In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

As the title of this blog implies, we live in Hollywood, which is a considerable distance from either the Palisades Fire or the Eaton Fire. and thanks be to the Almighty, we were neither burned out nor ordered to evacuate. On the other hand, the powerful wind gusts that fed the fires also brought down trees across the whole region, which in turn took down power lines and left several million households without electricity. Our own neighborhood was out from Wednesday morning to noon yesterday, so although we and our neighbors were safe, we were incommunicado. The emerging consensus seems to be that the fires cmnstitute the worst disaster in Los Angeles history, which would put it above the previous top, the 1938 Los Angeles floods . Other lesser disasters include the 1933 Long Beach eartrhquake, the 1961 Bel Air fire, the 1965 Watts riots, the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, the 1992 Rodney King riots, and the 1994 Northridgw earthquake. But there were also strong reminders of the 1942 Bat...

As I reflected further on Archbishop Garcia-Siller's history of intemperate posts -- oddly reminiscent of Trump's own back in the day -- I thought about the timeline of his tenure as Archbishop of San Antonio. He was named to that post in 2010. I first learned about him when he removed Fr Christopher Phillips as pastor of the Our Lady of the Atonement parish in early 2017, and my editorial position on the old Cold Case File blog was that Phillips was overrated and something of a charlatan, and the archbishop's move was fully justified . I still think this way. Oddly, the archbishop's current pattern of making posts on X that he's had to delete, walk back, and apologize for, didn't begin until 2019. But then he stayed away from open controversy until this past year, when in May he had to delete, walk back, and apologize for two posts critical of Israel and the Jews in general. Then, following the New Orleans Bourbon Street attack, he indirectly blamed "tr...

Roman Catholic Archishoop of San Antonio Gustavo Garcia-Siller became a prominent figure at my old Cold Case File blog when he removed Fr Christopher Phillips as pastor of the Our Lady of the Atonement "Anglican use" parish in that diocese. Phillips was highly popular in some traditionalist Catholic circles, especially those that favored a hybrid Anglican-Catholic liturgy that was anything but traditional. At the time of that controversy, I was on the archbishop's side. A vocal minority at the Atonement parish objected to Phillips's cult-like leadership, and as matters developed, it appeared that he had tolerated highly questionable conduct by his deacon with teen boys. There were also allegations of financial mismanagement. In that circumstance, as I got reports from parishioners, former parishioners, and other San Antonio Catholics, the archbishop struck me as a solid, even courageous, figure. Over the weekend, a visitor sent me links to a new controversy invol...

According to Breitbart News , Allstate, the sponsor of Thursday’s Sugar Bowl contest between Notre Dame and Georgia, appears to have deleted CEO Tom Wilson’s post-terror attack message, which aired before the game and ignited a firestorm of controversy online. As I noted Friday , Allstate had already issued a mushy statement sorta-kinda walking back wilson's original wording: On Thursday, Allstate issued a statement to Fox News Digital condemning the terrorist attack and attempting to clarify its CEO’s message. “To be clear, Allstate CEO Tom Wilson unequivocally condemns this heinous act of terrorism and violence in all forms,” the statement read. “We stand with the families of the victims, their loved ones, and the community of New Orleans. The reference to overcoming divisiveness and negativity reflects a broader commitment to fostering trust and positivity in communities across the nation.” This need to clarify had me wondering where the pressure came ...

A lot of people, I think, get a lot wrong about security and AI. Twenty years ago, when I was briefly involved in the Dartmouth alumni trustee movement, I participated in online discussions among students and alumni that taught me a lot. I discovered that a major complaint among conservative students was that they had to swap electronic ID cards to get in and out of the dorm buildings. They felt this was a restriction on their freedom. I had a career spent partly on the road, and I thought that electronic key cards in hotels were a major advance in traveler safety. Why would anyone object to something like this? Well, they didn't like the idea that someone could look up where they'd been and when they'd gone in and out. I tried explaining that a record like that could actually be in their favor -- in an age of unsubstantiated rape accusations, for instance, it could prove you weren't in someone's dorm when they claimed you were. They still didn't like it, an...

NEW: Allstate CEO Tom Wilson says Americans need to overcome their "addiction of divisiveness" and "accept people's differences" following the terror attack in New Orleans. If only Shamsud Din Jabbar had heard this message two days ago! The comment was made at the start of the… pic.twitter.com/WDPWZhPrru — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 2, 2025 One thing I'm hoping for is that the national mood will stop tolerating the ostentatious display of luxury beliefs. As of 2023 , Allstate CEO Tom Wilson collected $15 million in total compensation in 2022, down from $19.1 million in 2021. Citing the company’s proxy statement filed with the SEC, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that the decrease in compensation was largely due to the annual cash bonus paid for a single year’s operating performance, which came in at 58% of Wilson's target bonus. Since that target is three times his salary, which sat at nearly $1.4 million last year, the bonus ...

Hold up. An FBI Agent with a nose ring who can barely speak coherent English sentences told the media that a terrorist driving a truck with an ISIS flag killing 10 Americans is NOT a terrorist attack!?! Seriously. listen to this We need Kash Patel NOW! pic.twitter.com/v2sjeJ2bcH — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 1, 2025 The tweets in response to this one on the thread definitely weren't unaninmously in agreement. Some didn't see anything wrong with a nose ring, while others thought an obvious grammatical error was OK, since she was clearly nervous or something. I've never been a public spokesman, but I'm broadly familiar with policies over statements to the press, and from what I see here, several things aren't quite right. First, any public statenment made to the press concerning an incident like this is normally drafted with some care and produced in writing to be approved up the chain of command. It can't be otherwise. As far as I can tell, this was...