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Sources:

Time Magazine August 30, 2010

Clinical and Experimental Research November 2010; 34(11): 1-11

Medical Hypothesis March 2010; 74(3):493-6

SweetPoison.com -- Medical Hypothesis November 6, 2009 Prepublication copy (Full PDF)

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

This is not the first time we’ve been told that drinking alcohol is actually good for you. What’s surprising however, not to mentionpotentially troublesome, are the scientific claims that moderate andeven heavy drinking is beneficial – in this case, more beneficial for your longevity than abstaining from alcohol entirely!

It’s difficult to reconcile this claim with everything we already know about the devastating health effects of excessive alcoholconsumption and the fact that ethyl alcohol is neurotoxic..

However, I will offer one potential explanation for this oxymoron a bit later in this article.

Moderate Drinkers Live Longer than Non-Drinkers, Study Finds

According to the recent study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Research, epidemiological research suggests that moderate to high alcohol consumption is associated with areduced overall mortality risk compared to non- and light drinkers.

Their study included over 1,800 people, aged 55 to 65 when the study began. Sixty-nine percent of the participants were men. The subjectswere followed for 20 years.

Surprisingly, the group with the lowest mortality rate was moderate drinkers, who had one to three alcoholic drinks per day, followed by heavy drinkers, and then light drinkers, while non-drinkers had the highest mortality rate of them all.

The study states:

“Controlling only for age and gender, compared to moderate drinkers, abstainers had a more than 2 times increased mortality risk,heavy drinkers had 70% increased risk, and light drinkers had 23%increased risk.

A model controlling for former problem drinking status, existing health problems, and key sociodemographic and social-behavioral factors,as well as for age and gender, substantially reduced the mortalityeffect for abstainers compared to moderate drinkers.

However, even after adjusting for all covariates, abstainers and heavy drinkers continued to show increased mortality risks of 51 and45%, respectively, compared to moderate drinkers.”

Time Magazine writes that “moderate alcohol use (especially when the beverage of choice isred wine) is thought to improve heart health, circulation andsociability.”

But is that enough to explain these findings?

I believe it’s unwise to ignore the big picture when it comes to health, and when it comes to alcohol, I’m just not convinced that thepotential benefits outweigh all the risks, particularly when it comes tohaving multiple drinks per day.

So I hope these latest findings will not be used as justification to further promote a dangerous and health-damaging habit that can easilylead to alcoholism.

The Health Hazards of Alcohol

Before we get into the potential benefits, it’s important to realize that alcohol is a neurotoxin that can poison your brain. It can alsodisrupt your hormonal balance, which could potentially explain why womendo not appear to reap the same health benefits from alcohol consumptionas men do.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, “moderate” consumption for women is just one drink per day, whereas“moderate” consumption for men is two drinks. Hence, women who consumetwo to three drinks a day will actually fall into the category of“heavy” drinkers.

Another important consideration is that wine or other alcoholic beverages will increase your insulin levels, which will eventually have a negative impact on your health. As I’ve stated on many previous occasions, insulin resistance is a hallmark of nearly every chronic disease there is.

Heavy drinkers also face increased risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cirrhosis of the liver.

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, women who drink two or more drinks a day increase their risk of breast cancer by more than 40 percent!

Other types of cancer linked to excessive alcohol consumption include cancer of the:

• Mouth, larynx and esophagus
• Liver
• Colon
• Pancreas
• Lungs

Alcohol consumption also inhibits your body’s natural stress response by reducing a key stress hormone, known as corticotropin-releasingfactor (CRF). CRF is produced by your hypothalamus and helps triggeryour body's reaction to stress.

If your stress response is impaired, your immune system will also be inhibited, which can have any number of health implications, from reducing your ability to fight infections to increasing your cancer risk.

Alcohol also clearly needs to be avoided during pregnancy.

Beyond Resveratrol – Explaining the Health Benefits of Alcohol

One of the most widely accepted health benefits of alcohol comes from resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine, which acts as a:

• Cancer-preventing agent
• Blood thinner
• Vaso-expanding agent
• Blood pressure lowering compound
• Anti-aging chemical

But resveratrol cannot explain the health benefits ascribed to the moderate consumption of other types of alcohol (ethanol).

