Some Rants About People's View of the Environment

I'm going to try to break this up into sections so that it's easier to read than a giant block of text looming over you. I know this starts out as kind of "off topic" considering the title, but if you're like me and have a more complete understanding of biology and environmental science you know that what we put into our bodies, or consume, daily has a dramatic effect on the environment.

Complaints about vegans and vegetarians:
I have no problem with the attempt to remove animal cruelty from your diet and, for many people, this change of diet is actually quite beneficial to their health, but too many people who choose this lifestyle choice are painfully ignorant about several key aspects about the human diet, nutritional needs, and even about the effects of picking specific foods to focus on.

One:
The human diet and nutritional needs require that humans consume protein and fats, as well as many key vitamins, minerals, and enzyme boosters to maintain a fully functioning, healthy metabolism. Too many vegans and vegetarians end up anemic, or malnourished because they lack the basic biological and nutritional knowledge to make the proper additions to their diet of plants. Before you make the choice to stick to a plants only diet make sure you know all of the nutritional information about your daily requirements and pick plants and supplements that will fulfill those requirements.

Some of the things that are missing in EVERYONE'S diets, not just vegans and vegetarians, are iodine, magnesium, chromium, potassium, vitamin B12, vitamin B1, healthy fats, and healthy protein. Traditional multivitamins DO NOT have high enough doses of most of your daily requirements; even though the bottle may say 100% of your daily value, the numbers the corporations who made your vitamins are working from are outdated and make the assumption that you will be getting more than enough of these vitamins from your food sources. This assumption is WRONG. For example, you would have to eat a FULL CUP of almonds a day to get enough magnesium to satisfy your daily requirement. If you've ever eaten too many nuts in one sitting you may know the kind of digestive pain that can cause as our bodies are not properly equipped to deal with that amount of fiber; it is far better for you to consume almonds in a liquified format so that your system can absorb them properly.

Two:
Soy is horrible for you. The myths and, sometimes flat out lies, that people have been spreading about the benefits of soy are outrageous. Certainly soy is far better for you than an overly processed, chemically enhanced cheeseburger, but it contains enzymes and chemicals that can have a dramatic effect on your metabolism. The only source of soy that is good for human consumption is traditionally made tofu. Any non-fermented soy product, including soy oil, is going to cause health problems if you consume it on a daily basis or even more than once or twice a week. Don't get me wrong, I love soy beans and I prefer to eat them lightly steamed, but I am also a biologist and I know the effects that can occur when you start adding into your diet chemicals and enzymes that hinder your body's natural processes.

One effect that has been studied from soy products is the introduction into the body of a chemical, naturally produced in soy plants, that can act, and often does act, just like the hormone estrogen. Adding this chemical into the diet of a male, or growing boy, can have adverse effects on his testosterone levels, causing developmental problems. This chemical also effects women, especially those who are sensitive to hormones, like myself.

I have to admit that the introduction of excess amounts of soy in my diet when I was in my late teens is probably one of the causes of my sudden development of ovarian cysts. Previously, when I had not had access to that much soy(my mother hates it), I had had no symptoms or any signs of ovarian problems. Since I cut the amount of soy in my diet to only occasional meals maybe once or twice a month and have done my best to introduce healthy supplements into my diet all of my symptoms and ovarian problems have completely gone away. Nothing my doctors had tried helped me, only a dietary change did. If I had been seeing a holistic doctor, they may have had the chance to actually monitor my metabolism(something the average doctor doesn't even think to do), and probably would have seen the hormonal and chemical changes my metabolism underwent as I changed my diet.

Three:
BUY LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you're a vegan or vegetarian and you're buying produce and foodstuffs that are imported you are not really helping yourself or the environment. First off, buying produce and food that has come from another country is adding to the pollution problem. These foods have to be shipped to our country and the methods used to do so are bad for the environment. Second, buying imported foods sends money to other countries where the environmental regulations are not as strict as they are here, serving to further fund practices that are horrible for the environment. Take Mexico for example, they still use pesticides that are illegal in the US. Yet, for some strange reason(probably profits), we still import produce from Mexico and pretend like it's ok. Never mind the birth defects, or the damage it is doing to the environment.

As a side note, something that really bothers me about big chain stores is when they take the produce they imported from Mexico, or got from farms that use pesticides and label it as organic just so that they can market it to more people and make more money. Be VERY careful about the produce you buy at a big chain grocery store, or better yet, buy your produce elsewhere, like at a farmer's market. Even better, grow it yourself! If you live in a good climate for it, you can save money and the environment by growing your own produce, pesticide free! If you want free fertilizer, start a compost and/or buy a couple of bunnies or(if you area allows it) a goat! The plus side to the goat is that you can get organic, cruelty free milk in your own back yard. Just keep in mind that these animals require vet care and that may make your fertilizer a bit more expensive, but at least you know that no chemicals have been added to your fertilizer!

