Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Colorado Wildfires By Diana Hsieh @ 9:18 PM Today was a hot and gusty day... and Colorado seems to be following the lead of California. As I drove up to Boulder for class today, I saw a huge plume of smoke from what turned out to be the Overland fire. And as I drove home after class, I discovered that a second fire was burning out of control just a few miles northeast of our house. We're not in any immediate danger -- are are unlikely to be given the lay of the land and the forthcoming weather. However, for the moment, the wind has picked up and shifted in our direction, which is worrisome. Here's a news photo of the fire. We have a fairly good view of the fire from a hill in our neighborhood, so Paul and I are going to go take a look before heading to bed. This is our third fire in three years. I must admit, it's getting a bit tiresome. Update: The cold and damp weather seems to have knocked out the fire. Yeah! Link / Noodles / Trackback New Fire Map By Diana Hsieh @ 9:35 AM This morning's fire map doesn't look good: The news isn't so great either: Fire crews exhausted by three days of battle were pulled back. "There's really no way to stop this fire from getting up to Julian," said Rich Hawkins, a U.S. Forest Service fire chief. Reinforcements were sent out, but Hawkins said he needed twice as many. "They're so fatigued that despite the fact the fire perimeter might become much larger, we're not willing to let the firefighters continue any further," he said. Ten miles south of Julian, about 90 percent of homes were destroyed in Cuyamaca, a lakeside town of about 160 residents, said Chief Bill Clayton of the California Department of Forestry. Link / Noodles / Trackback Sunday, October 26, 2003 Fires in San Diego By Diana Hsieh @ 6:46 PM As many of you know, Paul and I used to live in San Diego: first in La Jolla, then in Alpine. So when I look at the GeoMac wildfire map, I know all to well just how densely populated so many of the areas affected by the fires are. The news report only makes the situation sound worse: Three major fires are cutting a swath through San Diego, in Valley Center, Scripps Ranch and Otay Mesa. Residents and businesses in Kearny Mesa, Scripps Ranch and Tierrasanta have been evacuated. Ten deaths have been confirmed in San Diego County. One of the fires started near Ramona overnight. The fires have since charred more than 100,000 acres and destroyed hundred of structures. Officials said that weary firefighters were battling the blazes on several fronts, contending with gusting winds, soaring temperatures and low humidity as they struggle to stop the flames. "We have everything sent out that we can possibly send out," said San Diego Fire Department dispatcher Ron Cumbey. "And we are asking for all that we can get." The so-called "Cedar" fire started about 7:45 p.m. Saturday near Ramona and swept through parts of Lakeside, jumped Highway 67 and reached Scripps Ranch, said Susan Plese of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. Flames jumped from home to home in Scripps Ranch, which authorities said was evacuated by 10 a.m. It is not yet known how many strucutres have been destroyed or damaged there. The fires soon spread westward toward Interstate 805 and skipped over 805 near State Route 52. Residents and businesses in Tierrasanta and Kearny Mesa have been evacuated. Officials said that a small patch of fire west of 805 near Clairemont Mesa Blvd. has been contained, and it appears that the Clairemont Mesa area will not be immediately affected. ... And so on. My heart goes out to the people affected by the wildfire. Update: I just found this picture of a firefighter walking along one side of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard while the other side burns. Jesus. The story that accompanies it said: One victim was found dead in a trailer, one in a motor home and four in vehicles, county sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Knauss said. Three were killed while trying to escape on foot and two were dead on arrival at local hospitals. "We were literally running through fire," said Lisza Pontes, 43, who escaped the fire with her family after the roar of flames woke them at 3:45 a.m. As they drove off, they saw a neighbor's mobile home explode. "I was grabbing wet towels. Fire was at our feet," Pontes said. "It was blazing over our heads and burning everywhere." Augh. Link / Noodles / Trackback Hot Hot Hot! By Diana Hsieh @ 3:57 PM David Kelley's recent commentary "The Witless Battle Over General Boykin" was excellent: informative, philosophical, and a bit spicy. It's short, so I've reproduced it in its entirety. The crackle of small-arms fire you hear about General William Boykin is the sound of the latest skirmish in America's culture wars. Boykin is the Pentagon's head of intelligence in the war on terrorism. He is also an evangelical Christian who has told church groups that Muslim terrorists hate the United States because it is a "Christian nation," that our real enemy is not Osama bin Laden but Satan, and that we will prevail only if "we come against them in the name of Jesus." It gets worse. According to the Los Angeles Times reporter who broke the story, Boykin would show audiences a picture he took while in Somalia, after the "Blackhawk Down" fiasco in Mogadishu. Pointing to an unnatural-looking dark streak in the sky, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your enemy. It is the principalities of darkness. It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy." The usual suspects quickly rounded themselves up and the cultural skirmish began. Liberals denounced the general's remarks as divisive and likely to offend Muslims worldwide, and called for his resignation. "The most important global struggle," wrote Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, "is not between one religion and another but between fanaticism and tolerance." Conservatives rushed to Boykin's defense. Not only does he have the right to express his religious conviction, they argued, but he is also right that America is a Christian nation, engaged in a war against evil. Following the culture wars is usually interesting. It is often infuriating. But in this case it's just embarrassing. The mark of the devil over Mogadishu? And this from a man in charge of military intelligence? The problem here is not intolerance, divisiveness, or extremism. It is rank irrationality. The whole exchange is another tiresome example of a false dichotomy: dogmatism vs. relativism. Conservatives are right that liberals are afraid to assert the truth of their convictions. Liberals are right that conservatives are claiming truth for sectarian religious dogmas--and rightly alarmed that they invoke those dogmas to justify war. What both sides ignore is the alternative of reason and rational certainty. When Islamic terrorists attack us out of hatred for our secular way of life, our pursuit of happiness, our wealth and productive achievements, it is reason, not Jesus, that tells us they are viciously wrong. And reason does tell us that they are wrong, objectively wrong, and that we are objectively right in responding with force. Earth to General Boykin and his conservative allies: You are defending a country founded in the Enlightenment, the era when reason was finally recognized as the arbiter of truth. You are relying on America's vast wealth, created by people who used their minds, not their prayers, to work and produce. You are employing sophisticated military technology created by scientists whose highest commitment is to facts, observation, logic, and proof. You would not count on incantations or sacred texts to find bin Laden's cave. How can you rely on such means to justify your cause? Earth to Ellen Goodman and her liberal co-ideologists: You are living in a country founded in the Enlightenment, by men who believed in the power of reason to find the truth and create a good society. The tolerance you enjoy is not an ultimate value; it is a means to an end, an enabling condition for peaceful cooperation and the rational exchange of ideas. If peace and reason are not objective values, worth defending when attacked, then you have no case for tolerance in the first place. And to judge by your vehement antipathy to dogmatism, you're really not willing to tolerate that, are you? The next time one of these skirmishes begins--whether it's the Ten Commandments in a courtroom, the Pledge of Allegiance, or a leader's invocation of faith--could we try to avoid another such witless battle? Link / Noodles / Trackback

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