Leslie Eastman’s 2023 Year in Review
A look back on science, California, Egypt, viruses, and volcanoes.
As I look back on the 2023 posts I have written, I can’t believe it has been my good fortune to share my analysis with so many great friends of Legal Insurrection. I am also so grateful to be part of an amazing team who are smart, dedicated, and insightful.
This year, I have decided to feature some of my favorite posts on the subject areas I follow most closely for Legal Insurrection.
The Ideological Capture of the Sciences and the New Resistance
I would like to think this is the year when people began to push back successfully against pseudoscience dedicated to supporting political narratives. I consider this resistance necessary to restore equilibrium and sanity to both science and society.
For example, there is now evidence that ideological capture has hindered innovation. An astrophysics professor received a much needed lesson in humility when her anti-male project that also smeared the concept of individualism and exceptionalism was slammed hard.
A crazed feminist went nuclear on the summer hit “Oppenheimer” because a woman didn’t speak for the first 20 minutes of the film and the era’s scientists were chiefly male. People were clearly unmoved by this rant, as the move is up for eight Golden Globes.
A new report actually made it through to publication that looked at data from a geologic historical perspective and threw cold water on global-warming climate cultism. “To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions?” may prove to be the most important scientific paper in the last ten years.
But my favorite moments were the result of the New Resistance lobbying at the United Nations annual meeting of climate cultists, the “Conference of Parties”: The host of the conference explicitly stated there was no real science behind the demand to phase out fossil fuels, Al Gore had an epic meltdown, and loopholes showed that the “Iron Law of Electricity” triumphed.
California – Life on the Crazy Left Coast
The politicians in my home state never fail to disappoint when it comes to making bad choices. The slavery reparations panel Gov. Gavin Newsom created got the year off to a great start by recommending that black people in this state were owed $1 million each.
Some members of our legislature pushed for an “exit tax” on those who dare to leave.
Finally, a new state law mandates that stores reserve space for a “gender-neutral tow section” or face a fine.
Egypt in the Spotlight
My first blog, “Temple of Mut,” was supposed to focus on ancient Egypt. I still keep up with news related to the Land of the Nile. The year started with the U.S. returning a looted sarcophagus back to Egypt. Then the British decided to ban the term “mummy” out of respect for the dead.
Netflix managed to offend the entire nation of Egypt with its woke “Cleopatra” docudraama, which was an Actium-level disaster. The year ends with the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping that are threatening Egypt’s economically important Suez Canal.
Viruses and Volcanoes
My editors can confirm that I threaten to write about viruses and volcanoes if it is a slow news day. While there really hasn’t been one of either in some time, I still wrote about both subjects from time to time.
My assertions that a lab leak in Wuhan proved to be a reasonable theory as to covid’s origins. Monkeypox is back, with a more infectious strain associated with a higher infection fatality rate.
A House of Representatives select committee slammed the FBI and CDC for their mishandling of an illegal biolab run by the Chinese in California. The lab contained 20 different types of infectious agents, including the deadly ebola virus.
I also took a look at new research showing the Earth’s inner core could begin rotating in reverse. I wrapped up the year reporting on Iceland’s fissure eruption and its geology.
Tweet of the Year
Early in 2023, I reported that The Royal Astronomical Society reversed its position on scientists mentioning the James Webb Space Telescope by name . . . after disgraceful smears about Webb were disproved (especially in an analysis done by astrophysicist Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi). It led to this exchange, which is one I treasure.
Thank you to @Mutnodjmet for defending free thought and speech
— Hakeem Oluseyi (@HakeemOluseyi) January 11, 2023
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Comments
2023 has been a doozy..
Ty Leslie..
Watch your 6, there, on the left coast.
2023. It’s not the beginning of the end of the madness, but it may be the end of the beginning.
I’ll watch from afar to see if Wa and Oregon voters have had enough.
Supposedly all the initiatives in Wa to roll back the madness came in with plenty of signatures. But they only turn back a portion of the madness. The Tacoma cops were found Not Guilty enough to be lynched by the AG in the name of st George Floyd, but the Auburn cop is still pending.
For every law that gets turned back by initiative, the legislature passes 10 more just like it. All I can say is I hope Abbot just pumps as many illegals as possible into downtown Seattle, Olympia, and Portland until the collapse in on themselves.
A House of Representatives select committee slammed the FBI and CDC for their mishandling of an illegal biolab run by the Chinese in California. The lab contained 20 different types of infectious agents, including the deadly ebola virus.
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Now the next planned attack on American is some pneumonia “going” around china.
Just gots to have da lock “em” downs or you ain’t a radical, far leftwing nutjob democrat.
I’m waiting for the Webb-Hubble telescope to be renamed the “Chelsea’s Real Dad’s Spyglass”.
Happy New Year!
Great Maker, and it took all of 89 pages, yes, 89 freaking pages to come to the conclusion that James Webb didn’t actively participate in the “Lavender Scare” of the 40s and 50s. They could have easily have said that in a one-page press release and have been done with it.
Thank you, Leslie, for expanding from just the legal stuff (which of course I came here for first!) and keeping us abreast on the science. The intersection of science and law will be very important if (or when) medical freedom is again challenged in the next mandate.
Happy New Year to all!