CollegeCandy » 9/11

Current Events Cheat Sheet: If You Thought Your Summer Vacay Was Crazy…

Avery - UNC Chapel Hill — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:00:06 +0000

The Republican presidential debate this Wednesday featured all the candidates, but somehow it became a two person throw-down: former frontrunner Mitt Romney versus new guy Rick Perry. Mitt Romney was a well-acknowledged favorite for the Republican nomination until about a month ago, when Texas Governor Rick Perry came charging into the race. At the debate, Romney talked about his plan to boost jobs, and Perry attacked Social Security, calling it a “monstrous lie” and a Ponzi scheme. A third, unlikely, leader also emerged during the debate: the former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, who acted calm, cool and collected throughout. Of course, you can’t put sparring politicians in a room without at least one dramatic event. On Wednesday, this came during a commercial break, when Perry approached Rep. Ron Paul and got all up in his grill: Paul’s supporters are saying Perry assaulted their guy, but Paul says no such thing happened. Bummer.

Twitter announced it has hit the 100-million member mark. I’ve got a Twitter (and trust me, I held out a loonnggg time), College Candy’s got a Twitter, College Candy’s intern’s got a Twitter, even the whale at the Museum of Natural History has got a Twitter! The point is, the site, which was recently valued at over $8 billion, won’t stop growing. 75% of NBA players, 82% of Congress (which no longer includes the penis-pic tweeting Anthony Weiner), and 87% of the Billboard Top 100 Musicians tweet actively, and those numbers will surely get closer and closer to 100% as the site continues to grow.

President Obama addressed Congress Thursday night, urging them to pass his $447 billion to boost jobs and the economy. The legislation, called the American Jobs Act, would include tax cuts, extension of unemployment benefits, infrastructure spending (on things like roads and expanding Wi-Fi access) and other measures to help the economy, because it clearly still needs help. Even though Obama emphasized over and over that every facet of his bill had bipartisan support and would not increase the federal deficit, Republicans didn’t even merit the thing with an official response. Many commentators loved the speech, however, because of Obama’s serious, get-it-done ‘tude. “After months of being a negotiator, Obama finally looked like a president,” said E.J. Dionne, Jr. of The Washington Post. A good thing, if he has any hopes of winning that second term.

The media tracked down a UCLA undergraduate who’s spending his summer not at an internship, or playing video games, or taking classes… but fighting as a rebel in the Libyan revolution. Chris Jeon, 21, is a math major, and yes I already tried to find him on Facebook and failed, but by all means…maybe your stalking skills are better than mine. “I just… see what happens,” he told reporters from the Christian Science Monitor. “At spring break I told my friends a sick vacation would be to come here and fight with the rebels.” What do his parents think? Well, they didn’t even know he was there (although they probably do now, boy has he got it coming). He’s planning on returning to the U.S. the day before classes start at the end of September.

Texas was officially declared a disaster area this week as wildfires spread across the drought-stricken state. It seems like not even a few days can go by without a devastating, natural disaster making headlines: over 190 wildfires destroyed over 1,500 homes. Near Austin, the fires took out 34,000 acres of land. So far, 17 people are unaccounted for, although they (fingers crossed) could just be out of town. The fires are fortunately largely over, and residents will slowly be making their way back to their homes to survey the damage.

Pic o’ the Week:

President Barack Obama, along with first lady Michelle and former president George W. Bush, took a moment of silence at the just-opened 9/11 memorial on the tragic event’s tenth anniversary yesterday. The memorial features twin reflecting pools surrounded by the names of the deceased inscribed in bronze where the Twin Towers once stood.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo News (REUTERS/Timothy A. Clary/Pool)

Where were you on 9/11?

CC Staff — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:00:49 +0000

Today marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and we wanted to honor the tragedy by reflecting on our personal experiences about where we were and what we felt when we first heard about the attack. Several of our writers contributed their stories and we welcome you to share yours in the comments below.

