Leslie Eastman’s Favorite Posts of 2024

Leslie Eastman’s Favorite Posts of 2024

When Jan. 1, 2024 dawned, I knew it would be a busy years for news analysis.

But, just WOW.

Looking back through my posts over the last 365 days, several that stood out that touch upon the topics I normally cover for Legal Insurrection.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Ideological Capture of the Sciences

Americans have become increasingly skeptical of science being used to promote woke policies, and trust in our scientific institutions plummeted. In fact, City Journal did a detailed review of the ideological capture of science communication.

At the beginning of 2024, once of the biggest promoters of pseudoscience dressed up as expert opinion was Scientific American. The once-respected magazine published a laughable piece that there was no difference in the physical capabilities in male and female athletes. The magazine also beclowned itself by using the term birthing parent.

During its journey to Bud-Light itself, Scientific American’s also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.

Once the all the votes were counted, the editor-in-chief had a spectacular meltdown on social media and subsequently resigned.

Hopefully, 2025 is the year were reverse the ideological capture and promote traditional research approaches using the scientific method instead of “indigenous knowledge” and DEI.

Climate Crisis Cultists’ War with Reality

The annual conference at Davos did not disappoint this year, if you were looking for climate cult crazy. Eco-activists wanted to jail farmers and fishermen for “eco-cide”. This inanity was coupled with another report that lobsters, fish, and other sea creatures have “consciousness.”

However, flawed climate models showed more warming than actually occurred. Additionally, one of the biggest climate cult promoters (The Washington Post) accidentally admitted the Earth was at the coolest point in the last 485 million years.

It is also beginning to hail on the woke “green energy” solutions to a non-existent crisis. As Americans become more aware of the drawbacks of electric vehicles (EVs) such as “charger hogs“, car companies like Ford are taking a fiscal hit on each EV sold.

Finally, a group of scientists officially declared and end to the “climate emergency” during a conference in Prague.

Biology Doesn’t Care About Woke Theories

One of the more positive signs that appeared toward the end of this year was the reversal of trans-insanity, which got a huge assist when the French Senate insisted that sex change surgery for minors was the greatest ethical scandal in the history of medicine.

Chromosomes were a hot topic this year. Famous biologist Richard Dawkins temporarily had his Facebook account suspended over a fact-based statement he made on the subject of chromosomes. On the other hand, astrophysicist Niel DeGrasse Tyson decided to dress-up opinion about gender with his version of biology, and the results were not pretty.

Viruses and Pandemic-mania

I was one of the first to report on the initial outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (aka H5N1, “bird flu”) in 2022. I have been following the spread this year, and have been trying to provide the proper balance on information to counter the media-driven pandemic-mania that occurs whenever a pathogen makes the news. Despite the fact the bird flu has mild effects on healthy humans, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency over the California outbreak (which was met with much jeering and skepticism).

I am continuing to follow outbreak of the Clade 1B Monkeypox, which is more virulent and transmissible that the 2022 strain I had previously covered. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared global public health emergency this summer, and cases of the strain outside the Democratic Republic of Congo appear to be related to those contracted during travel in Africa…including one case in California. This year, a congressional report revealed that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) deceived Congress over its plans to create a Frankenstein monkeypox virus that had pandemic potential.

Volcanoes and Geology

Though it was a quiet year for volcano news, Washington State’s Mt. Adams has experienced an uptick in seismic activity. The swarms of small earthquakes may mean the there is movement in the magma chamber.

In other geology news, a landslide/tsumani combination in Greenland caused a seismic event that shook the Earth for 9 days. And it appears President/President-elect Trump is still interested in acquiring the land for this country, despite the ice and icy reception from the Danes.

In conclusion, it’s been an Earth-shaking year for science news. I thank all my Legal Insurrection friends for the support and comments, and look forward to sharing what happens next with all of these subjects in 2025.

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