Here’s some quick morning news before I hightail it to the ideology-in-science meeting:
*The meeting yesterday was good, highlighted by a superb opening talk given by Jonathan Rauch, echoing the themes of his equally great book, The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth. The quality of the talks was in general high, with just a few clunkers. Props to Anna Krylov, who was the uber-organizer of it all.
Lee Jussim gave a passel of examples of censorship in science, as did Lawrence Krauss (via Zoom), the latter concentrating on physics. Krauss also excoriated the National Academy of Sciences for political correctness, especially its explicit attempts to equalize membership equity, bypassing merit and apportioning extra new membership slots to sections of the Academy that have more ethnic and gender diversity, as well as geographic diversity. (He explicitly quoted the NAS’s policy which you can see here; it’s also quoted by Krauss in his WSJ piece here.)
But Marcia McNutt, President of the National Academies, was also at the meeting. When it was the turn of her panel (she talked about the geology of western North America), she briefly struck back at Krauss in an addendum, saying that she was talking about her own area of geological expertise and that Krauss, who “wasn’t a member of the NAS,” shouldn’t speak outside of his area of expertise. That was an unfair remark on her part, especially since Krauss quoted her own organization. Since when are you disqualified from criticizing how an organization based on merit places merit in second (or third) place when selecting members–just because you don’t belong to that organization? It may not be pleasant for the NAS to hear this, but people have every right to call out such a policy.
*Back in the real world, the LA wildfires are slowly coming “under control” as they say, but not all of them (article archived here):
The mammoth Palisades fire was roaring closer to residential areas of Los Angeles early Saturday, forcing a new round of evacuation orders and dimming hopes that a brief drop in wind speeds would help firefighters tame Southern California’s devastating blazes.
The desert winds that have stoked the fires are expected to pick up again Saturday afternoon. But even without high winds, the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles’s history expanded overnight across the region’s bone-dry terrain.
The Palisades fire, the largest of them, tore east, chewing up parched vegetation as it raced up the ridges of Mandeville Canyon. The authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for an area including parts of the Brentwood and Encino neighborhoods, as well as the Getty Center, one of Southern California’s cultural jewels.
The blaze, which has burned through 21,600 acres and razed stretches between Santa Monica and Malibu since it broke out on Tuesday, was only 8 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. To the east, firefighters had contained 3 percent of the 14,000-acre Eaton fire, near Altadena and Pasadena. The blazes, which have killed at least 11 people and destroyed thousands of structures, now rank among the five most damaging in California’s history.
With many people still unaccounted for, officials have said the death toll could rise.
Los Angeles announced a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. for areas under mandatory evacuation orders. National Guard units have been deployed to secure evacuation zones.
Here’s what we’re covering:
Water shortage: After reports emerged that a critical reservoir was offline when the fires started, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, said he was ordering an independent review to determine why firefighters ran out of water early on, calling the situation “deeply troubling.”
The victims: Those who have died include a man in his 60s who lived in his childhood home and drove a bloodmobile; a retired aerospace engineer and an active church deacon; and a retired pharmacy technician whom neighbors called “an angel.” Read more about the fires’ victims.
Scale of destruction: The combined area burned by this week’s fires is larger than the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston or Miami. As of Saturday morning, more than 100,000 people were under evacuation orders, and some 160,000 electricity customers were without power.
That is a huge area. I can’t see the destruction from USC, but after the meeting is over I’ll venture out for a couple of days, coming near the burned area. I’m not a gawker and have no desire to see people’s destroyed homes, but two friends live close to the burned area and I’m visiting them. Another friend lost his beloved home and studio in the woods.
If you’re a celebrity-follower, or one of those who are delighted when the rich get a comeuppance (I’m not one of those, either), here’s a WSJ map of celebrity homes destroyed in the Palisades fire:
*Reader Norm sent this headline (click to read). Wouldn’t you know that those pnefarious Jews were responsible for the California wildfires? Oy! The article is by Vered Weiss from the World Israel News (h/t Norm):
A quote:
Code Pink: ‘When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.’
Anti-Israel groups took to social media to blame Israel for Los Angeles wildfires.
The fires have destroyed hundreds of buildings and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of California residents.
On Instagram, Code Pink created a tenuous connection between the fires and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Code Pink wrote, “When US taxes go to burning people alive in Gaza, we can’t be surprised when those fires come home.”
The Anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace wrote, “Instead of putting resources toward making our country livable, our government is putting billions toward Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Fatima Mohammed, head of anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime posted, “The flames of Gaza will not stop there.”
