About that transgender wrestler

Last updated on: February 28, 2017 at 9:30 am By Jane the Actuary

In the news over the weekend: Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old junior, biologically a girl but taking testosterone for the past two years, was classified as “girl” and competed in the girls’ wrestling classification, being crowned Texas state champion. (See Slate and the Washington Post.) No one seems to dispute that Beggs had an unfair advantage due to the effect of the testosterone on a female body. But Beggs’ supporters are almost gleeful with schadenfreude because they say that this situation was... Read more

Copycat vandalism?

Last updated on: June 29, 2017 at 9:05 pm By Jane the Actuary

After the vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in an inner-ring St. Louis suburb last weekend, we’ve got another instance, this time in a north Philadelphia Jewish cemetery, Mt. Carmel, in the neighborhood of Wissinoming, in which over 500 headstones have been knocked down or damaged. I wrote about the racial divides in University City earlier, and the fact that the city is a historically Jewish area, but now is divided, with the cemetery in the black part of town —... Read more

Another Vincent Chin?

Last updated on: February 25, 2017 at 7:57 pm By Jane the Actuary

So I’ve spent some time reading about Adam Purinton, accused of killing one man, and shooting two others, in a bar outside Kansas City, in an apparent hate crime. (See, for example, CNN, for the basic details.) The man who was killed and one of those shot were natives of India (the third was attempting to intervene), and, according to witnesses, before shooting, Purinton said, “Get out of my country,” which sounds pretty cut and dried. Who was this Purinton? Heavy.com reports,... Read more

What do you know about University City, Missouri?

Last updated on: June 29, 2017 at 9:05 pm By Jane the Actuary

Well, to begin with, it’s not Ferguson. But I spent some time trying to hunt down more information on the city, following my post yesterday about the Jewish cemetery vandalism. The St. Louis metro area, in general, has a key north/south black/white divide at Delmar Avenue. (See this Washington Post article.) However, in the case of University City, there are three areas — south of Delmar is lily-white, between Delmar and Olive is mixed, and north of Olive is nearly all-black.... Read more

The St. Louis cemetery vandalism: maybe not a hate crime?

Last updated on: February 22, 2017 at 7:02 pm By Jane the Actuary

In the news this week: a Jewish cemetery in Missouri was vandalized, with about 200 headstones toppled over. Was this a hate crime? That’s the operating assumption. But apparently vandalism of cemeteries isn’t all that unusual. My google search for “headstone tipped” produced the following recent incidents: “Headstones tipped over in Green Bay cemetery” – 100 headstones tipped over at Fort Howard Memorial Park in Green Bay, July 28, 2016. “Teens tipped over headstones at 175-year-old Michigan cemetery ‘because they... Read more

A question for readers: bomb threats?

Last updated on: February 22, 2017 at 9:33 am By Jane the Actuary

You all know about the bomb threats called in to various Jewish Community Centers, right? There were no bombs, just a lot of panic, and parents withdrawing their children from preschool, and additional (and costly) security measures. Fear of violence is costly, even without actual violence. I tried to dig a bit further, but wasn’t able to make any progress, so I thought I’d throw this to my knowledgeable readers. It seems that bomb threats reliably cause disruption, but I... Read more

Am I a feminist?

Last updated on: February 22, 2017 at 7:31 am By Jane the Actuary

This is a genre of posts that’s reappearing again (e.g., Rebecca Hamilton at Public Catholic and Rebecca Bratten Weiss at Suspended in Her Jar), perhaps as a result of discussions around the “women’s march,” so here’s my take: You can’t just proclaim that you are (or aren’t) a feminist without the word meaning something in particular. And, near as I can tell, there are three competing definitions for the word. A person who holds the belief that women and men should... Read more

Can Obama save Chicago?

Last updated on: February 21, 2017 at 12:08 pm By Jane the Actuary

That’s what Heidi Stevens, in a column in Sunday’s Tribune, imagines. Soon enough, Jackson Park will give rise to the Obama presidential library. How about embarking on an even bigger legacy? How about taking your community organizing, your diplomacy, your law degrees, your friendships, your networks, your gift for compromise, your desire for social justice and pointing them our way? Come home. Bring your ideas and your knowledge and your power and get people to the table. In the meantime,... Read more

Why don’t “Dreamers” dream of Mexico?

Last updated on: February 21, 2017 at 1:51 pm By Jane the Actuary

That is, could Mexican-born American high school graduates return to Mexico for their university education? I did a little bit of research on this question just now, though it is a difficult question to find the answer to. In terms of the admissions process, the process doesn’t seem that onerous, from what I can tell. There is an admissions test, as is typical outside the U.S. How easy or difficult is it for an American-educated Spanish speaker to do well?... Read more

Week 4: The Flynn leaks, and, when do the ends justify the means?

Last updated on: February 19, 2017 at 9:15 pm By Jane the Actuary

I’m starting to think that I’ll write one Trump post per week (and this counts for the past week, on the European approach that the week starts on Monday). So this is a bit old-news but let me tell you about General Flynn, or, rather, share a few links with you. Article in The Week, “America’s spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying.” Article in The Intercept, “The Leakers Who Exposed Gen. Flynn’s Lie Committed Serious —... Read more