“American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks proudly dons one. For now, so does teen pop star Miley Cyrus. Last year, a “South Park” episode crudely lampooned the Jonas Brothers, Disney’s favorite boy band, for wearing them. What are these teenybopper dingbats sporting on their left fingers, and why? Purity rings—21st century chastity belts for the Facebook generation: Easy to wear, much harder to live by.

These well-intentioned emblems worn mostly by adolescents are meant to symbolize chastity and the desire to remain a virgin until marriage. I have no problem with this. The issue is with abstinence-only programs that use these [read more...]

Let’s get one thing straight: kids are adorable and they aren’t known as “bundles of joy” for nothing. Sure, raising a child has its benefits and can be very fulfilling, but some people don’t realize that it’s a big responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Is it right to bring a child into a world that neither you nor your baby are prepared for?

A 2008 Time magazine article featured the story of 17 girls at Gloucester High School who were suspected of being a part of a pregnancy pact, vowing to get pregnant and raise their children together. Something [read more...]

When I was a child, I remember sitting in church one Sunday while the priest recognized a couple who were celebrating their 53rd wedding anniversary. The priest asked them if they had any advice for the younger couples there. The man replied that there are two important words that you need to learn: “Yes, dear.”

This “Yes, dear” concept worried me in high school. I was extremely concerned that the moment I committed myself to an exclusive relationship, I would be tied down: a classic case of the eagle with clipped wings.

Well, a lot has changed since then, and [read more...]

In our current socioeconomic situation, it is safe to say that many of us at City College are looking for an easy way to make a guaranteed dollar, if not a few thousand. But it is very important to consider your safety whenever you are introduced to a new “get rich quick” scheme.

Ever since the early 1980s, a viable option for women seeking short-term, financial gain has been the donation of their ovum, or “eggs.” In fact, some private parties offer donors as much as $30,000, although the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, or ASRM, believes that the reasonable [read more...]

Attention spans seem to be at an all time low, but love for life-changing records will never fade.

I would really hate to have to explain to my children or grandchildren what albums are (you know, a collection of songs on one format that you could buy at a place called a record store). I’ll already probably have to do that for newspapers.

Even now the idea of the album as one unit has started to fade. Services like iTunes and Amazon MP3, while great for independent musicians, have had a hand in shortening listeners’ attention spans.

I mean, remember [read more...]

The beginning of Tim Burton’s 2010 “Alice in Wonderland” opens up with Alice as a little girl waking up from a bad dream in which she is falling down a rabbit’s hole after being proposed to by a nasty rich boy who has been pre-picked for her.

In Disney’s original, 1951 version of “Alice in Wonderland”, the film opens with Alice sitting by a tree while her mother reads her a book. I think the beginning of Burton’s “Alice” keeps the watcher engaged by delving into Alice’s personal life more.

Tim Burton’s recreation of “Alice in Wonderland,” is a smashing [read more...]

Yes, you’ve picked up the Express 420 issue. Not only is marijuana a hot topic in politics and on college campuses throughout the country, today is also known as a worldwide counterculture holiday, referred to as 420. On 420, many marijuana friendly folks celebrate with friends by lighting up copious amounts of cannabis.

For example, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, a huge mushroom cloud of cannabis smoke can be seen hovering over thousands of participants at 4:20 p.m. as police watch and patrol through the haze.

Therefore, as a college publication,the Express felt readers might be interested in [read more...]

Laws should reflect the morals of the people they govern, that is the democratic way. The efficacy of the democratic way is, however, up for debate…

In a world in which the food supply is full of growth hormones and pesticides, the water supply is full of fluoride, and the most common form of medicine comes from factories that mix powerful, mind/body-altering chemicals into pills.

Historians remember prohibition of alcohol as a social experiment gone awry. From 1917 to 1933, the law that was intended to clean up the streets and improve society actually made things worse. Crime rates and prison populations rose in a tsunami-like fashion: quick and damaging. The same war is being waged today; except it’s marijuana that people claim is making society a mess. Since prohibition of alcohol didn’t work in the first place, what makes people think it’ll work for marijuana? As the common saying goes: History tends to repeat itself.

During Prohibition, the crime rate in 30 U.S. cities [read more...]