Bacon's Rebellion

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Virtue Signal With Somebody Else’s Morning

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by

Steve Haner
in

Yesterday it was nice. This morning brings a downpour. Being in this line today will be less fun. Making everybody with legislative staff, state employee or registered lobbyist badges get screened and scanned before entering the Pocahontas Building to do (or watch) the people’s business will get us all soaked. (Even U.S. Senator Tim Kaine got caught in it …for a while.)

Hey I get it, being “tough on guns” is vital, a virtue, and what good is virtue if you do not signal it? In 36 years of almost daily attendance to General Assembly sessions, the occasions when something stupid was done with a gun inside the General Assembly buildings usually involved legislators themselves. No legislator stood in this line yesterday — they sailed past us. 

The line at this point was a mix of people with badges and those without, and those without turned left at the building corner and moved down toward Main Street and the front public entrance. The general public has always been screened. The rest of us with badges could use the Bank Street doors and just wave at the guards unless they decided somebody needed screening. This is why I spent $100 to renew my lobbyist badge this year.

Maybe today there will be more than two scanners on Main Street and one on Bank Street? Or maybe today they will trust us known regulars to abide by the new rule against guns just like we’ve complied patiently with all the rest of the rules? Frankly, the Second Amendment activists who did come armed in past years never caused a problem, either. I always felt safe when they were all there, even if it meant never getting near the elevators.

—  SDH

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10 responses to “Virtue Signal With Somebody Else’s Morning”

  1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
    Reed Fawell 3rd

    Good reporting.

    Now the horrible reality of how the ruling class revels in its power within the leviathan state raises its prideful and ugly head, fully exposed, for all the peons to see, and obey. Its leftist future is now.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      The ruling class got an earful from many of us. The Times-Dispatch reports an “express line” will be available this morning for badged employees, but apparently only those without bags or briefcases. That isn’t most of us most of the time.

      1. Reed Fawell 3rd Avatar
        Reed Fawell 3rd

        Right, you and your kind at particularly targeted in the bag and briefcase rule to insure that you know you can’t be trusted, and to insure you know who rules you.

        Leftist regime leaders always impose fear, intimidation, and humiliation on others, so as to control, manipulate every one else. This of course includes the language that others are allowed use. Hence the first act of these leftists was the pronoun rules. This is only the beginning of abuse.

  2. V N Avatar
    V N

    If they want us to do without guns, let them do with out them. Good for the goose, good for the gander.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    You sound like a grumpy old man:

    https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDY3MmZjN2EtNjE4OC00MGQ2LWFhZDUtYzBiOWE3ZTk2ZTk0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_CR0,45,480,270_AL_UX477_CR0,0,477,268_AL_.jpg

    this is standard operating procedures these days at more and more places and especially government offices.

    They got a few kinks to deal with – give it a day or so at least for them to stifle their virtue signaling….

    😉

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Takes one to know one. As I pointed out in another string, for four years I was responsible to the Attorney General for the security of that building, our staff and visitors. The bad guys are gonna get in if they want, or shoot up the lobby trying. This is not an airport where you need to shake people down for the little stuff in their pockets or dangerous liquids – scanning just for guns is way easier than this.

      Plus, yeah, I foolishly forgot and left my umbrella INSIDE the building in my locker yesterday afternoon so that adds to my irritation. 🙂 Because of that I’m watching the Senate Finance meeting on line, and I note the meeting room is largely empty, a sign the World is still outside in line trying to get in.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        I went to see the Wright Memorial 100th Anniversary of Wright Brothers Flight a few years back and I had to give up a valued pocket knife to get in. I’m still pissed about it.

        Every year, we go to the State Fair and every year they go through our day packs – take them apart … it’s a pain in the buttocks…

        I’m shocked that the GA does not have at least that level of security until now.

        No.. you cannot stop every single crazy with a weapon – stipulated – but you CAN stop most of them with weapons capable of mass killings.

        I have a hard time seeing this as “leftist virtue signaling” myself and to be honest, that’s part of our conversation problems these days.

        We can’t have one it seems without impugning those we don’t agree with… We can trace evil ill known to mankind to those we don’t agree with these days, eh?

  4. johnrandolphofroanoke Avatar
    johnrandolphofroanoke

    I guarantee you the fire escape door in the electrical closet is propped wide open. The people that are on the inside never play by their own rules.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      Where I worked – you’d get a visit from the Guards and the offending miscreant would be severely dealt with.

      I know that the airlines are now using something called “clear”: ” Clear taps into biometric scanning technology to let travelers skip through the airport security and identification procedures — and the lines leading up to them. Clear uses a traveler’s fingerprints and iris image scans to confirm identity”

      that gives you the ability to let everyone in with a “clearance” and to send the visitors to a more in-depth scan.

      this is common sense these days… but for places that have to stand up additional security – it’s a struggle – especially if their organization is not forward thinking.

      There are two jobs I would NEVER have: toll booth operator (or the guy who checks vehicles with propane at the Hampton Tunnel” and the guys who are “security” at the entrances to buildings. It’s got to be 99 44/100% boredom and .5% life-threatening terror.

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