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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#238 Rose these 2 sorry excuse for human beings created their own mess.
The daughter hasn’t ever worked in her life. She doesn’t even have a HS diploma per the census 50% of hispanics in this country don’t have a HS diploma which makes most unemployable. This is a perfect story to prove the abuse of entitlements. This isn’t what entitlements were set up for to never work. Also, the fact that someone said to get pregnant to collect more subsidies is sickening to allow me and other taxpayer to support them. Most people create their own poverty. There are people out of work being told they can’t collect because they MADE too much money these are the people that government help was set up to use. Not these to sorry POS. Considering the daughter is obese uneducated she will NEVER get a job.
Cleveland Browns training camp starts on the 23rd in Berea, OH about a 100 miles away from our gals.
I hear they are short on tackling dummies. Sound like an employment opportunity.
Just one more thing here…when my daughters were young, I worked two jobs. I was two weeks short of being eligible for health insurance with one of these jobs. My daughter ends up in the hospital. I apply for Title 19 (the first time I have ever sought financial assistance) to pay the hospital bill. Mind you, I’m working two jobs at this time..my claim was denied. The reason was because I had a measly $2500.00 CD. I managed to save $2500.00 dollars for the “future” and was honest about it. White single woman are just “out of luck” when it comes to financial assistance because we are the ones working no matter what. I don’t have alot of compassion for a woman who could loose 150 lbs named hernandez who won’t work and cries cause she can’t afford meat!
eeerrrr..white single “women”…sorry
Hey.. Leave Rusty alone..
he would at least argue his point and stick around to debate them..
unlike LGM who drops crap like a pigeon and leaves..
In addition to the shortage of jobs, Ohio apparently has a shortage of 10′ poles.
As are the Nunez gals’ toes.
Aw jeez, DHD. You now owe me a new keyboard. Next time provide some warning so I can swallow and put the cold drink down!
I’ll have this smile for the rest of the day!
Given the frequency with which that occurs, MM might consider offering these to all registered users.
Irish Rose said:
Irish Rose if you can’t figure out why no one feels sympathy for the Nunezes, then I don’t know….its kind of like how do you feel sympathy for middle-aged obese people who now run around on electric carts designed for old people?
I just can’t feel anything for these people anymore than I can for street people who hit on me for food money at a McDonald’s and then promptly rush themselves to the liquor store nearby…. and by the way, Irish Rose, my mother lived through the Depression (on the bottom end) and she thinks these fat scammere are not worth the time of day.
Its excuse making like yours as to why this sloth exists at all in our society.
The Nunezes are truly the Children of the Great Society-gaaaak!
She is 40 years old and has never worked, and yet she is morbidly obese.
The only way that anyone becomes obese is by consuming more calories than their body burns. That is a simple, undeniable fact. They do NOT need more food.
How can liberals miss the absurdity in the fact that we are simultaneously fighting obesity and hunger in the SAME people?
Show me the starving children in America and tell me where to send a check.
On July 19th, 2008 at 10:31 am, Misscheryl said:
Just move.
Yeah, right.
Has it ever occured to you that some people CAN’T move? I’m one of them, for reasons that I won’t go into here.
As for the rest of your vicious, uncalled-for personal attack… a hale and hearty * YOU, you sanctimonious bigot.
I’m a firm believer that what goes around in this life, comes around. May the hateful bile that you and your bigoted husband spew at others today, come back to you and yours tenfold.
On July 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm, jt3151 said:
No, it’s not.
You’re wrong, but it would be pointless to tray and explain why to someone who is so unbelievably clueless to begin with.
DHD - would you call them “Keyboard Kondoms”?
We have become a nation of whiners and victims. The assumption that just because someone has a job or money doesn’t mean everything is rosy. Our parents’ generation just didn’t whine about the hardship. If it meant eating pancakes for dinner, so be it. Noone told the neighbors or the press how difficult thing were because they were to proud to admit what was going on. In addition, our taxpayer funded social programs have created this mess with these women. This is just another case of throwing money at a problem instead of providing a solution. Entitlement programs create more entitlement.
Errrrrr…depends on what you’re spilling on your keyboard.
On July 19th, 2008 at 10:57 am, Misscheryl said:
You’re working two jobs, your husband is self employed, you have 2,500.00 in a retirement account and you’re bitter because you were denied government benefits?
You’re kidding, right?
What a ridiculous statement.