Interestingly, research into ethanol’s impact on dietary methanol may offer clues that could potentially rival the late breaking science into fructose and its devastating impact on health.

One possible explanation for why mortality rates are higher for non-drinkers may be that low levels of ethanol (alcohol) in yourbloodstream helps prevent the formation of formaldehyde from dietarymethanol. (In fact, ethanol is used as the preferred antidote foraccidental methanol poisoning in an emergency for this reason.)

What is dietary methanol and how could this possibly have ANY significance?

New Concern in Your Food: Wood Alcohol (Methanol)

Fresh fruits and vegetables contain small amounts of naturally-occurring methanol, and the artificial sweetener aspartameconverts into methanol in your body.

Normally this is not a problem as the methanol is typically bound to pectin, and since your body has no enzyme to metabolize that bond it issimply excreted in your stool and none of the methanol is absorbed intoyour body.

However, the problem occurs when you can or bottle fruit- or vegetable juice, as the methanol tends to then dissociate from thepectin into free methanol, which you do absorb.

The methanol you absorb readily passes the blood brain barrier where it can be converted to form formaldehyde, which is a potent toxin thatactually causes most of the damage.

Why Ethanol May Protect You From Methanol

An exciting paper that delves into this topic is food scientist Woody Monte’s “Methanol: A chemical Trojan horse as the root of the inscrutable U,” published in the March, 2010 issue of Medical Hypotheses.

In it, he explains that:

“Very low levels of ethanol in your bloodstream would substantively prevent all formaldehyde production from dietary methanolanywhere in the body.

Protection from formaldehyde production may account for the yet unexplained dose region of apparent improvement in the U-shapedcurve of alcohol consumption.

Epidemiologic studies show moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with a reduced risk of myocardial infarction, dementia,lupus, and other diseases of civilization.

Low doses of ethanol appear to provide a preventative measure against the causes of diseases of civilization.

Recent studies of individuals who consumed at least one alcoholic drink per day show subjects had an additional 86 percent reduction inrisk of myocardial infarction if they were genetically endowed with agenotype of ADH I that was 2.5 times slower to metabolize ethanol thanthe control.

These findings were ‘‘consistent with the hypothesis that a slower rate of clearance of alcohol enhances the beneficial effect ofmoderate alcohol consumption on the risk of cardiovascular disease.””

It is important to understand that the primary treatment for methanol poisoning in the emergency room is to give them ethanol, for thereasons described above.

The ethanol will preferentially be broken down before the methanol. The methanol then remains unmetabolized, and in its base form it isrelatively nontoxic. It’s becomes a problem when your body breaks itdown to formaldehyde.

So while your body is breaking down the ethanol it has enough time to breathe out the methanol unchanged in your lungs and excrete itunchanged in your urine.

A Little Alcohol Might Be Good, But More is Definitely Dangerous

As I mentioned earlier, if this theory is correct, it could rival the scientific findings on fructose in terms of importance, and couldexplain not only the health benefits of low-to moderate alcoholconsumption, but also how aspartame affects some people more negativelythan others.

It may still be too early to draw definitive conclusions, but the arguments are compelling and I’ll be following this line of researchwith great interest in the years to come.

In his paper, Dr. Monte continues to connect the dots and shows how greater alcohol consumption ceases to be beneficial at a certain point, and instead starts to take its toll on your health:

“A compelling explanation of the dose region of adverse effects of the U-shaped curve with high ethanol consumption, which shows increased risk of these same diseases, could be themechanism by which humans habituate to high consumption of ethanol.

The induction of the P450 hepatic microsomal ethanol-oxidizing system results in a considerably higher clearance rate of ethanol fromthe bloodstream for an extended period of time, thus accounting for moreconsumption leading to statistically less time of protection.

Small amounts of supplemental alcohol not sufficient to induce P450 might be expected to prolong the residence time and avoid gaps inthe protection afforded by ethanol in preventing methanol-placedformaldehyde. “

P450 is a class, or family, of liver enzymes whose main functions include catalyzing the metabolism of drugs and the oxidation of organicsubstances.

