Food crisis, global depression worsens
Not only are people cutting back on organic food, but now NPR reports that some people can’t even afford meat:
So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.
The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it’s more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don’t buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.
It’s one thing to hear that on the radio, but it’s another to see it on NPR’s website:
Perspective.
I’m telling you, it’s getting hard out there.
______________
{Post by See-Dubya. A tipster tells me Jonah Goldberg linked this first.}
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Ya know, I bet that’s one ass even Red Foreman wouldn’t go tryin’ to kick…..
Can’t believe that didn’t occur to me – but, YES. Duh.
Okay, granted, in winter in Ohio, that could be a problem. But 7 or 8 months of the year a bike will get you where you need to go, and they should be able to put aside money to get the van fixed for use in the winter. Problem solved, you’re a genius, you should run for office.
This is gotta be a record on the number of comments posted. I will have to Save all the funny comments and make an email to forward to all.
Keep the funny observations coming!!!
The rising price of gasoline has produced some sad stories.
But what’s worse is that the MSM are choosing their examples rather poorly.
Which is worse–the above story of Gloria Nunez with picture, or this story of young Ben Orsulak of Glendale, Arizona, who turned down a scholarship to Harvard (which would cover everything but room and board) because he would no longer be able to buy a cheap $200 round trip flight home? (Instead, he’s going to Northern Arizona University and will make his mother drive up to Flagstaff (about 120 miles each way) to get him on weekends.)
Aw Cmon! you all can’t talk about these people like that!
That’s racism!I thought I would get that out firstLooks like they’re eating good off the public titty, no pun intended. Wait until his Excellency Obama hears about this, he’ll save ‘em with more food stamps and welfare. Unless La Raza gets there first.
Word is they tried it with the city once, but when the city demanded they pay for all the sidewalk and road damage caused by the “slip & falls” the gals backed off any lawsuit.
Stories like this are why we are hated in the 7th century.
Our poor are better off than most of the morons living in the 7th century.
Leatherneck,
Even with a 12 pack I wouldn’t ride one of these hippos with Hillary’s penis.
JeffC – oh my freaking gawd… that Harvard story is… it’s just unbelievable.
I guess the idea of getting a part time job or finding some other way to get home was just too hard. What an idiot.
Y’know I sport a spare tire myself and I don’t poke fun at folks just for being large-sized.
But when I’m carrying 200 extra lbs of blubber AND complaining that I’m not getting enough ice cream from the government, please just take me out back and shoot me.
And, besides, this is just too funny to pass up!
You’d swear it’s a Scarppleface or SNL parody.
JT #209 you need to put a spew warning on that one. I’m glad I was only drinking some water.
I would not want to over populate the world with another lazy and rotund child. On the other hand if Angelina needed help, I would be the first in line. No 12 pack needed!!! LOL.
Those two put the “hush” in hush puppies.
The article sez they:
Well, at least there’s some exercize going on there; can you imagine how big they’d be if they didn’t struggle?
Dollars to donuts (no pun intended), these two will vote for Obama. Didn’t the lovely Michelle O. vow her hubby would make them get off the sofa? Bad news for you girls.
True story: Years ago, in keeping with company policy to extend our hand to the unfortunate, I hired an obese person….only to find out the day after her probation was up that she had lawsuits all over L.A. – one was because she’d become entangled in a turn stile(sp?) because IT was not big enough for her to get through. Yea, before it was over she’d filed a lawsuit against my company as well.
The Hoover Dam doesn’t retain that much water!
Didn’t Rusty move to Ohio? Anyone have his number? We have to hook him up with these two.
#201 West Coast Coconut
Okay, here’s you another one.
It’s all Bush’s fault!
It’s because of Global Warming!
It’s because of the War In Iraq!
It’s because of (fill in the blank with the Repulican cause of your choice)!
Curse you, 32″ door frames!
With all the Obamas’ flipflops maybe she’ll change it to “they can be sofas“.
Dontcha mean crush puppies.
