Tag: James A. Bacon
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Bacon Bits: Law and Order Edition
Lord of the Flies update. In late January a fight broke out after a basketball game between Deep Run High School and Glen Allen High School in the affluent West End of Henrico County. One student reportedly suffered a broken nose. According to WWBT-Channel 12, brawls had occurred “several times” over the previous two weeks.…
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UVa Needs A Follow-Up Campus-Climate Survey
by James A. Bacon In 2018, during the last months of the Teresa Sullivan presidency, the University of Virginia conducted an extensive survey — polling some 6,000 students, faculty and staff — to provide guidance for ongoing “institutional transformation.” In a key question, respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement that…
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Dumbing Down the Thomas Jefferson School
Well, that didn’t take long! After loosening up its admissions requirements in order to rebalance the demographic make-up of the student body, the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, is dealing with a problem never experienced there before — many of its students now require math tutoring. The image at left…
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Who’s “Marginalized” at UVa? Political Conservatives, That’s Who.
by James A. Bacon What does it tell you about the freedom of speech and expression at the University of Virginia when in 2018 one-fifth of the university community (students, faculty and staff) described itself as various degrees of conservative and three-fifths identified as various degrees of liberal — a three-to-one ratio — but two…
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Is It Even Possible to Get More Lopsided Than This?
by James A. Bacon Two years ago, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan issued remarks outlining his vision for making UVa an institution that is both “great” and “good.” In his view, a critical strategy for achieving that goal was recruiting and retaining the “best people,” whether students faculty, or staff. “To do this we…
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Creeping Totalitarianism of the Woke at William & Mary
by James A. Bacon Katherine Rowe has brought about sweeping changes to the College of William & Mary since becoming president in 2018. Most notable has been her implementation of a program of social justice under the banner of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). In words crafted for public consumption, her vision sounds benign. Consider,…
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Things Fall Apart: Fare-Jumping Edition
by James A. Bacon Thirty-four percent of all Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bus riders are not paying their fares, reducing revenues by $10 million in the second half of 2021 alone, reports The Washington Post. That’s up from 17% in unpaid fares two years previously. Bacon’s Rebellion readers may be reassured to know that…
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Nineteen Millionth Nervous Breakdown
by James A. Bacon Two dozen students occupied the central lobby of James Madison University’s Alumnae Hall for 90 minutes last week. The group issued a list of demands, the most notable of which was increased funding and staff for the Counseling Center. Protest leaders read from some 50 testimonies submitted by students, reports the…
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The Cultural Bankruptcy of “Cultural Appropriation”
by James A. Bacon Yesterday my son and I visited the Man Ray exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Man Ray was the Annie Liebowitz of his day, photographing the celebrated poets, painters, novelists, singers, dancers, and composers of Paris in the 1920s, a time in which the City of Light was the…
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The Peasants Must Be Controlled
by James A. Bacon It caused a brouhaha last year when U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned the FBI to look into threats of violence against local school officials by parents protesting woke school policies. The announcement struck many as paranoid and detached from reality, but it apparently reflected a widespread concern by local officials…
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Lab Schools — Vo-cation or Woke-ation?
by James A. Bacon It took the state Senate no time this session — 10 minutes, to be exact, reports The Virginia Mercury — to dispense with proposed legislation to make it easier to start charter schools in Virginia. Now Governor Glenn Youngkin is pinning his hopes for promoting school choice upon the idea of…
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Metro Not Getting Back on Track Any Time Soon… Says Metro
by James A. Bacon The pre-pandemic financial model for the Washington Metro, the largest mass transit system in Virginia, is not sustainable, and it’s time to re-envision the system to recognize the new traffic patterns, General Paul J. Wiedefeld testified to a Congressional oversight committee yesterday. Metro officialdom is scrambling to plug a another $500…
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No CRT to See Here. Move Along Now.
The University of Virginia paid $32,500 to Critical Race Theory popularizer Ibram Kendi to discuss “racial equity” for an hour. The university contracted with Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, according to an agreement obtained by The Daily Wire through the Freedom of Information Act. The virtual event took place April 21 last year, and 876…
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Things Fall Apart: From the Mountains to the Sea Edition
by James A. Bacon There are more signs in the news today that the social fabric is fraying across Virginia: (1) a teacher poll showing that 39% of Newport News teachers and staff are thinking about quitting; and (2) concerns that urban violence is spilling out of Roanoke into nearby Blacksburg. For good measure, I’ll…