Psychedelic Psychotherapy

Once thought to be something that died out in the 60's, Psychedelic therapy is still being conducted today. It all began in 1943 when Albert Hoffmann of Sandoz Laboratories accidentally made (and ingested) LSD. As a result of his experience, he decided to utilize it for use as a therapeutic aid. This eventually caught on in the 1950's, and the results were actually pretty positive. Strange as it seems, Time Magazine even ended up publishing a few articles that didn't make the substance seem as if it were an evil byproduct of Satan and rock music.

The results of this peculiar brand of psychotherapy were mostly positive. Some studies have even shown that it has assisted in treating alcoholism. The former link states that, according to the NHS, "there is no evidence that LSD does any long-term damage to the body or mind." Both of these articles were written in 2006, several years after the substance gained such a horrible reputation.

There have been similar studies conducted with the hallucinogenic substance Ibogaine. The following video shows how it helped a heroin addict kick the habit.



Most recently, an article posted this year describes the positive effects of psychedelic psychotherapy on a 67 year old woman. The woman described in the article has ovarian cancer, and while the psychotherapy was not able to cure cancer, it was able to treat her cancer anxiety, as well as post-traumatic stress. The session was able to give her a very positive outlook regarding the remainder of her life.

Despite all of the evidence that psychedelics, when used in a controlled medical environment for psychotherapeutic purposes, have the potential to provide individuals with an improved psychological state, or help them kick addictions to harmful and addictive substances, they're still commonly regarded in an immensely negative light.

It's easy to see how the counter-culture movement of the 1960's left a bad taste in everyone's mouth regarding the use of psychedelics. Timothy Leary's mantra "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was commonly misinterpreted as an invitation for teenagers to drop out of school, abuse drugs, and contribute absolutely nothing to society. Leary later explained the true meaning of the phrase in an autobiography released in the early 1980's. "'Drop out' suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or subconscious commitments. 'Drop out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.'"

Unfortunately this proved to be too little, too late, especially considering the fact that a massive amount of people really did just get stoned and abandon all constructive activity as a result of his mantra.

It still seems like a stretch to be using psychedelics for therapeutic purposes. However, the medical industry is constantly distributing dangerous drugs. Don't believe me? Well, check out the following commercial for Celebrex.



The narrator for the ad literally says that Celebrex can lead to death. Yet this substance is not only legal, but it's getting ad time on the air!

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not advocating the use of drugs for people to solve their problems. However, it seems that it would be more logical for the previously described psychedelics (none of which, according to NHS, have any deadly side effects) to be used in a medical setting than a substance that has a massive list of horrible side-effects.

Again, I'm not advocating the legalization of psychedelic substances at all, but it's been proven that they've been able to greatly assist people, and it's also been shown that many of the negative connotations associated with them are commonly attached to the counter-culture movement of the 1960's.

Considering the positive effects that these substances have had, perhaps it wouldn't be a ridiculous notion to give professionals of science and medicine the opportunity to research them for the sake of creating a safer alternative to many of our current pharmaceutical substances.

Facebook Becoming a Pay-Only Website?

According to a group on Facebook, members of the site will eventually have to pay to use the famous social networking site. To be honest, I thought I was having some sort of horrible nightmare when I read this. It couldn't be true. Facebook is a site for everyone, and nobody in their right mind would pay to use a site where Big Brother monitors each member's activities and then posts advertisements based on every individual's specific interests.

According to their group description, "This is a petition to stop Facebook from charging $14.99 a month starting from July 2010. Because of Facebook's huge popularity Mark Zuckerberg is getting a lot of offers from people wanting to buy Facebook. People who WILL turn it into a paysite."

Wow, this seems pretty legit. Despite the fact that there's no actual proof that it's true, and we only have the James Sullivan's (the creator of the group) word for it. A few seconds of further investigation show that there's a catch that goes with this group. The last paragraph of the description states the following, "Earn a free Apple iPad by working as a tester. They send you a free iPad, and you use it for a week and then write a 300 word review. They let you keep an iPad as a thank you for a work."

It seems pretty awkward to put that as a closing paragraph, especially when the group is backing a supposedly important cause. Especially when the previous paragraph was just one sentence stating, "WE WILL NOT PAY TO USE FACEBOOK!!!!"

Seems very odd. What could be their motivation? Why should the iPad have anything to do with someone buying out Facebook?

Let's check out the group's official website:

Wow, what a shock! This website has absolutely nothing to do with rallying up support for a petition that would end what would be a potentially horrible move for the social networking site, and absolutely everything to do with Apple's revolutionary new product, the iPad.

