» Danielle Gilbert

Rain fell on Los Angeles the day Elizabeth Taylor died. Her heart stopped at 1:28 a.m. on Wednesday, March 23, 2011, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She was 79.

Planned Parenthood — what a concept. A premeditated decision to have sex with the sole purpose of reproduction. Today, that concept seems about as arbitrary as arranged marriage or civil unions. But not to the majority of the House of Representatives.

It was 3:02 a.m. — a violent scream followed by endless blows to the wall had startled my sleeping friend. A faint dial tone and the sound of her hand repetitively pounding against the hotel headboard awoke me hours later — “Hi,” she said to the voice on the other end. “I’m in room 1431 and the people next door are having sex, real loud.”

Post graduation, she will earn five percent less than he. Regardless of credentials, grade point average or experience, she will still make 95 cents to each of his dollars, according to Associate Women’s Studies Professor Dr. Kathryn Forbes.

I stood outside The Collegian office motionless, watching 20 something year olds rush past with music streaming from their iPhones through their headsets to their ears.

Love does not equal money. But today, the actions of the average American will have you thinking otherwise. The National Retail Foundation has the numbers to prove it.

It has long been revered as merry — since its 20th century reinvention, people have been known to kill over it and die in the name of it. But today’s ignorant-minded have too casually altered the meaning of the, now homophobic, slur — “that’s so gay.”

You should be able to count on one hand the things that make you feel sexy. My list is as follows: lingerie, Aretha Franklin’s greatest hits LP and last season’s GAP blazer.
The latest addition to the list — high heels.

A side from opposable thumbs, use of tools and being a bipedal species, being morally conscious of our actions is what separates most humans from most animals.