I'm not sure where you live, but where I live, the law specifically states that a person cannot be cited for DUI for being intoxicated on a bicycle. Section 61-8-401(3)(b), Montana Code Annotated says that for the purposes of the DUI statute, a bicycle is not a vehicle.

You could probably be cited for intoxicated pedestrian in the roadway, but that's a pretty minimal offense that just carries a small fine. If you hit a pedestrian on your bike while intoxicated, you could be charged with negligent or criminal endangerment which could have some pretty serious consequences.

I had a pretty similar experience during my first year at Harvard. I was absolutely miserable and isolated for a time. I wanted to transfer as well. So I understand what you are feeling, but I am going to tell you not to transfer. First year is soooo hard, but it does get better.

Next year, you'll be out of the yard and into your house. It sounds like the incessant first year dorm drama is a pretty big factor in you being unhappy. House life is a vast improvement. You won't be with all freshman anymore and that really helps to cut down on the drama.

One more piece of advice...be more careful about what classes you take. No more semesters with 17 papers! It can be avoided. During shopping period, really look at what the syllabus says is required. I refused to take any classes that required more than two papers or four total graded elements. Especially try to avoid classes with weekly response papers - totally worthless exercises that suck your time.

Last thing, have you considered playing rugby? It's a great group of women and it's a fabulous way to work out some stress.

I am a bit skeptical about all the letter writers claming that their evangelical brother/sister/mother just "loves Jews." Based on what I know about end-timers, they only "love" Jews because the Jews being in control of the Holy Land fulfills the biblical prophecy that means that their best friend ever, Jesus, is coming back to earth to swoop them all up into eternal bliss. So, I suggest some follow-up questions regarding their love for Jews:

When the Book of Revelations comes to life, what will happen to the Jews? Do they have to profess their belief in Jesus in order to receive eternal life? Or, will they go on being the chosen people without recognizing Jesus as the true messiah?

It seems to me that professing to love a faith while sweeping all the inconvenient aspects of that faith (like a non-belief in Jesus as the son of God) under the rug is a bit disingenous. Evangelicals assume that when the end of days comes, Jews will be so sorry they didn't believe in Jesus for the last two thousand years that they will immediately convert.

And, if individual evangelicals haven't thought these issues through, it's because they are simply accepting the garbage fed to them by the leaders of the evangelical movement. Pastor says "Jews are good - we should support Israel because that's what God wants." Evangelical says "Oh, I love Jews, I will support Israel, I will vote for George W. Bush because he supports Israel, too." Everybody wins! (oh, except for those of us who don't believe in any of this idiocy.)

Any pro-lifers out there care to explain what burning the Quran has to do with abortion?

The article quotes one of the protest's leaders as saying "We deal with all the issues we possibly can because they are different manifestations covering the same fist, the fist of the devil."

Huh?

I think this is just more proof that anti-choice advocates don't really want to "save the babies." What they want is a Christian-dominated country where a woman's worth is defined by her child-bearing.

I echo the previous poster who recommended the Rolling Stone article on Sam Brownback. It made my hair stand straight on end. Brownback makes it clear that his political goal is a Christian government.

I was similarly frightened when I read Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" a few years back. However, at least the Mormon fundies he describes are on the fringe of society. Sam Brownback is a Senator! The Rolling Stone article describes the weekly meetings that are held to discuss how Christian theology can be made into our governing law.

The poster who referred to "medieval times" is accurate. The Catholic Church held the people of the middle ages in a religious thrall. Now, some five hundred years after the Protestant reformation cracked the monolithic religion of Western civilization, a vast number of Americans seem to be under a similar thrall. Rather than address issues directly affecting them such as poverty or our declining environment, they focus on the approaching End Times. (I have a friend whose mother-in-law belongs to a church called the End Times Handmaidens!) Gay marriage and abortion are the defining political issues for this group. I don't know if I am qualified to say why this is, but I can speculate. Conditions in the United States at this moment are not that different from those that allowed the Catholic Church to control Europe for so long. There is a vast gap between the rich and the poor. The middle-class is declining. Public education systems are failing because they are not properly funded. Science is rejected in favor of God. People do not have faith in their government to help them cope with the harsh realities of life, so they turn to God instead.