It's almost as if someone made a group with a threatening title in an effort to get several people to join. Then, once they're all in, they'll be lured by the promise of a free Apple iPad.

One would think that Apple was behind this, but the website offering out the free iPad states that "Freebieape.com is not affiliated with Apple(R) All Apple(R) trademarks are the property of Apple(R) and Freebieape.com does not, in any way, claim to represent or own any of the Apple(R) trademarks or rights."

So, at first it seemed as if Facebook was behind this, and then it seemed like Apple was pulling all the strings, but in reality it was a strange website called "Freebieape.com." This proved to be a conspiracy within a conspiracy within a conspiracy. Which is arguably pretty cool, but I still don't quite think I understand the motive. Maybe all three companies are in on it?

According to an article from Telegraph.co.uk, a spokesman for Facebook said that "We have no plans to charge users for Facebook's basic services. Facebook is a free service for its 350 million users."

So, it looks like the whole thing was based on a lie. Who knew?

Either way, the group has more than 300,000 members. So it looks like everyone's safe.

I, Robot?

The times, they are a changin', and so is technology. A recent article on CNN discusses how robot technology may have the potential to change the future. The article is essentially an interview with someone from the CNN website and the professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at the University of Sheffield in the UK; Noel Sharkey. The interviewer from CNN asks pretty much asks every kind of question that someone would want to ask an individual who is knowledgeable of the latest robot technology.

According to Sharkey, "What's real about robots today is they're not intelligent. I quite often say they're not bright enough to be called stupid." This quote seems to thwart any kind of Asimov inspired conspiracies perpetuated by paranoid people. As the interview goes on, however, we find that there are some terrifying uses for these machines.

Sharkey openly discusses the fact that the military has been contacting him regarding the use of military robots.

"A military robot might go out," begins Sharkey, "and if it finds insurgents, it kills them, because there's a rule saying 'only kill them if it's an insurgent.'"

Sharkey exposes a flaw in this plan by describing an incident where a group of marines refused to kill an insurgent, out of respect, because they were carrying a coffin.

"You could program the robot that if they saw insurgents with a coffin," says Sharkey, "don't kill them. But then you're going to have every insurgent carrying a coffin. It's as simple as that. This thing about being able to discriminate. It requires common sense. And something robots don't have is common sense."

It may seem simultaneously frightening and exciting that robots are being considered for use as killing machines, but it doesn't stop there. There's a group out there called The Venus Project that plans on changing the world in a very drastic manner.

The Venus Project may sound unfamiliar to most, but many more people are familiar with a popular video created by supporters and members of The Venus Project's movement: Zeitgeist.

The above video is the sequel to Zeitgeist. Both Zeitgeist and its sequel take several conspiracy theories and lump them all up into one huge, awesome, monstrosity of a conspiracy theory. The film takes footage from other films like "Network" in an effort to rally supporters for The Venus Project.

So, for those of you who aren't familiar with The Venus Project, I'd recommend you read up on it. They have some interesting ideas, and some terrifying ideas. The interesting idea is that they want to get rid of the monetary system (and the above video shows a somewhat legitimate justification for this) and create a Utopian world where everyone lives in peace. The terrifying idea is that they want to utilize robots for coming up with political decisions. There was a PDF file available on the Zeitgeist website (which I'm currently having trouble locating) that was about 80 pages long, and it described the entire goal of The Venus Project. Once I started reading it, I thought it was revolutionary in some ways, but as I worked my way through it, I saw the plan fall apart. They actually think that, by programming a machine with the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle, it will be able to mathematically come up with good decisions for a democracy.

That sounds like a pretty terrifying notion, but even if The Venus Project's vision were to be fully realized, it would be very unlikely if it happened in our lifetimes, and it also would be pretty unlikely if it were to be exactly as the group's members had planned.

The idea of the military utilizing robotic killing machines, however, is pretty scary.

Obama Cursed With Low Approval Ratings

As far-fetched as it may seem, Obama's current approval rating is showing that Americans are beginning to lose hope in the current president. According to Rasmussen Reports, the presidential tracking poll for today shows that "27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index Rating of -15." These results give the impression that, despite the overwhelmingly positive response to Obama's election campaign, many are beginning to lose faith in his abilities as a president.

During his election campaign, Obama was known for giving moving and passionate speeches about bringing hope and change to America. Though his speeches obviously weren't the only thing going for him, it could easily be argued that they played a significant role in getting him elected.

