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Showing posts from August, 2023

Fairness for Female Athletes

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And opportunities to compete for all women/girls whether transgender or cis. As someone who grew up with three younger sisters while Title IX was being debated and signed into law (and with a father in University administration) I took special interest in its purpose and application. Years later, raising two daughters and a son, all successful high school athletes, it was easy to appreciate its benefit for girls and women in sports among other aspects. Today, as important as it is to accept those who are transgender, and make sure they have opportunities in sports and elsewhere, it’s mind-boggling to some of us to see people claim it’s fair to women born female for transgender women (especially those who went through puberty   while still male ) to compete against them in violation of the intent of Title IX. Thankfully, we’re now seeing a few more folks like   Caitlyn Jenner ,   Martina Navratilova ,   Riley Gaines , and even   RFK Jr   brave enough to speak up   against intimidating h

Climate Catastrophe?

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Or Climate Change as has been ongoing for millenia? Or something in between? Climate change is real, as is the greenhouse effect. Yet anthropogenic carbon dioxide isn’t the only primary driver of the real global warming we're experiencing. The  historical record  shows there are many natural factors that have stronger impact than an increase in the atmospheric CO2 level from 0.03 to 0.04% (and similar increases in methane and nitrous oxide). Why is it that discussions of important issues so often devolve to a binary categorization of either being a "climate denier" or instead a believer that “the science is settled” and we're heading for "climate catastrophe" unless we embrace the green new deal? With reality somewhere in between, key questions should be- what fraction of the warming we're seeing is due to  greenhouse gases  vs  natural causes , and how much control can we exert? Is it fair to use examples of severe WEATHER as proof of CLIMATE change whe