A familiar cycle is about to kick-off again in Virginia. The final SOL scores are going to be released to the public soon (they were actually due in August). You know what’s going to happen. Public school critics will cherry-pick whatever numbers that favor them and use the information to further their argument that public […]
New Polling Suggests Public Concerns Changing
Last November Democrats stemmed a “Red Tide” by riding one major issue – the right of women to control their own personal and reproductive health. Polls and commentators generally agreed that the backlash against the fall of Roe v. Wade kept Democrats close in the U.S. House, and kept them in power in the U.S. […]
A Labor Day Reflection
If it is true that capitalism has created more opportunity for more people than any other economic system in world history, it’s equally true that it’s delivered considerable pain – economic and psychological – to the people without whom capitalism could not produce the wealth it does. America’s laborers. These are hardly new observations. In […]
OBIT/COMMENTARY: The World Still Needs Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett – who passed away Thursday – made us laugh at ourselves and at others. And he no doubt triggered the moralists in the world. Yes – we’re talking about the self-righteous zealots of Spotsylvania County and across the country who find things like human sexuality dirty, drinking an abomination, and religious satire an unforgiveable sin. […]
OPINION: Want to improve education? Instill love of learning
In the education wars, data is our ammunition. And according to a growing majority of Americans, that data says we’re missing the target. Education is failing. Elementary. Middle. High school. College. Graduate school. It doesn’t matter the level; if it receives public dollars, too many of us feel that education in the country has simply […]
ANALYSIS: SD 27 Ads Turn Ugly Early; Blame the Candidates?
Welcome to the new Senate District 27, where the run to November’s election is shaping up like a first-rate horror movie, thanks to the ads. Consider the one that ran in the online edition of the Washington Post this week. It showed Joel Griffin standing against a background lit with an ominous blue hue, straight […]
ANALYSIS: Spotsylvania Elections: Debate Over ‘Recommendation’ Shines Light on Party Troubles
Spotsylvania County hasn’t voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1976. That’s when Georgian Jimmy Carter, riding a wave of public frustration following the impeachment of Richard Nixon and runaway inflation under Gerald Ford, surprised the nation by walking his way up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Since that time, things have been solidly […]
ANALYSIS: ‘I’m done with politics.’ … Not
Rabih Abuismal is new chair of Spotsylvania County Republican Party This past December, I sat across from Rabih Abuismal at Tito’s Diner in Central Park as he informed me that he’s “done with politics,” and was leaving “for good.” Based on how that interview went, it looked to be a good decision. Clearly hurting from […]
COMMENTARY: Twenty-two years ago … We changed
The terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., and the failed attack (presumably on the U.S. Capitol) that led to a downed plane in Pennsylvania, were horrible. What they were not, is unique. America has faced foreign aggression before on its soil. We will certainly face it again as technology brings far-flung places […]