I can personally admit that I was easily swayed by this aspect of his campaign. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of these speeches. Obama spoke in Bangor, Maine (photo courtesy of myself) during his campaign, and after witnessing the speech there was hardly a doubt in my mind that Obama had the potential to do great things for the America.

Granted, it has been about two years since said speech, but since it was the first time I'd witnessed a speech by a presidential candidate, it left a lasting impression.The speech occurred at a school, and he opened by conveniently stating that he was going to make a huge effort to help out teachers and schools. He then stated that he was going to focus on bringing both liberals and conservatives together in an effort to unite the citizens of America.

I think he also threw in something about ending the current war as soon as possible.

Those who oppose Obama would say that he didn't follow through with any of these things, and that he was elected solely because of his charm. This is pretty logical criticism, considering that the war is still going, and also that his presidency has created a band of conservatives who oppose him and any liberals that support him. It could also be argued that hardly any politicians truly keep their promises once they're elected.

Obama may not have ended the war, and he may not have pleased conservatives with his allegedly "socialist" healthcare plan. Still, it's not like he's wasting his time on vacation. His plan for the gradual reduction of nuclear weapons seems to be pretty promising.

Regardless, it goes without saying that there are several individuals out there who absolutely loathe President Obama.

This may seem like a pretty disorganized post, and that's because it totally is. The bottom line is that I really don't think Obama deserves such a low approval rating, even if he may have exaggerated a few things before becoming president.

iPad Launches This Weekend

Yesterday marks the release of Apple's new iPad. The iPad was unveiled by Steve Jobs earlier in the year. The following video features Jobs unloading the iPad on a group of sheep so loyal to Apple that they began clapping before the actual product was shown.



Jobs begins by describing how it has the remarkable ability of allowing the user to change the background. Seriously, he describes desktop background technology as if it's some sort of incredible futuristic breakthrough. He then goes on to discuss how incredible it is to browse the internet with the iPad. He describes the iPad's online access as "the best browsing experience you've ever had." He backs this assertion up by smashing several positive adjectives (such as unbelievable, great, and phenomenal) together and then stating that it's "much better than a laptop."

The features don't stop there, though. Believe it or not, it gets even better. Jobs goes on to unveil the phenomenal e-mail feature. He describes the touch screen keyboard as being "almost life-size," and a "dream to type on."

The iPad comes with a relatively small amount of storage space. iPads with a 16 GB hard drive cost $499.00. It costs another hundred dollars just to add 16 more GB, and for yet another hundred dollars, you can add 32 GB on that to get a whopping 64 GB of storage.

According to an article from cnet news, most people who dished out $500 for the iPad did so for the following reasons: the applications, the ease of use for the computer-averse, they didn't have a laptop, to use for a device on a coffee table, the sheer novelty, the fact that it wasn't a computer, and just as an impulse buy.

Perhaps I'm just a poor college student who feels that none of these reasons justify spending half a grand on what seems to be a giant iPhone endowed with Steve Jobs' blessing. I've yet to see, touch, or experience an iPad in person. So maybe this is all just very biased.

Either way, Apple made a lot of money this weekend.

Battlefield Earth Dubbed Worst Movie of the Decade

J. D. Shapiro recently received a "Razzie" for writing the screenplay to "Battlefield Earth." Razzie is short for "Golden Raspberry Award," and it's annually awarded to the absolute worst in film. Shapiro recently wrote an article for The New York Post in which he apologized for writing the movie.

Battlefield Earth is based on a novel written by L. Ron Hubbard, who is now more commonly known as the creator of Scientology.

"I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology Epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women," admits Shapiro. "I didn't find any eligible women at first, but I did meet Karen Hollander, president of the center... Karen called me a few days later asking if I'd be interested in turning any of L. Ron Hubbard's books into movies."

The rest, as they say, was history. One of the worst movies of the decade was apparently the result of one screenwriter trying to pick up chicks at the Scientology Epicenter. What's even more ridiculous is that when John Travolta first read the script, he called it "The 'Schindler's List' of Sci-Fi."

Though, in Shapiro's defense, he stated that his script was "very, VERY different than what ended up on the screen."



Everything started to go downhill when Shapiro received a batch of notes asking him to essentially change the entire movie. According to some gossip, L. Ron Hubbard apparently wanted Battlefield Earth to be made into a movie more than any of his other books. He "wrote extensive notes" on how he envisioned the film.

The movie was ruined. Shapiro only watched it once, and states that even that was "one too many times."

