Shaun Kenney

Every once in awhile, you hear the talk from Northern Virginia about how they pay more into state government than they get back, that Richmond bleeds them dry, and that they should secede from the Commonwealth writ large and become the Glorious People’s Republic of Northern Virginia.

…or that we should trade northern Virginia for southern Maryland.
…or that West Occupied Virginia should return to the fold.
…or that the Hampton Roads as “Virginia’s cul-de-sac” should break away.
…or that Delmarva should just magically appear.

The list continues ad infinitum.  It’s not an old tradition.  State secession movements are as old as Virginia itself, and even more dominant if you include events such as Bacon’s Rebellion, Turner’s Rebellion, the little independent “kingdoms” in the hollows of Appalachia, not to mention native American tribes who are still seeking federal recognition.  So strong is the tradition in Virginia that our forefathers, when they settled and established the Republic of Texas, made absolutely sure they could split the state by treaty.

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It’s always fascinated me how people can do or say the most heinous things to someone else just by objectifying them.  Of course, when its you who becomes the target of such oppression, we’re always quick to scream about injustice.

In 2011, we can see how media, political -isms, and interest groups are splitting apart our polity today.  In 1947, this wasn’t any different… because they had seen it happen in Germany.  Worth about 17 minutes of your time when you have a moment… and can tolerate the 1950’s era tone:

When people split the American public, it’s typically to someone else’s advantage.  Most folks don’t have the time to ask “why should I believe this?” when people present arguments — we just swallow whole what MSNBC, Fox News, the Washington Post or Richmond Times-Dispatch (pick your poison) tells us to believe.

Political power a lot easier to plunder for yourself when you target a scapegoat… which is why it’s so important to identify and critically assess this sort of rhetoric.  It’s an old trick and an old tool, but always, always beware the revolutionary.

Enjoy.

I had not seen this statement from Pope Benedict XVI during the Easter Triduum, but it’s certainly something worth reflecting upon in these times:

The Pope was keen to stress that Christ’s rebuke to his slumbering apostles – “stay awake and keep vigil” – applies to the entire history of the Church. Jesus message, the Pope said, is a “permanent message for all time because the disciples’ sleepiness is not problem of that one moment, rather of the whole of history, ‘the sleepiness’ is ours, of those of us who do not want to see the full force of evil and do not want to enter into his Passion.”

Indifference to God, essentially, breeds an indifference to evil.  This is why the Romans, though they prized self-sufficiency, ultimately failed as a society.  By turning plunder into law, Roman society essentially bent itself towards the Greek virtue of autarkes by plundering those outside or within the boundaries of the empire.  When their enemies became strong enough, the western and still thoroughly pagan Rome collapsed, while the Christian East survived for another 900 years.

The civitas dei won out over the civitas homo precisely because Roman autarkes was replaced by Christian agapos.  Byzantium thrived because she understood that society was required to protect the individual, while pagan Rome collapsed because the world of “might makes right” found Rome at the mercy of the barbarians, rather than vice versa.  Rome became ambivalent to the evils that surrounded her, while the Christian East remained vigilant and steadfast.

Pope Benedict XVI’s reminder to “stay awake and keep vigil” is a powerful reminder for the times, I think.

Most people don’t realize this, but over 2,000 years ago two sets of ancestors in the great Kenney household name were set on opposing fields.  On one side, the slovenly yet eager slaves-turned-rebels of the Sparticus Revolt led by none other than Jasonicus Maximus (it’s true — go read your Bible).  The other side was a Roman tribune… led by none other than Shaunicus the Great.

Eventually, near the city of Capua, these two great armies clashed in an epic battle, which we recreate for you here…

On the arid Campanian plains, the two generals taunted one another.  Much beer was consumed on this pre-Easter day, for who would have thought that these two mighty armies, after having gorged themselves on ham and biscuits and chicken and asparagus… these fine soldiers would have accepted the taunts of their opposition for much longer.

No… it would come to war.  And war is what it would be.

“Jasonicus likes snails… and oysters…”

…and so, after hearing their brave general assailed by the Roman legions arrayed before them by quotes from movies that hadn’t been filmed yet (this was the 1st century B.C. after all) and Monty Python quotes, the Spartacans had no choice.  To avenge their leader Jasonicus Maximus, they would attack the legions of Shaunicus the Great in epic tabletop combat!

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Charlottesville’s NBC 29 sheds a little light on how localities aren’t feeling the pinch of gasoline prices the same way you and I are:

Albemarle County Spokesperson Lee Catlin says, it’s paying $3.04 and Charlottesville City Spokesperson Ric Barrick says they are paying $3.33.

The reason is because they buy their fuel in bulk at a cheaper price.

“We’re fortunate that we’re able to store additional fuel needs, both regular fuel and diesel fuel,” said Barrick.

Albemarle County has budgeted for a fuel price of $3.34 in the coming year, but the city’s remains at $2.50.

The article is worth a quick glance. It gets me thinking though… why can’t consumers do likewise? Buy gasoline in say, $1,000 blocks for whatever the going rate is, and then pay it down over time? Or have it extended on credit? That way — whether the market goes up, or whether the market goes down — you’ve bought in for a price.

