Briefly Opinionated
Legislation forcing adults to keep guns out of kids’ hands is no threat to responsible gun owners
Raised, as I was, in deeply rural America, I grew up around guns. I treasured them for the same reason I loved fishing poles: they meant time spent hunting or fishing with my dad, granddad or uncle. Guns didn’t scare me because I respected them. I was taught early that they are not toys and […]
Credit company’s laxness jacked up my info; I got a lousy 5 bucks
Equifax’s financial mea culpa arrived in my mailbox the other day. I eagerly tore open the envelope the credit reporting firm sent me. Would the check be a cool $125, as the feds originally touted in helping reach the class-action settlement? Or, given the humongous number of claimants, something much, much less? The company’s […]
Miyares’ integrity unit is sop to election deniers
The state Attorney General’s Office doth protest too much. Victoria LaCivita, spokeswoman for Attorney General Jason Miyares, says the Virginia NAACP owes the office’s lawyers and other employees “an apology” for reputedly “groundless attacks” about starting a 20-person election integrity unit to root out voting irregularities. She and Miyares shouldn’t hold their breaths. The NAACP […]
Prior cowardice doesn’t mean courageousness now
Several Republican officials around the country, including at least two in Virginia, are now saying publicly the party should cut ties with or disavow Donald Trump, the former president and de facto boss of the GOP. Hooray for this “come to Jesus” moment. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Del. Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach assailed […]
Give up your NFL team, Mr. Snyder
Washington’s NFL franchise – beset by investigations against the owner, complaints of a toxic culture in the front office and constant mediocrity on the field – wrote a bounced check for a 50-50 raffle it sponsored to support its charitable foundation. That’s a perfect metaphor for the Washington Commanders (former name a slur) under the […]
Blacks, others shouldn’t have to obliterate their presence to receive fair home value
Another case of likely racial discrimination in housing appraisals has cropped up, this time in Baltimore. The New York Times recently reported a Black husband and wife first received an appraisal of $472,000. After they “whitewashed” their home – removing family photos and having a White colleague stand in for them as the “owner” – […]
Estimates from government officials are no more, no less than that
Another embarrassing result has befallen the government officials who tried for decades, unsuccessfully, to erect a mammoth reservoir in King William County. The project ultimately disintegrated in 2009. The city of Newport News has begun selling off the nearly 1,500 acres it acquired, but at just a fraction of the $8.3 million it paid for […]
Late attorney’s pardon work revealed sentencing madness
John Coggeshall could’ve easily been called “the anti-Sisyphus.” The late Norfolk defense attorney handled the pardon applications for several state prisoners, and the self-taught jurist won them freedom after years — even decades — behind bars. Defendants and prisoners sought him out after other lawyers rejected their cases. Coggeshall represented people who faced insanely long […]
Amid Texas tragedy, an unsurprising, red herring-laden speech from Winsome Earle-Sears
No one is shocked that Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears refused to say new gun restrictions are needed in the wake of the mass slaying at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week. After all, she posed with a military-style rifle in campaign mailers while running for office in 2021. For staunch believers in gun […]
Remembrance and a warning from Hyannis
Past the oft-imminent tears threatening my face at the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum … Past the solemness and respect owed to a family that lost three men in service to America – in a wartime explosion and two assassinations that altered U.S. history … And past the images of JFK, toting around a gaggle […]
Just deserts for Alex Jones
Why should anyone believe Alex Jones ever tells the truth? He’s an execrable conspiracy theorist, huckster of dietary supplements and vile tormenter of parents who lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre. Jones’ Infowars site filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy recently in Texas, delaying civil litigation while his business reorganizes its finances. He claimed Infowars, […]