Facebook's Frightening New Feature

It goes without saying that an overwhelming percentage of us are on Facebook (photo courtesy of the Facebook website). It has it's benefits, that's for sure. Some of us may use it to keep in touch with old High School friends, and others may use it for business reasons. Whatever the case is, it does keep people connected.

However, there's a dark side to the social networking site. Facebook uses your personal information. Though there are privacy settings, there are several loopholes that Facebook uses to its benefit. Many applications such as "Farmville" or "Social Interview" also utilize your personal information.

To make matters worse, Facebook will soon have a new feature of Orwellian proportions: the "Place" feature. The "Place" feature allows you to post a link to where you are in your status, much like how you can post a friend's name in a status and it will link to their profile. Friends also have the ability to tag you in a particular place.

The following is a direct quote from Facebook's Privacy Policy page.

"Information from other users. We may collect information about you from other Facebook users, such as when a friend tags you in a photo, video, or place, provides friend details, or indicates a relationship with you."

Though the notion of having all of your friends know where you are may seem fascinating, it comes hand-in-hand with a ridiculous amount of privacy invasion. Now Facebook will have the potential to give away the names of your favorite music, books and movies, your address, phone number, interests, pictures, and current location.

Possibly the most frightening aspect of the situation is that Facebook's blatant invasion of privacy is practically common knowledge. Most of us are aware of Facebook's privacy stealing tactics, yet all of us (myself included) are still willingly checking our Facebook multiple times a day.

Political Horoscope for March 11th

President Obama was born on August 4th, 1961. Some may construe this as meaning that our president is 48 years old, but there's a far deeper meaning to all of this. The fact that Obama was born on August 4th means that he's a Leo.

According to a lengthy description from Astrology Online, our president has some of the following character traits: "generous, pompous, warmhearted, bossy, broad-minded and dogmatic." These traits may seem as if they could apply to anyone, but it really just means that our president is intensely unstable. He may seem warmhearted at one moment, but he may act intensely dogmatic only a minute later.

So, now that we have a solid biography established for Mr. President, let's take a look at his daily horoscope.

The folks at Tarot.com warn Obama that "...just because there's no easy solution to your questions doesn't mean that you should avoid them." Oh no! Does this mean that our allegedly dogmatic president is avoiding some huge issue?

Well, according to the following video from CNN (shown below), Obama is trying to create peace between Israel and Palestine through proximity talks. Perhaps Tarot.com was referring to the question "Will there be peace between Israel and Palestine?" It upsets our pompous and bossy (please keep in mind that it is the positioning of the stars that determine him pompous and bossy, thus making this accusation fact, and not opinion) president that there's no easy answer to this question. However, it seems that he isn't avoiding the issue, which could only mean that he has a subscription to Tarot.com and took the advice of his daily horoscope.



So there you have it, Obama's March 11th horoscope matches up perfectly with March 11's news. However, there's still more terrain to cover. What about Obama's relationship with America? Rest assured, because there's a purely scientific way to analyze this relationship.

America gained its independence on the 4th of July, so let's assume that July 4th is America's "birthday." This makes America a Cancer. According to Astrology Online, America is "emotional, loving, changeable, moody, protective, sympathetic, clinging, and unable to let go." I'm already sensing that this may not be a good match for Obama's "bossy and dogmatic" attitude.

Fortunately, there may be hope for this seemingly doomed romance. According to an astrological study conducted by the folks at Find Your Fate, their relationship may be nothing less than a match made in heaven. I'll leave you with the following quote from their analysis, with the words Leo and Cancer changed to Obama and America, respectively.

"In spite of their different natures, there will always be a strong bond between Obama and America. America will often have to give way to the dominant Obama, but Obama has a quality which makes America's moon shine more brightly. Obama needs appreciation and attention which America is happy to give."

Impressions of "Open Mic Night"

One thing that most Husson/NESCom students can look forward to is Open Mic Night. Literally anyone can perform in this event, and once you can sign up, you can do practically anything you want. A handful of people simply played some cover songs with an acoustic, some chose to do stand-up, and there was even a 15 minute performance by the Husson Improv group.

Though there were several acts, I'll try to go over three of what were, in my opinion, some of the more memorable acts.

First off, we have Tyler Allen (pictured left - photo by Holly Emanuelli). Allen certainly showed himself as a man of several talents during Open Mic Night. He started his act by hooking a microphone up to a vocal processor and distorting his voice in several ways. He then proceeded to perform a stand-up act involving the comical retelling of alcohol-induced awkward situations, as well as some humor regarding relationships. It doesn't stop there, though, for the icing on the cake he broke into a Neil Young impersonation and played "Heart of Gold."