…and heck, if the price goes down, just pay when it’s less than the $3.30/gal you bought it for. When it goes north of that, use your credits.  Why not?

Hats off to Speaker John Boehner.  No seriously… hats off, folks.  Given a shaky House GOP coalition, we forced two votes in the Senate on the Pence Amendment and the repeal of Obamacare, and for the first time since the Second World War the federal government shrank.   Shrank!

Round 2 is where the real heavy pounding begins.  Obama and the Senate Democrats have tested the House Republicans.  They are praying to God like Bernie Baumbaum in the woods just begging for the Tea Party and pro-lifers to eviscerate Speaker Boehner for a job not done.

Now small minds and the bought-and-paid-for are buying it, but if you look across the spectrum you’ll see that the Tea Party has been by and large quiet.  Not because they aren’t disappointed (by and large, everyone is disappointed in the end product), but most folks are astute enough to know that Boehner just pulled one hell of a snooker deal on the Obama administration and the Senate Democrats.

On the pro-life side of the fence, the Pence Amendment was the sticking point with the Democratic leadership.  Boehner stressed it as a non-negotiable, Obama said he would shut it down.  Keep this in mind folks: there is *nothing* Obama would love more than to see a civil war between fiscal conservatives and social conservatives.  Boehner managed to get two votes, one on Pence, the other on the Obamacare repeal.  That’s election year gold.

“Here we go again with elections!” the cynic says.  Not so fast… understand this first.  The House Republicans are first and foremost a coalition, with different constituencies, different reasons for being there in Washington, and not all of them on the same page.  We all know that Republicans in Washington need to be worked on in order to carry the right message.  Should this coalition splinter during a government shutdown, we may never get the same chance again.  It took 16 years to recover from the 1995 government shutdown debacle, and while today’s environment may be squarely in our camp this time (and the MSM will not hold the same power over hearts and minds in a blog-savvy 2011), there is a manner and way in which the debate must be framed.

Boehner won real concessions from the Democrats.  They came out the losers in this, and desperately are trying to recast the narrative so that the Republican coalition of fiscal conservatives, libertarians, social conservatives, independents, moderates, and Tea Party activists splinters into a million pieces.

Be smarter than they are.  Keep up the pressure on the Congress.  The real fight is coming in about two weeks on $5 trillion in cuts and a balanced budget.  It’s not a fix, but it’s a starting point for conversation that will require a united front and an overwhelming majority to keep intact.

I could not agree more:

I can’t speak for my bosses, who might feel differently than I do. But as a writer, my answer is no—I don’t want anonymous commenters. Everyone who works online knows that there’s a direct correlation between the hurdles a site puts up in front of potential commenters and the number and quality of the comments it receives. The harder a site makes it for someone to post a comment, the fewer comments it gets, and those comments are generally better.

I think Slate’s commenting requirements—and those of many other sites—aren’t stringent enough. Slate lets people log in with accounts from Google and Yahoo, which are essentially anonymous; if you want to be a jerk in Slate’s comments, create a Google account and knock yourself out. If I ruled the Web, I’d change this. I’d make all commenters log in with Facebook or some equivalent third-party site, meaning they’d have to reveal their real names to say something in a public forum. Facebook has just revamped its third-party commenting “plug-in,” making it easier for sites to outsource their commenting system to Facebook. Dozens of sites—including, most prominently, the blog TechCrunch—recently switched over to the Facebook system. Their results are encouraging: At TechCrunch, the movement to require real names has significantly reduced the number of trolls who tar the site with stupid comments.

Ultimately, the formula for a truly nasty comments section boils down to this:

True?

Of course, the Virginia blogosphere has had its ups and downs with anonymous and pseudonymous commentary, until “macaca” changed the entire orbit from intelligent personalities sharing ideas… into people who first shied away from, then embraced the infamy that such attention brought them.  The comments section never improved.  Mainstream outlets simply copied the form and earned the same substance (or lack thereof).

So would the web be better off if you were forced to stick your name to every comment?  To some degree, this already happens… your IP is traceable, and the old adage “you are never anonymous on the web” is most assuredly true.  In a more up front matter, requiring a Facebook sign in that tracks back to your personal name and address?

After all, can anyone seriously argue that Facebook — because your name is stapled to everything you do — is not a more humane, intelligent, or cordial public square than your run-of-the-mill blog or MSM outlet?

I’ve long beat the drum on this.  It’s one of the many reason I blog, comment, and have persisted in using my real name to identify my web presence.  In purely ethical terms, it’s the right thing to do.

The tiniest bits of good news this morning.  We’re still 8 million jobs short of our high water mark, though… and until we get that under control, we cannot possibly use the word “recovery” in any context.

To make matters a bit worse, the second round of qualitative easing ends in June.  Which means not only is the spigot of money cut off, but that credit markets — unless the Fed chooses to print more money — will dry up, and spark the twin fears of inflation and deflation.

…and perhaps simultaneously.

The price of a bushel of corn has jumped 64% worldwide since last year.  Wheat has gone up 65%.  Expect that trend to continue.

Planting in Virginia starts on March 15th and runs into May.  If you’re not starting at the very least a square foot garden in your backyard this year, you should really consider doing so with some good heirloom variety seeds.

Courtesy of Frederic Chopin.