In simplistic terms, higher alcohol consumption sends this system into high gear, and starts clearing ethanol from your system.

Again, a simplified explanation for how you become a habitual drinker (which also tends to lead to drinking increasing amounts of alcohol) isthat the more you drink, the more efficient this ethanol-clearingsystem becomes, and you begin to be able to drink more before you noticethe effects of the alcohol.

What this all means is that in order for the alcohol to provide you with the health benefit of preventing formaldehyde formation, it must below enough to not activate the P450 system.

Hence you get a U-shaped curve, where low- to moderate alcohol consumption gives you increasing amounts of health benefits, until youreach the “threshold,” at which point the more you drink, the more harmit causes.

It’s important to realize that formaldehyde is a class 1 carcinogen and a mutagen, and in the form of methanol, it can easily be transportedthroughout your entire body and brain.

Wherever you have a lot of ADH1 (the enzyme metabolizes methanol to formaldehyde), such as in your brain, methanol can be particularlytroublesome.

But as long as there’s just enough ethanol in your system to keep the methanol moving along, without ever being metabolized to formaldehyde,no damage is caused.

It’s worth noting here also that the average person typically has some naturally-occurring ethanol in their system, as it is also created through the fermentation process in your gut.

However, the addition of small amounts of ethanol in the form of alcohol may be able to more fully prevent formaldehyde from forming,which could explain why low- to moderate alcohol consumption appears tobe even more healthful than total abstinence…

How Can You Get the Same Benefits Without Drinking Alcohol?

It is not my recommendation to start drinking alcohol or to use this information as a justification to continue drinking alcohol. I am notconvinced it is physiologically beneficial for you in the long run.

The purpose of running this article was to merely inform you of a recent appreciation of methanol toxicity, and how ethanol can interactwith it. If this theory is true then the primary benefit of usingethanol would be to prevent methanol from converting to formaldehyde.

So what is the main source of methanol in your diet?

Remember that fresh fruits and vegetables have it but it’s harmless if you eat them fresh, as the methanol is then bound to pectin andcannot dissociate and cause you harm.

They key is to avoid ALL canned (or bottled) fruit or vegetable juices as they will have free methanol. Another large source of freemethanol would be aspartame which is 11 percent methanol by weight.

So if this theory is correct, you would likely receive very little benefit from consuming ethanol if you just avoid canned fruits andvegetables and asparatame….....

Do You Drink Too Much?

It’s dangerous to place too much weight on recommendations that include imbibing alcohol on a regular basis. And even if you do takethat recommendations to heart, it’s important to remember that healthbenefits have ONLY been found in people who drink small amounts ofalcohol on a daily basis, NOT a week’s worth of alcohol over theweekend...

This fact also further strengthens the theory that the benefit is derived from having low amounts of ethanol circulating almostcontinuously, or at least regularly, through your system, keepingformaldehyde from forming and doing any damage.

Unfortunately, alcohol abuse is a major problem in most countries, so I certainly hope you will not use this information as an excuse to hitthe bottle every day.

Most alcohol misuse and abuse stems from deep emotional challenges. Addressing these issues at a deep level is imperative to avoid thenegative health consequences--both physical and mental--that inevitablyresult from excessive drinking.

The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be helpful if this is an issue for you. This psychologicalacupressure technique is routinely used in my clinic and it works betterthan any other traditional or alternative method I am currently awareof.

However, if you try the technique yourself and find that you are not improving, consider consulting a trained EFT therapist to facilitate theprocess. You can find a list of qualified EFT practitioners near you atthis link. For more information, feel free to review Pat Carrington’s site TappingCentral.

Dear people get up in the morning grumbling do not understand what a difficult is routine, a basic attempt to to move forward in life, want to go to another country, to see another culture and it is very natural, I say that not all wat's shin is gold, the neighbor's grass is not always more beautiful, God Bless Nigeria with a beautiful country, with a fertile soil, trees, sea, oil, gold, minerals and much much best kind of human material North, South, West and East all pretty good pouple and they want the best i have one prayer to God Nigeria will find the largest most precious ore Mutual respect Yes to encourage each other to understand each other and give each other love then I believe nigeria will be a nation perched high above the rest like the Tower of Light !

so i wish you all peace love and understanding !!!