It has no factual basis whatsoever.
Ah, yeah… there it is.
Now we get to the “meat” of this discussion. And the whole reason it was posted, I suspect.
I was wondering who the first person would be on this thread to display some good old-fashioned “fat, lazy Mexican” bigotry.
First the unvarnished bigotry against fat people, and now this.. you really have a problem, you know that?
Well IR, you should have the Nunez gals arrested for violating the Law of Conservation of Mass.
IR - usually I don’t waste time with those who will never get it, but I’m going to break that silence in this instance.
I have struggled with my weight my entire life. Never have I tried to justify it as anything other than my willingness to control my diet and exercise. It’s not genes, poverty, environment, Bush’s fault, global warming or any of that ridiculous pap. My brother is diabetic, and has trouble controlling his weight as a result, but rather than whine and wail about his lot in life he has worked extra hard and as a result has lost about 40 pounds in 5 months. On the other hand, and by their own admission, these two goldbricks eat the wrong things and don’t exercise, but instead would choose to drown their sorrows in a vat of Hagen-Daas (that is, if they could afford it).
Most people have the ability to choose to do the right thing and make the right choices. If they fail to make the right choice, then they have nobody to blame but themselves. I myself drive for a living. If I were be arrested for DUI, then I could lose my license and my job. That is the result of a bad choice on my part. It is not a mistake, it is a bad choice, and the consequnces are of my own doing. Those who genuinely need assitance I am perfectly Ok with government helping. But I for one am sick of hearing how this country doesn’t do enough for those the libs say deserve government handouts.
DHD - now it’s TWO keyboards!
ewwwww…
I imagine Angelia and Gloria struggle just getting to the grocery store after the Food Stamp office after Dunkin Donuts on the way to Winchells Donuts.
Luckily they were not field works, we were. A couple days of rain and we WERE hungry. So we busted our butts and finally got out of that; Angelia and Gloria might try it but I imagine it would take a lot of work to bust those butts.
But as long as we give aid to the young and healthy I guess it won’t happen. LBJ’s War on Poverty and we lost.
Juan McAmnesty LOVES this stuff! These are HIS people, his voters, GOD’S children.
In the old days of whaling (whaling.. lol) the sailors would sometimes become stranded or becalmed and would draw lots to see which one would sacrifice his life so the others would have something to eat… one of these broads would feed a family of 15 for a week!
Of course they are, they can’t get out the door! bwaaahahahahahaha
Yup - and that’s what folks here are saying, I-Rose. People, like these two, who consistently make wrong choices will find those choices coming back to bite away at their backsides. The only “victimhood status” such people can lay claim to is of being “self-victimized”.
Rob #321, 322, and 322
… and the most vile bigot on the site finally shows his face. Because one flavor of bigotry just isn’t enough.
Who else do you hate, Rob? I’m curious. People with mental illnesses? Colored people? Gay people?
Jews?
Make that an unfortunate #323.
Yeah and I don’t know that having to cut back on ice cream is such a terrible thing, especially in their case.
In my own post above I dittoed pretty much your good points about making wrong choices.
There’s no choice in the world with jaws big enough to bite the Nunez gals’ backsides.
I thought someone would be able to work with that line, DHD.
Sure there is. One bite at a time.
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
If I typed what I actually thought about this article it would be the end of my fun here at MM.com.
And this after I just finished baking brownies for our outing with friends tonight at Spring Mountain Ranch where the Summer Theatre is performing “1776″.
How Poor Are America’s Poor? Examining the “Plague” of Poverty in America
You Are What You Spend
Wow, it’s still going. Is this a record?
And I-Rose is back even though she feels:
Yeah, it’s pointless to try and explain the facts to someone who is so unbelievably clueless to begin with.
These fine examples of everything that is great about our country would have no moral qualms about eating Soylent Green. Provided it was food stamp eligible.
I think it’s better if we all work together to do something to solve the problem, atxcgirl!
I’m game, I can work with you on that!
Let’s just be honest, huh?
Rob #338
Try again.
Rob #338
That’s just dam* scary. Now I’ll have nightmares.
The Nunez gals’ prayers have been answered!!! No longer will they be forced to choose between meat and ice cream!
“Gee thanks, Global Diversity Man!”
Our country is so wonderful and generous that people like this can live comfortably without providing any benefits to society or helping their neighbors.
