The Battle for Marriage in the State of Virginia

Last week, a federal judge ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage in the state of Virginia was unconstitutional, drawing the Old Dominion into a peculiar place.  On the one hand, if the law violates the constitutional rights of citizens, then it's right out.  On the other, if removing it does significant damage to the liberties of citizens, then it should be retained.  That'll be a matter for the Supreme Court of the United States, and when this ruling comes, it'll be a big one in my home state.

But that's the issue for the legal system.  As a pastor, my concern is marriage.  Not weddings, mind you.  The Wedding-Industrial-Complex is trucking along just fine, God help us.  I'm talking about marriage, the covenanted relationship that engages two souls in a lifelong commitment to one another.

That institution, as I see it, is in danger right now in the state of Virginia.

Last week's ruling, though, had no impact on marriage at all.  Whether or not gays and lesbians can solemnify their unions is completely immaterial to heterosexual couples.  It doesn't change anything at all, so far as I can see it.   Say you're a heterosexual Bible-believer in Virginia, married to your spouse for a couple of decades.  When you woke up the morning after the ruling, how had your commitment to your husband or wife changed?

Not at all.  Mine didn't.

Neither does it impact religious liberty in any meaningful way.  I cannot, as a pastor, be made to bless and solemnify the union of anyone I choose not to marry.  Neither can I be told what I am allowed to say or not say in a ceremony.  The state does not pay me, nor can it in any other way coerce my behavior within my faith community.  I am, as a faithful person, completely free.

But it's impossible to miss the threat to marriage, because marriages are coming to pieces all around us.  Committed, lifelong relationships are an endangered species, with divorce rates in our country at a painfully high and sustained level.

When I talk with folks who are struggling in their marriages, or folks who are living through the painful process of divorce, gay marriage just isn't a significant factor.  It isn't, quite frankly, a factor at all.

The odd stressors of suburban existence?  That's a powerful enemy of marriage.  The peculiarly joyless demands of anxiety-driven helicopter parenting?  That challenges healthy relationships, as parents neglect one another and forget one another in the stress-mess of activity-wrangling.  Our warped work culture, which drives both spouses to work impossible hours out of fear that we'll be let go the next time folks in the C-suite are looking to justify their absurd salaries?  Yeah, that fear is a factor.

Our consumerist obsession with self-indulgence, which has doubled down deep in the instant gratification of the internet age?  That's an enemy.  Our stresses about finances and debt, as somehow the groaningly abundant cornucopia of food, shelter, and entertainment around us doesn't translate into a sense of wellbeing?  That's an enemy.

In ten thousand ways, the state of mutual, covenant commitment that is marriage is under attack in our society.

But same-sex unions are not part of that war.

They neither threaten an individual's integrity as a person of faith, nor do they have any meaningful impact on marriage as a state of being.

I do not doubt that as this case moves forward, there will be a tremendous amount of heat and light generated by those who view this as a threat.  Much fear will be stoked.  This frustrates me, as a pastor, and not only because I view same-sex marriage as an overdue blessing.  Though I do.

It frustrates me because I care about marriage, and the more energy Christians pour into opposing same-sex relationships, the less energy is retained for the real battle.

Faith, Morality, Gambling, and the Poor

An article on the front page of the Post today highlighted a peculiarity here in the great state of Virginia.    We Vah-ginn-yuns are among the ever-shrinking cadre of states that do not permit casino gambling.  It's a motley little group, comprised of some peculiar bedfellows.  There's a cluster of Deeply Red states, mostly southern, in which the refusal to allow gambling stems mostly from religious conservatism.

There's a small cluster of Deeply Blue states, meaning Vermont, New Hampshire, and Hawaii, in which gambling is prohibited largely because it's not really an industry, but rather a great way to separate a sucker from his or her money.  It disproportionately impacts the poor, and is a fundamentally anti-progressive "industry." 

What struck me in the article were two things.  First, the story includes numerous quotes from the Democratic leader of the majority party in the Virginia State Senate, who views "gaming" as the sort of economic activity that would be good for the state.  That State Senator Dick Saslaw would be in support of gambling is at least consistent, as he's also been the primary proponent of the recent spread of car-title-lending businesses in Virginia.  Loan sharking and gambling?   Guess he never met a predatory business model he didn't like, although how this attitude flies with the Democratic primary voters in his putatively progressive congressional district is beyond me.

