I’ll never forget the first footage I saw of the uprising in Egypt last winter – Tahrir Square full of people shouting, chanting, and waving Egyptian flags. As the Arab Spring movement continues to grow, we are witnessing a revolution. But watching a revolution from afar is strange – it’s exciting, scary, and confusing all at the same time.

Recently, I had the chance to interview Lara Setrakian, a foreign correspondent for Bloomberg Television and ABC News. Lara is a young American journalist based in Dubai, but travels back and forth to the United States frequently. She has come to be regarded as an authority on the political situation in the Middle East, and reported live from Tahrir Square earlier this year as the rule of President Hosni Mubarak came to an end. Who better to provide a little perspective on these events than someone who has seen them firsthand? Read on for my interview with this incredibly inspiring and driven lady!

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The Middle East has erupted into chaos and revolution in the past few weeks. As a college student primarily focused on keeping my grades up and keeping my liquor down, I’ve never put too much thought into this region of the globe. Sure I read the news and know the latest happenings, but I accept everything I hear as the truth.

And there’s a lot that just isn’t true.

Seeing women wearing Western clothing, protesting right alongside the men made me realize that I have a lot of preconceived notions about the Middle East that might be wrong. And I doubt I’m the only one who just accepts what they’re told when it comes to this part of the world.

So today I decided to use my free time to do a little research on the Middle East, find out how many of the facts I believe about life there and what it truly means to be a Middle Eastern woman.

Myth #1: Every Muslim woman must wear a veiled head-covering

Fact: There are different types of veils that Muslim women can choose to wear to preserve the modesty which is illustrated in the Koran. Most dramatic is the Niqab, which covers up every surface of bare skin, leaving only a slit for the eyes. More common is the Hiqab covering, which is placed on top of the head and around the neck. The wearing of these head dressings is strictly regulated in some countries – including France, Turkey and Tunisia – yet in many countries, there are female politicians and women in power who opt not to wear any covering at all. While in some of the more conservative countries it may be law to wear some type of head covering, in other countries, it’s a personal choice.

Myth #2: Women in the Middle East cannot be granted divorces.

Fact: While the marital process is heavily influenced by father figures who often determine the suitor for his daughter, judges are allowed to grant divorces to women. Take the case of 10-year-old Nujood Ali as an example.  While her story is hard to think about (we’re talking getting married off at the age of 10 and being beaten and raped by her new husband), it offers hope. She was granted a divorce by a Yemeni judge who applauded her for her bravery. While indeed a difficult process, her story has inspired other young women to leave their unhappy, often arranged marriages. So despite what you may hear about women’s rights in the Middle East, the brave women are finally seeing that they have a choice and are getting the rights they deserve.

Myth #3: Women in the Middle East do not receive schooling

Fact: While few women make it to secondary schooling, due either to arranged marriages which forbid women from being enrolled once married, or lack of funds, girls do receive an education. How far they go depends on their societal status.

The situation is complicated in the Middle East, especially seen through Western eyes. Women in the Arab countries face discrimination and lack the independence that we take for granted daily. But their oppression does not mean they don’t want an education or equal standing in their countries. And that is clearly something we’ve come to see over the past few weeks as more and more women stand up to their dictators and push for a better life.

It’s inspiring and it’s encouraging and, as a woman, I hope these women get everything they’re fighting for.

Israel has been under attack since its creation in 1948. Due to many people’s hatred of the Jewish community, the religious history of the region, and an argument over who the land should really belong to, the people of Israel have been defending their small plot of land for over 60 years.

Not only have they had to deal with wars and bombs from surrounding countries, but the citizens of Israel live in constant fear of suicide bombers getting on their busses, coming into their schools and destroying their daily lives.

Today, Israel is at war with Hamas. Every day, the Israeli Army sends bombs into the Gaza strip in attempts to stop the terrorist organization from bombing their country.

“The goal of this operation is to stop the launching of rockets upon Israeli civilians and to make sure that the Hamas organization, which is a terrorist organization, will not be able to get any more rockets… And also to make sure that they will not have the will to act against Israeli civilians.”

As with any military operation, there has been severe collateral damage. Innocent people – including U.N. aid workers – have been injured and killed, there is a shortage of food and water, and hundreds of buildings have been destroyed. Yet, Hamas will not stop.

My question is this:

In your opinion, is Israel the monster, or is Hamas – knowing what they can do to stop the war in Gaza – turning its back on the well-being of its very own people? This sitution is not one that has a simple answer, but one that could be resolved with some thought, understanding, and conversation.

Yeah, baby; Girl Scout Cookies are on sale!

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Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell have baby girls...with weird names.

Is Rihanna engaged to Chris Brown?

Facebook sensoring content related to Gaza and the situation in Israel.

Obama is already getting down to business.

Have you Skyped yet? Best thing ever.

Britney’s blog has been hacked. Hilarity ensues.

Is Madonna really helping Louis Vuitton sales?

Unexpected beauty buys.

It’s a Dancing With The Stars wedding!

