Poor Ohio Family Forced to Scrimp On Food
You just can't make this stuff up...
Poor Ohio Family Forced to Scrimp on Food
And?
Angelica Hernandez (left) and her mother, Gloria Nunez, struggle to make ends meet on a very limited budget. (NPR)
NPR aired a sad piece on the Nunez family in Ohio who can no longer afford meat.
It's a good thing they're a radio channel.
Gloria Nunez has never worked. She says that since her car broke down (imagine that?) her daughter can't look for a job either.
And, they're scrimping on food:
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.They could probably do just fine with a few bags less of groceries, but that's just me.
A little walking probably wouldn't hurt either.
Moonbattery has more on the starving poor.
posted by Gateway Pundit at 7/18/2008 10:23:00 AM
97 Comments:
You know I am sick of this stuff making the news. Hot dog, gas is pricey. So what...when sneakers were $100.00 a pair no one complained.
And to these women and groceries...I wonder about the "journalist" covering the story. If one chooses to pick on the silly sap who giddily chooses to speak when a mic is placed in front of them then do so(as proof is in the padding), but this is not a story but SPIN.
I cannot handle the elite MEDIA(LOL) that think that we the public will not see that the emperor is naked. Oh but sadly most of the public doesn't have any idea either.
Thanks for illuminating this crisis of higher food costs.
Jennifer
penofjen.blogspot.com
I don't know what any of that means.
I just know I'm a little aroused by that picture.
Remember? Fat chicks are like Mopeds. Fun to ride, but make sure your friend doesn't catch you.
Related.
I see this everyday at a food distribution (for the needy)location where I work. I've even had a 500+lb man demand to know if he would be compensated in some other way because we had to close for a day.
In 4 months I've only seen one little old couple that looked like they needed food. The rest of the lard-butts bring in their children to evoke sympathy. You just know that the kids aren't getting enough to eat because mom is scarfing it all. So you give them food and hope the kid gets some of it.
Holy Heffers, Batman!
$100.00 of groceries will feed me for a month! What do they buy???
Oh, and having a job helps too...
I know, I have no heart.
I hope John McCain uses this line of reasoning in his campaign. "You can't be poor or hurt by the economy--you're fat! Guffaw, guffaw!"
These two are perfect examples of what liberalism brings you.
For more examples look at all the incredibly poor and incredibly fat people that needed help getting out of the dimocrap run New Orleans. Who, by the way, are all still complaining.
Ok, I just read kris kahn's comments and almost wet myself. I GOTTA stop drinking so much water.
Too bad we couldn't come up with some kind of liposuction technology that converts human fat into an energy source. By the looks of these chicks (and their kind), I'm pretty sure they could be classified as "renewable" resources.
Liposuction those two and use it for biofuel. It ought to run a bus for a month.
I just bought porterhouse steaks at $4.99/lb. I'm pretty sure that's cheaper than my parents paid 20 years ago, even adjusting for inflation. These people look like they could halve their caloric intake and still be living large. boo.friggin.hoo.
Dang-all of the commentators have commented on what I would have commented on
OK-The “loss of meat” will help the ladies a LOT!
Confession: The above is a duplicate of a comment I wrote on another site.
Joan of Argghh! is 100% correct. I've watched the 'poor' riding station wagons and pickup's go to the local food bank and load up, the go to several different churches that give away food. Have been in homes where food and clothes (never to be used) was stacked floor to ceiling. I know people who have 'friends' who bring them hundreds of dollars worth of 'free' food monthly because they don't like the choice of foods given away. The change from food stamps to a credit card only slowed the ripoff's a week or so. Now they take orders for a hundred dollars in food, deliver it for $50 and hit their local drug dealer.
Firefighter
Every workday I commute by a packaging place that hires the mentally and physically handicapped. Some wear helmets and others require help walking, yet they work (read contribute) and probably feel good about it.
THAT'S why I get so angry about people who make fake disability claims or those like these two human garbage disposals who get government support to do nothing all day because they're either too stupid, lazy, or anti-social.