In another age, people like this would have never survived. In earlier ages and in other cultures, people needed to carry their own weight (bad pun) or they would have died. They would have starved to death or died at an early age.
The wonders of medicine, the beneficence of our country, keep people like this alive.
How about a bit of gratitude and thanks to all of us who are supporting them.
If they are having a hard time buying groceries and need to stretch their food dollar, they can do what I do: make a weekly menu and stick to it.
By the way, I love to listen to NPR, some of the people they interview say the darndest things.
I agree with Irish Rose. These people should not be mocked. They have very serious issues and not a lot of motivation or creativity in solving problems.
Their lives will probably not get any better.
Hey, I do not envy them. I do not think it appropriate to mock them.
They are truly sad.
Y’all are so bad… still.
Now they can go to their own Meat Ice Cream Party!
Vote for your favorite flavor!
Oh that is so very very wrong.
Horse? At least make it bacon flavored ice cream.
You know Helene and Irish Rose,
I am probably one of the most bleeding heart people on this board and I think these people deserve every bit of derision thrown their way. I mean I understand poverty, believe me I do. But this:
Come on…not an able bodied worker among the sibs AND the spouses?
You shouldn’t be so rough on them, DHD.
It’s not like they haven’t tried to find some way out of their sad situation. In fact, they were willing to move to more populated areas where work was available. But no metro area they checked in Ohio was of help - all of the city councils discouarged them saying, “sorry, but due to urban sprawl we really just can’t handle two new suburbs”.
Yep, atxc, still going.
I originally wanted to add another comment last night, but I was too tired. I came back today to see the argument still waging. I’ll go ahead and forward my two painfully obvious cents.
Since chips are cheaper, let’s buy two bags of chips instead of the bag of apples. Can you understand why I take issue with that argument? I was going to point out last night that buying a bag of apples is better than buying two bags of chips (and will probably last as long), that a pound of broccoli would be better than ten packs of ramen noodles. A head of green leaf lettuce costs me less than a dollar. Ramen noodles, ice cream, and bags of chips should not be on the grocery list. At all. Not even up for consideration.
Even healthy food goes on sale. A can of veggies can cost as little as $0.50 or even $0.33 when on sale. A 3-lb. bag of frozen chicken breasts (not thighs, those are more fattening) costs between five and ten bucks. I try to buy generic as much as possible. Drink water (get a Brita or Pur water pitcher — way cheaper than bottled water) or juice instead of soda. Wheat and whole-grain bread doesn’t cost much more than white. You and your kids will not tell the difference between many low-fat alternatives to regular ingredients. Skim milk costs just as much as 2%. Control portion sizes.
You don’t need a gym membership to exercise. Walking is free. Buying a bike is a one-time expense; search the rummage sales for cheap ones. Same goes for home gyms and weight training equipment. The library has plenty of material about dieting and exercising on a budget, and that’s free. The libraries that I know let you search and reserve material online. The internet has plenty of advice and help if one chooses to look (calorie-count.com lets you enter a food log to find out the nutritional value of everything you eat — it’s free). Can’t afford a computer or the internet? Libraries have ‘em.
I would be classified as poverty-level right now. My budget is tight. I could stand to lose some weight. I should exercise more, but it’s hard, I know. I should eat smaller portion sizes. My problems are that I like food and don’t like exercise, but they aren’t excuses. Every day is a challenge to listen to my own advice. I’m not blaming my lack of money or rising food prices (which have not exactly skyrocketed yet — $0.05 or $0.06 for every $1.00 on average from May 2007 to May 2008). If you’re paying more than $250 a month on groceries per adult (and I think that’s a slight overestimation), you need to find a cheaper grocery store or you’re eating too much. If you had more money, would you still buy and eat whole grains, meat, fruits, and vegetables instead of the junk?
I’m sorry about your problems, Irish Rose, and it’s too bad this has become a free-for-all with the fat jokes. I thought the commenters here would be above that. But try to heed my advice. Don’t consider this an attack. There are ways to lose weight that don’t cost a thing except your time, willpower, and effort.
Obesity:poverty::apples:oranges. Lack of exercise and improper nutrition, not poverty, cause obesity. And if someone is not working, what excuse is there to not be exercising? If you have the ability to move, you have the ability to exercise. And it has to become part of your lifestyle to make it work.
Anyone remember Sharon Jasper? She and her daughter also suffer from poverty-caused obesity, it appears.