Second, I was struck by a flawed assumption in the Post's coverage.  The assumption was this:  There are people who oppose casino gambling for religious reasons, and then there are people who oppose casino gambling because of the impact it has on the poor.  These categories were presented as if they were different…but I don't think that they are.  Not at all.

Here, the flaw in the assumption seems rooted in the idea that faith and religious morality are solely individual things.  It's just about me and My Personal Relationship with My Lord and Savior ™, or so the idea goes.  From that perspective, you only don't gamble because it's morally weak and imprudent.  And, yeah, it is unwise, but that's not the whole of it.

Because Christian faith is not just personal wisdom.  It's fundamentally relational.  Meaning, it has to do not just with ourselves and our personal prosperity and spirituality, but is radically oriented towards the other. It is rooted in compassion, a deep awareness of the impacts of our actions on other beings.  From that compassion, you look at actions that are causing harm to others, and are compelled to speak and act against them.

For Christians of all ilks and political persuasions, care for those who are struggling is a fundamental moral and spiritual imperative. Actions and behaviors that generate profit at the expense of another are radically in opposition to the core value of Christian faith, and that becomes particularly and doubly true when it comes to the poor.  

As Pope Francis has recently and wonderfully declared, you can't parse out faith from the care for the poor, not if our faith is to have any integrity.  

Why Your Environment Becomes Toxic

There was an interesting little article this morning about the current political season in Virginia.  In that race, a particularly weak and not-particularly-popular Democratic candidate seems to be handily beating the Republican nominated for office.  It's a mess of a race, distasteful and negative, one that has left Virginians to choose the better of two Slytherins.  I mean, look at these two.

As terrible as McAuliffe is...a transparently gladhanding name-collector who uses his relationships to further his power and reputation...Cuccinelli manages to be worse.  Vociferously anti-gay and anti-science, he's a bully who's view of the law is cruel, self-serving, and brittle.

It's Slughorn versus Umbridge, people.

Neither of them is Severus Snape.  Seriously, I'd vote for Severus over either of these guys.  Some judicious applications of the Expelliarmus spell might do wonders for the Virginia House of Representatives.

Then again, the McAuliffe also reminds me a bit of Gilderoy Lockhart, so maybe that's where the Slytherin analogy breaks down.

As some of the sane Virginia Republicans find themselves lamenting that they seem likely to fail to beat an eminently beatable Democrat, there was an interesting comment from one of them in an interview today.

The chair of the Prince William County Republican Party, a strong support of Cuccinelli, lamented: "It does not look very good for us out there.  The environment for Republicans is toxic."

This, I think, is true.  But the question is not whether the environment is toxic, but why the environment is toxic.

Environments can be toxic for a variety of reasons.  A culture can have gone badly wrong, becoming so darkly oppressive and hateful that speaking freely about good things brings oppression and subjugation.

If you tried to preach the Gospel in North Korea, you'd experience a toxic environment.  If you tried to teach science to girls in Northern Sudan or the Swat Valley, you'd experience a toxic environment.

That is certainly the story that Republicans would like to tell themselves.  "It's the fault of everyone but the true believers," one can say.  But the inverse is also true.  If you scream and shout and carry on about things in a way that turns the world against you, then you'll experience a toxic environment.  If you stand on a street corner and bellow hellfire and damnation through your bullhorn, you'll find the environment more and more toxic.

If your worldview is radically different from that of the broader culture, then the environment will tend to feel hostile.

But it goes deeper than that relativistic, postmodern bit of truthiness.

Because underlying our cultures and societies and assumptions, there is the Real.  It is complex and interwoven, but it is not something we've fabricated or imagined.  It exists utterly independent of our imaginings of it, and we are a part of it, whether we realize it or not.  The further we remove ourselves from what is Real, the more we allow ourselves to believe the sweet lies we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel more important, the more our world will come apart in our hands.

Twelve trucks are not a million trucks.  Three hundred protesters are not a million protesters.  We can wish it, we can shout it, we can believe it as strongly as we want, but that does not mean it is real.  And when human beings tell themselves one thing, but reality is another, we get into trouble.

