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?” Read More »

Diablo Cody: She stripped…and no one wants to forget that

Gas has almost doubled in a year. I smell the fumes of a conspiracy…

Blohan is poor and boring.

The Pentagon wanted Guantanamo Bay interrogation notes destroyed. Conspiracy #2?

Rupert Everett isn’t a fan of America. That’s okay. I can’t remember ever being a fan of him.

The dreaded College Wait List just got more confusing.

Midwesterners are drenched. But if you live there…your basement has already told you this.

Man, do I love the Golden Girls

This is pretty much the scariest picture that has ever been burned into my rentas

Yes, I’m not ashamed to say it: I loved Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and I am really really excited for the release of the sequel, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay.

I’m not a stoner, and I don’t really find big boob jokes/pot jokes/fart jokes/beer jokes particularly funny. So why the heck did I like this film? Well, besides Neil Patrick Harris (fantastic) and White Castle (yum), I think the creators, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, are on to something here. The New York Times reviewed the new film recently, calling it a “stoner protest film”, due to the combination of drug humor and sharp political satire–what’s more, the review was actually quite positive.

For those of you who don’t know, Harold and Kumar’s first film involved two stoners determined to make it to White Castle in order to satisfy their munchies. The second film, however, as the name suggests, involves the ultimate stoner vacation (Amsterdam) gone horribly wrong. Harold, a Korean-American, and Kumar, an Indian-American are thrown off their flight after trying to light up in the bathroom. An overzealous Homeland Security officer draws the conclusion that North Korea and Al Quada have teamed up, and throws both of them in Guantánamo Bay. Hyjinks ensue, of course, but so does a very interesting treatment of race in the post-9/11 era. Read More »