Third-world poverty-stricken people would switch places with poverty-stricken Americans any day.
If the jobs where you live dry up, or if they don’t pay enough, yes, you move. You make it happen, if things are becoming that difficult.
I have a clue.
Witness the havok you have wrought, see-dubya? The categories of this post are “Fun, Uncategorized” but have really become categorizingly unfun for some people here. Not your fault, though.
See, this is why I didn’t write last night. I wish I didn’t have to point this stuff out. Didn’t think I needed to.
I’ll end with one of my all-time favorite quotes: “If something’s hard to do, then it’s not worth doing.”
#349 CO2 Producer said:
Why would you assume that I’m overweight because I suggest that overweight people should be treated like human beings?
You’re not the first person to automatically leap to that conclusion here, either.
The only sane reason why anyone defends the nunez’s eating habits while the Nunez’s claim to be poor is so that some plucky politician can find a way to get us taxpayers to pay up for another social program because they refuse to discipline themselves (like a lot of other democrat-supporting groups from which the libs get their vampire-like sustainence from).
If this keeps up like this in this country, the next time a guy is without a girlfriend (a situation no real guy wants), perhaps they should plead ‘Sexual Poverty’ and the government will just cough up enough money so that they can afford you know what for the evening…this is how silly the defenders of the Nunez’s are on NPR…
They should be asking first why has the government supervision of this family resulted in life-threatening obesity-it took money for them to buy that food (they couldn’t produce it)-it didn’t pop out of nowhere, and they weren’t in a coma….
But impoverished??? Do not insult my intelligence…
If worst comes to worst, they could always eat each other. I also wonder where the father is at?
BTW, is that a tattoo of Jesus or Che on the daughter’s right wrist?
Irish Rose, you got me there. Though comment #228 implied it, you never explicitly said you were overweight. If I erred in my assumption, I apologize.
These two women don’t like look they’re “starving” or “poor.” Poor darlings. If people think these two women are “struggling” then they need to volunteer at the local soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
Nunez and her daughter, if anything, have poor nutritional habits and don’t exercise at least 30 minutes per day. Let’s be honest here, if they consumed less empty calories and more things like protein, fiber, veggies, and in portions that weren’t out of control, they wouldn’t be “struggling” with their weight. If anything they’re probably overeaters.
When I saw these two women, their situation (and its irony) hits close to home because obesity runs on both sides of my family. Many in my mother’s family are overweight and my mother has diabetes because of the unhealthy lifestyle she lead her entire life. She has always struggled with her weight as have I.
Instead of bemoaning their “plight”, these two women need to eat less, walk on a treadmill more. They don’t look very healthy and no young woman like Hernandez should be that obese. It’s not the quality of the food you eat it’s the quantity that counts just as much.
Is that a Trojan?
On July 19th, 2008 at 6:02 pm, purplepeep said:
I think it’s better if we all work together to do something to solve the problem, atxcgirl!
Oh thanks PP, I was expecting something else, now I need to go gouge out my eyes.
I hadn’t look at any of the pictures posted in the article, but in the one you posted, doesn’t the younger one have a tattoo on her right forearm?
If true, geeze. Can’t afford food but can afford a tattoo.
I was wondering the same thing when I saw the picture. Who’s going to volunteer to blow up the picture?
self-edit: like look= look like. Doh!
Curious, I googled Fostoria grocery stores, ended up on Kroger’s website (available through their library I’m sure, as another poster noted) and discovered they have a nutrition fact finder. For example, here’s adzuki beans, 1 cup, no salt.
Kroger’s Fostoria store has a sale flyer online and this week has chicken (Ok Tyson’s), tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries all featured.
Not criticizing, just sayin’…
Let me follow up. I do not believe in mocking people for health issues. I work out 5 times a week and most of my grocery money is spent on fruits, veggies, with few prepared foods. But that’s me.
These ladies are probably living miserable lives. It’s hot out. They are obese. They cannot move around. Probably have sleep issues. High blood pressure and will probably have to deal with diabetes. Their joints will start collapsing due to the weight and pressure on them.
A lot of these problems are self-inflicted and they are in their own private hells.
Social workers from the nanny state have probably already talked to them about buying good food, exercise, etc. This information is posted all over the place. They choose to not follow advice.
These ladies are being rewarded (and punmished) for making bad choices. There are no consequences for not working. The only consequences they feel for anything is their obesity and the discomfort with that.