And then, peculiarly enough, it goes deeper still.  Because we have been created as a part of the Real, our stories and our yearnings and our hopes are given the power to shape the reality around us.  If everything you encounter is broken and toxic and cruel, if your every relationship falls apart and no-one understands you, the terrible truth we never want to hear is that maybe it might be us.  We'd rather descend into fantasy than hear that.  We'd rather anything than hear that.  But the truth remains:

Maybe things don't work because we won't let them.  Maybe our culture is a mess because we've chosen to make it that way.

Maybe the world is toxic because we're making it that way.

Romney and Virginia

The signs are starting to pop up on lawns all throughout the DC Virginia suburbs.   As I've driven my young and idealistic/liberal/politically aware fourteen year old son to and from family and school events this last week, he's noted them.   "Why would anyone in this area vote for Romney," he asks.   "Don't they get it?"

I've tried to explain that there is much to commend conservatism, and that there are conservative values that are both rationally defensible and profoundly positive.   A sense of duty and personal responsibility, cherishing and defending the best of your faith and your heritage, valuing putting your best into something, caring for family and community and commitment: these things are a net positive for our culture.

But I do wonder about Virginians voting for the Romney/Ryan ticket.   I don't entirely get it, either.

Virginia appears, on the surface, to be a conservative state.   Our governor is conservative.   Our state legislature is conservative, sometimes to the point of being a little Talibanny.  We're business-friendly, with a laxer regulatory regimen than the People's Republic of Maryland that looms in all its stark Stalinist horror across the Potomac to our Northeast.

Virginia has, as a conservative, business-friendly state, weathered the recent recession quite well.   So you've got this prosperous, conservative state...and yet Romney is increasingly down in the polls here.   Why?

I think, quite honestly, because on a practical level many Virginians realize that our recent prosperity is entirely a function of the federal government.   Our state has two distinct economies.   There is the agricultural/industrial economy that dominates the southern part of the state.   It's stable, but not really growing.  Economically, it's basically East Kentucky.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  It's a more easy going life, or would be if you didn't have to work three jobs.

Then there's Northern Virginia.   NoVa has been the driving force behind the growth of the state economy.   In my own county, for instance, there are 500,000 more residents than there were when when my family moved here 35 years ago.  NoVa has grown as government has grown.   Government and military workers are part of that, but so are government and defense contractors and the service and retail industries that have thrived here.

The Federal Government is the main industry of Virginia.  It is an inescapable empirical reality, one so present that it inhibits our GOP governor from heralding Virginia as an example of the success of his economic policies.  McDonnell is no fool.  He knows where things stand.

So when I see the Romney/Ryan signs popping up around Virginia, I get it.  We're conservative.   But on another level, it's a bit fuddling.

Everyone is entitled to have a political perspective and vote accordingly.  And I do grasp the desire for sane, right-sized, non-intrusive government.

But if Romney and Ryan win, and they actually do the things they have committed to do, the net effect on the Virginia economy will be devastating.   A decimation of the federal workforce...which Ryan has promised...would have disproportionate impacts here, as would radical reductions in spending.  Beyond increased unemployment, there'd also be a massive reduction in housing demand and a crash of home values.  Those things combined would cascade, leaving state coffers as empty as the abandoned homes, offices, and storefronts that would become the norm in the state.

For many Americans, thems would be the breaks.   If you believe in reducing the size of government, then so be it.  Que sera sera.   But for Virginians, a vote for Romney and Ryan is a vote to collapse the economy of our state.   It's a fascinating abandonment of material self-interest in the interest of a broader ideology.

Heck, on some levels it might even be noble, were it being done intentionally.

Robots, Drones, and Law Enforcement

Rolling into Poolesville this morning, I began my deceleration as I rounded the bend on Route One Oh Seven.  I was coming up on the local Catholic church, but my reduction in speed had less to do with that than the two speed cameras that flank the primary entryway into the sleepy little burg.

"Our Lady of the Speed Trap," was what one wit had called it, and so I make a point of keeping 'er at the mandated Thirty Em Pii Aytch as I roll by the sanctuary of my Catholic brothers and sisters.

Only today, one of the two Gatso cameras was clearly down.  A patch of black plastic was taped crudely over the front of the one pointing out of town, flapping in the wind like a large wounded bat.  As I passed, the source of the damage became clear.  A scattered pattern of indentations lay across the front of the unit, which to my untrained eye indicated that the source of the malfunction was probably not software, unless 12 gauge "double aught" buckshot counts as software.