Try. Otherwise, screw you. Being pathetic is no excuse.
Yikes!
The mother has never worked? So she decided to have a kid? And now that kid can't work because they don't have a car? You loser aholes are what is killing this nation.
I would normally say, "Hey, what about the bus" but these days people connect "bus" negatively to Obama and I get called a racist. So I demur.
What I want to know is, are they here legally?
I remember a story about a guy saying how badly he wanted to emigrate to the U.S.--it impressed him that our poor were fat....
And then they get a "migrane" and call the ambulance and some poor sap like me has to load their arses in the gut bucket and haul them to the hospital.
If they want sympathy they can look in the dictionary between sex and syphilis, it's right there...
What really burns me up about this is that NPR is using our tax dollars to argue that we should be spending more tax dollars to support these slugs.
I live in Appalachia in a relatively poor part of PA. There is a woman in my neighborhood who walks nearly ten miles on a daily basis to get to her job as a Nurses Aide in the local hospital. Not just some days but every working day. And she is in her 50s and has had this job for ten years. Yes there really still are some people like her out there -- I stand in awe.
But of course they aren't standing there whining with their hands out so NPR doesn't think they are important. In fact the taxes she pays probably buys the food that these two lazy porkers shovel into their mouths.
There's enough blubber on those two to hibernate until 2010. If they ever go swimming, they better avoid Japanese waters. "Thar she blows..."
Its stuff like this that made me leave being a State Social Worker and move to the private "corporate" world. My wife and I, one Christmas Eve spent the evening spliting a chicken breast and half a can of corn. While my fat ass, so depressed that i can't work, clients ate crab legs and watched christmas specials from thier 200 channel cable. The state had to provide money for these lazy bastards to watch TV and eat because they were to damn depressed to go to even take a walk. But guess I learned from that experience, work hard for what you have and you'll appriciate it and....don't trust the F'ing Social System.
Let them call the democrats - they love giving tax money to people like that.
Oh I can't work cause I don't have a car. boo hoo hoo
How about the man who couldn't walk cause he didn't have any legs.
Yep. It's getting to be that the only folks who want to go into Social Services are the True Believers that are young and innocent, or the folks who already know how to scam the bureaucracy.
They get in and create as many clients as possible to justify their jobs. Pretty soon, everyone's in on it. You should see the hoarding and the grabbing whenever there's food for free. And that's just the case workers...
Let me ruin your day.
Someone had to get between momma's legs (bad)
What do you think he found when he got there (worse)
Pardo!!!!
You know, this is pure laziness -- these people don't want to work, period.
My dad came from Italy in the 60s with nothing -- he worked hard, never complained, and did what he could to raise us...we're doing just fine, and he instilled in us values that keep us appreciative of this great country.
That's not a liberal message -- it's a conservative one.
Whatever happened to the adage "you don't work, you don't eat."
A hundred dollars buys seven or eight bags of groceries? Wow, no wonder so many Americans are overweight.
What I want to know is, are they here legally?
Did any of you people even read the article? The woman is 40 and her father worked for GM for 45 years. Her daughter is 17. They were both obviously born in the U.S.
Your commenters are a real impressive bunch, Jim.
I don't know who posted this, but these are my cousin's - NOT these Nunez' you say they are. But WHO CARES!
Never worked. Been on welfare all her life. What happened to welfare reform? Illegal aliens as well I bet.
Fading away to a block of flats.
"Did any of you people even read the article? The woman is 40 and her father worked for GM for 45 years. Her daughter is 17. They were both obviously born in the U.S."...
'Obviously' dim-dave?
Wetbacks have been invading the US for well over seventy years but informed people would know that...
I'm willing to bet this more your cup of tea: Mexico to honor Sen. Kennedy on immigrant rights
None the less whether these two bovine beasts are here legally or not the last thing they need is to take food out of the mouths of people who need it...
So, um, where does she get the hundred bucks?
The state gives it to her for being fat?
This country is going to shit.
Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.
