The High-Fructose War

The Corn Refiners Association is fighting back against people learning about the ill effects of High-Fructose Corn Syrup with commercials like this one:



The evidence is piling up, with some of it not so well defined yet, as it relies on animal testing. But the tests are there and the results aren't that great. It may lead to diabetes. The Mayo clinic suggests that it may also lead to high cholesterol.  An article in the San Francisco Chronicle mentions that the USDA suggests Americans reduce their intake of foods with added sugar.

Whether it's simply the addition of high fructose corn syrup alone or all the refined and unnatural sugars in the American diets, it is quite clear that a reduction of artificial and refined sugars can improve your diet. I personally have been reducing as much of this as possible, I've moved from fake pancake syrup to the natural kind from New Hampshire, I try to only eat snack foods such as Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch bars that only contain corn syrup (and nuts of course.) Making the effort in your life to reduce the "poison" you intake will help you live a healthy and Poison Free life.

Earth Crisis Set to Create a New Album

Earth Crisis will be entering the studio to release their first album after their reunion.  This will definately be an album many will not be able to wait for, and will hopefully bring stronger fire to the Straight Edge hardcore scene.

"We are very excited to begin tracking our new record and even more excited that it will be released by Century Media. We have been working hard over the last year preparing new material and are scheduled to enter the studio in October. We will be producing this one ourselves and are extremely excited to have Tue Madsen mixing! The new songs are brutal and Century Media is the perfect label to handle them." - Scott Crouse

The album will be released in 2009 through a deal with Century Media Records.

Why Should I Feel Like a Criminal When I Buy Allergy Medication?

I am completely sick of having to feel like I'm a criminal or that I live in a police state because some dumb @$$ kid wants to get high and possibly kill himself by making homemade meth.  At first I was a little confused and complied cause, well my allergies were bad and I needed something that worked, so I went to the pharmacy counter and dealt with the stupid request to show my ID to legally purchase what was supposed to be over-the-counter allergy medication.

Now I see these commercials that tell me I have to get it "at the pharmacy counter" without mentioning of course that you need to show your government issued ID which they record and then they force you to sign a book so they can track your movements.   This will of course keep the drugs off the street.  They think that drug makers and homebrew idiots are dumb enough to not pay some other idiot to get them drugs.

Sure this may seem like a rather late rant to the issue, but I guess I was asleep at the wheel when it happened or whenever I needed medication I just dealt with it cause I hate allergies.  Of course you can always take the "penelylephrine" version of your medication of choice, but from what I've tried and what my friends and other's online have tried, it barely does anything.  So now the law abiding citizens of our country are forced to be treated like criminals.

This law was put in place in 2005, and finally in 2007 they actually arrested someone for buying legal medication without any actual evidence of drug making or usage.  It took 2 years to do something that did nothing but make normal people suffer.

When is Aggravation Worth It?

When leaving my local subway station there was an MTA employee smoking in the station, underground.  Besides the obvious illegality of this, I was pissed cause it invades my lungs with his choice of suicide.  I wanted to say something to him, but would it even matter?  Would it make a difference if I called 311?  I needed to have a car towed once that was blocking the driveway to my apartment building, and after 6 hours the police never showed up, the jackass finally moved his car, and I could finally park my car in the damn spot I was paying for at the time.  So does the NYPD or 311 employees ever give a shit about anything?  My neighbours smoke, some smoke cigarettes others pot.  I can smell it in the hallway, or if I open my windows at night as well.  Then I'm forced to smell the shit and inhale, or turn on my A/C and hope it filters out the shit while I have to pay electircity for it instead of having clean fresh air.  So is it worth the aggravation to ask these jerks to stop smoking near windows?  Is it worth telling the cops that my neighbors smoke pot?  I want to be a good neighbor and not rat them out, but then they should be a good neighbor and not smoke pot.

I hate people.  I hate people that smoke.  I hate people that smoke pot.

Straight Edge and Politics

The recent Gov Palin pregnant daughter situation to me is a perfect example of the so-called right claiming moral high ground gone awry. This would be equivalent to a SxE person having casual sex and still claiming edge. To me I see this situation as a reason why the Republicans can't claim their moral high ground any longer as they continue to be hypocrites.

I've been thinking lately about what it means to be Straight Edge and how that affects one's political view points. With SxE lifestyle having a somewhat conservative viewpoint but derived from the liberal punk/hardcore world how does a SxE person view the political spectrum? Being SxE isn't about projection of morals it's about being poison free. I see that the conservative views of SxE fit within the Progressive/Liberal/Democratic spectrum of political views.

A SxE person is about protecting themselves, the Democratic party is about that as well through views such as Pro-Choice, Education, and actually helping the Environment. I can see some people making a statement that Pro-Choice isn't exactly aligned with SxE because the idea of casual sex is what would lead some towards solutions such as abortion. However there are more situations such as the mother's health or age, rape or incest and her own personal decisions that outweigh any a government would like to apply. Education is certainly a SxE view as we have taken the initiative to educate ourselves on what poisons our bodies and should continue to educate ourselves and others on what poisons others and our Earth. That leads me to the environment and working towards a poison free Earth, something that the Republican party is obviously against with such inept plans as their so called Clean Air Act and their desire to be a nation of oil consuming conglomerates.

Punks tend to be within the middle class and the Democratic party tends to skew towards protecting the middle class. Sure, we've seen Democrats raise taxes, and taxes suck and always will, but they go towards things like public schools and social services programs which help out those in need (whether people take advantage of them improperly is a different issue.) Democrats have made mistakes, but they also have brought our country some of the best economic situations we've ever had. A Democrat will bring home our military (sure it won't be immediately, but it won't be in a hundred years like the Republican plan) and won't let the National Guard forget about protecting our nation during attacks from Mother Nature.

I feel like I just ranted a bit and probably went a little off track here and there, but I honestly think that people need to be more aware of politics and SAY NO TO MORAL HYPOCRITES IN GOVERNMENT like Palin and McCain. For me Obama is right for America and right for SxE (okay that sounds a little funny, but it's what I feel.)