Tag: Guest contributors
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A Broken Meritocracy
The following post has been extracted with permission from the book, An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy. by Kenny Xu There were just too many Asians. Thomas Jefferson High School for Mathematics and Science in Arlington, Virginia, is widely considered the best high school for math and…
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BBB Demise Is Also Labor-Rules Reprieve
by F. Vincent Vernuccio Yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV, gave an early Christmas present to Senators Mark Warner, D-VA, and Tim Kaine, D-VA, by declaring he would not support the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB). Virginia small businesses, job creators, and workers were wary of what the U.S. House passed in BBB, specifically…
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Voting Nullification
by Michael Fruitman and Jim McCarthy Other than the continued inanity of conspiracy theorists and theories about the theft of the 2020 presidential election, we may be grateful in this post-Thanksgiving moment that our ballots in that contest mattered and prevailed. Virginia turnout was 75% of registered voters (4.375 million). The Democrat garnered 2.413 million…
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A Speech Notable for Its Banality, Vanity and Hypocrisy
by William L. Respess “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.” — Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965), former governor of Illinois and twice unsuccessful democratic candidate for president against Dwight Eisenhower. I assume most persons aware of the turbulent year…
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Fairfax Schools Sex Survey Isn’t Just Intrusive, It’s Potentially Damaging
by Tyler Ohta Once again, the Fairfax County School Board has put its ideological priorities ahead of the educational needs of the children. Yes, the 12 Democrats sitting on the school board have sent out another youth sex survey, just like it does each year. The survey delivered during academic time to children in grades…
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An Open Letter to the VMI Corps
by Carter Melton Ladies and gentlemen of The Corps, greetings. My name is Carter Melton, a history major from Salem who graduated in 1967. For 30 years I was the president and CEO of one of the largest hospitals in Virginia and served two terms on the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors. I know…
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Will Election Fallout Extend to Local Union Push?
By F. Vincent Vernuccio Virginia’s new collective bargaining law is forcing local government officials to deal with a controversial issue fraught with potential errors and legal risks. If the 2021 election showed anything, it was that Virginia voters felt the Commonwealth was going in the wrong direction. The sweep of Republicans for governor, lieutenant governor,…
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Stop the Sign Thefts!
by Susan Lang Shelly Fularon Wood is running for Commonwealth Attorney in Chesapeake. She has handled more than 2,700 criminal cases in Virginia. She has experience working in the Norfolk Prosecutor’s office and was appointed by Chesapeake Circuit Court Judges to serve as a Substitute Judge. Despite these tremendous credentials, or maybe because of them,…
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VMI, Recognize Binnie Peay’s Distinguished Service
Here follows a letter from Salvatore J. Vitale, class agent of the Virginia Military Institute class of 1961. — JAB I am a graduate, and proud to be one, of the Virginia Military Institute’s Class of 1961. Since last summer, I and others of the VMI alumni have been pleased to note that Bacon’s Rebellion…
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Stronger Teacher Unions = Weaker Parents
Allowing collective bargaining will put yet another special interest ahead of the parents who simply want a say in what is best for their children. by F. Vincent Vernuccio First published by Virginia Works and reprinted with the author’s permission. Virginia parents soon could lose even more control over their children’s education. Parents frustrated with school…
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Who Will Guard the Guards?
by Michael Fruitman and Jim McCarthy Emily P. Newman is a member of the Virginia State Bar (VSB), admitted, i.e., licensed to practice, in 2012. Publicly available information reveals that Ms. Newman was a staffer in Congress and in the administration of Donald Trump up to the time of the election of Joe Biden. It…
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Northam Plastics Order Will Backfire
by Brett Vassey Governor Northam recently issued Executive Order 77 (EO 77) mandating all state agencies (including colleges and universities) to ban purchasing or using certain plastics products (primarily foodservice and trash bags) by October 2021, ban plastic bottled water, phase out all single-use plastic items by 2025, source and use non-plastic alternatives, and compost…
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Porn OK in Schools If It Has “Literary Value”?
by Deborah Hommer Parents all across the United States parents are discovering shocking reading materials in their school libraries and classrooms. We’re not talking about “Lady Chatterly’s Lover.” To give one particularly horrendous example, we’re talking graphic novels depicting fellatio and pedophilia. Many parents are asking, How can this be? The U.S. federal government and…
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The Tide Celebrates Ten Years of Waste
by Randal O’Toole The Tide, Norfolk’s light-rail line, has been open to the public for ten years. As noted in this article in The Virginian-Pilot, it opened 18 months late after a 60% cost overrun. The article claims the light-rail line carried its first million rides “five months ahead of original projections,” but that’s a transit…
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A Racially Divisive Disaster
by Marilyn Rainville As a retired teacher and mother of two raising a school-aged grandson, I am concerned about what is being taught in the Virginia’s public schools. Two weeks ago, I spoke at a Mathews County School Board meeting to voice my concerns about Critical Race Theory. The school Superintendent declared that our county…