The Husson Improv club (pictured right - photo by Holly Emanuelli) approached the stage a few acts later. Their acts allowed the audience to interact with them, and some of their performances mirrored the style of "Whose Line Is it Anyway?" One of the main focuses of their show was a sketch where one person would sit on a bench, and then one person (either from the Improv group or the audience) would come up and sit next to the seated individual and try to say something so awkward that it causes the other person to leave out of sheer disgust. This segment of the show certainly provided something fresh, new, and comical to the typical routine of an Open Mic Night.

Last, but certainly not least, was the NESCom Supergroup: Phimosis(pictured left, photo by Holly Emanuelli) . This group consists of two percussionists, two accordian players, and a Ukelele player/lead vocalist. They took the stage by force and opened up with what they described as an "interpretive, avant-garde" cover of Lady Gaga's Poker Face. They followed this cover with another cover, but this time the song was "We Are The World." This particular cover featured some incredibly dissonant feedback that was seemingly implemented for the sake of irony, or perhaps for the sole purpose of confusing the audience. It was definitely a treat to see half of the audience plugging their ears while the other half smiled and clapped along to the song. The band then closed with a lengthy and upbeat original song. Whether you love them or hate them, there's no doubt as to whether they have the ability to make a lasting impression on a crowd.

Now, I'm aware that there were several more groups that performed that night, but I chose only to review the performances that left a lasting impression upon me. I may not have reviewed every act, but that doesn't mean I didn't like most of the show. I certainly think it was evident that most of the performers put a lot of time and effort into their acts.

Scottish company brings Roger Ebert's voice back to life!

Just when America was starting to think that they'd never hear Film Critic Roger Ebert's voice again, it miraculously comes back. CereProc, a company from Edinburgh, was able to make Ebert's dreams come true when they fulfilled his request to have a text-to-speech synthesizer made (created by stitching together a bunch of audio clips of him talking when he used to have a voice), thus allowing him to simply type what he wants to say, which will then create a somewhat disjointed and detached version of his old voice.


Roger Ebert is famous for his role in At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper, but he got his start as a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times. He also became the first critic to win a Pullitzer Prize for Criticism, in 1975.

According to his statement to the Sun Times, Roger Ebert (The handsome man pictured on the left - photo courtesy of Harpo Productions) admitted that the idea was repeatedly suggested to him. "After I lost my speaking voice, everybody thought they had this brilliant idea. 'Hey! Why don't you just take your voice from your old shows and put it on a computer?'"

CereProc, the digital Necromancers in charge of bringing Ebert's voice back from the dead, were able to stitch together clips of audio from DVD commentaries that Ebert recorded back when he had a voice.

Now that he has (sort of) regained the power of his voice, he says that he plans on possibly using the voice for radio and webcasts.

Airline Security Too Tight For Kevin Smith

A week ago from today, Kevin Smith was literally kicked off an airplane for being too fat. Apparently, Smith typically purchases two seats in advance for the sake of comfort. Unfortunately, he ended up flying standby on another flight, where only one seat was available. The situation was worsened when Southwest Airlines informed him that, because of his size, he had to leave. According to People, they felt justified in kicking Smith off for the following reason:

"If a customer cannot comfortably lower the armrest and infringes on a portion of another seat, a customer seated adjacent would be very uncomfortable and a timely exit from the aircraft in the event of an emergency might be compromised if we allow a cramped, restricted seating arrangement,"

For those of you who aren't familiar with Kevin Smith (photo courtesy of WireImage), he's directed several movies, including: Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Clerks II, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and Fanboys. He's also somewhat famous for playing the role of "Silent Bob" in some of these films.

Smith commented on the incident via Twitter by stating that "I broke no regulation, offered no 'safety risk' (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?)"

The fact that Kevin Smith was literally kicked off an airplane for being too fat may be kinda humorous, but it also paints a frightening picture of Airline Security in general. Is this bombardment of safety regulations really necessary? Could bulking up security to this degree really prevent someone from being injured or killed?

Concert Review: Maps & Atlases

Maps & Atlases is a Math-Rock ensemble that I had the pleasure of seeing about a week ago. They recently released a new EP entitled "You And Me And The Mountain." The album can be heard in its entirety below.



They played three shows in Maine, the one I was able to attend was at the SPACE Gallery in Portland. The SPACE Gallery is an immensely small and intimate locale that combines aspects of an art museum and bar. Those who haven't been there should definitely take the time to check it out.