Let them feel the heat of their private hell.
Yeah, your’re right Helene. Your way of dealing with this issure is a LOT better than humor.
Me? I pity them.
The people I despise are NPR. Them I don’t pity. Them I despise.
Every one of you has a long list of personal shortcomings and you know it. Some of you smoke, some drink to excess, some philander, some have tatoos that were a BIG mistake (but can be hidden), some are too lazy to keep their property or automobile clean, some are doing a lousy job raising their kids, etc.
But you LOOK great, so most of these things are your little secret.
I’m not saying that these enormous women should get a pass. Helene is right - they made their beds and they must lie in them. As long as nobody is demanding that *I* pay for their food or healthcare, I’m cool with leaving them alone.
And I’m way too old to make fun of them.
All I ask for is freedom. If I want to donate to over-eaters anonymous, I can. I can support AA, I can give money at church, I can be a foster parent…
…or I can live in a world without any of these things and suffer the consequences (if there are any). They key is that all people must be free to choose, and to live with the consequences - just like these women are.
What makes NPR despicable is that they want to force me into supporting these weaknesses. What makes them loathsome is that, much like Al Gore and all the others, they are too stupid to realize how OBVIOUS their stupidity is.
If/when I hear those two women declare that *I* must buy their food, then I will lump them into the same pool of filth that NPR and the liberals live in. Until that time?
I won’t bother them if they don’t bother me. Live and let live.
Spot on, Laura c. post 332 link. even the poor in this country are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. a country of whiners we are. perception is reality. you cannot have a welfare state without welfare recipients, therefore, create more poor people by allowing those with a car, airconditioning, house paid for, consuming enough calories for 3 people, to be labeled poor and eligible for title 3. I have two neighbors. one houshhold has two “disabled” receiving assistance. they raise about a half acre of garden and have livestock, quite able to feed themselves and more…are they poor??
RobM1981 said: “As long as nobody is demanding that *I* pay for their food or healthcare, I’m cool with leaving them alone.”
“If/when I hear those two women declare that *I* must buy their food, then I will lump them into the same pool of filth that NPR and the liberals live in.”
MOST OF HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND THEIR HUSBANDS are getting government assistance and food stamps!! NONE of them work, we are supporting ALL of them!
ONE MORE TIME! “Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps….
HELLO??? The whole damn extended FAMILY is making US pay for them!!! I would say RobM1981, it is time to start lumping…..
You’ve inspired me, chap. I’m opening a Ben & Jerky’s meaty ice cream parlor in Fostoria.
But first I’m off to Vermont to see how they dispose of cows that quit producing milk.
Please share how a someone becomes obese without consuming more calories than their body burns. These women are lazy gluttons.An apple for lunch and a walk to work would kill two fat birds with one stone.
There is another problem attached to that. They’d probably take home the supermarket cart/s, then push them to the curb after use. That means additional costs to storeowners. Left on the curb, they pose a hazard for car drivers; left to rust, they become blights to the neighborhood, etc. How much are you betting they’d return the carts to the store?
Oh, I don’t believe in mocking people for health issues - but I will certainly mock them for whinging about health issues over which they have full control, and especially health issues for which I’m expected to pay. And that includes allowing other people to hold them up as objects of pity. They feel so entitled that they didn’t perceive any problem with this interview or how it would look to people who actually work and pay taxes. They’ve cultivated a lifestyle of helplessness and don’t see a thing wrong with it. It’s all someone else’s fault and someone else is supposed to fix it for them.
And that’s really the bottom line here. I know *intimately* what poverty is like. To the point that in 1989-90 I went without a telephone for over a year, and without electricity for seven months, because the best I could do was pay rent and have a roof over my head. Then I got on welfare *briefly*, took advantage of job training programs, and got off of welfare at my first opportunity.
So when “poor” people like this family and Sharon Jasper - or Graham Frost and his family - are held up as examples of what we’re supposed to pity, I say screw that noise. I don’t feel AT ALL sympathetic. NOT ONE BIT.
I know poverty, and those women are NOT experiencing it. They are enjoying a less-than-middle-class lifestyle, it’s true, but that’s not poverty by any rational standard, and if they were sufficiently motivated they’d do what it takes to get out of it, they way I did, the way a lot of other people do. In past generations it was expected that people would suck it up and do what it takes. And they did. It’s time to start expecting that again.