I didn’t really understand what was going on — I was in the middle of a 3rd grade spelling test. I thought my little friend was totally feeding me shit — after all, what third grader can believe that something so big could crumble so easily? – Leah

I was in sitting in the back row of my 6th grade pre-algebra class when our principal came over the loudspeaker and announced that something had happened at the World Trade Center in NYC. It wasn’t until later in the day, when one of my teachers let us watch news coverage during class, that I realized just how serious the situation was. People were getting sent home, parents were showing up at school and frantically searching classrooms for their kids–it was really scary, and definitely something that I have and always will vividly remember. – Chelsea

I was in 7th grade science class when I first heard that a plane had crashed into the twin towers. I remember being scared, confused, and all around unsettled. As a born and raised New Yorker, that’s still how I feel when I think about it now. – Jenn

When I first heard about the September 11th attacks, I was on a school camping trip. We were on a final morning hike when the World Trade Center towers were hit, and came back to a very confusing situation. I’ll always be grateful to my fifth grade teacher for just turning on the news and letting us watch once we got back to school. I’m from Jackson Hole, WY, where former vice president Dick Cheney has a house, so security was tight and fighter planes circled our town for weeks. – Garnet

I grew up in a quiet, rural, very sleepy community, the exact opposite of New York. For as long as I can remember, we got the New York news stations instead of our local stations because we had satellite tv. On the morning of September 11, I woke up for school and walked to my parents’ room to say “good morning” to my mother. I remember standing at the corner of the bed and watching the New York news flicker in and out because their receptor was on the top of one of the towers; it was 6 am Oregon time, but 9 am New York time, and so my mom and I watched it live. At that time, I had never been in a building over six stories high, maybe, and I’d never been on a plane either. New York might as well have been Mars. It all felt so foreign, like it was something that was never meant to happen. – Michelle

I was on the school bus heading home and all I kept hearing was something about a massive plane crash. When I got home my entire family was crowded around the TV, re-watching the newscast, my parents explained to my sister and I just what was going on. I immediately starting freaking out, my older sister had just left for her honeymoon and we hadn’t received a safety call, I continued to freak for four more hours until finally opening up an email saying she was safe. I don’t think I will ever be able to explain just how grateful I am that my sister wasn’t on one of those planes, my heart goes out to all who lost someone and the people affected by 9/11. – Courtney

I remember sitting in the auditorium of my lower school, National Cathedral in D.C., completely confused. What is the World Trade Center? Is my uncle who works at the Pentagon alright? Why are people’s parents coming to get them? And one even scarier question: Could the Cathedral be next? – Gaby

With 28 other 5th graders, huddled around our teacher’s portable radio. We soon realized that one of the 28 was missing, her uncle was on one of the planes that had crashed. I only remember hoping it was a mistake and that he had made it out alive. By some miracle my hopes were answered: he’d missed his flight and would be home within the week. – Tierney

I was in my middle school Language Arts class, and announcements had just ended (our announcement’s were shown every morning on the classroom TVs), and my teacher forgot to turn off the TV when announcements were over. She began teaching, but the TV switched to the news. We all stop what we were doing (listening to the teacher, passing notes, playing Tetris) and we were shocked. I knew that something bad was happening, but I didn’t know specifics. I didn’t know what Al Qaeda was or who Osama Bin Laden was, but I knew this was a tragedy that I would remember for the rest of my life. – Jessica

On September 11, 2001, I walked into my fifth grade classroom as my teacher was hushing the students, fiddling with her radio. Adults kept stopping by the room and we could tell it wasn’t a normal school day. We were sent home early; the teachers left most of the explaining up to our parents. I remember my dad taking me into the backyard and pointing out that there were no planes flying that day. It wasn’t until later that I saw photos and read stories of the events that had taken place. – Emily

Saturday Read: Love is the Higher Law, by David Levithan

Alex - Lakehead University — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:30:33 +0000

I feel like I’ve been reading really long, heavy books lately and I was ready for a change. It’s not that they’re not good (on the contrary, they’ve been great!), it’s just that they really weigh down my beach bag and I needed a book that didn’t leave deep, red grooves in my shoulder. I searched my local library (yes, I still use the public library and I LOVE IT. Who doesn’t love FREE STUFF?) high and low for a short, YA read. And I found a fantastic one!

“Love is the Higher Law” is by David Levithan, one of my favorite young adult authors (cha-ching!) and takes its name from U2 lyrics I’ve always loved (double cha-ching!). David is a lifelong New Yorker, who was obviously deeply affected by the tragic events of 9/11. He decided to write this book both as a way to get out his emotions over that traumatic day, and also because he doesn’t think there are enough books about it. Not that he thinks people should abuse a tragedy for the sake of literature, of course, but because he wanted to make sure that day was preserved so in the future, children who were babies in 2001 can read a primary account of what happened.