That's what makes you fat, starches. I'm not defending them, but if you are poor you are probably eating mainly starches. But, it is obvious they are eating TOO many starches. But, a can of vegetables aren't THAT expensive either.
This was just too funny for me, especially given that just yesterday I wrote a satirical piece at Conservatism Today entitled "It's Time to Soak the Poor." Thanks, Gateway!
'Obviously' dim-dave
Wetbacks have been invading the US for well over seventy years but informed people would know that...
You're a racist moron.
Yes, obviously. Again, read the article.
The woman's *father* worked for GM for at least 5 years before she was born, and for at least 28 years before her daughter was born. Unless you think he worked for GM in another country that whole time, there is no way they are immigrants period. They are Americans.
And the people here who assume they're illegal immigrants simply because they have a Latin American last name are racist morons, too.
Never worked. Been on welfare all her life. What happened to welfare reform?
Where does it say she's been on welfare her whole life? I don't even know that she's on it now. She receives Social Security and food stamps now, according to the article. Nothing about welfare.
I just wish they could afford bigger shirts. Jeez!
wasn't it Fareed Zakaria who had a friend who wanted to live in America because the poorest people were the fattest.
Eat shat fagdave from nyc, if you read the article closely it says both of these women are on welfare and have been for some time.
Perhaps if you weren't trolling for dudes on the local gay dating site, you might be able to read better.
Crap eating dork.
Yeah,
them flaming-hot cheetos and Little Debbies are getting so expensive they can only by 14 jumbo bags instead of their normal 27.
Heck, I heard these folks have resorted to eating their money because they can't afford gas in the '87 Buick anymore. Angelica was noted as saying "the tens and twentys taste the best with just a little chipotle seasoning."
Awesome.
These stories are usually more interesting for the reactions that they bring out in "conservatives" than for anything else.
If you stop to read the article, you see that they are American citizens, the mother and daughter rely on Soc Security ($637) and food stamps ($102). The mother's father had worked at GM and her mother had worked as a driving instructor. Now they are all unemployed, and the mother and daughter live in subsidized housing. The daughter says she has been trying to get a job, but few places are hiring. Also 400 jobs are about to be lost when a local factory closes soon.
So it's not like they choose not to work, they are trying to find jobs, but they also aren't spending what they have wisely. The grandmother is going to lose her car because she's behind on payments. Why is she driving a newer car? She should be driving an inexpensive used car with no payments. The $100 for groceries may not buy a lot of fresh meat and vegetables, but they should be able to buy enough healthy food instead of starchy junk. $100 worth of cheap starchy and fatty food will make anyone really fat if they're not constantly exercising. They don't know how to shop for good food, and don't get any exercise, thus they are fat.
Do they need help? Yes, but they don't need a handout, which is what the current system encourages. They need to learn how to eat right, they need to find employment (in the case of the daughter, at least she's trying, jobs are just drying up instead of being available), and they need to learn to manage their money better. Thank God they at least know better than for the daughter to have a child for the added Gov't handouts.
ButtGoblinDave from fagville: Where does anyone identify themselves as conservative, you fop? Are you really so stupid as to believe that liberals don't get pissed about lazy fools?
Climb back under the sink to your Comet™ fumes, you ball chaser.
"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."
Looks like they have been pretty serious on those noodles.
Listen up, flamers! You're both wrong.
The only sad plight being outlined in this story is the one of hapless and now helpless people who only have to summon up enough smarts to work the system.
I can recite their story over and over and over again. Always hugely fat, on DISABILITY, and several adults who can't get a job-- all in the same house. Now they live in an echo-chamber of self pity and victimization amongst themselves and with their friends they meet at the local SS offices.
Do you know how easy it is to get disability? Apparently pretty easy. The number one disability? Anxiety.
Do you know who I blame for the situation? Every single voter who voted in our last two generations of congress critters, left or right.
The voting block of largesse benefit groups is too staggering to ignore, so both conservatives and liberals keep creating more and more. And YOU voted for these ball-less leaders, they didn't arrive uninvited.