Guess some local didn't take too kindly to that recent ticket in the mail.  Another reminder that Poolesville really really isn't Bethesda, I guess.

As effective as it can be, there's just something odd about automated law enforcement.   Surveillance cameras just seem so very dystopian.  Here in Montgomery County, there's plenty of it, as over the last decade speed cameras have sprung up like grey steel mushrooms.

Across the Potomac river in my home state of Virginny, things have been rather less intrusive, as the conservative distrust of government has so far trumped the conservative tendency to love all things law-enforcement.

Only now, that may change.  It looks like we Virginians are going to skip right over the cameras, and go straight to Predator drones.  Gov. McDonnell and some leading law enforcement officials think it'll be the bees knees.  It's just another tool in the toolbox of law enforcement, or so the spiel goes.  It'll be cost-effective and productive, says the Governor...although it's not quite clear what that means.  Cost effective would mean fewer human beings working as police officers, I suppose.  Productive would mean "more tickets, fines, and penalties," I'd guess, which would make up for all those taxes Grover Norquist won't let us pay to support the livelihoods of well-trained community law-enforcement professionals.

Which would bring us into that place where we'd be interacting less and less with law enforcement professionals, and more and more with automated systems and farmed-out-to-lowest-bid-contractor bureaucracies.  Not to mention living in a country where robot drones circle the skies, constantly watching for our infractions with their unblinking eyes.

Declaration of the Secession of New Virginia

Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of New Virginia from the State of Virginia

with thanks to the Confederate State of South Carolina

for the Idea and Most of the Text

Which Is Sort of Ironic

Given the Context

But Hey

What Goes Around Comes Around

The people of the State of New Virginia, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A.D., 2015, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Government of the State of Virginia, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the People, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the State of Virginia; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other free States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

And now the State of New Virginia having resumed her separate and equal place among states, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.

In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

We hold that the Government rightly established is subject to those two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.

In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that the Senators and Delegates of the Less Populous Counties of the State of Virginia have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.

The Constitution of the United States, in its first Amendment, provides as follows: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made.  Yet as the People clamour for their right to liberty, the forces of the State do willfully prevent their peaceable assembly.   As the People seek to live according to the blessings of liberty in their own Persons, the State does enforce the edicts of the Fundamentalist Faith, asserting through the Sword and Coercion its ill-sought will to abrogate the Liberty of the People in the service of a Religion that is not freely and fully embraced.  In so doing, the Senators and Delegates of the Less Populous Counties do violate and willfully impugn the Constitutional Liberties of the gathered People.

Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the Less Populous Counties, and the consequence follows that New Virginia is released from her obligation.

The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the  Less Populous Counties. Those Counties and the Party that they represent have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of personal liberty recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the basic freedoms of our individual persons; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to diminish the liberty of the citizens of other Counties. 

They have used the Power of the State to Harass and oppose the free practice of Science, and to willfully suppress the free distribution and presentation of Scientific opinion, and in so doing have shown a willful disregard for the Freedom of the press and of basic human liberties.

They have betrayed the essential purpose of the Medical Profession and the liberty of her practitioners; They have passed Laws to enforce Unnecessary Medical Procedures for the Sole Purpose of Oppression and the abrogation of personal Liberty; They have inflicted such procedures as a Secret Tax to enforce their Religion on those whose Liberty they seek to diminish.

For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the *forms*  of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Power of those Gathered in Richmond, the means of subverting the Constitution itself.  

The State has rewritten the Electoral Map so that those in office elect themselves, and all the false and pernicious Districts so formed have united in the election of a man to the high office of Governor of the State of Virginia, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to Freedom, and of Senators and Delegates who do not serve the Freedom of the Citizens of this Great State, but their own interest, power, and Religion. 

In the Year of Our Lord 2010, this Party took possession of the Government.  

The guaranties of the Constitution no longer exist; the right of the People to fair redress of grievances has been lost. The Free People of New Virginia no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the State Government has become their enemy.

Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion in the Less Populous Counties has invested a great political error with the sanction of more erroneous religious belief.