Nunez’s van broke down last fall.
Wild ass guess: the suspension is shot?
DHD, Beer all over the screen again. Suspension is shot.
Could be. Now she just stores it next to her previous vehicles:
Nunez family garage
As my Uncle once said…
“Watching their butts when they walk looks like watching two bobcats fighting in a gunny sack.”
Summary: a financially-challenged morbidly-obese person is an oxymoron, a situation that could be rectified with effort and willpower. Next time, NPR, find a better case study, because this one made me laugh. The picture and caption negates the rest of the article.
Re: #202 — I have no sympathy for the guy who turned down Harvard. Sounds like he was using high gas prices to excuse his homesickness. Nothing wrong with homesickness, but if high gas prices means fewer trips home, oh well. I guess he just wasn’t ready for Harvard.
Bet their not offered a Midas lifetime guarantee on shocks or struts.
Purplepeep,
I now have a purple knot on my head where I fell out of my chair laughing.
Oh, no, there goes the Atkins Diet. Now they will have to do “low fat”
Michelle, this thread is disgusting and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Have you ever had to live in poverty? I’d guess that you haven’t.
I have, and it sucks.
You people need to knock it off with the fat jokes and try demonstrating a little bit of understanding and compassion once in a while.
My kids and I currently live below the poverty line. We had to survive on a poverty diet for 3 years because jobs are so scarce here in Michigan and I couldn’t find steady work.
Fresh meat? Heck NO we couldn’t afford it! I used canned meat from the dollar store to supplement our diet, and once in a while I’d spring for chicken thighs. Fresh fruits and vegetables? Way out of our price range, it was canned for us or nothing. Ice cream? We could only dream.
Do you have any idea what it does to your body to live on a poverty diet? I’ll tell you what it does, it kills you. You pack on weight, your blood pressure goes up because of all the sodium you have to consume, your cholesterol skyrockets.
When you’re poor, you buy what you can afford to avoid going hungry. And for the most part, what you can afford is cheap, processed, hi-fat foodstuffs. You eat a lot of rice, pasta and potatos. You get by with canned meat, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.
I work about 20 hours a week now and things are a little bit better, but we’re still on a very strict budget. Steak and ice cream? Maybe next year.
How about cutting back on the internet then Irish rose?
On July 18th, 2008 at 6:41 pm, rammsack said:
Eating good off the “public titty”? Right.
Let me tell you what it’s like to eat on a food stamp diet. Currently, food benefits allow for one dollar per meal per person. You have a grand total of 3 dollars per day to feed yourself. Same goes for your growing children.
Think you could feed yourself for a dollar a meal, three times a day for months on end? Go ahead, give it a go if you think that people who have to rely on food stamps to eat are living high on the hog.
And lets’ see how good you feel after one week of having to live on this kind of lousy diet.
Eating good off the public titty, right.
Get a damned clue.
I was guessing around 150-200 comments someone would tell us to shut up because we didn’t know what we were talking about. I guess I was, er, conservative.
4 kids, all to private schools on a private schoolteacher’s and a carpenter’s pay, all while paying medical bills up the wazoo for our congenital conditions. Two of my siblings porked up after they got out of the house, mainly because their spouses were too good of cooks.
And my parents never, ever asked the government for a handout.
Here’s your shoes back, Irish Rose. Maybe these ladies could use some, after they’ve killed their feet with the weight.
Irish Rose,
I empathize with someone like yourself who is trying. But take a look at the size of those two idiots. They’ve been scamming the system for years. You should be mad too.
Again, some forms of bigotry are just fine here aren’t they?
How do you know they’ve been “scamming the system for years”?
Bigotry against people that aren’t even trying to work. Please.
I’ve always been willing to give people a hand up but not a handout. People run into troubles in their life. I’ll help them because there for the grace of God, could be me.
What I don’t like are lazy slackers living on the dole.
Just a coupla things, I-Rose -
First off, your vent should be aimed at See-Dub, it’s his post. Michelle is on the road.
