E-mail warns of date-rape drug
Women need to be aware of surroundings, even on ‘safe campus’

E-mail forwards are a modern phenomenon we all endure daily. Usually they form a clutter in your Inbox — a mess you’d rather delete than sort through. Other times you laugh at them and, every once in awhile, one will come to warn you of dangers in the world. These educational forwards take you by surprise because you know they hold relevance in your life and the lives of your friends.

I received such an e-mail this week, and it addressed the dangers of a new date-rape drug that is supposedly appearing on college campuses around the United States.

The drug is called Progesterex and is being used for the same purpose as Rohypnol. Specifically, both drugs act to knock out a victim and erase memory of the rape’s occurrence. However, Progesterex, which is used to sterilize animals, acts to prevent pregnancy in the victim by permanently sterilizing her as well.

The e-mail warned that the pill, which dissolves in liquid, leaves no detectable taste that would warn one of its presence; by the time you realize what’s happened, the act has already occurred and your life has entirely changed.

My first reaction whenever I hear about date-rape drugs is horrified disgust. What kind of human being could inflict that upon another person?

I can’t fathom what urges someone to violate another, much less add the pain of never being able to conceive later in life when children are desirable. It nauseates me to think that some men derive sadistic pleasure by causing or even witnessing such pain. Yet I know that in this world it does happen, even on “safe” campuses.
Considering I gained this information from an e-mail forward, I don’t know how accurate it is. I do not know if Progesterex is readily available for common use. Yet the forward did remind me of how dangerous it is to be lulled into a false sense of security on campus.

Every week we all go to parties and other gatherings that have the potential to make us susceptible to certain dangers, yet we hardly think about what could happen.

How often do we actually suspect that someone we know is capable of committing such an evil act as rape against us or someone else we know? Because we rarely hear about it happening here, and because we feel so safe at our school, we forget that deviants exist.

For this reason, I want to remind all the women at TCU to be aware of their surroundings. Be careful of who has had contact with your drink. And if you have left your glass sitting somewhere, don’t take up that drink again.

At parties where I wander with my drink, I always hold cups with my hand over the top, or hold bottles with my finger blocking the opening in order to prohibit anything from getting into the liquid; it is a habit I picked up over time, and one that I highly recommend as an extra measure of security.

TCU is a relatively safe campus, but there will always be untrustworthy people regardless of where you go.

Miranda Nesler is a freshman English major from Houston.
She can be reached at (m.g.nesler@student.tcu.edu).

Good news, guys … In case anyone was worried, Britney Spears is still a virgin. That’s right. She confirmed it in a recent interview with the British tabloid, the London Daily Star.

“The virginity issue is a personal decision and it reflects how I feel right now about myself,” she told the limey rag. “There are so many emotions involved that I would like to be able to wait until I know I’m with the right person and I’m married.”

Most of my friends have been celebrating ever since the news came out. I mean, I haven’t seen a happier bunch of guys since Britney officially turned 18.

So coy, Ms. Spears, so coy. Notice the subtlety with which she perpetuated the hopes, and sometimes dreams, of a generation of men.

Though she did mention that she’s planning to take a trip down the aisle before she takes a roll in the sack, she prefaced that condition with a primary focus on being with “the right person” and stressed that this was how she felt “right now.” Basically she’s let everyone of the male persuasion know that we’ve all still got a chance and that we might even be able to corrupt her precious little innocence!

We all know that human Q-Tip Justin Timberlake is not the one for her. Now we’ve received sure confirmation that any one of us might get to be the one to replace the runtish little dancing machine.

OK, so, she also recently told Elle magazine that “When you’re really comfortable with someone you love, the silence is the best. And that’s how me and J. are.”

She’s clearly playing hard to get. Doesn’t it just make you love her more?

Girls, this is good news for all of you, too. Think of it, every guy on this planet is going to be trying his best to become the one that Britney will want, and that’s got to have some sort of positive effect on the way you all get treated. Imagine being able to one day be the girl that gets to say, “I was dumped for Britney Spears!”

Younger girls, also, are going to benefit from Britney’s shining example of the virtuous life. Does it matter that her claims of virginity are often in conflict with her tiny outfits, her sexual choreography and her breasts’ incredible commodity-like status? Certainly not!

Who needs “actions speak louder than words” when we’ve got the London Daily Star to get to the real heart of the issue?

Britney, please, it’s time to leave the kiddie-pop stuff behind. Sure your crossover appeal defies logic … it’s the most successful hypocrisy since trickle-down economics. But the fact of the matter is, it’s time to grow up and realize that we delusional men can offer more long-term potential for your career.

I know young girls like you, hell, they love you. The sad fact is that little girls grow up and, as Old Maid-hood approaches, are more likely to see you as a rival or, at least, a stumbling block to their finding a man.

We men, on the other hand, are stupidly horny, but we won’t tolerate the teasing forever. We love your generosity with the cleavage, but if you could dump the singing, dancing eunuch and start a satisfyingly aerobic expedition through some of the best-known beds of Hollywood, we’ll hang on your every fling forever, and that means album sales, album sales, album sales, no matter how much we loathe the tunes.

When you finally do get older and find that the ol’ body doesn’t look quite as good in the tube-top and Daisy Dukes anymore, you can pull a Madonna, settle down, have a kid and win back all the girls, who you’re certain to find “loved you all along” and will buy up all your old albums en masse, meaning, you guessed it: Bling, Bling. By the time your business model begins to trend towards Barbra Streisand’s, you’ll be so rich that it won’t matter if you can sell out Carnegie Hall or not.

Face the facts, Brit, the market is growing ever more segmented, and you can’t please everybody all the time for long. It’s time to develop a long term strategy for how you’re going to keep this gravy train rolling.
Do it, Britney. You can’t be a virgin queen forever … it just doesn’t sell.

Daniel Bramlette is a senior radio-TV-film major from Ogden, Utah.
Hit him, baby, one more time at (dcbramlette@yahoo.com).

After the Republican National Convention in 1976, polls showed Gerald Ford trailing Jimmy Carter by as much as 25 points. Yet 11 weeks later, he ultimately lost only 51-49 in popular-vote percentages.

The fluctuations in polls for the current presidential race have occurred over an even shorter time span. In the six national polls released Tuesday night, the degree of the fluctuations was evident.

The Newsweek poll showed Gov. George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore 49-41. The ABC News tracking poll, on the other hand, showed Bush leading only 47-46.

A study done by Gerald Wasserman, of the Purdue University psychology department, said poll fluctuations are mostly artifacts which have been produced by poor telephone polling techniques. He said most of the Gallup polls are compiled within a two- or three-day period.

Unfortunately, polls can show a particular candidate as being “out of the running,” and that can cause people not to vote, believing their ballot to be wasted.

Jesse Ventura, Minnesota’s governor, recently noted this belief as an American tendency. To help counteract that notion, he wrote “Vote Your Heart and Your Conscience and You May Be Surprised What Happens,” an online essay about how he won the 1998 election as an independent candidate.

“And remember, there are no wasted votes,” Ventura said in his essay. “Also remember what they said in Minnesota during my election: ‘A vote for Jesse Ventura is a wasted vote.’ Well, I wasted the Democrats and Republicans with wasted votes.”

Ford made up 23 percentage points in 11 weeks. Bush and Gore are separated by less than 1 percent in some polls with less than one week until Election Day.

In a presidential race as close as the current one, the polls shouldn’t affect how people vote. The people’s minds should affect how they vote.