We, therefore, the People of New Virginia, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the State of Virginia, is dissolved, and that the State of New Virginia has taken her position among the States of the United States of America, as a separate and independent State comprised of the non-contiguous jurisdictions of Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, Albermarle, Loudon, Prince William, Norfolk, Newport News, Montgomery, Buckingham, Nelson, Brunswick, Greensville, Sussex, Surrey, Charles City, Henrico, Suffolk, Chesapeake,  King and Queen, Caroline, Essex, Danville, and Yea, even Richmond herself; with full power to contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

PS: Oh, and Sic Semper Tyrannis?  We get to keep that.  

Adopted May 17, 2015

Adoption, Discrimination and Conscience

As the Virginia State government moved vigorously to the right following the mid-term elections, it is perhaps no surprise that it has chosen to move aggressively.  For years, it was constrained by the counterbalancing force of a moderate Democrat in the State House, or a moderate majority in the Senate.

This is no longer the case.  Absent that counterweight, things in Richmond have gone precisely the way you'd expect.  Folks on the right are releasing all that pent-up paleoconservative tension, as drunk with freedom as the child of helicopter parents in those first few blurry weeks of college.   And Lord have mercy, have they gone on a legislative bender.

They're pitching out new laws right and left.  Or right and further right, to be more accurate.

They would permit multiple simultaneous handgun purchases, much to the great delight of our friends in the Zetas drug cartel.   They would mandate medically unnecessary ultrasounds for any woman considering an abortion, because health care mandates are what American Conservatism is all about.

And now, there's a bill...likely to pass...that would explicitly allow private faith-based adoption services agencies to refuse to work with couples who don't meet the standards of their faith tradition.  This would include agencies who receive funding from the state.

This is being described as a bill that would protect the consciences of faith-based providers, and is generally understood as being a Trojan Horse for keeping children away from gay couples.  If you believe that homosexuality is inherently sinful, or so the not-really-spoken argument goes, then you shouldn't be required to place children with same-sex couples.  That is, rationalizations about preserving freedom notwithstanding, the sole, entire, and only purpose of this bill.

Understand that this has nothing to do with protecting the child from abuse or neglect.  Under federal law, adoption agencies are required to do significant background checks on parents and individuals who seek to adoption a child.  The effect of this bill is to permit discrimination against individuals whose beliefs do not mesh with the agency.  Federal law forbids racial discrimination in adoption, but is silent on the subject of religious discrimination.

Having known gay couples who have adopted kids, and who are wonderful parents, this bill bothers the bejabbers out of me on that level.  It is woefully wrong on that front.  But my issues with it go deeper.

Sure, it's meant to be anti-gay, but in being coy about it and couching itself in what it imagines is the language of freedom, it's more than that.  Reading the text of the bill as written, it is also potentially anti-Muslim.  Or antisemitic.  Or anti-mainline Protestant.  Or anti-atheist.  Or anti-Christian.  

Let's imagine for a moment that the state-licensed and funded agency in question is run by a literalist Christian group.  As far as they are concerned, failure to believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God is a sure path to Aitch-EE-Double-Toothpicks.  

Now imagine for a moment that a Bible-believing woman is married to a Christian-ish man who's not quite so sure about what he believes, and they find a child through this group.  The state-funded agency in question would now be perfectly within its legal rights to stop the adoption process mid-cycle if they feel that such a family might not raise a child in keeping with its values.  "It's your husband.  We just can't risk little Tyler going to hell, Ma'am."  

Again, it's not that they'd be bad parents.  Just that they'd be the wrong sort of people.  What of a conservative Catholic agency that receives state funds and licensing?  Could such a group refuse a child to a nondenominational couple on the basic of their beliefs?  Under this law, the answer is yes.  

Given that conscience, at its heart, means "knowing together," the internalization of a shared ethos, does such a bill really represent conscience across the entirety of the state?  Does it represent our shared statewide understanding of what is in the best interest of children?  Does it even represent what the Apostle Paul would have described as "doing what is right in the eyes of all?" 

No.  The answer to those rhetorical questions is of course not.   But that's the way Richmond rolls these days.

Virginia, Government, and the Golden Egg

This morning, I went to vote in a local election here in the great state of Virginny.  The wife and I motored the several hundred yards to the local Episcopalian church, which has served as our polling place since we first moved into the area.   There, we...um...fought our way through the crowds...ahem...to cast our votes.