That ends my segment about vegans and vegetarians. Please, do not treat your diet choice like a fashion accessory. Make the effort to do your research and to make responsible, well informed decisions about your food consumption.

I will post again on the subject of the environment, but now I get to go walk my puppy dogs in the beautiful spring air.:)

How I wish We Paid Taxes

1.You go to a secure website or to a local government office. I see no reason why we can't mandate a secured day off from jobs/school etc for each person on the date of their choosing, either...

2.You sign in to a secure account or the officials scan an official tax card with all of your relevant information in one secure place. You can edit this information as you need from your online account or through the local office.

3.You read through the current statistics and records of where all the tax money that has already been received has been spent for this term and of which sections are in need of funding. If you are paying in person at an office, they can have the report available in either a paper format or on a computer nearby. A report like this may have to come in a simplified format or with a helper program with little notes and details about what each section actually does etc. for those who need a little help. If you are at an office and need assistance, a trained staff member should be available at all times to answer your questions.

4.YOU choose which section YOU think deserves YOUR tax money/credits. Any section that has been neglected by the end of the taxing season can have a public vote placed on whether taxes should be set aside to aid that section or on how that section should be modified to reduce its necessary costs(you know, cutting out offices etc).

5.The government manages the taxed money/credits based on how the PEOPLE want them to be used within realistic boundaries.

I

Enjoyed all of this a lot more before I learned how insane we all were.

Beloved tis of Thee

Our country is being left behind. As a nation we seem to be looking at a sticky note that is 20 years old and ignoring the projects that are due next week. One of the most important issues that we are overlooking is the reality of the impacts that globalization has had on our own economy, countries abroad and on the Earth itself. All of us need to realize the fact that there are no "American" corporations any more. Our "own" companies, who the republicans want to depend on to jump start our economy, do not care about American citizens anymore. As a nation we are no more than a market of overpaid workers to the corporations our freedoms have helped become powerful in the global market. This kind of attitude by the people who are supposed to be providing jobs is unacceptable. If we are to improve our own economy and to encourage jobs we have to make it clear that our corporations and corporations all over the world cannot exploit employees, and cannot take advantage of our country or any other country just to make a profit. We have to take control of the way the global market is run. Our country, our fellow nations and our home, Earth, needs us. As things are going right now, corporations have more rights than individuals in our own country, and more money and power than many governments across the globe. Abroad "American" companies have continually raped other nations just for their resources and profit and just to prop up the fake prosperity puppet show they have playing in the U.S. Our market has become theatre; playing to the emotions of the crowd to keep us watching, to keep us paying and to keep us waiting in anticipation for the next "hot" item, the next distraction. This kind of global rule cannot continue. We, as American citizens, must stand up together with our fellow human beings across the globe and take a stand for the rights we cherish at home. Our recession is nothing more than a symptom of a greater sickness that has been taking over the world ever since capitalism and free enterprise was given free reign over the global market and was allowed to exploit the rights of whole nations in order to support our own selfish desires. To create a stable, efficient and morally obligated global market we must take charge and change the rules. Profit cannot come before rights. Profit cannot come before personal freedoms. Profit cannot come before the poor, the sick and the hungry. Profit cannot come before our planet, our home. We must face the fact that we have limited global resources that should not and cannot be wasted on greedy money grabbing if we are to become a prosperous and sustainable planet of global and national citizens. How can you complain about gas prices one moment and then toss a plastic(made from OIL!) bottle in the ditch the next without realizing that you are doing nothing to help lower that cost and are in fact only adding to the problem? We cannot continue on in this way and still expect the quality of life that we have been borrowing(and in fact the trillions we are in debt proves just that) for the rest of our lives and the life of our country and planet. It is time to face the music of revolution. Our society is no longer limited to our borders, in fact, we might as well not even have borders. We must demand all the facts from our market, We must demand our rights and the rights of others, and, above all else, We must demand an intelligent and sustainable market that does not rape our people or our planet for its own personal gain. We have a future to live, do you want a clean and caring rule over our lives and the lives of your children or do you want a cancerous, exploitative and wasteful rule?

The manner in which we waste things that took millions of years to form in the first place is pathetic. We have brains, why the hell aren't we using them? The manner in which people are being treated both at home and abroad is atrocious. We have the people and the intelligence to make change happen, but too many of us are wasting precious moments of our lives on trivial novelties and gossip. Every second of your life is precious, make it count?

It takes too goddamn long for my loan to show up.

Kinda tired of being broke.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a unicorn named Bob.

...

things were never simple, just your view of them was.

Doesn't mean that you can't blurr the details so that you can focus on the big picture too.

I always tell myself that things are worse than they really are so that when the end of the bad day or bad week or bad month comes and I'm surprised by how much money I actually have left over and by the little things(or sometimes big things) that went my way.