LOL

**I'm editing this post to delete half the stuff I said because really why do I need to explain myself to a bunch of internet-goers who I don't even know? However, I will keep my summary of why I posted part of what I posted for a few people.**
The post about DMT was largely posted because during periods of intense meditation the pineal gland can sometimes (if you're really trained in meditation or know what you're doing) produce higher levels of DMT and also because it has a little bit to do with shamanistic practices in the Northeast region of Brazil. To all the naysayers out there, those who posted stuff like "drugz r bad", I don't really look at things that are either produced naturally in the human body or things that naturally grow on this planet as drugs. Crack, meth, ecstasy, and heroin to a lesser extent I would consider drugs (even though endorphins are produced naturally and endorphins are opiates just like heroin.) Would I ever do any of this stuff? Not likely, but that doesn't mean I believed every lie I was told in DARE class. "It's not a war on drugs, people; it's a war on personal freedom." True genius right there.
**Here is something I also had below the news article but I wanted to move it so people would actually read it instead of ignoring it since they also ignored the news article.**
Also for some people who asked some intelligent questions about my last post instead of taking it so seriously, I took those pictures using an 8 second shutter speed with all the lights turned out and two candles. Not very difficult and I could have done a much better job had I had more time and battery space. "More time?" you ask? Yes, more time. Largely what I did last night was because I was bored, it was cloudy and as such nothing to see, and I have a presentation on May 22nd I'm working on. So don't get your undies in a twist.
Also, Mariangelica, Candace, Mica, and some other students are coming down to Curitiba soon, as is Dr. Anderson, so I will definitely have some more pictures to post soon so you'll all have something to look at instead of having to read.
Anyway this is the last post that I'll throw in a full article or something that I didn't write. I'll still throw in my little comments every now and then like I usually do, but I'll try to leave it for more Brazil oriented stuff.
**So that's that and that's all there is to it. Below is what I would deem to be the important part of this post. It should actually be at the top of this post and what's above shouldn't even be there at all, but regardless, here it is.**
Anyway, whatever I just wanted to get that out of the way. Everyone should look up an article published in the Boston Globe about an adjunct professor at Boston College regarding his resignation because of a certain commencement invitation. Very exciting for all of us who enjoy freedom and civil liberties, stuff of that nature. I would copy and paste here but I don't wanna...
actually, I'll do it anyway. I have been trying to keep this blog free of opinions and political stuff but you know... it is my blog. Don't come here if you don't wanna read it.
An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.
Dear Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so - after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret - as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.

Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.

But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.

She has lied to the American people knowingly, repeatedly, often extravagantly over the past five years, in an effort to justify a pathologically misguided foreign policy.

The public record of her deceits is extensive. During the ramp-up to the Iraq war, she made 29 false or misleading public statements concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda, according to a congressional investigation by the House Committee on Government Reform.

To cite one example:

In an effort to build the case for war, then-National Security Adviser Rice repeatedly asserted that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear weapon, and specifically seeking uranium in Africa.

In July of 2003, after these claims were disproved, Rice said: "Now if there were doubts about the underlying intelligence . . . those doubts were not communicated to the president, the vice president, or to me."

Rice's own deputy, Stephen Hadley, later admitted that the CIA had sent her a memo eight months earlier warning against the use of this claim.

In the three years since the war began, Rice has continued to misrepresent or simply ignore the truth about our deadly adventure in Iraq.

Like the president whom she serves so faithfully, she refuses to recognize her errors or the tragic consequences of those errors to the young soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq. She is a diplomat whose central allegiance is not to the democratic cause of this nation, but absolute power.

This is the woman to whom you will be bestowing an honorary degree, along with the privilege of addressing the graduating class of 2006.

It is this last notion I find most reprehensible: that Boston College would entrust to Rice the role of moral exemplar.

To be clear: I am not questioning her intellectual gifts or academic accomplishments. Nor her potentially inspiring role as a powerful woman of color.

But these are not the factors by which a commencement speaker should be judged. It is the content of one's character that matters here - the reverence for truth and knowledge that Boston College purports to champion.

Rice does not personify these values; she repudiates them. Whatever inspiring rhetoric she might present to the graduating class, her actions as a citizen and politician tell a different story.

Honestly, Father Leahy, what lessons do you expect her to impart to impressionable seniors?

That hard work in the corporate sector might gain them a spot on the board of Chevron? That they, too, might someday have an oil tanker named after them? That it is acceptable to lie to the American people for political gain?

Given the widespread objection to inviting Rice, I would like to think you will rescind the offer. But that is clearly not going to happen.

Like the administration in Washington, you appear too proud to admit to your mistake. Instead, you will mouth a bunch of platitudes, all of which boil down to: You don't want to lose face.

In this sense, you leave me no choice.

I cannot, in good conscience, exhort my students to pursue truth and knowledge, then collect a paycheck from an institution that displays such flagrant disregard for both.

I would like to apologize to my students and prospective students. I would also urge them to investigate the words and actions of Rice, and to exercise their own First Amendment rights at her speech.