The novel focuses on three main characters – Claire, Jasper and Peter – and switches between their points of view. They are all loosely intertwined, but become much closer after 9/11. The book goes through how each of the three experience the day and then also how it changes them after. Claire is in her high school class when the planes hit and runs to her little brother’s elementary school. Afterward, she can’t return home for a week and finds herself wandering the streets of New York late at night, looking for reasons and hope. Jasper slept through the whole thing. His parents were in Korea and so he is forced to deal with everything alone. Peter was in line to buy the new Bob Dylan album. All of them experience 9/11 in ways only a New Yorker can: Two pillars that figuratively held up their hometown have been destroyed and they question everything they knew and completely reassess.

Last year, I traveled to New York with my family. We went on a day-long tour of the entire city that included Ground Zero. To be honest, I was sad on 9/11, but I didn’t really comprehend it until I was there. I was so moved at Ground Zero I began to cry. Even thinking about it now makes me tear up. Because I now have this emotional connection to 9/11 and New York, however small it may be, I appreciated “Love is the Higher Law”. It was interesting to relive such an infamous day through literature, especially through the eyes of Levithan, who really understands human emotion. Plus, his writing is just superb. Even though this book was only 176 pages, I copied down pages and pages of beautiful quotes.

If you’re looking for a quick yet deep read, look no further. “Love is the Higher Law” really makes you grateful for every day and I think it’s good for everyone to have a reality check once in a while. Enjoy!

Candy Dish: Megan Fox Does Stuff

CC Staff — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:00:45 +0000

Ok, we get it. Megan Fox is hot.

Is that Kim Kardashian?!

Is there such a thing as the middle-school 15?

50 Cent’s got some beef with Lil Wayne.

Look who’s official. My, my, my. What a surprise.

Pretty sure there are more appropriate ways to honor 9/11

Candy Dish: Eight Years After 9/11

CC Staff — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:00:36 +0000

New York remembers.

Don’t worry, this happy couple is still ON.

Taylor Swift: now that’s a role model.

Kick start your study habits.

Lady Gaga. Pantless. Again.

Narciso Rodriguez for eBay?

Candy Dish: Who Wants To See Kate Gosselin Naked??

CC Staff — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:00:22 +0000

Wanna see Kate Gosselin naked?

John Mayer and Kristin Cavillari are dating?!

Cute boots. Cheap price. Yay Target!

Who’s excited for SATC 2?

Emma Watson starts at Brown. Stalkers abound.

Who needs 911 when you have Facebook?

Bye Bye Bush

Mandy - Hofstra — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:39:23 +0000

As inauguration day approaches, President Bush is preparing to leave the White House, his home of ~~far too long~~ 8 years.

Earlier this morning, Mr. President held his final press conference as our Commander- In- Chief and I’m sure he has been reminiscing his time of service to our great country.

I wonder, though, what W.’s most memorable, thrilling moment was during his 8-year-reign ~~of terror .~~

Could it be learning that our nation was under attack when the towers were hit on 9\11? No.

Maybe it was the rush of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Wrong.

Could it be that journalist chucking a shoe at him during a press conference? Uh uh.

Our President says that during his time in office he has never felt more anxious than he did when he…wait for it…threw the opening pitch at the 2001 World Series. At least this was his response when People Magazine asked him.

Now I know that Mr. President has be scrutinized almost from the moment he stepped into office – and I won’t lie, I’ve been one to cast a stone or two – but I always felt that the President of the mighty United States absolutely deserves some amount of respect. I mean, the man is running a country. He did the best he could in a sh*tty situation…I guess.

But, come on. Of everything our country has been through during the past 8 years – the war, the natural disasters, the economy, etc. – this man’s most memorable part was pitching a freakin ball? I’m not saying the man should have said “Starting the war was my most favorite part of being president!” but I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, his favorite part would something a little more meaningful. Then again, did he do anything meaningful?

Point to ponder.

My Cell Phone Saved My Life

Elizabeth-Baruch College — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:30:54 +0000

Women hear about bad things that happen to other women all of the time. But I, like many others, forget that these things could happen to me. Luckily, when I was kidnapped by a taxi driver on Friday night, I had my cell phone on me.

The phone only had battery power because I’d shut it off earlier that night when I saw it only had one bar. I thought to myself, “You don’t want to have a dead phone in case of an emergency.”

Thank god I thought that because six hours later, I was calling 911 on a taxi driver who refused to let me out of his car. I’d tried to use my debit card to pay for our ride, but he claimed his machine was not working. I requested to try again and he began to grow angry with me, shouting, “This is your problem! Not my problem!”

