Toss Another Virgin in the Climate Volcano

by Mark Steyn
Steyn on the Oakley Show
October 8, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9743/toss-another-virgin-in-the-climate-volcano

Mark made a rare Tuesday appearance with John Oakley on Toronto's Global News Radio 640 to chew over the Canadian election debate, the veneration of Greta Thunberg, the incompetence of Extinction Rebellion, and the NBA's big kowtow to Beijing. Click below to listen:

We had a grand turnout from Canadians on last month's sold-out Second Annual Mark Steyn Cruise. So we hope more than a few Oakley listeners will want to join us on next year's third voyage, around the Mediterranean with among others the recently Trump-pardoned Conrad Black, the fearless Douglas Murray and our stellar comedienne Michele Bachmann. But don't leave it too late: as with most travel and accommodations, the prices are more favorable the earlier you book.

If you're one of that small, brave band who prefer Steyn on camera, you're in for a plethora of delights over the rest of the week, starting tomorrow evening, Thursday, south of the border with Tucker Carlson. On the other hand, if you find Mark easier to take in non-visual formats, we have a treat in store before the week is out.

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19 Reader Comments

RAC • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:00

Today we got a "ringing endorsement' for our right of free speech from NBA Comm. Adam Silver. I'd advise reading his release on an empty stomach though. First off the NBA wasn't apologizing to the Chinese Communist gov't, oh no not at all, just to NBA fans and Chinese officials who were 'offended' by the tweet. He supports the GM's right to express his opinion but then warns that of course these opinions carry 'consequences'. In that sense then all Chinese citizens have total rights to free speech - as long as they are willing to face the 'consequences'. What strange times we live in.

John Shuba

RAC • Oct 10, 2019 at 18:26

Ever notice that Adsm Silvet bears an uncanny resemblance to Max Schreck in 'Nosferatu?" He probably figures that he is going to live forever so free speech and personal liberty dont mean much to him.

Babs • Oct 9, 2019 at 11:25

I have read a few times that Canada is not only carbon neutral but that your land mass actually sucks up more carbon than it produces due to the huge number of trees.
Is that inaccurate?

Robert Fox

Babs • Oct 9, 2019 at 12:55

I'm not sure if it's accurate. Why don't we ask Greta Thunberg, the 8-year old Swedish climate expert.

Andrew A

Babs • Oct 9, 2019 at 13:01

Sorry Babs, I can't answer that question because I'm not a climate scientist.

Yesterday it took 15 minutes to scrape a thick layer of ice and snow off my car. My opposition to Global Warming propaganda is mollified by a subconscious wish that it were true, but it's been 20 years and winter is just as long and cold as ever. Maybe a few more forest fires are in order.

We should be cautious about discussing virgin sacrifice, volcanoes, and Greta Thunberg on the same page; human nature contains ugly tendencies, and some people might get ideas. Recall that things started well but didn't end well for Joan of Arc.

RAC

Robert Fox • Oct 9, 2019 at 17:43

Actually she nearly twice that age but I understand your confusion - she certainly comes off as a spoiled 8 year old brat having a temper tantrum.

Alasdair Mackay

RAC • Oct 10, 2019 at 11:20

Greta hasn't changed much since her cameo appearance in Schwarzenegger's 2000 masterpiece (cough cough) 6th day.....

Journolist • Oct 9, 2019 at 07:11

For an indication of just how far the London Times has sunk, here is an excerpt from an Obituary published today :
"His iconoclasm led him towards some ill-judged stances, such as his scepticism about mankind's role in climate change"
The subject of this is the late Kary Mullis. He shared a Nobel Prize!

Segnes Schonken

Journolist • Oct 9, 2019 at 18:41

Dire indeed.

Brian from Minneapolis • Oct 9, 2019 at 01:40

Funny that China's canceling of NBA games being played there is caused by one tweet from a GM that China wanted to be removed from his position and wanted the NBA to silence anyone who is on the side of Hong Kong or democracy. NBA is the most woke league that we have in the US and when it came to the response to the tweet, they apologize for it but say that people have the right to their own opinions. The latter China clearly is against.

Michelle Dulak • Oct 9, 2019 at 01:15

Mark,

Regarding maestros that might have fled Nazi Germany but didn't, do you mean Furtwaengler, or do you mean Karajan? Because the former is the one constantly called a Nazi, though of course both were members of the Party. Furtwaengler was told by Albert Speer a few weeks before his last BPO concerts that Goebbels had him down for assassination; he moved his family to Switzerland, did the two remaining sets, and then followed them across the Swiss border. (This is late January to early February 1945).Whereas Karajan was snapped up by Walter Legge and spent the next decade-plus recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

Richard Taruskin (one of my mentors at UC/Berkeley, FWIW) has a big essay on the whole Furtwaengler/Nazis/Jews question in the Berlin Phil's enormous set of all Furtwaengler's surviving wartime BPO recordings. I haven't read it yet, but I want to; I do not know of anyone else who treats this question more comprehensively, or more conscientiously.

