Features | Opinion | Videos | Calendar | Advertise Thursday, February 9, 2012
POSTS BY John McManus
John McManus is the author of the novel Bitter Milk and the short story collections Born on a Train and Stop Breakin Down. His fiction has appeared in many journals, including Tin House, Harvard Review, The Oxford American, Ploughshares, Columbia, Grist, and American Short Fiction. He lives in Norfolk and teaches in the MFA creative writing program at Old Dominion University. Links to his publications can be found at his website, http://johnmcmanus.net/ .

Op-ed: The Year McDonnell’s Christian Right Took Over Virginia

By John McManus

A general rule: the more draconian a bill, the more it puts ideology ahead of common sense, the more likelihood it will pass.

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Op-ed: Virginia Laws Treat Women Unfairly, and It’s Getting Worse

By John McManus

There are many places in the world where laws pertaining to health care and privacy rights treat women and men equally. The Commonwealth of Virginia does not seem to want to be one of them.

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Op-ed: Train from NFK to Richmond Best Local News All Year

By John McManus

Starting in December, anyone within walking distance of a Tide station will be able to journey all up and down the Eastern Seaboard by public transit, without need of a car, bus, or taxi, changing trains exactly once: at Harbor Park.

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If You Read the Books John Read, with John McManus

By John McManus

“Neutrality and objective distance are places I’ve never been able to find.” –Saviano, Gomorrah.

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Yes We Can! (halt the gay equality movement in its tracks)

By John McManus

Obama’s marginalization of gays as “the crazy left,” and his turning his back on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

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On Kerry Dougherty, Jesus, AIDS, and Art

By John McManus

In today’s If You Read the Paper.

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McManus’ If You Read the Paper, Live from South Africa

By John McManus

You’re maybe wondering why I traveled to South Africa in the first place. The answer is simple: to escape Christmas music.

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Fiction by John McManus: Mr. Gas

By John McManus

Mama said the way to keep a diary was to write down the opposite of everything that happened, so she gave Jason a blank book so each night he could tell how all the boys played kick the cans until the boogeyman came.

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Op-Ed: Cuccinelli Not Fit To Be Governor Goes Without Saying

By John McManus

Cuccinelli plays paintball, runs for Governor, possibly has triskaidekaphobia and more in today’s paper.

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Op-ed: The Radical Homosexuals Infiltrating the United States Congress Have a Plan

By John McManus

The job I was coveting was Delgaudio’s chief of staff, whose only rewarding task is writing suggestive idioms using ram, such as “dangerously close to ramming their perversity into law” and “ram through their entire perverted vision for a homosexual America.”

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Op-ed: The Billionaire Propaganda Machine

By John McManus

If new taxes seem unfeasible ideologically, it’s because the billionaires among us have spent more on propaganda to convince us of it than they’ll ever pay in progressive taxation.

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Op-ed: Now Entering GOP-Land, Formerly Known as Virginia

By John McManus

With a Republican-controlled state government–from the Governor to state house to Le Cooch–get ready to learn what “family values” really means.

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Op-ed: Ben Loyola: Homophobic, Carpetbagger, Hypocrite Rich off the Government Contracts He Rails Against

By John McManus

This election–recently marred by anti-Northam propaganda including images of aborted fetuses and vile homophobia–is undeniably *important* to Virginia and Hampton Roads.

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Op-ed: “Generally Hostile Environment” for Gay People in VA Starts with Bob McDonnell

By John McManus

Bob McDonnell is chief executive of the state whose demonstrably anti-gay climate I’ve just described. And more in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper.

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Op-ed: Occupy Movement vs. Market Fundamentalism: History will Judge

By John McManus

The goal of the Occupy movement, as I see it, would be devising a system to encourage right behavior, where there’s no disincentive to do good. Where fair is fair and foul is foul.

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Oh, Kerry: VP’s Dougherty Stands Bravely Against Spanish Speakers, Democracy, & Facts

By John McManus

Dougherty speaks of “the rudimentary mastery of English that’s necessary to negotiate a ballot.” Call me lazy, or stupid, but somehow in three semesters of college Spanish I never learned how to say ‘maximum aggregate principal amount.’

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Oct 7

By John McManus

“Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.” – Picasso

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Sept 30

By John McManus

The Lie That Tells the Truth Top story: I’m co-directing the 34th Annual Old Dominion University Literary Festival, which runs throughout next week. We’re bringing 17 world-class poets, fiction writers, playwrights, photographers, scholars, and musicians to Old Dominion to read and discuss their work. The events are all free, except for a concert on Monday [...]

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Blog: VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli Speaks at ODU

By John McManus

“You need to be able to explain why you believe what you believe. Just ask Rick Perry.”