“Dropping hundreds of thousands of bombs on Gaza, turning it into a blazing inferno, has consequences,” she said. “There are climate consequences that will find us all.”
Commentator Mehdi Hasan asserted that aid to Israel was interfering with funding LA’s fire department.
However, Hasan failed to recognize that Israeli military aid is federal and funding for the fire department is from the City of Los Angeles.
I mean, is that so hard to believe? After all, wasn’t it Marjorie Taylor Greene who, four years ago, blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers? Meanwhile, the Palestinians are celebrating the devastation (h/t Malgorzata):
Palestinians celebrate and gloat as the Los Angeles fires rage in the Hollywood hills, while their fans in the UK try to identify which of the victims in California deserve it because they are “Zionists.” pic.twitter.com/fMFTQHbgO8
— Saul Sadka (@Saul_Sadka) January 9, 2025
*Two pair of lynx have been captured in Scotland—in Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Lynx do not exist in the wild in Scotland, and it’s not clear if these are Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx; h/t Jez)
A second pair of lynx have been captured after being found near Kingussie in the Cairngorms National Park.
Two other lynx, released illegally, were caught in the same area on Thursday.
Staff from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland caught all the animals by baiting a series of humane traps in the area to entice them.
The RZSS confirmed that the latest pair had been captured at about 18:30 near the Dell of Killiehuntly, where the two other lynx were also successfully caught.
The latest lynx, believed to be larger than the other two cats, were first spotted at about 07:10 on Friday.
Dr Helen Senn, head of conservation at RZSS, said: “I’m sure that everyone in the community will be happy and relieved to know that the second pair of lynx have been safely captured.
“Early reports are that they appear to be in good health, which is the most important thing.
“It’s been a rollercoaster 48 hours, with people working throughout the day and night, in some extremely challenging conditions, but I’ve been so impressed by the efforts of our own staff as well as partners, and members of the local community to ensure that the outcome is a positive one.”
She added that the lynx would be taken to the Highland Wildlife Park before being moved to Edinburgh Zoo to quarantine for 30 days – as has happened with the first pair found on Thursday.
It’s not clear if they will be released if they are given a clean bill of health, for Scottish naturalists would dearly love to have the species back where it once roamed.
*Today I’ll post four instead of the usual three items stolen from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news summary in the Free Press, called this week, “TGIF: Hellfire.”
→ The Gulf of America: Trump announced that he’ll be renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Now it’ll be the Gulf of America. Here was Trump on Tuesday:
We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring, that covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name, and it’s appropriate.
I love that Trump is framing this as the normal way countries negotiate with each other. Tariffs? Yes. Sanctions? Sure. Change the name of a universally agreed-upon ocean? Absolutely. That is how real statesmen operate: Force your adversaries to relabel their maps. It’s also an incredible PR tactic. Shipwreck in the “Gulf of Mexico”? Don’t know what you’re talking about. New oil field discovered in the Gulf of America? Cha-ching!
Trump is going to release a whole new world map by the end of the year. Canada will be labeled “Area 51.” China renamed CHY-na. Ukraine? You’re thinking of “Little Russia.” New Mexico will, of course, become New America, Florida is D.C., and we’re throwing Connecticut to Elon Musk, who has decided to rename it X!12-ZZ Infiniti.
→ News for the Jews: In more news relevant to Jews (other than world domination), the head of Within Our Lifetime explained that there’s obviously no two-state solution: “As long as Israel exists, it is a genocide against the Palestinian people.” Remember when the whole thing was ceasefire and #peace? Funny how that shifts.
→ Funeral side-eyeing: At President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral yesterday, Kamala, who was seated in front of the formers (Trump, Obama, Clinton, my sweet little George), turned around as Trump and Obama chatted. She quickly looked away, took a deep breath, and pursed her lips. She pretended to read the bulletin like there were secrets in there. And for a moment, I felt her pain. George W. even gave Obama a little tap on the stomach. My favorite part of presidential funerals—yes, I have a favorite part—is getting to watch all these characters interact with each other. It’s like watching the most awkward reunion of The Real Househusbands of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
→ Sex is back: I don’t mean sex-sex. I mean males and females existing. That’s what a federal Kentucky judge decided when this week he struck down one of Biden’s signature policies: remaking Title IX to say that students can self-ID as whatever sex or gender they feel, play on any sport team they identify with, and enter any locker room. If schools didn’t go along with it, they would face the full force of the federal government. Now it’s over. What a strange journey we’ve gone on. Did that really happen?
