Jesse@Pandagon writes:

I found out last night that my hometown is the seventh most dangerous city in America.

I remember the night that I started to hate Dayton.

Yeah, I hate Dayton too. But hey, why isn’t Chicago on this list somewhere?

The methodology section of the report states:

Chicago and Other Illinois Cities: For several years, rape numbers submitted by cities in the state of Illinois have not met the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) guidelines. This remains the case with 2002 crime data. According to state statisticians, the state of Illinois tracks “sexual assault,” which includes not only female rapes, but also offenses such as male rape, sodomy, etc. For these reasons, Chicago and other Illinois cities once again are not found in this year’s Safest City rankings.

According to the FBI:

For UCR reporting purposes, can a male be raped?

No. The UCR Program defines forcible rape as “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will” (p. 19). In addition, “By definition, sexual attacks on males are excluded from the rape category and must be classified as assaults or other sex offenses depending on the nature of the crime and the extent of injury” (p. 20). An assault is a Part I offense and would be reported on the Return A form. Sex offenses qualify as Part II offenses and would be reported on the appropriate age, sex, race form (pp. 96 and 142).

According to the Attorney General:

Illinois’ rate of forcible rape is 45 rapes per 100,000 people, which is significantly higher than the national average of 33 reported rapes per 100,000 people. (FBI, Uniform Crime Report 2002)

I was doing really well on tracking down exactly why Illinois lumps all of its sexual assaults together, and why and when the change was made, and how our Attorney General can cite FBI UCR rape statistics about Illinois that may or may not exist, but then I started getting distracted. See, this is why I’m not a very good blogger.

Looking through the Illinois Criminal Code, I found that the section on prostitution (720 ILCS 5/11‑14) begins with the line, “Any person who offers a person not his or her spouse […]” — I guess it’s okay to exchange money for sex as long as you’re married to the vendor. I also discovered we’ve got a fornication law still on the books, and also a “Sale of Maps Act”, which prohibits the “sale of current Illinois publications or highway maps published by the Secretary of State”. Both of these crimes are class B misdemeanors.

Last month, I found a letter on the streets of Evanston, Illinois. I’m sorry, dear reader, that it took me so long to scan it in and make it available to you. It’s dated September 22, 1988, and it’s addressed to a ‘Gingy’. I have no idea if it’s authentic, but I’m pretty sure it was printed on form-feed paper by a dot-matrix printer.

If this letter is yours, and you’d prefer that it be kept private, please let me know.

Ebert picks the highest rated season since the inaugural, and the youngest season ever. Also the first season without a musical.

I really enjoyed the February 2005 issue of GUNNEWS, a publication of “Guns Save Life” in Downstate Illinois, which I picked up on my recent road trip. I understand from this newspaper that the group is organizing boycotts of businesses which post signs like”[this business] prohibits firearms of any kind upon company property and/or vehicles”. The quasi-libertarian mindset that the “right to bear arms” overrides other people’s property rights just amazes me. I had no idea southern Illinois was so dangerous that it’s not safe to enter the bottling facility of Central States Coca-Cola without packing heat.

Possibly the most disspiriting thing I see everyday is a hand-written sign in the window of a local restaurant which states, “Restrooms are for customers only.” It just makes me sad on so many levels. Clearly, my quasi-libertarian mindset holds that the “right to pee” overrides other peoples property rights.

Building on previous work:

A regular pentagram

has golden triangles for points.

There are five of them,

and if you peel them back,

and wrap them around a regular hexagon,

and add one more point,

you end up with a Chicago star.