Shaun Kenney

Well deserved.

God indeed has a sense of humor.

The GMU CRs are getting into the blogging game with a damn good blog.

Can we get a little love in Fluvanna County, please?

Pseudonymous blogger Righthanded over at the CRFV Blog asks the question:

The weekend, however, might have been misconstrued by an outsider as simply a Star Trek convention with an elephant logo. While the entire voting part of the convention occurred on Saturday, the majority of attendees came Friday afternoon in time for Friday’s festivities. Friday night various elected officials and party organizations hosted
“hospitality suites.” I use that term loosely since hospitality to them seems to mean copious amounts of free alcohol being given out regardless of legal age or condition of sobriety. While in these “hospitality suites,” people too pompous to be genuine, slapped each other’s backs, turned the knife into the other’s back and sometimes both simultaneously. Even the elected officials themselves took part. One in particular engaged in a chugging contest of bourbon and then had to be placed in a cab to ensure that he didn’t get into a fight in the hotel lobby.

Instead of the event being treated for what it was supposed to be- a chance for people who supposedly care about the future of the party to make a positive difference- the event became about the party. One attendee likened the event to a “spring break.” But, these people are not reckless college kids. They are for the most part middle aged party members, not party goers during this convention.

The Jeffersoniad Suite (alcohol free) was in near proximity to the Gilmore hospitality suite, where cheers of “Four More Beers” could be heard in the later hours of the hospitality.

I can’t say I necessarily agree with everything written over at the CRFV blog. Newcomers might decry the “inside baseball” and loyalty-based politics that dominate our environment. Loyalty is the only currency most care to banter in, and it would be wise for any neophyte to learn this quickly.

All that having been said, could it be argued that a newcomer to Virginia Republicans would have gone to some of these suites, and instead of finding deep conversation would find instead a drinking society. Not exactly the best first impression one would want to give to a principled young conservative.

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Neil Diamond could get more people to the Nissan Pavilion than Barack Obama.

Mark Warner will always have John Chichester, but Gilmore has former Democratic Governor Doug Wilder:

So let’s recap. Doug Wilder, a Democrat who as Governor appointed Warner to lead the DPVA in 1993, considered the 2004 tax hike to be “broken promises” which ensured that “the voice of the hardworking taxpayer is hardly being heard in Richmond,” and angered him so much that he said he wouldn’t have endorsed Warner if he knew of it ahead of time.

Of course, there’s that little dig that Wilder did beat Chichester in ’85 for Lt. Governor… but who’s counting that?

Excellent op-ed on the virtues of capitalism:

The interesting question isn’t ‘Why is there poverty?’ It’s ‘Why is there wealth?’ Or: ‘Why is there prosperity here but not there?’

At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own.

For generations, many thought prosperity was material stuff: factories and forests, gold mines and gross tons of concrete poured. But we now know that these things are merely the fringe benefits of wealth. Stalin built his factories, Mao paved over the peasants. But all that truly prospered was misery and alienation.

A recent World Bank study found that a nation’s wealth resides in its “intangible capital” — its laws, institutions, skills, smarts and cultural assumptions. “Natural capital” (minerals, croplands, etc.) and “produced capital” (factories, roads, and so on) account for less than a quarter of the planet’s wealth. In America, intangible capital — the stuff in our heads, our hearts and our books — accounts for 82 percent of our wealth.

Great food for thought, and worth digesting in the next event you are ever approached with questions about the gap between rich and poor.

Of course, I could really care less that I made a silly blogroll… but this is a pretty cool way to influence new media:

Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.

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Not bad… netroots influence peddling. I like that!

This is either insanity, or genius.

Jack Jouett is a local hero in this part of Virginia. Most folks have never heard of him, but his story as Virginia’s Paul Revere in the wake of Tarleton’s Raid on Charlottesville was as instrumental as any during the Revolutionary War:

Jouett, then 26 years old, lay asleep on the lawn of the Cuckoo Tavern (Jefferson’s own account says, erroneously, that Jouett was at his father’s house) in Louisa County, Virginia on the night of June 3, 1781. Tarleton’s forces stopped at Cuckoo Tavern from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., to rest and water the horses. Jouett overheard snatches of their conversation and guessed that the cavalry were marching to Charlottesville to capture the government. Jouett knew that the legislature was completely undefended. Very little fighting had taken place on Virginia soil from 1776 to 1780, so most of Virginia’s forces were deployed elsewhere (a small contingent headed by Lafayette was about 50 miles from Charlottesville, and an even smaller force was stationed at the confluence of the Rivanna and the James, at what is now Bremo Bluff in Fluvanna County). With no possibility of defense, the only hope for Jefferson and the legislators was warning and escape. Jouett quickly mounted his horse and, at about 10 p.m., began the 40-mile ride from Cuckoo to Charlottesville.

The “smaller contingent” was a band of Fluvanna militia under the command of Baron von Steuben based at Point of Fork Arsenal near Columbia, Virginia — not Bremo Bluff (about 10mi up the James River). Cornwallis dispatched a contingent of British cavalry under Lt. Colonel Simcoe to wipe out the arsenal.

Marquis de Lafayette and his regulars tracked Simcoe along the Three Notched Road (today’s U.S. 250) as the Tarleton burned their way towards Charlottesville. When Tarleton was unsuccessful in capturing the Virginia General Assembly and her then-former Governor Thomas Jefferson, he returned to Point of Fork, killing the horses and destroying what he could not take with his rangers at Elk Hill Plantation before withdrawing further south towards Yorktown.