Not really, of course.  It being a state and local election only, the turnout was marginal.   I wait longer in line at Chipotle than I did this morning to vote.  If you hit Politico's website, you've got to dig through the Herman Cain psychodrama for a ways before you even discover there was an election today.  We Americans are remarkably good at announcing how wonderful our democracy is, and completely wretched at participating in it. 

The polls were empty, but for once, it wasn't for a lack of sound and fury at the local level.  This is the first time I've ever, ever gotten an attack-text, for instance, sent from an anonymous number and insinuating that a school board member (a Democrat) was responsible for the misuse of funds.  Conservatives are taking local elections seriously, and it's going to pay dividends.

It's looking to be a bad day for the Democratic party in the state, which has a strong chance to lose the Virginia Senate, leaving Richmond entirely controlled by the GOP.  This sets up a rather odd dynamic.

The VA GOP, like the GOP across the country, is vigorously anti-Washington.  Government is the enemy, and business is the source of all things good.  So the rhetoric here is radically anti-regulation, anti-tax, and anti-federal government.  That's why Virginia is now frequently rated as the most business-friendly state in the Union.

Here's the odd thing.  If you look at Virginia's economic base, our business community is in fact thriving.  But the primary pillar supporting of the Virginia business economy is the federal government. 

Heck, the primary business of Virginia IS government.  Not just federal civilian employees and members of the armed services, mind you, although there are plenty of 'em. 

Federal contractors, defense contractors, government-funded research, and Navy shipyards are the meat and potatoes of what Virginia's business sector does to make money.  Given that the state can no longer fall back on good ol' standbys like tobacco and slavery, the gutting of the federal government...the killing of the beast that has been the quest of conservatism for a generation...will smash a huge hole in the economic health of our region. 

The collateral Virginian economy, meaning retail, construction, real-estate, and services, all of that relies on the tax dollars and deficit-spending that the GOP so vigorously opposes.  Remove that base and the difference between the economy of Virginia and the economy of West Virginia is reduced in ways that I think most Virginians probably aren't eager to see.

The success of a pro-business, anti-Washington, pro-austerity GOP agenda means significant pain for much of the Virginia economy.  The GOP in the state has gone hard into that national level focus, which would seem to fly radically against the actual self-interest of most of their constituents.  And yet, here we are.

Whereever you stand on the role of government, it's an odd irony.  

Lady Killers

In just about four hours, my great home state of Virginia will execute Teresa Lewis. She's my age, and a grandmother (yikes), and eight years ago, she conspired with her boyfriend and another man to murder her husband.  In the process of killing him, the two men also killed her stepson.  For that crime, she will be put to death by lethal injection at 9:00 PM tonight.

Many arguments have been made on the part of the defense about her mental capacity.  She's...well...not all that smart.  The defense has also pointed out that neither of her co-conspirators were sentenced to die, even though they were the ones who actually committed the killings.

And, you know, she's a girl, which is why this case has garnered more attention than say, if she'd just been one of those brownish men our society seems to have very little compunction killing.  Virginia hasn't killed a woman in 100 years.  In the US, we haven't executed a woman in five years. 

None of that mattered to Gov. O'Donnell, who showed the depth of Republican commitment to gender equality by indicating that he could see "no compelling reason" to commute her sentence to life imprisonment.  So she is, without question, going to die.

What I find interesting is the root of the "killing a woman" thing.  Though it's an antiquated and regressive thing to think, I suspect much of the distaste comes from the idea of causing harm to someone weaker than you.  Yeah, I know, women can be fierce and ferocious.  But among male human animals, there's a pretty basic assumption in the better natures of most cultures that to harm or abuse someone who is not in a position of power is fundamentally ignoble.  A truly strong man doesn't inflict harm on those who are less powerful.  That's the bailiwick of the world's bullies and sadists.

My grandfather, for instance, once told me that there is no lower form of man than one who would strike a woman.  Though he was a gentle man, he said it with a rare glint in his eye, a glint which told me few things made him angrier.  Yeah, that's a bit patriarchal, but in a beneficent way.  It recognizes that most men are physically stronger than most women.  To use that strength to oppress or hurt those physically weaker than you is a sign that you are socially weak and spiritually stunted.

That same ethic applies in war.  To kill a combatant is one thing.  It's the nature of war.  To kill a helpless enemy, one who is in your power and unable to defend themselves, that's another.  It's the difference between a noble warrior and a butcher.    Even if that person has recently been lobbing shells at your position, and even if they may have killed your comrades in arms in combat, it's still  fundamentally ignoble to slay someone who has been rendered powerless. 