HA! What you are saying is a pile of bulls***, Pharisee-Lawyer. You have no heart.
Several people on this board need to get off their high horses.
If the Nunez’ get upset about fat jokes then maybe they should try a little harder to not be so obese while on the government dollar.
Seriously, if you get upset that an extremely obese person on welfare bitching about how they don’t have enough to eat is being derided for their laziness and not upset about having to subsidize their sloth then your priorities are all out of whack.
These people have gotten the way they are out of people’s “understanding and sympathy” for their “plight.”
I’ve known plenty of disabled people who choose to work rather than stay on the public dollar, and plenty of people without cars that have found ways to get to work. This family has been excused for all their bad choices and now we’re supposed to feel sympathy for them? I think not.
Well that just shows how much you know. Of course I have a heart. Its just that it pumps not blood like yours or Goldwater’s, but rather a thick, vomitous oil that oozes through my rotten veins and clots in my pea-sized brains.
But lets think of some meat flavored ice creams for Hippie’s new franchise!
R’hock’y Road?
Mint Chocolte Chuck?
Vanillamb?
Actually, the vanilla flavor should probably taste “just like chicken.”
1. Bunny Tracks (now with 50% more bunny!)
2. Rocky Roadkill
3. Chocolate Chipped Beef
4. Paté Cake, Paté Cake
5. Bison-berry
Those are excellent, Hippie.
Duck L’Orange sherbert.
Weak…I know…But I am trying.
Strawberry squirrel swirl.
7. Chick-late Chip Cookie Dough
8. Arma-vanillo
9. Chunky Monkey Brains
Only in America, and only in the blinded eyes of liberal media, would these two be the example for “poor starving” families. I’m sure this type of visual really makes those countries in which people are truly starving hate us all the more.
Caption for this pic: As we say in America, “Let them eat cake!”
You are paying for their food and healthcare- and they say they need more.
Oh cry me a river Irish Rose. I lived on a ‘poverty diet’ for a long time as well and I never ended up as big as a house and neither did my son. If where I had to go was under 2 miles I did this thing called walking. It was exercise and it saved the $2 I would have had to spend for bus fare. The only time that I ever asked for a ride was if I had lots of groceries that I couldn’t manage walking or on the bus.
I know of people that grew vegetables in apartments and had arraignments with people that did have some land to plant or help maintain gardens. Eating healthy does not cost that much if you really try. It sounds like you didn’t. I bought whole chickens when they went on sale and learned how to cut them up myself. I learned how to cook cheap cuts of meat. I clipped coupons and bought on sale. The little bit of processed food that I had in the house was the bagged store brand cereal and a few other store brand items. I learned how to stretch store brand hamburger helper with some canned veggies into two to three meals. Bagged beans are cheap and take little effort.
Cable and internet was not an option and we had the land line (note not cell phone) cut off quite a few times because I could not afford the bill because the rent, heat, light and grocery bill had to be paid.
I had a 25″ tv that my grandparents gave me that was hardly ever used. The library and local parks provided the majority of entertainment. As a result my son was reading chapter books at 4.
The only welfare that we were on was some food stamps, health care and help with child care and as soon as I was able I got off those.
That is my story. What is your excuse?
My lawnmower emits greenhouse gases. I’m just trying to keep the Earth cool.
On July 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am, aprilrazz said:
I love how the people here who don’t like what I’m saying have now decided to attack me on a personal level.
What’s my excuse?
OK, I’ll bite.
I’m a domestic violence survivor. I stayed in a violent home for 20 years so that I could pay for the ongoing care of my mother, an alzheimers’ patient who lived with the disease for over 15 years, and my father who suffered with Lou Gherigs’ disease.
When my mom finally passed away, I filed for a restraining order and a divorce immediately, and took the steps that were necessary to reclaim my life and make a better life for my children.
I spent every bit of money that I had to put my kids in a small home in a decent neighborhood, instead of moving into subsidized housing. I declined welfare benefits when they were offered to me, even though I had less than $500 dollars at the time.
I sold most of my belongings to fund my job search, and pay the bills and put food on the table in the interim. I declined welfare and medicaid when they were offered to me.
I have a degree in a field that is not doing any hiring where I live. I utilized public assistance (food benefits) just long enough to get through a job training program and switch careers. I declined all other forms of government assistance, even though I was eligible.
There were many weeks when my bank account had less than a $1.00 balance. But I never lost my sense of humor or my love for life, and with Gods’ help we made it through to the other side.