You can bet that none of these lawmakers ever have to see or consider what they've created with their greed: an entire class of people who truly know no other way to live. They are ruined beyond scolding or motivation. It stands to us to support these cows, at this point, as much as that may chap your ass, but that's the price we pay for voting in our sleep.
I just heard (around 8:20 EST 7/19/08) a long national NPR story about an American doctor who's working on malaria in Uganda. They did the whole thing without once mentioning DDT.
Are you sure that photo is not an outtake from that old Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man?
$100/week will buy plenty of beans, greens (like collards), grean beans, lettuce, carrots, potatoes and myriad other vegetables. Pork and chicken are quite cheap, and adults shouldn't really drink anything other than water if they don't want to get fat. I use the tap at home, and I spend maybe 25 cents a week drinking, plus I get free flouride. (We won't talk about the cost of bourbon.) If these women adjusted their diets accordingly, they'd soon feel good enough to work.
The LA punk band The Circle Jerks said it best over 25 years ago:
in a sluggish economy
inflation,recession
hits the land of the free
standing in unemployment lines
blame the government for hard time
we just get by
however we can
we all gotta duck
when the sh** hits the fan
10 kids in a cadillac
stand in lines for welfare checks
let's all leech off the state
gee!the money's really great!
soup lines
free loaves of bread
5lb blocks of cheese
bags of groceries
social security
has run out on you and me
we do whatever we can
gotta duck when the sh** hits the fan
Lounge version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUbnOFPud3M
1) The photo is straight from NPR's very own website here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545
2) Direct quote; "Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps."
Clearly, that is not welfare, but it certainly is from the same money tree.
Note to NPR: if you want people to pity the subjects of your sob stories, please do not select a pair of unmotivated, underemployed, taxpayer-money-collecting obese women.
Look, I've been unemployed and it sucked! I hated not having any money. So I spent every day looking for a job and jumping through every hoop necessary to find one. If the economy is bad in your area, go where the jobs are. If you don't have any qualifications, go to one of those vo-tech schools you see advertised on t.v. and learn a trade or how to be a dental assistant or something. Start a business or a service. Sell Avon. Do something besides sitting on your fat butt feeling sorry for yourself.
The cynic in me says that NPR put considerable time into locating a family that had this particular configuration (married grandparents with long work histories, siblings and cousins all resident proximate to eachother) and faced these specific impediments (communting problems from small town residency, nearby factory closing).
Where does it say she's been on welfare her whole life? I don't even know that she's on it now. She receives Social Security and food stamps now, according to the article. Nothing about welfare.
The implication is that she has been receving disability benefits since 1991 and apparently never completed high school or worked in the eight years antecedent to that. The reporter never asked or refuses to report what injuries render her unable to work. That may indicate something about the assumptions the reporter brings to his work; it may also indicate that that particular datum would complicate the narrative. It is a reasonable inference that:
1. The father, a working man who presided over an abundant and intact family, nevertheless failed to do what the vast majority of working class paterfamilias do: to adequately socialize his post-adolescent and young adult children and usher them into the working world.
2. The Social Security Administration ant the Department of Agriculture provided at least one of his dysfunctional children with a shabby cocoon to live in.
There were attempts in 1980-82, initiated by a Democtratic Congress, to reform the disability program so as to exclude beneficiaries that the man-in-the-street would tend to regard as able-bodied. That effort was scuttled by the efforts of journalists producing literature of this genre.
Crafting a statutory definition of disability that avoids mission creep on the part of public bureacracies has proven a challenge not met for more than fifty years and reporters whose response is to generate sob stories about people whose benefits have been cut off (and bureacracies asked to solve vexed questions will make mistakes) serve the public ill.
We all might look forward to a world where the ethic of common provision is to subsidize (rather than tax) the earned income of the struggling working class, to assist them in getting to work by clearing the hoodlums off the streets and getting the trolleys on the streets, to prepare them for work by crafting a secondary school system whose default task is the provision of quality vocational instruction, and to limit state assistance to help with the sort of personal disasters (law suits, illnesses, insanity) that can overwhelm families and that rational people do not seek out. You would have far fewer people wasting their adult life in the manner this woman has.