Dress 10 pounds thinner.

If Reefs will make our ass look like that, we’ll take 10 pairs.

Yes, you can save money on beauty products.

Ryan Seacrest has a new girlfriend.

Hot celebs gone very, very wrong.

Do magic tricks turn you on?

More awesomely bad reality TV is coming our way tonight.

Israel refuses to stop their attacks on Gaza.

Ugh, you stepped in gum; now what?

Men are to blame for the current economic crisis.

Did she just say….dick?

What were the celebs’ resolutions?

In case you were too hungover to watch, here is a rundown of all the bowl games yesterday.

Looking chic without looking like you tried to.

Charles Barkley is a naughty, naughty man.

Don’t mess with this old lady!

Lilo and Sam are fighting again.

Getting to know bitchness, Olivia Palermo.

The credit crunch meets the fashion world.

What is going on in Israel?

There are two things everyone know about Americans:

1. We are the fattest country in the world.

2. We are the largest oil consumer in the world.

(Honorable mention: we produced Paris Hilton.)

But what if we could solve both of those problems (sorry, there is no solving the Paris issue) at once?

Enter Dr. Alan Bittner, a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles. He used the fat he was sucking out of those vapid LA women and turned it into fuel for his SUV. Yes, you read that right: he drove to work with someone’s thighs.

Apparently, this isn’t anything new: “Fat–whether animal or vegetable–contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel.” Even companies like Tyson are looking at using the animal fat – currently an annoying biproduct of production – to fuel their delivery trucks

This news not only means that we can stop “funding terrorism” by depending on the Middle East for oil, but that the U.S. could become the largest exporter of oil in the world! No need for offshore drilling; think of all those overweight Americans that we could drill! Think of all the money we could make!

If this isn’t an answer to all of our problems (obesity, dependency on the Middle East, the recession), I don’t know what is. Seriously, you can start right here. I have enough fat on my butt to get myself home for the holidays.

You arrive at the library and finally find a table to unload all your books and set up your laptop. You unwrap your head scarf, peel off your winter coat and plunk down your fresh cup of java. Today’s the day you’re actually going to write that fifteen page paper on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You are totes in work mode, browsing through your research and making notations and highlights here and there.

Look at how well you’re doing!

Then you open up Microsoft Word, and start tapping away at the keyboard. Jeez, you’ve already got a sentence! This is so much easier than you thought! You’ll be done in no time, and before you know it, you’ll be at the rugby house on Friday for the kegger. Wait, what time is the party again? A quick check on Facebook couldn’t hurt…

And then it’s over. You’ve been sucked into the very alluring tubes of the internet, procrastinating once again. It’s finals week, which means it’s work block season: that feeling where you just can’t concentrate. But according to CollegeNews.com, it turns out that those moments of procrastination are actually helpful. If you’re doing work for a long period of time, you’re bound to get stressed, and too much stress is never good for productivity. So it’s okay to take a break every now and then to ease your mind, and do something unrelated to your project. It will ease your stress and rejuvenate your brain activity so you can get back to work. Knowing that, why not try these sites to ease your studying woes? Read More »

In case you haven’t heard, tonight is the biggest, baddest and most important VP debate EVER.

And nothing goes better with big, bad and important events quite like drinking games. We at CC have created a drinking game worthy of the event, so grab your friends (bonus if they are on the other team…it just makes everything more fun), all the essentials, and get your political game on!

What you will need:

Beer: 2 kinds are necessary: a quality brew of your choice, and a blue-collar variety (we prefer PBR).

Vodka: Stoli, straight from Palin’s neighbor, Russia, is best

A stack of dollar bills: You know you’ve been storing your money under the mattress lately, anyway.

A cheap bottle of wine

A tube of lipstick Read More »

In this country we tend to take everything for granted. Blaming everyone else when something goes wrong rather than take responsibility ourselves is not the way to go about solving the problem. It is time to stop blaming the politicians and big corporations and take a stand. Don’t buy another gas automobile. If you are like me, out shopping for your first non-mom-and-dad purchased car, now is the time to grow up.

If Americans really cared about the war in the Middle East, global warming and our enormous foreign trade deficit, than now is the time to stop buying new automobiles until they produce an alternative car to fossil fuel. This is a matter of simple economics (one of the few classes I dominated).

This simple action would put a huge dent in the three issues mentioned above. Americans currently use over 15 million barrels a day of crude oil, over 9 million is gasoline. Blame whatever Texan you like, but the reality is that this money will largely go to countries who hate us. If we all stood together and refused to purchase any new cars unless they ran on non-fossil fuel engines, we could make a real difference.

The phrase “bigger is better” does not just apply in the bedroom, it applies to American culture. Bigger homes, bigger meals, and bigger cars….so is the world really ready to downsize, travel less or make the effort to use alternative fuel? There are a lot of alternative fuel options, some vehicles use electric, others can run on water, hydrogen and even types of grass, but how accessible are these methods to the American public? How many people do you actually know who drive a car that runs on an alternative fuel method? Read More »