Actually, as many of have noted, the point isn’t about folks being overweight. (I suspect a few of us have an extra pound or two to spare.)
That being said, there is – though you may not appreciate it – a great good irony in morbidly obese people complaining the government isn’t supplying them with enough ice cream. That it is offered up as the textbook example of Dachau-like existence in America is even greater irony and supremely mock-worthy.
I’ve never heard of anyone being forced to consume salt, I-Rose.
I read through the article and I don’t see lazy people here, I see people who have genuine barriers to employment.
One woman is physically disabled and living on disability… probably after having stayed home for many years to care for a family, like a lot of women her age did. She is now trying to reenter the workforce with a nonexistant work history, and a documented physical disability.
The other woman is seriously hampered by lack of transportation and a shortage of jobs.
Transportation is a key issue for a lot of people. If you don’t have access to public transportation, how are you supposed to get to job interviews, let alone jobs? If you want to better yourself, how are you supposed to attend classes? You can do your learning online, if you have access to a computer. A lot of people don’t.
Look, folks… perhaps some of you have never experienced what it means to have to live like this. I you’ve never had to, then you’re extremely fortunate. Count your blessings.
I have, and believe me it is NO laughing matter.
If you don’t know what it means to live in poverty, then for the love of mike please don’t laugh at those who must. It’s a terrible way to have to live.
Nah don’t buy it. They are slackers.
I’d be surprised if a lot of folks here didn’t go through lean years, I-Rose, where they’ve learned how to cook the chicken – and then the chicken’s feathers. Life offers guarantees to no one.
But if this case is the current definition of “lean years”, much less abject poverty, then you’re right about folks really needing to walk in other’s shoes. They could’ve walked in mine or my siblings, but we didn’t have any except for when school year rolled around at the end of summer – that took a major hit on the family budget.
I think that for those of us whose parents went through the Great Depression this case being an example of “The New Poverty” will be a difficult sale to make.
I think I-Rose is looking through Rose Colored Glasses. Some bi-focals might help to read between the lines.
I can tell you with 100% certainty that if my folks were still with us their eyes would be rolling even faster than mine, JT. And their words would be a wee bit tougher than just poking fun at some large behinds.
Re: Irish Rose
I appreciate you mentioning the challenges to getting proper nutrition from a tight budget, the difficulties of poverty, and your general compassion for the people in the article. Have you ever considered that the NPR mentality on display here contributes more to future generations that are in this same situation than it does to prevent it ? NPR could have easily written a story about your family and how you have made gains over adverse circumstances through hard work, thrift, and perseverance. Instead they seem to be championing a ice cream entitlement. I think even while having love in your heart for the people involved you can recognize the ridiculous aspects of the article.
BTW, the gains you have made in your life and for your family are worth being proud of.
Poverty makes people fat.
I learned something today.
No, I’m not laughing.
Yeah, I’m not picking on Rose, but I believe if you’re looking for a hill to plant the “poverty flag” on, this particular hill isn’t the one that ya wanna die on to do it.
But, on the plus side, CO2P, it would mean you can go for the ultra-size Ben & Jerry’s Choc Chip Cookie Dough to get in shape & become really ripped.
IR:
I don’t have to experience something to know what it is. Reading, watching and listening are valuable skills. Having said that…
This is what poverty and hunger looks like. Try telling this woman to feel sorry for the Nunez’s. This woman would crawl over broken glass to get to the Nunez’ garbage can.
OK, so your folks survived the Great Depression… so did mine. So what?
The realities of modern poverty are far different than the realities of depression-era poverty were, purplepeep. A couple of examples:
Family units were stronger and lived closer together. Communities were close knit, and people looked out for each other.
The US economy at the time was based heavily on agriculture, not industry. A lot of families had land, and they grew gardens and kept animals. They didn’t need cash, because they could trade for what they needed with what they didn’t use, or barter for what they needed with skills.