The band took little time to introduce themselves. Lead vocalist Dave Davison simply stated "Hi, we're Maps & Atlases." and they immediately broke into "Witch," the first song from their new EP. The crowd's response to this was overwhelmingly positive. They proceeded to play almost every track from the album, as well as a good chunk of their earlier songs. Davison would occasionally stop between songs to humbly thank the audience for supporting the band.

Many of the songs featured non-traditional (i.e. not 4/4) time signatures as well as a great deal of guitar tapping. The combination of the bass, lead, and rhythm guitarist tapping, with the drummer occasionally playing a xylophone, endowed several of their songs with a beautiful, harmonious, yet simultaneously bizarre and offbeat sound. The vocalist pierced through this surreal harmony with his powerful (albeit slightly nasally) voice.

Needless to say, the group has a very unique sound.

Since the venue was so small, the whole band just kinda hung out at the end of the show. At this point, fans could ask for autographs, buy merchandise, or just talk with the members of the band. Everything seemed to be going well until one kid sneakily approached the merchandise table, stole a couple shirts, and ran out. A friend of mine saw this and was able to notify the band's drummer, at which point the whole band ran outside and circled the thief. He gave up the stolen merchandise without much of a fight.

Looking back at that night, the members of Maps & Atlases were able to show us all that not only are they each incredible musicians in their own right, but also that they're very kind, humble, and down to earth people.

Sex, Lies, and a Decrepit Deity

Harems may seem like a far-off fictional concept, something that's written about for movies and books. The notion of an actual harem existing, even in a far away land, may be hard for one to wrap their head around. The truth is, harems are a very real thing, and fortunately one was recently busted.

Goel Ratzon (picture courtesy of the Associated Press) was charged for owning a harem in which roughly twenty-one women who, according to Ratzon, willingly volunteered to be his love slaves. Also, birth control is apparently a foreign concept in Jerusalem, because forty-nine children were born as a result of this man's insatiable sexual appetite.

This may seem shocking for several reasons, the most apparent being that this man is very much old and unattractive. However, he had a bizarre (yet, effective) method of picking up these girls. According to the Associated Press, he gave them the impression that he was "an omnipotent one who was blessed with supernatural powers and the ability to heal, destroy and cast curses."

Most sensible individuals would perceive the previous statement as a heaping pile of garbage. Surprisingly the twenty one victimized women totally fell for it. To make matters worse, many of the women would tattoo Ratzon's name on their bodies, and some even named their children after him.

As bizarre as it may seem, these women really claim to have loved him. It is, by all means, great that law enforcement was able to put a stop to this disgusting man's dirty deeds.

On the other hand, Hugh Hefner is practically doing the same thing here in the United States and people love him for it.

Valentine's Day Blues

This year's Valentine's Day may be one of the most depressing yet. It's not for the obvious reason that it's a blatantly commercial holiday that cashes in on our emotions, thus guilt-tripping all of us into dishing out several hard-earned pieces of paper in an effort to win over our loved ones with stuffed animals and heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. No, it's far worse than that.

Valentine's Day lands on a Sunday this year, meaning that if you live in a state where blue laws are enacted, you can't buy any liquor. Blue laws essentially show a blatant disregard for the concept of separation of church and state. If one were to read The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, they would immediately see the following sentence staring back at them: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

Despite this, we see that 29 states in America enforce these laws, which are based on the concept of the Sabbath being a holy day.

Now Valentine's Day may not necessarily be based around the consumption of alcohol, but for some it may be necessary. Those who are in dedicated relationships may be perfectly content with the intoxicating affection and love they feel for their partner. However, for those of us who are single, Valentine's Day is, by all means, a very depressing day.

Valentine's Day serves as a constant and painful reminder to single men and women that they are indeed very alone. Perhaps a drink or two could help alleviate some of that depression, but not this year!

Drinking alone on Valentine's Day is practically an American tradition. So, what's the sense in going against a Constitutional concept in an effort to thwart what could very well be the one and only vice of lonely bachelors?

Bud Light's Winter Sports Variety Show!

First off, I must confess that I know nothing about sports. The Super Bowl is the only sports event that I watch, and even then, I'll admit that I don't pay much attention. I'm usually eating greasy food and hanging out with a group of friends. I just so happen to be doing this as I type.

That being said, the following is my impression of this year's Super Bowl.