Yes, indeed, Nellie, yes indeed it did.
After a break, Andrew Sullivan is back with The Weekly Dish. His column this week is called “The Price of Orthodoxies“. The theme is how orthodox opinion can blind us to not only the truth, but to horrible truths. His example are the Pakistani/Bangladeshi “rape gangs” (also called “grooming gangs”) in the UK. (And yes, I know there were some white rape gangs, too.) Excerpts:
The more intense the horror, the more powerful the instinct to doubt when you first hear of it. The sex-abuse scandal in my own church first numbed and incapacitated me. It took some time for me to see the totality of what had happened, and how deeply it had destroyed Catholic moral authority. Again, when I first read about, say, the Catholic school for deaf children where a priest had picked his victims among those whose parents did not know sign language, the feeling of horror was almost too much to process at all. And as with the Bush administration’s torture policy, it took even more time to grasp how this moral rot had been enabled by the very top.
This is why, I think, the scandal of Britain’s Pakistani rape-gangs, and the institutional negligence toward tens of thousands of underage victims over several years, has had a second burst of life. A serious national inquiry on the scandal was conducted years ago (its recommendations not yet implemented). But several towns with the worst records were omitted from that inquiry; and the sheer scale and depravity of what happened has finally begun to sink in. The precipitant was Elon Musk pontificating about the scandal on X, as part of his campaign to bring down Keir Starmer.
The details are hard to absorb. Think of the hideous abuse suffered by that extraordinary French woman, Gisèle Pelicot, sedated and raped by dozens of French men, organized by her husband. Now think of that kind of organized gang-bang — but make it close to ubiquitous in some towns and the victims under-age girls: raped, brutalized, mutilated, beaten, their lives destroyed. Yes, it was that bad. Tens of thousands of rape victims across the country. . .
Why was this allowed to go on for so long? For the same reason the Catholic Church covered up child rape for decades, and Dick Cheney covered up torture. Because the orthodoxies of Catholicism, of the American military, and, in this case, the multicultural experiment were respectively involved. These orthodoxies were sacred, their cultural power extreme. Catholic Boston, conservative America, and elite liberal Britain therefore defended their own orthodoxies for a very long time. And with every successful deflection of responsibility, the number of victims increased.
The truth damns the multicultural project in Britain. Rather than integrating these men of Pakistani heritage, insisting that they adopt the laws and mores of the native population, and treating them like everyone else, the UK elites celebrated cultural difference, enabled the siloing of these populations, bemoaned their own white working-class populations, and forbade any criticism of Islam. So if you called out this stuff, you were instantly called racist. After all, to accuse a non-white minority of raping white girls was a trope right out of white-supremacist fever dreams. And yes, it is a hideous racist trope — from the depths of the American South. But sometimes the trope is the truth.
In all the major cases, I’ve found no reported evidence of Pakistani or Muslim girls being groomed and raped — only poor, white natives.The justification among the rapists, moreover, was that these non-Muslims were sluts who were asking for it and beneath contempt. Racist insults were common as these girls were brutally abused. These were not just rapes, but hate crimes of a grisly sort.
It’s not true that the Brit media ignored the scandal. But it is also true that the space they gave it was trivial compared with, say, coverage of the George Floyd murder, thousands of miles away. And ask yourself: if it had been discovered that there were gangs of white nationalists singling out Pakistani-heritage girls for rape and abuse, with racist and Islamophobic slurs added for good measure, what would the media response have been? The question answers itself.
And if a white Brit had been found guilty of organizing the brutal gang-rape of a Pakistani 12-year-old girl, it’s hard to imagine him receiving a sentence of just three years. To get a sense of why the British public is pissed, it’s worth noting that last year, a white Brit was sentenced to a longer 38-month sentence for writing a social media post. More punishment for a white man’s inflammatory speech than for a non-white man’s gang-rape of a child: a near definition of wokeness. And you wonder why they call him Two-Tier Keir.
Yes, some readers think this is a confected scandal by conservatives aiming to depose the Labour Party and its Prime Minister. I do not agree with them in the sense that it is not made up, and it is a scandal involving disproportionate numbers of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.
