hlevi's blog

Here's a little something I wrote about growing up as a Southern girl with Yankee parents...

(Copyright Hillary Levi 2006)

Civil War Pie

            Yeah, I talk like I’m from the north on occasion.  I say crick instead of creek like my Pennsylvania grandfather.  I’ve heard I talk with a Midwestern accent from Indiana like my mom, too.  But what you don’t realize is that I’m from the South.  Born and raised, hun!  I’m a tried and true “Georgia Peach.”  You just wait: that northern accent disappears as soon as I get riled up about something.  You make me mad, and I’ll talk the South out of you so much you’ll be whistlin’ Dixie!

MY TAKE:

I think this is completely ridiculous!  I hope these priests finally get their heads on straight before it's too late.

Catholic Bishops Say Gays Should Remain Celibate
By REUTERS
Filed at 5:04 p.m. ET

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - U.S. Catholic bishops said on Tuesday that gay men and women should be welcomed in the church but that those who engage in same-sex activity should not receive Communion.

Guidelines adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraged gays and lesbians to participate in the church while reaffirming long-standing doctrine that gay sex is form of ``moral disorder.''

``Because homosexual acts cannot fulfill the natural end of human sexuality they are never morally acceptable,'' said Bishop Arthur Serratelli, who headed the committee that crafted the guidelines. ``Such acts furthermore do not lead to true human happiness.''

The head of a group of gay Catholics said the new policy would only drive gays and lesbians further from the church.

``They tell people they should just stay in the closet. It's not a healthy approach for anyone,'' said Sam Sinnett, president of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA, in a phone interview.

The church has publicly wrestled with sexual issues in recent years after the Vatican barred adoption by gay couples and a pedophile priest scandal spread across the nation.

The new guidelines attempt to reconcile the church's strict teachings on sexuality with an American flock of 65 million that frequently ignores them.

One committee found that only 4 percent of married Catholics use the church's preferred method of natural family planning instead of artificial birth-control methods.

The new guidelines condemn discrimination and violence against gays and lesbians, but oppose same-sex marriages and civil unions and say that those who are openly gay should not serve as priests or nuns.

Adoption by gay couples is also discouraged, though children of gay couples can be baptized if they are likely to be raised within the church.

The guidelines acknowledge that gays and lesbians do not choose their sexual orientation and homosexual ``inclinations'' are not in themselves sinful.

But those who feel such inclinations should remain celibate and should not tell anybody other than close friends and family about them, the document says.

``This is a disagreement about the morality of behavior, not about the worthwhileness of the individual human person,'' said Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco.

DISAGREEMENTS WITH CHURCH

Those in open disagreement with church teachings should avoid taking Communion at mass, the bishops said in another document. That includes gays, heterosexuals involved in sexual relationships outside of marriage and politicians like Sen. John Kerry who support abortion rights.

Several bishops said during Kerry's Democratic campaign for president in 2004 that they would deny him Communion because of his position on abortion.

The bishops rejected as too divisive a proposal to specify that married couples who use artificial contraception should not receive Communion.

Protesters outside said bishops were wasting their time focusing on sexual issues at the expense of more pressing topics like the war in Iraq.

On Monday the bishops said that U.S. troops should remain in Iraq ``only as long as their presence contributes to a responsible transition.''

That didn't satisfy several protesters, who held a sign that read: ``Your silence about the war is evil.''

``They're authorizing by their silence Catholics to murder,'' said retired priest Emmanuel McCarthy. ``They have absolutely failed to give proper sanctuary to the immortal souls of Catholics.''

I personally am not for affirmative action, although I do realize why it was originally put in place-- that is understandable.  However, look at the examples of universities used in this article:  Michigan and UCLA. 
I can understand why this article used Detroit as an example of Affirmative Action, but to use UCLA as an example of falling minorities? I don't think so. Let's face reality here: the majority of people who can even AFFORD to live in LA who can afford and (somehow) get in to UCLA are mainly white. UCLA, although a state school, is very expensive. And its requirements are pretty high. I actually found out that I would be rejected from UCLA because I didn't take enough classes in an elective subject area (long story). I'm sorry to say that it shouldn't be a shock that UCLA has a low diverse student population when its reputation (maybe not necessarily FACT) is that it is a school for white-bread rich kids.

Bush takes blame for election "thumping"

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Here are the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" for this fine Election Day 2006.  If you could, what lyrics would you add where Billy Joel left off?

We Didn’t Start The Fire

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it