When I finally told the man that this was actually HIS problem, he child locked all of the doors in the car and sped off with me, screaming about how he would just take me to the police station. This was all quite baffling to me. After all, I had my card in my hand and was ready and willing to pay for the cab right there if his machine would work.

I tried everything I could to unlock the doors. They wouldn’t budge. I was pounding on the glass between the driver’s seat and mine. I put my head through the hole in the glass to tell him to stop the car and he raised his hand to hit me; luckily, I moved away. At this point, I grabbed my phone and called 911.

Once he realized I was serious about calling 911 and that this situation would only escalate if he didn’t pull over, he finally stopped the car. Conveniently enough, he stopped the car next to a police car stationed on the street with two officers on duty.

The officers let me out of the car and we found out his machine was, in fact, working just fine. What happens next will be decided by court. However, I really wonder what would have happened had I not saved my battery power and had my cell phone on me to call 911 and show the driver that I wasn’t about to put up with his bullsh*t.

Please let this be a lesson to all of you out there, particularly the women, to always have your cell phones on hand (and charged) just in case.

“I Think We’re Dead”: Cop Tells 911 Operator He OD’d on Weed

Jess - NYU — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:00:40 +0000

Once, when I in 6th grade and still innocent, I tried a piece of a pot brownie that a friend had stolen from her big brother. Upon swallowing, I became convinced I was high and sat down on the floor, steadying myself with my hands because “the world was spinning out of control.”

Yes, I was lame, but I was 12 and lived in suburbia. I was allowed.

But this guy…well…he really doesn’t have any excuse. Except maybe that he’s a douchebag.



Guantanamo, Water-boarding, Secret Prisons…Who Are You and What Have You Done to My America?
ccandysuzie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:30:32 +0000
I don’t know if it’s just me, but it really seems like a day doesn’t go by without seeing some story about torture in Guantanamo Bay or a new revelation into CIA secret prisons. At first I was stunned, then I was disgusted. Now I’m just plain mad.
Mad that hundreds of men and women are being held and tortured without legal recourse;
Mad that such actions only make the rest of the world angrier at America and therefore more likely to attack us in the future;
Mad that a handful of powerful men are destroying our chances to bring about resolution in the Middle East.
And mad that at one point I dreamed of being a part of it all. Seriously.
I was a junior in high school when 9/11 happened. I waved the flags, prayed for our troops, and supported the Patriot Act. I even went a step further—I decided that I wanted to join the CIA. Already fascinated by international affairs and politics, I was enchanted by the thought of accessing/gathering raw data, traveling, and serving my country.
It wasn’t until spring semester of my sophomore year that I changed my mind. I was meeting with a ret. Marine Captain to plan my course into the agency, via military intelligence. Near the end, I told him how excited I was at the prospect of developing my analytical skills in combination with physical ability. He paused.
“Um… actually you probably won’t be analyzing much, per say. Why don’t we focus on getting you physically prepared?”
That was all he had to say. It suddenly struck me. As an operative I would be a tool. Thinking isn’t a skill you want in a tool. (Imagine a hammer looking up at you saying “Um, are you sure you want to hit the nail again?”) I valued my capacity for individual thought too much to be reduced to someone else’s tool.
Three years later, I am so incredibly thankful I changed my direction when I did. It has since become clear to me that the CIA, military, and Bush administration were not who I, in my teenage naïveté, supposed them to be. Silly me. I thought that only the “bad guys” tortured their prisoners. They were the ones with secret prisons and sensory deprivation techniques. I was wrong.
Yesterday’s BBC headline says it all:“US Interrogation Policy Condemned”. The adjacent BBC side panel reads, “CIA ‘Secret War’”, listing key stories over the past few months: “CIA admits water-boarding” reads one. “Inquiry into destroyed CIA tapes” reads another. And, my personal favorite, “US ‘may’ use waterboarding again”.
Yet everyone tries to pretend that we are still the “good guys.” The US Senate Armed Services Committee’s 18-month investigation continuously illustrates  this duality:
On the one hand someone admits that yes, water-boarding has been used and may be used again,

then on the other hand, the Bush administration says that all detainees have been treated humanely. 
There is no such thing as humane abuse.
Luckily I decided to follow my own path. But I often think of those who choose to follow their patriotism and idealism– those who perhaps discovered too late that Americans do torture, that presidents lie, and that wars are not just. And that makes me mad.
[photo courtesy of www.ongoing-tales.com]