John Shuba

Michelle Dulak • Oct 9, 2019 at 15:27

That's highly interesting. Don't forget that Willem Mengleberg was tarred as a Nazi sympathizer (and forced into internal exile) because he not only stayed in Holland during the war but gave concerts in Germany, Clemens Krauss was banned form giving concerts after the war for two years because of his close association with several Nazi officials. The same thing happened to Karl Bohm because he also conducted in Germany during war. Hans Knappertsbusch was even put on the "God-given" list (exempted from service) and never sought to leave Germany while conducting regularly.I'm not sure if he suffered in any way after the war.

Of course the biggest fish who refused to leave Germany during the war was Richard Strauss. Many have sneeringly suggested it was because that Strauss could not bear to forgo the conducting fees that Strauss earned from German concert halls and theaters. I believe that is unfair to Strauss and to all the other artists mentioned above. If they "cooperated" with the Third Reich it was because they considered themselves artists first and, to them, art was above and beyond politics. They were also, as such an attitude demonstrates, VERY naive. I am sure that was the case with Furtwangler as well, These guys just did not "do politics."

I would be extremely interested in your mentor's essay on the Furtwangler case.

Michelle Dulak

John Shuba • Oct 10, 2019 at 17:22

Ah, Krauss, of the 1953 Bayreuth "Ring." I know practically nothing of the man but that, but a lot of lesser conductors are famous for a lot less. Not that the cast hurt, what with Hotter as Wotan, Windgassen as Siegfried, Varnay as Bruenhilde ...

Mengelberg did come in for much criticism for sitting through the war at the Concertgebouw. Boehm and Knappertsbusch, I don't know of any particular harm that came to either.

Your hypothesis has a great deal going for it (although Furtwaengler, for one, did apparently help Jewish musicians flee the Reich when their fate became too obvious to hide). I'd add that it wasn't exactly that "art was above and beyond politics." Art -- and music especially -- had been bound up into German nationality long before that nationality became explicitly Nazi. Hell, look at Bayreuth. It wasn't really Wagner's fault that he was Hitler's favorite composer, a couple of well-known anti-Semitic remarks (and one notorious article) notwithstanding. But many decades before Hitler, Bayreuth was already a shrine.

Robert • Oct 8, 2019 at 23:25

Mark,

Actually, Mark, you do count as a "climate scientist". You've edited a book on the subject and written an introduction, which, I bet, is more than your critics have.

And keep repeating "as long as political scientists and social scientists exist, I'm a climate scientist". All you'll get in response is "you're an idiot".

And doesn't Greta Thunberg look like something out of a Stephen King story?

Ken Costa

Robert • Oct 9, 2019 at 10:18

Straight out of Children of the Corn.

Richard Malaby • Oct 8, 2019 at 22:46

The Greta Thunberg parade is something else. I'm no doctor, but she almost certainly has something like Asperger's or is somewhere on the spectrum, she's being spoon-fed these speeches from her PR manager parents, her "movement" began by encouraging her peers to cut class every Friday, and yet people eat this up. Frankly, it makes me upset, mostly because I'm sad that this is happening to her. I think what has happened to that girl is child abuse. It's one thing for politicians to talk about the world ending in twelve years, but my heart aches for the naive minds who believe that garbage.

When I was in high school, our principal or vice principal, (can't remember at this point), was fired suddenly. Just as quickly, students began protesting and walking out of class. I believe that went on for a week or two. I can't even remember how the situation ended, but I definitely recall spending one or two afternoons at the Dunkin' Donuts across the street - sure beat going to class! The cynic in me says kids are dumb and politicians are manipulative. Together, they make a noxious cocktail.

King K

Richard Malaby • Oct 9, 2019 at 09:45

Richard - I think you meant politicians are dumb and kids are manipulative. But point well-taken.

Al Man from CA • Oct 8, 2019 at 22:41

Mark:
I am confused, aren't the Muslims in China only confined on "Uighur Wednesdays"? Of course I may have this backwards, or whatever.
Thanks!

Sol • Oct 8, 2019 at 20:20

I hope Trump goes further and blows the disgusting, cozy relationship between the United States and China to Middle-Kingdom come; pulling back the curtain on the surveillance-oppression state it represents, which showcases the future dream state of the elite western business-government alliance with designs on human freedom around the world. The teardown is headquartered in the fading free world, augmented and outsourced for maximum return, convenience and legal reasons in the Communist.

Chongqing, one of the biggest cities in the world, has 2.58 million surveillance cameras covering 15.35 million people. Make a misstep and in minutes you might see a message on your phone complete with a fine, and that's where your life in East Berlin begins.