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Op-ed: The Tide Expanding is the Best Local News All Year

By John McManus

Plus the possibility of tolls on I-95; Bobby Scott is a good, non-gay hating dude; Gov. McDonnell acting like a vice-presidential candidate; the VA Tea Party Alliance taking aim at state Dems; and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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The Battle for the VA State Sentate, & Why this Election Matters to You

By John McManus

Rick Perry at Liberty U, funding for local Amtrak routes cut, Pat Robertson opens his mouth (you know what happens next), a plan for Wards Corner, and more in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper for Friday, Sept 16.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Sept 9

By John McManus

“In response Cuccinelli’s face developed a glitch, going intermittently pixilated for a few nanoseconds in a manner undetectable on TV.” And more gems from celebrated novelist/AltDaily columnist John McManus.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Sept 2

By John McManus

If you aren’t reading John McManus’ column you are missing out on some of the best political and social commentary you will find anywhere. And that’s the truth, Ruth.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Aug 26

By John McManus

That’s all. Now please get off the internet and go someplace safe.

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Op-ed: Tide Starter Line a Bold First Step

By John McManus

Plus Seville’s bicycling explosion, your weekly dose of COOCH!, casual encounter between undead Falwell and Bachmann, and more in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper for Friday, Aug 19.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, Aug 12

By John McManus

John McManus tells the truth about local mountain ranges, the Ames GOP debate, Ken Cuccinelli, Adam Ebbin, and more in today’s Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, August 5

By John McManus

John McManus uses his big old brain to break the news down for all us sinners here in Hampton Roads.

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Op-ed: The Debt Debate & The Destruction of the Middle Class

By John McManus

Want to understand the debt crisis? Read this. And more in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, July 22

By John McManus

John McManus spends most of this column praising Ken Cuccinelli. Honestly, he does.

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Republicans Clearing the Path for Economic Meltdown

By John McManus

And more fact based opinions in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper for Friday, July 15th.

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Op-ed: Viable Transportation Systems Save Lives

By John McManus

And more from John McManus in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, July 1

By John McManus

John McManus takes on both bed bugs and comma splices, he does it in one shot.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri June 24

By John McManus

Ron Paul would end federal war on marijuana! And other top headlines in IYRTP.

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If You Read the Paper | Friday, June 17

By John McManus

All too often cyclists encounter drivers who never learned how to share the road with cyclists or else resent having to do so

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If You Read the Paper | Fri June 10

By John McManus

If Virginia offers no parole, then for what reason beyond posturing do we issue sentences of up to 300 years? Are we afraid Ray Kurzweil’s predictions of the imminent discovery of methods toward sustainable immortality will bear out?

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, June 3

By John McManus

John McManus tells it how it is, or at least how he sees it.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri, May 27th

By John McManus

Florida opinion writers attack!, How to sue The Pilot without really trying, and more from wet and wild Virginia, in John McManus’ Paper.

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The Fallacy of the New Roads Congestion Solution

By John McManus

And more in John McManus’ If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri May 13

By John McManus

Norfolk Bike Month; Gay Marriage pays; Oh, Rand!; New ticks in HR; Capital punishment makes us all murderers; and a poem from Stanley Kunitz.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri May 6

By John McManus

“I feel nothing but unease, however, toward the notion that financial help indentures the less fortunate to the more fortunate.” – John McManus

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Today’s News, Except More Fun to Read

By John McManus

Cuccinelli, Thomas E. Haynesworth, alligator army attacks, royal wedding goes horribly wrong (maybe, okay no), and more in today’s If You Read the Paper, by John McManus.

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Op-ed: Keep Adoption Law Out of the Hands of Religious Moralists

By John McManus

Earth Day, Clean Air Act, $1.1B for transportation in Hampton Roads, and much more in If You Read the Paper for Friday, April 22nd.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri April 15

By John McManus

Cuccinelli, gay adoption, no new taxes, Virginia health care law, gambling raids, and more in today’s Paper by John McManus.

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If You Read the Paper | Friday, April 8

By John McManus

Good morning, all, and greetings on this brink of federal shutdown.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri April 1

By John McManus

A timely conversation with Norfolk poet and iconoclast Olaf Rislop.

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When Those in Power are Anti-Gay (Or the Hateful Beetles that Eat at Our Souls)

By John McManus

And more in today’s If You Read the Paper, by John McManus.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri March 18

By John McManus

Transportation, In God We Trust, congestion pricing, oregano, and John’s favorite video music video.