Bud Light seems to be playing a very important role in this year's Super Bowl. Just now, there was a commercial that featured a NASA-esque team of scientists observing that a meteor was heading straight towards earth. They all collectively decided that the best solution to this crisis would be to get wasted... on none other than Bud Light! They proceeded to horse around a bit and have a good 'ol time. We then see that the meteor ended up being a minor threat, causing the scientists to celebrate even more!

The commercial ends, and the Super Bowl comes back on, but not before all the viewers at home were treated with a big Bud Light logo being displayed over the football field accompanied by a narrator describing the positive qualities of the particular intoxicating beverage.

Two groups of men (made distinguishable by their uniforms) then proceeded to run around on astro turf. This doesn't happen for very long before the next commercial. Personally, I didn't like this part of the variety show, and I found that it was distracting me from the thought of Bud Light.

Thankfully, I was soon treated to another commercial featuring America's favorite mixture of yeast waste products: Bud Light. This one was very unique in that it featured men drinking Bud Light. However, after they drank the beverage, their voices sounded as if they were going through an Autotune filter. Autotune is an effect that is commonly applied to vocals in pop and rap music. It essentially "fixes" the pitch of the vocalist's voice in an effort to make them sound on key at all times. I'm not sure how this really relates to Bud Light, other than the fact that, when intoxicated, one feels much more confident about their singing voice. Hopefully, this will remind viewers to drink their Bud Light before the half time show, so they can have more confidence whilst singing along to the hits of The Who.

The Super Bowl comes back on, and we see two people in suits blabbing about nonsense. To make matters worse, they're doing all of this in front of a Doritos logo. Now, I'm not one to complain, but what the hell does Bud Light have to do with Doritos? I once consumed an entire bag of Doritos and felt no intoxicating effects. So, why waste time eating Doritos when you could be spending your hard earned cash on Bud Light?

This nonsense soon came to an end. I was then fortunate enough to be gifted with the pleasure of viewing another Bud Light advertisement. This one started out somewhat scary, but of course had a happy ending. It began with a plane crashing on a beach, or something like that. I'll be honest, I wasn't exactly paying attention. Anyway, the inhabitants of the plane seemed a bit shaken up as they cautiously walked around the wreckage. Suddenly, to everyone's delight, one of the stranded passengers finds a huge metal container filled with nothing but Bud Light. This causes everyone to forget about what is, by all means, a very serious problem.

Thus, the Super Bowl has taught us that, no matter how bad things seem to get, no matter how horrible and depressing our situation may be, Bud Light will be there to help you forget. These advertisements have shown us that, even if a meteor is threatening the entire planet, or even if you're stranded on an unknown island with potentially no hope of escape: Bud Light will be there to provide you with a wonderful wave of euphoria while simultaneously drowning your sorrows.

The Great Mexican-Pig-Monster Scare of '09

Fear-mongering has been blessed with a relatively large role in our lives as of late, especially with the H1N1 epidemic and the 2012 scare. This dynamic-duo of anxiety harvesting conspiracies has somehow remained relevant for quite some time. Considering the flood of information involved with both of these terrifying theories, it may be hard for one to discern what's true, and what isn't. That being said, let's take a look at what's actually known regarding the H1N1 (or Swine Flu) epidemic.

The H1N1 virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was brought into the United States from Mexico during mid-2009. The symptoms for H1N1 are very much similar to the symptoms for the seasonal flu. According to WebMD, the symptoms for H1N1 "are like regular flu symptoms and include fever, cough, sore-throat, runny nose, body aches, headache, chills, fatigue. . . diarrhea and vomiting." Taking a glance at the section on the regular flu, it's evident that, with a few minor exceptions, the symptoms are essentially the same.

So, it seems as if the Swine Flu (H1N1) could very well just be a slight variation of the regular flu. However, there are some differences. According to msnbc, the swine flu has killed roughly 11,000 since it has existed in the U.S. It's a bit more difficult to find statistics on the regular flu (influenza), though. The CDC website elaborates on why: "First, states are not required to report individual seasonal flu cases or deaths of people older than 18 years of age to CDC. Second, seasonal influenza is infrequently listed on death certificates of people who die from flu-related complications [12]." Keeping this in mind, the CDC estimates that "roughly 17,000 to 52,000" people die from the seasonal flu each year. This estimation may not be the most accurate, but it does illustrate that, at the very least, more people have died from the seasonal flu than from the Swine Flu.

Now let's recap.