Which, of course, is exactly what American society does every single time it executes a prisoner.   A pity we don't find nobility to be "a compelling reason."

Virginia's Contribution to American Energy Independence

Following the GOP's enthusiastic embrace of offshore drilling in the last presidential election, the great state of Virginia has aggressively moved to open our coastal waters to oil exploration. With the election of Gov. McDonnell, things were moving vigorously towards Virginia being 1) for lovers and 2) for drilling, baby, drilling. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more. Up until a short while ago, Virginia was leading the nation in plans for gettin' more of the black gold out of the sea.

This was right up until the ongoing fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico. With two hundred thousand gallons of crude pouring daily into the Gulf from an unrepaired and apparently unreparable rig disaster, things have ground to a halt on the drilling front. For some reason, those Virginians who live by the water or make their living on the tourism generated by our beaches...well, they've suddenly realized that oil isn't always neat and tidy and out of sight.

That doesn't mean that Virginia conservatives have set down the mantle of oil exploration. It is, we hear, just as important as before. America needs that oil, if we're going to finally shake ourselves free of our addiction to them furriners and their go-juice. We can't let this little setback shake our resolve to seek new energy for America's future!

What will Virginia's contribution to energy independence be? In an article today about Virginia coastal drilling, there was a little factoid buried amidst the political posturing, one that stuck out. Total potential reserves of oil off the shore of Virginia are now estimated at 130 million barrels. That's a whole bunch of barrels! 130 million reasons to get out there and start burrowing into the sea floor!

This impressive untapped reservoir of Virginian oil will, at current rates of consumption, fuel American cars and drive the American economy for...well...for...um...err...

Six days. Six. More. Days.

Suddenly, drilling seems rather less pressing. Even if supplies are twice what's been projected, they're not going to make a meaningful difference in America's energy future. Funny how that never gets mentioned by the folks who are so eager to have rigs off the coastline of our beautiful state.

VA Gov. McDonnell Declares May Genetic Health Month

Free United News Network
Richmond, VA
April 7, 2010

Following his recent and controversial declaration that April is Confederate History Month, an announcment which intentionally did not reference slavery, Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell (R) has declared the month of May Genetic Health Month.

In an address to the Virginia Genetic Health League yesterday, Governor McDonnell praised the state's pathbreaking work in optimizing the genome of it's residents. "Virginia has a strong history of encouraging our citizens to strive for genetic excellence," said McDonnell. "The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 expressed some of the best aspects of the Virginian spirit. It showed that our state is willing to be on the cutting edge of technological advances. That's why we're such a great place to do business. It also shows that we're deeply and passionately committed to eradicating the defects in our genome that now place such an undue financial burden on our health care system. Better genes mean lower taxes, and more money in the pockets of Virginians in these challenging times."

Some critics argue that Virginia's early 20th century commitment to eugenics and it's forced sterilization of those deemed genetically unfit was a violation of basic human rights. Reached for comment at the Virginia Genetic Health League's headquarters in Charlottesville, Dr. Charles Shifflett-Mengele III strongly disagrees. "As we learn more and more about the human genome, we're increasingly aware that it plays a powerful role in the economic success our society, " said Shifflett-Mengele. "Virginia was a pioneer in the field of practical genetics. Our efforts were a model for the global movement for a healthy genome, drawing in experts from Europe who were eager to put that model to work on a larger scale. Virginia had an impressive record of success in combating genetic disorders like Down syndrome, hemophilia, Turner syndrome, and blackness. It's one of the proudest chapters in Virginia history."

During a question and answer session following his Tuesday speech, Gov. McDonnell also responded to his critics. "There was so much more to eugenics than forced sterilization. I'd prefer to focus the month of May on the positive aspects, like hope and progress and the genetic health of our grandchildren and great grandchildren. Those are the things that all Virginians care about as we celebrate this unique and important part of our state heritage."

McDonnell's announcement comes following the 86th anniversary of the passage of the Racial Integrity Act, which was remembered with a parade of healthy white children in Richmond last month.