Finally, a few of us went to Anna Krylov’s (conference organizer) and her partner Jay’s lovely house for dinner the other night. They had been given an evacuation warning, and packed their car, but fortunately the warning was rescinded. I forgot to take photos of the food which was delicious (grilled chicken and a variety of Russian-style sides), but I did get one of the dessert. Also, I was promised that I would get to pet one of their two cats: Mishka (“bear” in Russian), a beautiful gray English shorthair. Here they are:
Mishka (he is somewhat standoffish):
Dessert:
I’ll try to get more photos today, but I doubt the picture of the venue (a large auditorium) or of the box lunches (delicious but unphotogenic) will thrill you.
I bought Rauch’s Kindly Inquisitors – excellent!
Good to review the goings on from “the man in the street”, thanks.
Poor Mishka looks to be a bit angry. Too many uninvited (by him) guests for his taste.
And you mention that you’re posting “some quick morning news.” This is quite a full plate of news! So much that it’s too much to comment on—even for me.
Hope you’re enjoying the food and that the conference is a productive one.
“Poor Mishka looks to be a bit angry. Too many uninvited (by him) guests for his taste.”
That’s exactly right.
I saw that the area of the fires is large by a couple thousand acres than the area of Manhattan.
Sully writes: “A serious national inquiry on the scandal was conducted years ago (its recommendations not yet implemented)”.
He appears to be mistakenly conflating two inquiries by Professor Alexis Jay, the local Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (report published 2014) and the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA, report published October 2022). The national inquiry included 12 separate investigations – some into events in particular localities, but others focused on organisations (including the Anglican and Catholic churches) and issues (including the internet and child sexual abuse and child exploitation by organised networks). The current Labour government has said that it is examining the recommendations of the IICSA report.
Sadly, one of the four lynx captured in the Scottish Cairngorms died overnight. The cause of death is unknown pending an autopsy. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) said that “the captured lynx were tame and were used to humans” and that “they would have been under great stress after being abandoned in a new and ‘extremely harsh’ environment”. (Temperatures in the area have reached -14°C, compared to the average seasonal low in northern Scotland of 0.3°C at this time of year.)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvge40jv4gjo
It didn’t take long for the anti-semites to get blaming Israel and the Jews for the Los Angeles fires.
Maybe the anti-semites are starting them.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Zoom link to PCC(E)’s conference via Michael Shermer:
https://x.com/michaelshermer/status/1878121460574925068?s=46
Sullivan is indeed correct, and the denials from many on the “multicultural” left, from Labour, and from much of the bien-pensant media are grotesque and infuriating. It is noteworthy that the one and only book on this decades-long atrocity (Peter McLoughlin’s meticulously-sourced Easy Meat, 2016) was banned from Amazon several years ago.
That book appears to exist on the Internet Archive in its entirety.
I’ve seen that Trump blamed some fish that lives in Northern California for the fires, right-wing pundits are blaming DEI, and now it’s the Jews! I’m sure it’s a lot of comfort for the people who are living through the infernos. I suppose placing any blame on climate change just doesn’t have that hate factor people are looking for.
Trump probably doesn’t believe that climate change is real. Or if forced to notice higher temperatures says something like “the climate been changing for hundreds of years, it’s natural not man made.”
Unfortunately there’s severe denial on the right.
Two comments:
1) Even if we could stop all CO2 emissions today, climate change is baked in for the next 100 years or so. There is no quick fix, so no matter what we need to adapt to it.
2) Even though people are pushing solar, wind, and batteries, these technologies are simply not up to the task of replacing fossil fuels. We need to invest in serious research. So far, the actual investments have been trivial. For example, the DOE funds 5 energy “Hubs” at about $25 million per year each. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the size of the problem.
https://www.energy.gov/hubs
I think most of the climate money is just Dem giveaways to favored groups.
Yes, I agree there are serious problems with giving up fossil fuels.
It’s also unclear if warming played a part in the LA disaster. The strong winds are a long standing feature.
It’s been suggested that three wet years followed by an eight-month drought provided a copious amount of fuel for the fire.
The three wet years are odd, especially since here on the west coast of BC—normally rainy every winter without fail—we are becoming dry. The change for BC is very striking. I’ve lived here most of my 73 years and I tentatively tie to global warming.
It’s seem the rain has gone south to California. But I have no familiarity with its climate so I’m just speculating.
