Tag: James A. Bacon
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Homicide Charges for Drug Dealers — Yes!
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin has told Southwest Virginia law enforcement officials that he would sign a bill charging drug dealers with homicide if they sold illegal drugs that resulted in an overdose death. With the number of fatal overdoses exceeding 100,000 a year across the U.S., drug addiction is a scourge in…
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Cultural Death Wish
by James A. Bacon In my previous post I gave a just-the-facts-ma’am account of the controversy over the appearance of gay- and fat-rights performance artist Kimberly Dark at the Virginia Military Institute. In this column, I’ll give my personal reaction. There are three elements to the controversy (1) the incident is solid evidence that VMI…
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Does VMI Oppress Fat People?
by James A. Bacon Last night the Virginia Military Institute hosted Kimberly Dark, a gay- and fat-rights activist, at its Gender Inclusion Dinner. The VMI website has published no information about the event. But in her website, Dark said she intended to address “the ways in which women and LGBTQ+ cadets, along with those who…
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Dysfunction Junction
It’s a close call, but I’d say that Portsmouth now has edged out Charlottesville as the most dysfunctional city in Virginia. The latest news: former Portsmouth City Manager Angel Jones is threatening to file a lawsuit against the city. Not only does she allege wrongful termination, Jones cites “major crimes involving public corruption” among city…
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Things Fall Apart: Virginia Homelessness Up 7%
by James A. Bacon An estimated 5,335 people lived in homeless shelters in Virginia in 2021, a 7% increase from the previous year, according to an article in Stacker, a national nonprofit news source. The Old Dominion ranked 10th nationally in the size of its percentage increase since 2020. Nationally, the number of people living…
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Virginia Not Ready to Criminalize Parents Who Reject Child’s Transgender Identity. Not Yet.
by James A. Bacon Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, D-Prince William, stirred the hornet’s nest when she told WJLA last week that she would reintroduce a bill to expand the definition of child abuse to include inflicting “physical or mental injury” on children due to their gender identity or sexual orientation. Republicans criticized the criminalization of parental…
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On the Road Again…
Governor Glenn Youngkin is flying across the country to yet another political event next week, this time to Oregon in support of gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan. But he may be shifting his focus to election races closer to home. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, he has launched a new super PAC, Empowering Virginia Parents, and…
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Data of the Day: 5-Year Enrollment Trends
A week ago I published data showing the winners and losers among public Virginia four-year colleges and universities in the enrollment sweepstakes for the 2022-23 academic year. Larry Houseworth, a Virginia Military Institute alumnus, has shared the table above showing the five-year record. For most institutions, declining/increasing enrollment this year represents a continuation of trends…
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Virginia May Have Elected a Republican Governor, But It Still Skews Blue
by James A. Bacon Virginia may have elected three Republicans to statewide office last year, but it’s still a blue state. It’s not a deep blue state, but a solid plurality of voters identify as Democrats. In the latest Wason Center poll, 35% of respondents said they generally consider themselves to be Democrats, compared to…
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Statues, Vengeance, and Ritual Humiliation
by James A. Bacon The movement to expunge Confederate statues from the public realm has reached a tipping point. It started with the proposition that many people, Blacks especially, found sculptures honoring the defenders of a slave nation to be offensive, regardless of the meaning the memorials conveyed to others. But the rhetoric has transmogrified…
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Police Bias in Traffic Stops? Still No Proof.
by James A. Bacon The Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has published a new report that finds that Black and Hispanic drivers in Virginia are more likely to be stopped than Whites, and they are more likely to be searched and arrested. However, the report also says there isn’t enough data to draw definitive…
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No Grades, No Discipline, No Structure, No Learning
by James A. Bacon Albemarle High School opened the 2021-22 school year in a state of chaos after a year of COVID closings, and it never recovered, according to The Crozet Gazette. To ease students back into the rigors of a regular school day, the school stopped imposing penalties on students for skipping or being…
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Norfolk’s Self-Defunding Police Force
Shootings are becoming such a problem in downtown Norfolk that city officials are cracking down on nightclubs that violate city ordinances — inspiring charges of racism in the process. Good luck holding down the homicide rate, guys. If you shut down a nightclub, you don’t eliminate demand for partying and booze. Local businessmen will set…
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A Virginia Novel of Politics and Scandal in the Age of Wokeism
by James A. Bacon David Shephard, publisher of The Virginia Gentleman blog, has followed politics in the Old Dominion for many years, and he has long admired the Garrett Epps novel, The Shad Treatment, a fictional rendering of the 1973 gubernatorial contest between Mills Godwin and Henry Howell. Shephard’s recently published book, Elections Have Consequences,…