Either the folks at NPR are doing a really lousy job finding sympathetic examples to go with their weekly "America sucks and here are some poor victims" sob stories, or they've been penetrated by a conservative mole who's just earned his pay for the week.
Well put ya'll..............
Just remember............
Life's tough....buy a helmet
and oh yeah.....
Never argue with a guy carrying a water buffalo....
Steve on vaca
Remember that cheap food is probably fatty, and in general it is expensive to each nutritiously. While the poor gain weight, it doesn't mean that they are well-fed. This is an increasingly visible phenomenon not just in the United States but around the world.
Welcome to the Wacky, Upside-Down World of the 21st Century!
This photo and article was posted on one the forums I'm on. Most of us were offended that the article was posted at all, and many commented how lopsided the story was. It's too easy to see something like this and categorize people. Eg: "All Mexicans are ..., All overweight people are . . ., All people on disability are . . . ." I was agast at the comments I read posted here - the HATE, the INTOLERANCE, the IGNORANCE the SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, the DISCRIMINATION. Shame on you all! What if we were to take any of your weaknesses and hold them up to public ridicule? How would you fare? As Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." I'm confident that ALL of you have something of which to be ashamed, and your comments here prove it.
Food costs the same in europe, yet the poor in europe are not fat. Spare me the mythology, you can eat nutritious food with less money. You have to replace meat with more chicken, tuna, and beans. Eat non-organic produce. Frozen produce. Take public transportation to the grocery store.
Sure everything is hard when you're poor. But you still have to try.
I was agast at the comments I read posted here - the HATE, the INTOLERANCE, the IGNORANCE the SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, the DISCRIMINATION. Shame on you all! What if we were to take any of your weaknesses and hold them up to public ridicule? How would you fare? As Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." I'm confident that ALL of you have something of which to be ashamed, and your comments here prove it.
Anonymous @ 10:38, you are not the most winsome advocate of a disposition free from self-righteousness.
I certainly am not without character defects and I would wager most of the participants here would admit as much for themselves. It is neither implicit or explicit in anyone's comments that the Family Nunez should be composed of people without defects. It has been explicit that the family in question should meet certain minimum standards in the conduct of their adult life, among them working for a wage. Others have pointed out that the women in question have a problem with their appetite. Gluttonly is one of the seven deadly sins, as is sloth. I have been known to suffer from both to some degree. In the case of Miss Nunez, it has made a ruin of her life and it is simply bad social policy to structure incentives in the political economy to encourage more of it, and it is something of which people are righly intolerant.
The Social Security Administration did not do Miss Nunez and her family any favors by putting her on an open-ended dole, and you do neither her nor the commonweal any favors by attempting to stigmatize discussion of same. The question at hand is how to drag Miss Nunez out of the hole she has dug for herself. An aspect of the recovery program would be to set a terminal date on her cash and scrip benefits.
Our hope for the future is that we undertake common provision in such a way that it assists people without enervating them and understands them as adults and not 'clients'. It is doubtful that the initiative for this is going to come from the social-work industry or the soi-disant loving and tolerant.
Would it be a tragedy if both of these women could not afford ANY food for a few months? I'm thinking if they just lived on juice and vitamins for six months they'd lose that blubber.
What I want to know is, who is the brilliant conservative who snuck through the NPR hiring profile, worked their way up to Stealth Producer, and then produced this wonderful, too-precious-for-words parody that's subtle enough so that NPR's listener probably got a bit teary-eyed over those poor women?
What I want to know is, who is the brilliant conservative who snuck through the NPR hiring profile, worked their way up to Stealth Producer, and then produced this wonderful, too-precious-for-words parody that's subtle enough so that NPR's listener probably got a bit teary-eyed over those poor women?
Anon 10:38
I am not ashamed to place the blame squarely where it belongs: on politicians, media elitists, and bleeding heart liberals who will NEVER deign to see the infantilism they've created with stupid, stupid policy.