Satan is Alive and Well in Virginia Politics

As a man of wealth and taste, Old Scratch has always got lots of different business ventures in the hopper. He recently bankrolled the movie "Orphan," was instrumental in the marketing of sub-prime mortgages, and is in the process of creating the Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network marketing campaign for pediatric Cialis.

But lately, what he's mostly up to is working with both the Democrats and the GOP here in Virginia. How do we know this? Well, first off, we follow the money. Money is a proxy for worldly power, and where there are unusual concentrations of worldly power, we also typically find unusual concentrations of worldly darkness. As Ol' Virginny trundles towards an election that is being pitched as a referendum on the current administration, the wealth of the national parties has definitely poured into the coffers of their state affiliates. We, the citizens of the great state of Virginia, know this because up until today, we've been bombarded by endless TV ads, one after another after another, all professionally produced and focus-grouped. These ads haven't just been for the Gubernatorial race. I've seen slickity TV spots for state delegate. There be money here. And we know what that means.

Secondly, there's the character of what we've seen in Virginia, which is pretty much the same thing we've been seeing in recent national campaigns.

Satan, as we all know, is not a name. It's a title. Ha-Satan means the Satan. In English, it means "The Accuser" or "The Prosecutor." In the ancient Hebrew view o' things, Satan was the member of the angelic court whose job it was to show how inadequate and unworthy our lives had been when we came before God. He was, in terms of heavenly politics, the Patron Demon of Oppo Research.

And Lordy, has his work has been in clear evidence here over the last few weeks. The other day, on one of the infrequent occasions when I watch TV, I watched three consecutive attack ads. Each was functionally substanceless, and instead dripped with poison and ad hominem innuendo. They all followed a familiar pattern. Out of context quotes? Got 'em. Menacing music and blurry, unflattering pictures? Yup. Snarky voiceover? You betcha! Truth and insight and patience and the virtues of civic mindedness were nowhere to be found. The commercial break was impressively toxic, so much so that I felt obligated to just shut 'er off.

With the campaign now at a close, I guess the Accuser's political shop will have to go back to supporting the shouting classes on talk radio and in the blogosphere. Until 2010, that is.

Don't Go Hatin' A Playa

With a sigh of only slightly premature resignation, I'm coming to terms with the likely reality of a new GOP governor in my home state of Virginny. It's been something of an inevitability since the rather uninspiring Democratic primary, in which the best the donkey party could muster was 1) a flamboyantly flagrant Clintonista carpetbagger and 2) a rather taciturn but decent and "authentically Virginian" rural state Senator.

Given the choice, Democrats went with number two...but all along, it's not looked good.

The reason for this is the GOP candidate, who is Mr. All American. He's tall. He's rugged. He's the high school quarterback who married the Redskins cheerleader, and then went on to have a really quite photogenic family. He's also a quite competent politician. I say that not by way of insult, but out of admiration. He ain't just a pretty face. He is quite evidently smart and articulate. Though his campaign has involved some impressive lowest-common-denominator assault politics, he's stayed mostly above the fray.

Ultimately, though, I think Bob McDonnell will be the next governor of Virginia because Virginians...like all human beings...like the idea of getting something for nothing. The big issue of this campaign is our crumbling and overmatched transportation infrastructure. McDonnell is convinced that this can be made better without a single additional dime coming out of the pockets of Virginians. Deeds has published that he'd support new taxes that are targeted to revamping transportation...but then can't bring himself to actually say that in public.

As Deeds has hemmed and hawed around the issue of taxation, McDonnell's folks are going to town. Deeds is a waffly stuttering tax-and-spender! Taking our money in these troubled times! Doing harm to Virginia's families! Taking your hard earned dollars and using them to..cough..build the roads you need to get to work...but it's still Your Hard Earned Money!

I've read McDonnell's plan for funding transportation. What's interesting about it is that it is largely reliant on 1) selling off public property and 2) bond revenue. If Virginia were a person, that's pretty much the equivalent of hitting the pawn shop and then taking out a second mortgage. The stuff we'll sell, like the profitable state-run ABC stores that put $104 million dollars annually into the state coffers, we ain't getting back. The $3 billion in new state bonds he'd issue...well...they have to be repaid at some point. How do those bonds get repaid? With..um..tax dollars. But only after McDonnell's finished his 4 year term, so it technically won't be his responsibility. Ka-CHING!

It's amazing how effective conservatism has been at convincing Americans that actually paying for what you need is for suckers.