Animal transportation was still in use, and very few people owned cars. Cars did not become affordable for families until after WWII.
So you see, it’s really not a fair comparison. Theres’ a huge difference between modern poverty and poverty in the 1930’s.
lgm assures us that the miracle of public transportation is available to all.
Fosoria, Ohio Employment Trivia:
Rose,use the internet and take some courses,medical coding pays well.With BHO’s universal healthcare there will be plenty of jobs for paper work.BTW I grew up in the 50’s.We didn’t have much but mom made do.We would have cornbread and beans one night and she would change the menu the next night to beans and cornbread.
This thread is disgusting and upsetting, and the bigotry is nauseating.
I’m outta here.
I too could share stories about growing up in a house where my dad worked as hard as he could, but towards the end of the month we would have pancakes three meals a day.
I, however, will take the low road.
RE #223
“When she walks, her rear end looks like 2 Volkswagens tying to pass each other”.
Rose, I’m exceedingly familiar with poverty, having been on welfare and food stamps myself. It certainly IS possible to be in those circumstances without gaining weight and it IS possible to get good nutrition. You just have to cook the food, and you tend to eat things like beans and rice.
Second, I have no idea what article YOU read but the one I read described a 40 year old woman who NEVER held a job and isn’t looking for one. (Her daughter supposedly is.) The mother was 23 years old when she became “depressed and disabled,” and hadn’t yet had a job so she evidently wasn’t too keen on work to begin with. I got my first job at 14 and have worked pretty much continuously – with the exception of the time when I was pregnant, widowed, and on welfare myself.
The realities of modern poverty are right here – the poor are living better than ever. No, they don’t enjoy a middle class lifestyle. Why should they? That’s what jobs are for.
That says it all. Wise post, DHD.
That being said, I have eight children, 12 and under. I happily stay at home, and my husband provides well for us. We do not use WIC, Medi-cal, or any other program, though we qualify for most all of them.
I kept track of every penny I spent in the grocery store in March 2008 and found that we ate for .98 a meal. That includes all the ice cream, boxed cereal (which is a rarity around here), baking supplies, fruit and veggies, grains, etc. I even bought some things in bulk, that lasted into the next months.
Please don’t assert that living frugally requires eating nasty processed foods. I never see people buying carrots and potatoes with their welfare card. They buy boxes of frozen dinners, Eggos, soda, chips and candy.
Food Stamps should be limited to ground beef, tuna, carrots, potatoes, canned fruit, veggies and beans, wheat bread, peanut butter and jelly, dried beans/peas, brown rice and other healthy ingredients.
But then we wouldn’t have the obesity rates to complain about.
Hope the nausea didn’t cause you to lose your appetite. But if it did, feel free to forward our comments to the Nunez familia…with love!
Strange, they live in subsidized housing, and are complaining about not having transportation for work. I’m pretty damn sure there’s a bus stop nearby.
Rose, I was a welfare caseworker for 5 years. You are to be commended for being an exception to the rule (about 1 in 20), as someone who truly needed the help, appreciated, the help, and didn’t abuse the system.
Why not kill two birds with one stone and tell these poor, starving women that lgm is made of buttermilk pancakes.
Even squinting I don’t see bigotry. I see NPR and the two tons of fun being called on their BS.
I can’t believe NPR is so lard-headed not to see how these two women fail to advance their argument….These NPR people, LGM, must have s@#t for brains.
But also understand how things have changed…there used to be a stigma attached to the unhealthyness of obesity…now you have ding-dongs (pun intended) defending the right of deaf people not to choose cochlear implants to let them hear because this totally deaf contingent wants to keep their ‘culture’ (and get Federal money)!-I am not kidding-there are people who actually enjoy being disabled.
You’re pretty much correct on the differences between the eras, I-Rose.
But I think you’re missing a few relevant items when you sum with:
Even if that is a given, I-Rose, you left out the biggest differences (esp. in this case):
1) How people react and respond to their hard times. It’s a constant that some folks choose, then & now, to do whatever it takes to get by – and – there are those who give up and view themselves as just victims of life.