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America Vs. Bradley Manning (and the Geneva Conventions)

By John McManus

And more in today’s If You Read the Paper, by John McManus.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Mar 4

By John McManus

I’m misguided and flat-out wrong to say that Cuccinelli called for discrimination against gays and lesbians? No.

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Ken Cuccinelli & The Perversion of Language

By John McManus

And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Feb 18

By John McManus

With apologies to Stephen Colbert, this has been Part One of my new sixty thousand-part series called Better Know an Insanity at the Basis of Local Urban Planning.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Feb 11

By John McManus

The Cooch, Social Security, war on women’s reproductive rights, the VA General Assembly, and much more to make you a better citizen and more well-rounded human.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Feb 4

By John McManus

If you support your local Republican Congressman then it’s also what you yourself are supporting. A vote for Scott Rigell in VA-02 has turned out to be a vote for redefining rape by dividing it into two categories. Forcible rape? Still wrong. Mere rape? Not so wrong.

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Cantor’s Lie about Social Security

By John McManus

And some good news in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Friday Jan 21

By John McManus

Public broadcasting, changing climates, and exploding suns in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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If You Read the Paper | Friday Jan 14

By John McManus

Today’s top headlines, after the jump.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Jan 07

By John McManus

New bridge-tunnel: The Patriots’ Crossing, Virginia to make its own money? and more of what John sees into the future in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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John McManus’ Best Things of 2010

By John McManus

John’s top books, music, TV, blogs, and local news stories. And a bunch more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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Pat Robertson: A Visionary or Just Stoned Talking?

By John McManus

It seems hypocritical, if not downright morally depraved, for lawmakers to preside over a justice system that imprisons people for harmlessly breaking laws that the politicians themselves have flouted with impunity. And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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Op-ed: Brought to You by the Letters W, T and F

By John McManus

PBS costs one one-thousandth of what we’ll pay for roads next year, and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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Wikileaks: Furthering the Cause of Peace

By John McManus

“Imagine an alternate-history version of Watergate in which Woodward and Bernstein advocated for the government assassination of Deep Throat, and you’ll have the Wikileaks story.” That and more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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Climate Change Exists. Just ask Larchmont.

By John McManus

And more in today’s If You Read the Paper.

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IYRTP: Why the Anti-Riverboat Casino Argument Should Fold

By John McManus

I’ve seen more than a few smoothly functioning countries where casinos exist all over the place because their governments don’t legislate morality.

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IYRTP: Get off the Road, Tea Partiers

By John McManus

If Tea Party aficionados expressed a desire to opt out of highway funding the way they hope to say “no thanks” to Medicare, I might consider their overall platform to be a coherent system.

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IYRTP: Why You Should Care About Net Neutrality

By John McManus

That’s right: all 95 candidates for the House who signed a statement by Net Neutrality Protectors in support of Net Neutrality lost their elections.

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Waiting for a Gay Rights Hero We Thought Had Already Arrived

By John McManus

Clint McCance, President Obama, and the long wait for equality in the gay civil rights movement.

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Anti-Dialects Op-ed Grounded in Hatred and Fear

By John McManus

And more in If You Read the Paper for Fri Oct 29, 2010.

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Survive Norfolk: A Heartening Sign of Civic Health

By John McManus

In today’s If You Read the Paper for Friday, Oct 22nd.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Oct 15

By John McManus

Lots of Cooch today. Read on.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Oct 8

By John McManus

The Pilot article doesn’t challenge Koch’s idea that light rail will never grow beyond a single seven-mile line. Perhaps it won’t. But that doesn’t mean there’s any intelligent city planner around who thinks it shouldn’t.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Oct 1

By John McManus

Hello, and welcome to October, my favorite month. The heat has subsided, the leaves will soon turn, and I’m receiving twelve letters per hour about the election.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Sept 24

By John McManus

The first woman to be put to death by the commonwealth in a century has died for a crime committed by men who will never suffer for it at that level, men who admittedly recognized Lewis as someone who could be easily manipulated.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Sept 17

By John McManus

In six days “insurance companies will no longer be able to take away your coverage if you get sick while under their insurance.” This might sound propagandistic, but it’s true!

