April's Daily Reading Practice- Feb. 11

aprilzhanghj

跟了几天小分队的帖子，觉得很有用，特别是感觉自己不是一个人在功课阅读和G，感谢小分队的所有members。

另外，为了鼓励自己，真正提高自己的阅读水平，在小分队的帖子之外，我也花时间找了些自己感兴趣的文章。在这里，一方面督促自己，另一方面和大家分享。如果有同样兴趣的CDer，I am so happy to share and connect with you!

第一篇：美国的birth control
link：http://www.npr.org/2012/02/10/146710901/catholics-have-mixed-reaction-to-birth-control-reversal




Catholics Split On Obama's Birth Control Decision

Reaction from the Catholic community to the Obama administration's decision to revise its birth control policy was swift and mixed.

Under the new rule, employers with a religious objection to offering contraceptive coverage as part of their health care plans wouldn't have to provide it directly. Instead, the requirement to provide that coverage free of charge would fall on the insurance companies.

Some Catholics believe the president's new rule resolves the religious liberty issues. But others, including key bishops, say it is smoke and mirrors.


Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, shown at Ash Wednesday services at Saint Patrick's Cathedral last year, has called the Obama administration's decision "a first step in the right direction."
'A First Step' Or Nothing 'Substantial'?

In a statement, Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the president's new rule is "a first step in the right direction." He said the bishops are reserving judgment until they see the details.

But Archbishop Thomas Wenski already sees big problems ahead. Wenski, who heads the Catholic archdiocese of Miami, has said in the past that he couldn't comply with the health care mandate. Friday's announcement has not changed his mind.

"I think what he's offered today is a smoke screen in which he has decided to kick the can down the road in the hope that the controversy will go away," Wenski says. "I think he is mistaken."

Wenski says this is a unilateral decision. The White House didn't consult the bishops, as far as he knows. He says the rule still mandates that employees of Catholic charities, hospitals and universities receive birth control coverage.

"I don't believe he's offered us anything really substantial," Wenski says. "We still have serious issues, and these are issues of religious freedom."

Wenski notes that shifting the burden to insurance companies doesn't solve the religious liberty problems either — since many dioceses and charities are self-insured, and would be violating their religious principles.


Archbishop Thomas Wenski, shown celebrating Mass at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Miami last month, says the new birth control policy is a "smoke screen."

Ending A Stalemate?

But Sister Carol Keehan, who heads the Catholic Health Association, was cheered by the White House response.

"I think that they listened to us and they heard the things that we were most concerned about, and we're pleased," she said.

Keehan, whose association oversees some 600 Catholic hospitals, believes everyone wins. Women get the health care they want, the church does not have to pay for or endorse birth control, and the stalemate is ended. Now, she says, the country can implement health care reform, which has at its core a principle dear to the church — helping the poor and uninsured.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, agrees. For the past few weeks, he says, the bishops have dominated the debate. They've drawn support from both conservative and liberal Catholics.

"The bishops were getting support because people saw this as a religious liberty issue. They were not supporting the bishops in their opposition to contraceptives," he says.

Reese believes that by ensuring that religious groups do not have to pay for or recommend birth control coverage, that religious liberty issue has gone away. And in the end, most Catholic women want, and use, birth control.

Archbishop Wenski of Miami says the two sides will keep talking, but in the end, there's only one right outcome: "The best thing would be rescission — to take back the whole mandate and go back to the status quo before."

That's something the administration has said it will not do.

Summary: Obama ministration is considering to change the religious birth control policy, which is now burden the coverage of health issues to insurance company. There are two parts. For those who don't support said the new policy is misled and deceptive. For those who propose the plan said the new policy would benefit women who want to control the birth they given.

to be continued....

aprilzhanghj

第二篇 地球是否是宇宙的中心

Title: A Universe from Nothing: Einstein, the Belgian Priest and the Puzzle of the Big Bang
Link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=universe-from-nothing

这篇比较长，有5页，我就粘贴正文了。坚持读完后，觉得没有那么可怕。因为文科背景，一直比较怵这种天文、物理、生物的文章，但迫于考试的压力，发现自己对这些未知的科学有很强的好奇心，想去多了解。不为别的，只为让自己了解更多生变的环境。

上Summary：
This essay talks about several things: the big bang theory, the center of the universe, and the long history of several famous astronomers.

The author believes the big bang theory is a scientific question, with lots of evidence supported to be true. He also tells us why we are not the center of  the universe and how this theory first discovered and by whom. From this, the question that the universe is expanding is emerged. He also talks about several famous scientists, many of who are reach high levels even without conventional diploma.