The Swine Flu is a disease that initially entered the United States via Mexico. Once in the U.S. it was observed to have the same symptoms of the regular flu, and has even taken less lives. Regardless of all of this, one-fifth of the U.S. population was still convinced into getting an H1N1 vaccine. The media undoubtedly played a huge role in conjuring up fear related to this epidemic, but why?

The fact that 20% of Americans received a flu shot goes to show that the medical industry certainly wasn't hurt as a result of the epidemic. Also, one factor that sets H1N1 apart from the seasonal flu is that it immigrated from Mexico. Perhaps a conspiracy theorist could find some sort of correlation between the fear of swine flu, and the threat of illegal immigration. This seems a bit unlikely, though.

Thankfully, the disease seems to be a minor threat, and for the most part, we should all be safe.

War: Through the Eyes of a Soldier

Note: Due to the potentially negative ramifications involved with what is being said in this article, the soldier being interviewed requested that his real name not be used.

America has been fighting a war against terrorism for almost nine years. Many individuals have compared this war to Vietnam, and they've been arguably successful in pointing out the similarities. However, there are also several differences between these two wars, the most obvious being that, with Vietnam, there was a noticeably larger split in regards to who supported the war, and who was against it. This could be due to the fact that, during Vietnam, the public was more informed due to the constant media coverage. That's not to say that we're completely in the dark in regards to the current war, but there is noticeably less coverage on this war than there was with Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, Americans had the opportunity to see things objectively, and thus draw their own conclusions. Thanks to reporters like Walter Kronkite, who actually went to Vietnam in an effort to report the facts objectively, Americans were able to gain a clearer perspective.

So, perhaps the media coverage (or lack thereof) is the most notable difference between the two wars. Obviously it would be pretty expensive, difficult, and risky for any of us to take a plane to Afghanistan and see what's up. Luckily, I was able to do the next thing best thing and talk to someone who had actually fought in this current war.

SGT. Clyde Jordan (27) is a man that has accomplished more than most of us will in a lifetime. He served as part of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Army for five and a half years, and twenty-seven months of that time were spent at war. SGT. Jordan had the unique opportunity of being able to experience this war first-hand, which is something that not many of us civilians can claim to have done. Bearing that in mind, his experience at war was anything but easy.

It goes without saying that it would be hard for a soldier to consider Iraq a "home away from home," only a select few people stationed in Iraq were given adequate housing. Most soldiers (and this includes SGT. Jordan) were subject to some pretty terrible living conditions. "Some people had great living conditions, but for me, they were horrible." explains Jordan, "Everyone over there serves a vital purpose, but I know some people who were cooks, not even cooks, really, just people who planned menus and oversaw the other chefs, and they got to live in trailers with electricity." We then see that several men like Jordan, who were actually fighting in the war, were forced to stay in tents with virtually no protection or electricity. "Bugs could easily crawl in at night," says Jordan. "It wouldn't be surprising to wake up to a Camel Spider eating some food that you left out the night before."

The hardships don't stop there, though. There were plenty of distressing factors that added a confusing element. "It was hard to determine who you were fighting against," explains Jordan, "people over there were walking around with AK-47's for their protection, but they may not have been an enemy. We knew this one guy over there named Hani, who was our information guy. He was hired by the Sheik of the area to overlook the incoming water supply." Even though Hani (pictured below, with SGT. Jordan) was technically considered to be on the "other side," he proved to be a valuable asset, and provided SGT. Jordan with some useful information relating to enemy activity.

The thing is, Hani wouldn't just give out information for free, he required a very specific form of compensation: Pepsi. "Hani would pretty much rat out his mother for a Pepsi," states Jordan, "he'd tell us all kinds of inside information, but he never asked for money, only Pepsi." Hani even went so far as to refuse any kind of meat as payment. "One day we gave him a Pepsi and some beef jerky," explains Jordan, "but he didn't eat the beef jerky. That's because it's a tradition over there to kill all animals you eat by slitting their throats while their heads are pointed toward Mecca."

Though there were some obviously negative events occurring, it would be crazy to say that it was all bad. While SGT. Jordan was in Iraq, he had done some incredible things, one of the most notable being that he saved the life of a drowning girl. "Her uncle wasn't able to pay me, so he painted a picture," explains Jordan. "It's not like I wanted money. It's my job, you know?"

Jordan has certainly had some time to reflect since being back, and that reflection is evident in his closing statements: "I believe that as long as we're there, we're gonna be fighting. The people over there are very religious and have a very negative view of western civilization. I mean, even if you're nice to them, they still hate you, unless of course you give them a Pepsi. I don't think being there any longer is going to help the situation at all. The best thing do to would be to leave."