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Sept 10

By John McManus

It’s long been a tenet of Dougherty’s brand of right-wing pseudo-populism that the poor are criminals and the well-to-do are victims.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Sept 3

By John McManus

McManus is back with nine headlines and, of course, lots to say about each.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Aug 20

By John McManus

What Virginia’s doing with its extra cash.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri Aug 13

By John McManus

Republicans love calling themselves “strict constitutional constructionists” except when the Constitution reveals itself as insufficiently xenophobic or authoritarian, as in the case of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri Aug 6

By John McManus

It reminds me of when John McCain argued for better border security because Mexicans are intentionally causing wrecks on the highways. He never said why. My best guess is that they’re doing it because it’s fun, but I’m white and so I can only speculate.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri July 30

By John McManus

John challenges Wonder Ken to a karaoke contest. If Cooch wins, John won’t make fun of him for a year. If John wins, Cooch can’t run for president. Cruzer’s applause-o-meter is the judge.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri July 23

By John McManus

Also I mustn’t leave out the song where Cooch is on the phone pretending to talk to world leaders after he’s elected president, but this song is as yet untitled.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri July 16

By John McManus

Tidewater Virginia is in tears today as Barefoot Bandit Colton Harris-Moore remains in federal custody.

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If You Read the Paper | Fri July 9

By John McManus

Exciting Announcement! John McManus has been commissioned to write “Cuccinelli the Musical.” (Think Les Mis meets La Cage.)

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If You Read The Paper | Fri July 2

By John McManus

I’m no huge fan of Glenn Nye in the wake of his cynical, self-serving vote against the Affordable Care Act, but at least he doesn’t seem to be a virulent racist.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri June 25

By John McManus

It is irrational, unwise, and even immoral to keep devoting so many billions of dollars to new roads.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri June 18

By John McManus

Josephine Demmons McBride, age 101, has graduated from the Norfolk Citizens’ Police Academy, having completed twelve weeks of classes during which she fired a submachine gun and successfully hit the dummy’s shoulder. I’ve canceled my plans to break into her house.

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If You Read The Paper | June 11, 2010

By John McManus

Eventually we’ll all be parroting the brainwashed populace in 1984: “We have always been at war with Eastasia.”
How depraved, then, to adopt policies that might cause kids to hear the word gay.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri June 4

By John McManus

To get from Norfolk to Newport News, I usually just fly out of Norfolk and into Newport News-Williamsburg. Sure I have to connect via Dulles or Charlotte, but it’s still faster.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri May 28

By John McManus

In anticipation of being fired from ODU when Attorney General Cuccinelli hears that I believe dinosaurs existed, I’m engaged in a full-scale attempt to get Virginia Senator Jim Webb to hire me as a publicist.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri May 21

By John McManus

Last month this space covered the City of Virginia Beach’s order to demolish the historic “Alamo-style” Roland Court Theater, which was in blatant violation of a Virginia Beach code stating that buildings must be no more than 40 years old.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri May 14

By John McManus

If you’ve read my blog in this space before, you know I care about exactly two things: public transportation and gay rights. Today I’ve prepared no fewer than five posts about each. Go pop some popcorn.

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If You Read The Paper | Fri May 7

By John McManus

Cantor says Americans are ‘better than’ everyone else, Antanas Mockus, Deepwater Horizon, Formspring, schools caught cheating.

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If You Had Read the Paper | Fri Apr 30

By John McManus

Gulf oil spill, Arizona’s immigration law, state police prayer policy, the Battle of Hampton Roads, and more.

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If You Had Read the Paper | Fri Apr 23

By John McManus

The May4thCounts.com controversy, Pat Robertson, new W. Va. casino, women on subs, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, zoning, demolition of VB’s historic theater and more.

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If You Had Read The Paper | Fri April 16

By John McManus

I wish some ardent birther would speak up in the comments and explain to me how it is that the Obama family knew in 1961 that their secret nefarious plan to sneak a socialist Kenyan baby into the American presidency forty-seven years in the future would succeed.

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Eliminating the Darkey: The Racist History of Felons’ Voting (Non)Rights in Virginia

By John McManus

“This plan will eliminate the darkey as a political factor in this State in less than 5 years, so that in no single county… will there be the least concern felt for the complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”

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If You Had Read the Paper | Fri Apr 9

By John McManus

I’m sure that Barack Obama receives some truly terrifying daily reports from the CIA. I doubt, however, that had Patrick Henry foreseen those same reports he’d have rescinded his famous words on liberty and death.

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If You Had Read The Paper | Friday April 2

By John McManus

Z104 vs VB on April Fools, being “Norfolkian”, tanning salon tax, priests, pirates, gay QBs, Easter egg hunts.

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If You Had Read The Paper | Fri Mar 26

By John McManus

Regent and slavery, Cuccinelli and gay sex, taxes, taxes and taxes.

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If You Had Read The Paper | Fri Mar 19

By John McManus

The McDonnell/Cuccinelli crazy party, Monarchs’ win, monkey bites and more.

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If You Had Read The Paper | Fri Mar 12

By John McManus

John McManus writes this week from Berlin, covering headlines on Muslim prayers in the General Assembly, senators’ salaries and light rail costs.

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