2) There were very little or no perks and benefits available from the government. Folks realized thier destiny depended mostly on thier own choices. No rent being paid, no free health care or much else folks could expect. However then – as now – there were soup kitchens, missions, “clothes closets”, charities and other groups for those in need. Nothing at all wrong in people who’re down on their luck to access such help.
3)Speaking of people with farmland back then; when it was literally blown away (the “Dust Bowl”) the people moved on, even with no guarantee of a better life. Staying put and complaining “”So then what’s going to happen to us?”" wasn’t a viable option.
4) For what people did have, they were grateful. Now, and certainly in this case, it’s complaining about the freebies and benefits that are given. There is no gratitude at all, much less the ability to grasp the concept that there could possibly be someone, somewhere who has it “tougher”.
So while I will agree with you there is a vast difference between then and now, I-Rose, where we disagree is the important difference. I don’t believe it has much to do with temporal things like horse vs. car but rather with the character that made and still makes America a great country and Americans a great people.
This is heart-rending.
Let me extend an olive branch to the Nunez gals. Don’t give up on meat until you’ve looked everyehere.
everywhere
Heh, heh, heh. And served up with maple syrup on the side!
Oh, Die Hippie, Die, where in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks did you come up with that?
If there’s anything that goes with this post, you certainly found it…..
More like : I has a bucket.
Yet you manage to afford Internet service.
It is easy for the uneducated to look for the simplest thing to feed themselves. Mommaofmany hit the nail on the head. Most would rather toss an eggo in the toaster than cook a bowl of oatmeal.
Regardless of diet, exercise is 100% free. These people have nothing but time on their hands. Do you think they take the time to walk around the block and burn off those calories? Please stop making excuses for lazy people who just want to cruise through life with the least amount of effort on their part.
This post and the comments are by far the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Is it possible NPR is that clueless? Maybe they have been infiltrated by a conservtive that wants to make them look stupid. The libs just give us too much material that is impossible to pass up.
Never happen. She always eats them on the first date.
Ohio is only a meduim sized state. I’m sure he’s bumbed into them by now.
MY EYES! MY EYES!! LOL!
On July 18th, 2008 at 7:32 pm, Die Hippie, Die said:
Didn’t Rusty move to Ohio? Anyone have his number? We have to hook him up with these two.
And they each likely have their own zip code.
But seriously folks…..
Just so you know Irish Rose – I grew up in the welfare system. And quite frankly I saw excuses and frauds like this all the time. There were always reasons that those on the system could not succeed. They never looked for ways to succeed.
When you read this story, and look at this picture – you have to admit that NPR shot themselves in the foot on this story. Every comment, well it’s unfortunately pretty true. No van, they have two feet. plain and simple they need to stop living off the taxpayer’s money and stop making excuses.
One last thing, Irish Rose, right now, I’m working, but I make about $57 dollars above the povery line so I don’t qualify for any assistance, but at the same time I don’t think anyone here has heard me sit and make excuses or list reason’s for this or that. I don’t believe in feeling sorry for myself, and I’m working on solutions to get myself back on track.
Irish Rose is really harshing my mellow.
Who cares?
life’s a bitch… then you die!
NPR, like the good propagandists they are, doing their part to exaggerate the pain. After the messiah comes, all will be cocktails and peanuts…
*sigh* as a conservative who happens to be fat, let me tell you that fresh fruit and veggies that you might use in a salad costs WAY more than your generic version of Ramen Noodles or Mac-n-Cheese which, if you eat too much of those pasta items, will make you FAT!
And a lot of gym-type businesses can cost $40 to $100 a month for memberships, so yeah, being poor can make you fat…HOWEVER, as a conservative, I’m still insulted these women are on government assistance; they look capable enough of answering phones and pushing a mouse for a living just like I do. I’d be more inclined to be sympathic if they worked 40 hours a week like I do and still couldn’t get the groceries they needed.