I’m now working, a part time job that I love (I work with seniors, alzheimers patients, and the disabled). My hours are steadily increasing and after three years of not being able to obtain medical assistance or buy medicine for a chronic health condition, I now have coverage.
We’re still not living high on the hog, though. Groceries? They come last, AFTER the bills are paid. My kids and I still have to go without luxuries like steak, but our diet is adequate and nutritious for the first time in nearly three years. And for the most part, I accomplished all of this without “sucking on the government teat”
You really should try to avoid using the same broad brush to judge people. when it comes to poverty, one size doesn’t fit all.
Rose, It sounds like you have worked hard and done what you’ve had to do. Our social safety net is designed to help people like you temporarily, not to provide multi-generational, permanent,100% support to entire families.
I am still waiting for an explanation of how somone becomes obese without consuming more calories than they burn.
Or why someone can’t perform any exercise when they have nothing but time on their hands because they don’t have a job.
I-Rose, I can’t help but wonder, if you didn’t make the same poor choices that these two did, but instead worked hard to rise above your difficult circumstances, WHY are you equating their situation with yours?
Do you mean to say that you really don’t see a difference between their self-inflicted suffering and the consequences that rightfully ensue, vs. handling difficulty with grace and courage?
I’d like to believe that is a factor, really, but I have a friend who is heavier than the daughter in the pic and guess what? She works. She pays her bills. She pays for cable, and internet. She takes NO handouts.
This is something that the Nunez tools don’t have: work ethic. I know it isn’t easy for them to find jobs, but it’s not impossible, and damnit they got themselves into this situation.
I do what I can to encourage my friend to change her eating habits, but in the end it is choice, and her choice alone, as to how she eats.
Just like myself in that respect. While I’m not grossly overweight, I am 80lbs or so over what I should be. Is it because I’m bi-polar? Is it because I don’t make much money? Is it because healthy foods aren’t cheap enough? NO. It’s because I choose to go the easy route and have purchased things that are fast and easy to make as opposed to eating healthier. It’s because I’ve chosen for some time to not exercise. Am I proud of that? No. It sucks being overweight like this. It can be depressing, but even when I get down about it, I don’t roll over and wet myself when I can’t afford yet more junk food. Those situations have spurred me on to make corrections to my diet. It’s a constant battle, but I intend to win.
The whole thing of Ms. Nunez not working a day in her life makes me livid. If she’s been living off of handouts for 23 years or so, then it’s time for the safety net to be cut.
I can’t fathom just how many parasites like this are out there, bitching about not being able to buy more junk food than they are already getting for free.
There are thousands of choices people are faced with when it comes to diet and handouts. Those who make the right choices, often the ones that don’t feel so good to do (like walking to get a job), eventually will pull themselves out of their situations. But continually making poor decisions based on what feels good will eventually put you past a point of no return. These cows have likely past that point. If the country were to suddenly switch to a survival mode, where in order to eat you had to work, they would likely starve to death.
And yes, I’ve been through times in life where I was without money and on occasion without food because I had to choose between rent and food. Somehow I’ve managed to get through the tough times without government assistance. I do not deny that there are situations where financial assistance is needed by people in unfortunate circumstances, but the system is far to easy to abuse at this point.
This from the same woman who didn’t like what I’m saying and has now decided to attack me on a personal level.
Yeah Rob she talks about the high ride, but she can’t find it:
That’s high road
I heard these two decided to start a hunger strike to protest for an increase in food stamps.
It lasted fifteen minutes.
On July 21st, 2008 at 5:17 pm, Rob said:
Sorry Rob, no points for you this time.
You might have a leg to stand on, if I were the only person here criticizing your bald-faced bigotry.
I’m not, and you know it full well.
I know its very late on the thread, but here’s more to read on the subject of eating on a budget.
Oh so now Nose you are making fun of people without legs??
And Nose, you are accusing me of only liking people with beards?
Oh, you stick your nose in too far, toooooo far!
Irish Rose- how does a person become obese without consuming more calories than they burn?
Your insulting statement deserves an explanation.
When they sit around the house, they sit around the house.
Sorry, but you are levelling a personal attacks when you say he is the most vile bigot here.
I admire your will to better yourself, but you’re still way off base with this one. Morbidly obese people complaining that the food isn’t good enough on the public dole is just wrong.