So far, renewables have accomplished…nothing.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2025/01/02/Reality-Check-Energy-Transition/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=020125
I think it would be accurate to say that climate change is exacerbating the risk of large fires. And it’s true that a lot of people don’t want to believe that. But California and the United States can’t do anything about climate change until China and India get religion and, at your behest, stop trying to grow their economies using fossil fuels. Meantime, it’s not unreasonable or hateful to ask what can be done more prosaically to mitigate risk of conflagrations. (Los Angeles of all places is not going to stop driving cars.) You can’t just throw up your hands and let the state burn while shrugging, “Climate Change.” That, too, is an excuse to avoid asking other types of uncomfortable questions. Maybe you can’t live in uninsurable dense suburbs on Chaparral hillsides where high winds blow.
How is it more callous toward fire victims to discuss water reservoirs and building practices — things that could in principle be fixed before next time — than to blame it all on climate change which America can’t do anything about by itself?
At present, China produces about twice as much CO2 as the US. India produces less, but is catching up. China has the immense misfortune of being the first major post-oil economy. Coal runs China’s economy and will for the foreseeable future. Nothing in my remarks should be interpreted as a criticism of the PRC. For better or worse, global CO2 output is likely to grow over the next few decades. In my opinion, Geoengineering is inevitable.
In 2009, when I read it in a McClatchy newspaper, China passed the U.S. in CO2 production. No mention that the U.S. by far led (and I gather so far still leads) in per capita CO2 production.
Also, there was no mention of what fraction of China’s CO2 production was attributable to manufacturing on behalf of U.S. businesses. I’ve never heard mainstream U.S. media mention this. Perhaps I’ve missed it. For sure, mainstream U.S. media won’t mention this anywhere near as much as they mention China leading in production.
When China (and the rest of Asia) has brought electricity to the peasants in the remote country districts and raised the average standard of living to that of the United States and Europe, as it is trying to do, while also challenging the United States for naval supremacy, its per capita emissions will be close to that of the United States. How could they be otherwise? There is no magic route to prosperity that doesn’t involve fossil fuels. China is nowhere close to electrifying everything, and much of that electricity will come from coal. (And nuclear, and hydro, and wind and solar, and imported oil.) China never perfected the art of making reliable reciprocating internal combustion piston engines in mass quantities, hence their enthusiasm for electric cars. Piston engines may be yesterday’s technology but they are hard to replace for personal transportation and just-in-time freight delivery, both of which economies want as they get richer and build roads to compete with railways.
China’s role as workshop of the world is well-known I think: off-shoring of manufacturing necessarily means off-shoring of emissions. But as China continues to develop, much of its recent emissions growth is for home-grown purposes. (Our World in Data.) This makes it so hard for Asia and the rest of the world to come to common ground on climate. The incentives the two sides feel are very different. China wants the world’s manufacturing business but it also wants the customer countries to book those emissions themselves to take the CO2 shame off China…with the effect that the world would have to buy less from China if they are to meet their Paris promises? How would that work?
Trump Jr. and Musk have blamed the aid for Ukraine, claiming that so much has been given to Ukraine that not enough has remained to combat the fires at home.
They are bloviating clowns. All the money in the world could not have stopped those winds.
I am sick of the opportunistic political finger-pointing.
I don’t know if anyone will see this comment, since I’m a day late to this post, but I did want to correct one thing that Sullivan was quite wrong about:
This just isn’t true. Here is a report detailing numerous cases of young Muslim / Pakistani females being targeted for exploitation and treated with as much depravity as white girls:
Unheard Voices: The Sexual Exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women https://www.mwnuk.co.uk/go_files/resources/UnheardVoices.pdf
The report – which was written by Muslim female activists – makes the point that the overriding motive of the Pakistani males in these groups was sexual gratification. To that end, the men did not discriminate between females based on race or religion. All that mattered was whether the females were young, naive, and vulnerable (e.g., because they came from broken families without adults who were likely to intervene.)
And to add my own editorial opinion: the cultural attitude that enabled this wholesale abuse and exploitation of young women wasn’t any stripe of racism; rather, it was misogyny – the notorious Islamic / Asian belief that women have little intrinsic value apart from their ability to gratify male lust and/or serve as subservient wives and mothers. (While the men might not have called their non-white victims “white” sluts, the reports are that they verbally denigrated them just as viciously as they denigrated the white girls).
Misogyny is why these gangs didn’t exempt women of their own race and religion from exploitation and denigration But this should hardly be surprising: worldwide, Muslim women are not only not exempt from Muslim male contempt and abuse; they are by far the primary victims of it.
That was my understanding, too. Thanks for having the data to hand and citing it.
I have also read that the Pakistani gangs tried to enslave Hindu and Sikh girls but men from these communities organized and defended their girls by force.