That’s all I got.
TEEEEEEEJ
Well, given that NPR would not show compassion towards any conservative, I can imagine how these two have voted over the past couple of decades.
That is, if they made a voting booth big enough for ‘em.
Even the name of the picture is funny…
nprnomeatfamily.png
Uh huh.
Unless they were subconsciously suggesting no firm muscle.
Prolly be doubles in the next Mike Myers movie.
GET IN MY BELLY!
Not sure what vegetables you’re talking about or where you’re buying ‘em, shimauma2, but I know Obama is shocked, shocked, at the price of arugula these days.
But if there’s an assertion that it’s gotta be healthy eating OR the Mac & Cheese, I think that’s a false dichotomy which creates/contributes to the problem.
Not that you’re making the assertation – it’s just that it does seem to come up as an either/or too often.
I’m sure these welfare queens have a big screen TV and a Wii.
Does the Food Network make Wii games?
big cracks falling through big cracks…
Irish Rose…I don’t think it is necesarily bigoted to sport fun at these two morbidly obese women letting themselves be used as NPR props (substituting in as poor people)…What galls me is that they have no shame for the fact they let themselves get horridly fat, and then like so many other denizens of the Democratic Party-they will expect us as taxpayers (and insurance policy holders) to just bail them out of their health problems…and to boot they are serious rather than embarassed about their slothful position on this issue of moral responsibilty.
You don’t get to be the size of a garbage truck eating a lot of meat. Those two have long term intimate knowledge of starches.
…and the flour Leatherneck, don’t forget the flour.
“My kids and I currently live below the poverty line. We had to survive on a poverty diet for 3 years because jobs are so scarce here in Michigan and I couldn’t find steady work.”
Let me finish this for you
And becuase taxpayers money is so readily available it never even occurred to me to move to where jobs were not scarce.
All done
Oh, please.
According to the story, those two parasites receive $739.00 per month in SS and food stamps. Their rent is a whopping $100 per month. The electric bill averages about $120.00 per month. They receive free healthcare. That leaves $519.00 per month. They pay a neighbor $5.00 to haul them to the grocery store. So let’s subtract another $25.00 per month and that leaves $494.00 for food and incidentals.
Yeah, my heart really bleeds for them. I guess I should feel guilty for busting my ass 80 hours a week so those two can sit on their asses whining about not being able to afford ice cream.
Throw a Twinky through it and see how fast they get through the door…32″ or not.
No. I bet the differential or transmission scraped off.
Heh… Like that old Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercial, with Donovan McNabb’s mom’s minivan scraping the pavement?
Same effect here, just as much laughter.
Obviously we’ve developed some really
bighuge, ginormous cracks in the system for these two to fall through.Walterc, sorry had to fix that for you!!!
“microwaves are the biggest contribution to obesity than anything…I just wanted to say that – no point really.” (Misscheyrl)
I disagree Misscheyrl….that is a very good point. Many people ate better before the invention of the 20 second hot dog cooker and 3 minute frozen lasagna maker. We are the instruments of our own destruction.
May God help those poor people.
I’m very sorry about your condition, Irish Rose. I, myself, have lived so low on the hog I had to look up to see its hooves.
And, no, I’m not just being flippant.
That said, I have trouble feeling sorry for two morbidly obese women whining that they can’t get enough food and can’t afford to buy ice cream.
starlightwoman:
Thank you for bringing that to our attention. It’s been twenty years since we’ve last seen them and we’re looking forward to the reunion on The Jerry Springer Show.
Your pals,
The Nunez Gals
I think it was Chuck Shepherd’s “News of the Weird.”
On July 19th, 2008 at 1:20 am, Republicanvet said:
Reminds me of the joke we used to tell in Texas about Maggies (a female Texas A&M student):
How do you get a Maggie into a Volkswagen? Grease her hips and put a Twinkie on the dashboard. ba-dum-bump
Hmmm. How many do you think they could eat in a sitting?