THIS seems to be the month of spies. Almost daily, the air waves are taken over by their stories. A couple has just been convicted in America for being Cuban spies; a Russian spy ring smashed; it is like the spy diet is inexhaustible.

Like a kid attracted to toys, I find the world of spies quite fascinating. Except that it can be quite deadly, leading to horrendous loss of lives, spying is basically a game; almost like the hide -and -seek children play.

There is the case of the Iranian ‘nuclear’ scientist, Sharam Amiri who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and disappeared. The Iranians accused the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the kidnap.

Now 14 months later, Amiri resurfaces making claims that the CIA with Saudi Arabian connivance had kidnapped and tortured him before his release in the US.

He received a hero’s welcome in Tehran. On the other hand, the Americans claim that Amiri had willingly sought political asylum, had a nice stay in America before changing his mind and asking that he be allowed to return home.

Who is lying? That is almost impossible to say; the Americans are notorious for kidnapping innocent people across the world and dumping them elsewhere.

They call it extra- ordinary rendition. But why go to such lengths with a “regular” Iranian scientist who does not appear to be involved in his country’s nuclear programme? Perhaps it over-valued Amiri.

The American story of Amiri seeking asylum is not implausible. Back in 1985, Vitaly Yurchenko, a brilliant Soviet spy defected to America. He exposed some Soviet spies like Ronald W Pelton and Edward Lee Howard, a CIA official who had given the Soviets a list of American spies in Moscow..

The spies had been rounded up and mainly executed. When the Americans went for Howard, he escaped and resurfaced in Moscow. Inexplicably, Yurchenko three months later decided to return to Moscow.

He grinned as he waved America goodbye. If he genuinely defected and exposed Soviet spies, why would he happily return to Moscow where he would certainly be executed? We may never know; nothing in the spy world is certain.

There are also the ongoing attempts at the United Nations to sanction North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship, the Cheonan in which 40 sailors died.

The former protested its innocence claiming that the crime was committed by the CIA which wants the world to punish it. North Korea is a supremely confident country known for owning up to its actions, so if it denies attacking the ship, it is likely to be so.

On the other hand, the Americans are known to play such dirty tricks. For instance when it needed an excuse to invade Vietnam, the US attacked its own ship, blamed it on the Vietnamese and on that pretext, declared war on Vietnam.

The world has just been treated to an opera by the Russians and the Americans. It began with America rounding up 10 Russian spies and rushing them to court. They included a couple, Mikhail Kutzik who lived under the name, Michael Zotolli, and Natalia Pereverzeva, better known as Patricia Mills.

One of the spies, Juan Lazaro readily admitted his crime while two others, Peruvian-born journalist, Vicky Pelaez and travel agent, Mr Semenko joined the others in court. An 11th suspect, Christopher Metsos who was arrested in Cyprus was granted bail there and promptly disappeared.

The American public brazed itself for a case that had all the trappings of an Hollywood movie. But while the trial was being staged in the courts, American Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Williams Burns was locked in negotiations with the Russian Ambassador in Washington, Sergei Kislyak which were to render the court process a farce.

The next stage was the airport in Vienna where the Americans had brought the 10 Russian spies in exchange for four Russians convicted for being American and British spies.

Igor Sutyagin, a Russian arms control expert was detained in October 1995 and convicted in 2004 for passing classified information to America through a front British company. Sergei Skripal a colonel in the Russian military intelligence was recruited by British intelligence in 1995 and arrested nine years later.

Alexander Zaporozhsky a former deputy chief at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) began spying for the Americans in 1994 and was jailed in 2003. Gennady Vasilenko’s case has not been made open, nevertheless all four were pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev and swapped with the Americans.

