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.

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!

Is Artie Lange in rehab?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

1. Scrabble Beta on Facebook

If you can restrain yourself from endless photo-browsing, log onto Facebook to play a spot of Scrabble. Excellent idea if you want to boost your vocabulary for an English paper.

2. Fill In A Blank Map

I just played this Middle Eastern map-labeling game myself (twice!) while writing this article. Do YOU know where Azerbaijan is?

3. Failblog.org

So many mistakes, so little time.

4. Dolphin Olympics

Equally as cute as it is badass, Dolphin Olympics is totally the new Mario Kart.

5. CollegeCandy

Uhh…duh?

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

The Rules:

Every time Sarah Palin:

- Mentions Russia: take a shot of Vodka

- Dances around an answer/rambles on about nonsense: chug your beer

- Mentions her children: take a drink

- Mentions hockey moms/being a hockey mom: put on some lipstick and drink

- Makes reference to the inexperience of Barack Obama: chug your beer

- Mentions doing everything we have to do to protect Democracy in the Middle East: punch your neighbor and drink their beer

- Changes the subject from something politically relevant and important to something about the Middle East or Oil: drink while chanting, “AMERICA IS #1!”

- Mentions the Bridge to Nowhere: scream, “Thanks but no thanks,” and take a shot of vodka. Then tell everyone you didn’t take a shot of vodka.

Every time Joe Biden:

- Mentions Scranton, PA: chug your beer

- Mentions taking the train home every night: drink

- Offers reasons why he can identify with the middle class: chug a PBR

- Says something really dumb that could potentially ruin his career: drink

- Backs off out of fear of looking like a villain who hates women: call him a pussy and sip a glass of red wine (with your pinky up).

- Mentions Sarah Palin’s lack of experience: drink

- Looks visibly pained by the sound of Palin’s voice: take 2 shots of Vodka (and consider a few Advil, too)

Every time either candidate:

- Mentions the current economic crisis/bailout plan: make it rain and chug some beer

- Mentions “Wall Street and Main Street”: chug a beer (PBR preferred)

- Cuts the other one off: drink twice

- Bashes George W. Bush: put on some music and dance

The debate is on at 9pm tonight, so pack up the books and gather round the tele. This is gonna be good.

For more political/drinking fun, join CollegeCandy’s Facebook group!

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?

Hybrids are gaining more attention but for a vehicle whose concept began in 1908, they are still not being bought at the rate that would drastically reduce the need for conventional fuels. At least hybrids are reasonably priced, as opposed to buying a car that runs on hydrogen. To buy a car that runs on hydrogen, it would cost $149,000 for a sports car, $99,995 for a pickup and $60,000 alone just to convert a Hummer, which already cost you a minimum of $80,000, to run on hydrogen. So you pay all this money, and still have to find one of the few hydrogen filling stations in the United States to keep it running. Seems like more trouble than it is worth, and more money than the average working class American could ever afford. This is the main reason why tuning out all of the new car commercials is so important. Less than a year ago, there was huge push for Hybrids, so people stopped buying regular mid-sized cars. In a matter of 3 months, the market was flooded with every brand and variety of Hybrid car. THAT is Economics. We buy only what we want. Alt fuel cars.

If the world is so concerned about the environment and fuel running out why aren’t there reasonably priced alternatives and why isn’t the information on these alternatives being communicated to the public. It is not that we are necessarily “addicted to oil,” but for most American’s it is our only option. Americans want things to be as easy as possible. Stopping at a gas station to fill up is very simple and it is what Americans know, but if we only gave them the option of using an environment friendly fuel alternative then they would adjust and go on with their lives because alternative fuels would become there only choice of getting from A to Z.

I am not one of those bullshit hippies asking you to burn your car and ride your bike to work. Just hold off on getting a new one. Join a large group of us who are insisting that this cycle needs to stop now. We’ve created an E-petition to be sent to Congress, to let them know that is it time to stop taking care of huge corporations and time to start taking care of all AMERICANS! Why not make an alternative fuel option more available, affordable and phase out the use of conventional fuel?

Can you tell me who the current secretary of state is? Or who the Defense Secretary is?

I bet not.

But I would place money on the fact that you could name me at least two celebrities who are pregnant, the latest color of Britney Spears’ wig or the name of the diet that Jessica Simpson is currently on.

We are pretty pathetic my friends. According to an article in the New York Times, today’s youth is not news savvy. We don’t watch the news like our parents did when they were our age because we have more than one TV in our homes. When our parents are watching about peace talks in the Middle East, we are watching Engaged and Underage or Entourage.

When our parents are reading the Times or USA Today, we are reading Us Weekly or In Style.

When our parents are surfing CNN.com or watching a clip of Barack Obama’s speech on YouTube we are perusing perezhilton.com or watching the clip of LiLo snorting cocaine.

In fact, in a recent survey, only 16% of 18-30 year olds said they read the newspaper on a daily basis.

Today’s current affairs really need our attention as what happens today will most certainly affect our futures (so cliché but true). With a political race starting, the threat of terrorism affecting us on a daily basis and the attempt of peace talks in the Middle East, it is time for us to focus less on the fact that Dina Lohan is getting her own show and more on the fact that we can do something to help global warming or find a way to get involved in the new political campaigns.

I love celeb gossip and fashion just as much as the next person (probably even more so) but after reading this article, I realized that while I can rattle off the latest fall fashions and celebrity news, I am pretty embarassed about my lack of knowledge of current national/world news and politics.

So let’s change that! Click on the links above, grab a latte and read up! Now you can impress your professor, your parents and even that cute guy in the bar. It is possible to know about both poltics and Paris.