”

    THIS DOES NOT SAY WE BUY LUCH THERE.

    ACTUALLY WE DO FROM TIME TO TIME. WE GO TO THE CORE ABOUT ONCE A MONTH AND CHAIN TRIPS.

    So Risse, the apostle of the small, admits he patronizes the biggest BIG BOX grocery store in America!

    HAVE YOU SEEN HEB?

    Guess he needs the discounted food to keep that outsized hulk alive.

    NEPOLEON COMPLEX ANYONE?

    WE ALREADY SAID WE WOULD PAY BASED ON WHAT WE CONSUME.

    EMR

  14. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Sure, Ed.

    If you can’t refute the facts, then attack and denigrate the source. Especailly if you can paint it with that anti-establishment, business as usual pait brush.

    “WE DRIVE LESS THAN 2,500 MILES A YEAR PER VEHICLE.”

    Well yeah, but you are mostly retired. Try working for a living and driving 2500 miles. When I lived on an isalnd I drove more than that to work. If you would get just a little bit real, you might get some listeners.

    And let’s get off the big box crap. When Walmart in Warrenton was a big controversy, it wasn’t uncommon to see Fauquier cars with “No Walmart” stickers, at the Walmart in Manassas, or Wincester for that matter.

    The opponents (you know the ones in Manassas with their car) claimed both that Walmart would would increase traffic and cut business at local stores. It seemed to me that was a matter of moving traffic, not reducing it. Of course you could reduce VMT by not driving to Manassas to WalMart.

    95% of everyone in the U.S. has shopped at WalMart, so get over it.

    I really don’t care where Ed buys his stuff, or how far he drives, as long as he doesn’t try to tell me what he thinks I should do.

    RH

  15. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    REDIRECTION

    Larry G and Peter G tried to get a word in edgewise on Peter Gs column on the fate of journalism but it has been over ridden by folks poking sticks at the Fox.

    Peter did a great job with his column and we posted a note back on the “Now For a Little Left of Center” post of 15 October for those who want to follow up on the journalism issue.

    EMR

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