Except for the hype, this is a routine spy game. One of the most famous spy exchanges involved Francis Gary Powers, pilot of the US U-2 spy plane shot down near Sverdlovsk, central Soviet Union on May 1, 1960.

He was exchanged on February 10, 1962 with Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, director of a Soviet spy ring in United States who had been arrested in 1957.One of the largest exchanges involved 29 American, Soviet and polish spies on June 11, 1985.

Some of the high profile CIA agents in history are King Ibn Talal Hussein of Jordan who was known as Agent Norman. He spied for the CIA for 20 years before his exposure in 1977.

The other was Bashir Gemayel who was elected Lebanese president in 1982 but was killed in a bomb explosion on September 14, 1982, nine days before he was to assume office. I liked CIA agent Philip Agee whose books such as Inside The Company: CIA Diary fired my interest in spies while my favourite spy is the KGB’s Kim Philby who led the famous “Cambridge Spies” which included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Philby, perhaps the most successful spy in history penetrated at the highest levels, British intelligence and the CIA. He was so convincing that after he was fingered, the British government went before parliament to vouch for his innocence!

Whatever the drama being enacted today over spy rings and swaps, the fact is that spying is a profession being practiced every second; even friendly countries spy on themselves.

"I'm spiritual but not religious."

A Tree and Its Fruit

15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

It's a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don't need organized religion to live a life of faith.

But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism.

"Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"

Religious debates erupt over everything from doctrine to fashion. Martin has jumped into a running debate over the "I'm spiritual but not religious" phrase.Photo:Being "spiritual but not religious" means you do not need a church or a community, some say. A beach will do.

The "I'm spiritual but not religious" community is growing so much that one pastor compared it to a movement. In a 2009 survey by the research firm LifeWay Christian Resources, 72 percent of millennials (18- to 29-year-olds) said they're "more spiritual than religious." The phrase is now so commonplace that it's spawned its own acronym ("I'm SBNR") and Facebook page: SBNR.org.

But what exactly does being "spiritual but not religious" mean, and could there be hidden dangers in living such a life?

Did you choose "Burger King Spirituality"?

Heather Cariou, a New York City-based author who calls herself spiritual instead of religious, doesn't think so. She's adopted a spirituality that blends Buddhism, Judaism and other beliefs.

"I don't need to define myself to any community by putting myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim," she says. "When I die, I believe all my accounting will be done to God, and that when I enter the eternal realm, I will not walk though a door with a label on it."

People seem not to have the time nor the energy or interest to delve deeply into any one faith or religious tradition.

--June-Ann Greeley, theology professor

RELATED TOPICS

Religion

The Roman Catholic Church

BJ Gallagher, a Huffington Post blogger who writes about spirituality, says she's SBNR because organized religion inevitably degenerates into tussles over power, ego and money.

Gallagher tells a parable to illustrate her point:

"God and the devil were walking down a path one day when God spotted something sparkling by the side of the path. He picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand.

"Ah, Truth," he said.

"Here, give it to me," the devil said. "I'll organize it."

Gallagher says there's nothing wrong with people blending insights from different faith traditions to create what she calls a "Burger King Spirituality -- have it your way."

She disputes the notion that spiritual people shun being accountable to a community.

"Twelve-step people have a brilliant spiritual community that avoids all the pitfalls of organized religion," says Gallagher, author of "The Best Way Out is Always Through."

"Each recovering addict has a 'god of our own understanding,' and there are no priests or intermediaries between you and your god. It's a spiritual community that works.''

Nazli Ekim, who works in public relations in New York City, says calling herself spiritual instead of religious is her way of taking responsibility for herself.

Ekim was born in a Muslim family and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. She prayed to Allah every night, until she was 13 and had to take religion classes in high school.Then one day, she says she had to take charge of her own beliefs.

"I had this revelation that I bow to no one, and I've been spiritually a much happier person," says Ekim, who describers herself now as a Taoist, a religious practice from ancient China that emphasizes the unity of humanity and the universe.

"I make my own mistakes and take responsibility for them. I've lied, cheated, hurt people -- sometimes on purpose. Did I ever think I will burn in hell for all eternity? I didn't. Did I feel bad and made up for my mistakes? I certainly did, but not out of fear of God."