Also, if you’ll notice, bigotry gets shot down pretty quickly around here. A few irreverent jokes does not constitute bigotry.
On July 21st, 2008 at 2:21 pm, MtsEdge said:
I see plenty of evidence there that these women are trying to rise above their difficult circumstances. And I see very little evidence that they’re making “poor choices”. Quite the contrary, they’re faced with a very difficult set of circumstances and they’re doing the best that they can to survive while trying to better their situation.
I also don’t see where they’re “whining” that they don’t get enough bennies or can’t afford ice cream. I don’t see where they’re asking for “more” handouts.
They simply responded to a reporters’ inquiry by stating that they have had to cut back on things like meat and ice cream to make ends meet.
The respondents here are the ones who saw two overwieght people who are utilizing public assistance, and just couldn’t resist rushing in to “fill in the blanks” with fat jokes and moral judgements.
How do you know that these women do not conduct themselves with grace and courage?
I’m saying that these women are facing some serious barriers to employment, and some very serious physical challenges… they live in an area that is economically depressed, there are no jobs or very few jobs for the number of people who are out of work, and they have no way to get to jobs that are farther away without adequate transportation.
The mother never worked because she stayed at home to raise her young children more than likely. This is not unusual for women her age. Whatever plans she may have had for her life down the road were derailed by an accident that resulted in a legitimate disability (those of you who suggest that the woman is slumming it on disability seem to have no idea what a difficult process it is to actually qualify for disability payments, it’s not a matter of simply going down and filling out an application. It’s a lengthy process that usually involves multiple doctors, massive documentation and years of paperwork. If the DSS says that she’s legitimately disabled, then I have no reason to believe that she isn’t).
The daughter is trying very hard to take care of the family… she has an education. She clearly employable, she has worked several jobs and continues to seek employement. She’s working hard to pursue higher education to better their circumstances but she is hampered by lack of transportation. She could choose to simply give up, have another child or two and live on welfare and food stamps, but she doesn’t see that as an option and she’s doing whatever she can to stay off the dole. She should be applauded for this, not condemned.
But none of this matters of course, because they’re fat.
And fat people are not deserving of respect.
Moving? It costs a lot of money to pick up and move, even if you have transportation, and these women have neither. They’re stuck.
As for their weight, of course they’re overweight. But there are a lot of factors that contribute to obesity… stress, depression, medical problems like diabetes and thyroid disease, a genetic tendency towards obesity (which I strongly suspect in this case), an inability to excercise properly because of physical problems, poor nutrition, little or no access to prescription medications, good medical care and/or dietary counseling.
The truth is, there isn’t a single commentator here who knows why these women are overweight. They simply assume.
The assume that these two women are gluttonous pigs who are too lazy to get off the couch, and they make cruel, cutting comments to that effect. They make comments that these women “choose” poverty and inflict suffering upon themselves by making poor choices, when they know absolutely nothing about this families’ circumstances.
The truth, is that there is a STRONG link between poverty and obesity in the Western world. Here in the West, our poor must for the most part subsist on a diet of highly processed, high sodium, hi fat, chemically laden foods if they’re going to have something to eat at all. And here’s the kicker: if they don’t get enough to eat throughout the day, then the body goes into starvation mode and they pile on even more weight.
The end result of this ugly cycle is morbid obesity and very frequently, an early death. A person in this situation “looks like” they’re getting enough to eat, but appearances are deceiving.
Here’s the truth about poverty and obesity: the wrong foods will kill you by slowly poisoning your body, just as surely as not enough food will cause you to die from starvation.
I have a lot of information that I could post here for those who are really interested in learning the truth about the link between poverty and obesity, but I doubt that many here would read the information even if I were to post it. It’s just too much fun to make jokes about the “fatties”.
My last post on this subject.
I will say on the way out that Michelle is taking a real hit on her crediblity, because of the way that some of her commentators are behaving on this thread… there are links to this discussion all over the place.
If you respect Michelle, you might try dialing your ugly anti-fat bigotry down a notch.
And let us remember, in memory of the once great race baiter and bigot himself the Rev-uh-rund Jesse-a Jackson, and that light in the loafers Lindsey Grahamnisty, and the most sanctimonious Irish Nose that calling someone a racist or bigot doesn’t mean they are one.
I do not accept these politically correct labels that the liberal left love to lob. I prefer to think of myself simply as…“RIGHT”… in every way.