Going on a spiritual walkabout

The debate over being spiritual rather than religious is not just about semantics. It's about survival.

Numerous surveys show the number of Americans who do not identify themselves as religious has been increasing and likely will continue to grow.

A 2008 survey conducted by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, dubbed these Americans who don't identify with any religion as "Nones."

"I don't need to define myself in a box labeled Baptist, or Catholic, or Muslim."

--Heather Cariou, a spiritual but not religious seeker

Seminaries, churches, mosques and other institutions will struggle for survival if they don't somehow convince future generations that being religious isn't so bad after all, religion scholars warn.

Jennifer Walters, dean of religious life at Smith College in Massachusetts, says there's a lot of good in old-time religion.

Religious communities excel at caring for members in difficult times, encouraging members to serve others and teaching religious practices that have been tested and wrestled with for centuries, Walters says.

"Hymn-singing, forms of prayer and worship, teachings about social justice and forgiveness -- all these things are valuable elements of religious wisdom," Walters says. "Piecing it together by yourself can be done, but with great difficulty."

Being a spiritual Lone Ranger fits the tenor of our times, says June-Ann Greeley, a theology and philosophy professor.

"Religion demands that we accord to human existence some absolutes and eternal truths, and in a post-modern culture, that becomes all but impossible," says Greeley, who teaches at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

It's much easier for "spiritual" people to go on "spiritual walkabouts," Greeley says.

"People seem not to have the time nor the energy or interest to delve deeply into any one faith or religious tradition," Greeley says. "So they move through, collecting ideas and practices and tenets that most appeal to the self, but making no connections to groups or communities."

Being spiritual instead of religious may sound sophisticated, but the choice may ultimately come down to pettiness, says Martin, the Jesuit priest, who writes about the phrase in his book, "The Jesuit Guide to (Almost Everything)."

"Religion is hard," he says. "Sometimes it's just too much work. People don't feel like it. I have better things to do with my time. It's plain old laziness."

For only $1,900 a month, you can rent an apartment President Obama lived in during his years at Columbia University.

The apartment itself is shabby, a one-bedroom, third-floor walk-up. And while living there is unlikely to shed any light on the issue, it’s interesting that so little is known about that era of Obama’s life.

Obama spent two years Occidental College in Los Angeles, transferring to Columbia University in New York City in 1981 and graduating two years later. Little is known about Obama’s time at Occidental, but even less is known about his time at Columbia.

The president did not release his transcripts from either school during his campaign for the presidency, as John McCain, John Kerry, George W. Bush and Al Gore did. Occidental and Columbia have said they are prevented by federal law from releasing the transcripts.

Obama’s thesis on nuclear disarmament, on which he spent a year at Columbia, has apparently been lost. Obama says he doesn’t have a copy and his professor at the time thinks he lost it when he moved a few years ago.

Obama barely mentions his years at Columbia in his two autobiographies. He has said he didn’t know many people at Columbia and that he spent most of his time in the library reading, “like a monk.” Indeed, Fox News contacted 400 of Obama’s former classmates – no one remembered him.

Some of Obama’s Columbia classmates have since come forward, saying they remembered Obama there. Both schools have confirmed Obama was their student.

Columbia is where Obama “stopped getting high,” he wrote, which his old roommate verified to reporters.

To the New York Times, Obama “declined repeated requests to talk about his New York years, release his Columbia transcript or identify even a single fellow student, co-worker, roommate or friend from those years.” A spokesman told the Times Obama “doesn’t remember the names of a lot of people in his life.”

At Occidental, Obama was better known by classmates. There, he gave what is thought to be his first public speech. In it, he urged his school to disinvest from South Africa because of apartheid.

In “Dreams From My Father,” Obama wrote he socialized with black students but also “the foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets … When we ground out our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society’s stifling constraints.”

A professor at Occidental, Roger Boesche, told the Los Angeles Times Obama was “a very thoughtful student and a very curious student … You didn’t take my European Modern class without wanting to think about deep ideas.”

The White House did not reply to a request for comment.