It makes it too easy for the weak-minded to never shore up their mental resources and actually, think their way out of a problem as an adult should. That so many clamor and wring their hands at the plight of such hapless people just proves that the infantilism of the populace is nearly complete.
These women live the way they do because they choose it, every day,with every mouthful, every whiny complaint. I wouldn't hire them even if it was the most menial task imaginable. If you've ever contracted with day labor for even an envelope-stuffer, you'd know the truth. These poor women are ruined beyond help, and BAD IDEAS about the role of government are the culprit.
dim dave in nyc whines: "You're a racist moron.
Yes, obviously. Again, read the article"...
Oh I've read it a couple of times but unlike easily gullible YOU what comes spilling out of that socialist entity called NPR is a best very questionable...
"And the people here who assume they're illegal immigrants simply because they have a Latin American last name are racist morons, too"...
Coming from a pandering enabler this is rather funny... YOU have NO proof whatsoever that what NPR claimed was even remotely factual... Then again you've proven your gullibility often enough with your support of the party of the Seditious & Sleazy...
What dim dave in nyc missed: "Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job."...
"Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps...
Yeah dim dave in nyc my politcally correct hero, why don't you run over to Ohio and hire these ever so qualified people and please do pay them a living wage...
When I first saw this I had to double-check the date on my computer. Could it have somehow been reset to April 1? No?
Okay, "July Fool", everyone.
i think i am in love with joan of arghhs mind.
Coming from a pandering enabler this is rather funny... YOU have NO proof whatsoever that what NPR claimed was even remotely factual
If you doubt whether anything in the NPR article is factual, then on what basis are you questioning whether this family is here legally? Their last name? The color of their skin?
These are racist attitudes, and there's no sense continuing to deny it. I hope that you can realize it, and then you can try to do something about it. To steal a line from Deam Wormer: angry and afraid is no way to go through life.
That so many clamor and wring their hands at the plight of such hapless people just proves that the infantilism of the populace is nearly complete.
Joan, the way Miss Nunez and (apparently, several of her siblings) have lived their life is quite atypical. Twenty-five years ago here in New York, people on open-ended doles like AFDC and general relief amounted to about 6% of the population. About 4-5% of households qualified for Social Security disability, of whom perhaps 40% were dubious claimants. About one household in twelve was infantilized in this way. The share in the years since has declined. (The share of journalists who report stories like this without any critical insight into their raw data may not have).
ArtD, it may be atypical in contrast to the general populace, but it's entirely prototypical of the "poor in America" as we now experience it through our media.
The sad thing is that they are far poorer than any generation before them, in terms of helplessness. I've worked with them off and on in this country and in a foreign country.
I'd rather feed truly starving stomachs for just one day in Haiti. Infinitely more satisfying, more heartbreaking, more eye-opening than an entire life's service in the government welfare machine.
Dave in NYC,
Faulty assumptions on their immigration status might suggest your interlocutor be more careful to reason inductively. (He actually expressed indifference to their immigration status, and the earlier commenter merely expressed curiosity about it). Concerns about their immigration status are ancillary questions here. The primary question is one of how institutions have and should influence the choices people make on how to live. The population of this country is largely working class. A large minority have no net assets. Only a modest minority can or do check-out of the labor force for periods measured in decades. I think if you question people you will discover that the wage earning majority is just not impressed with this sort of behavior. They might utter this judgment with more charity than some do, but the negative evaluation is defensible and not properly stigmatized as 'racist'.
While we are at it, what is your basis for saying "juandos" is afraid or angry (as opposed to 'disgusted' or 'contemptuous', which are different emotions)?
Wow... how judgmental everyone seems to be. It's assumed that getting Social Security disability is easy. It's not. My son is seriously disable -- and it's visible -- and he had to fight for it AND to keep it.
The phrase "depressed and disabled" does not mean that depression is the cause of the disability. A closed head injury from the car wreck could be the cause.
Why, yes it's not always visible that someone's brain just doesn't work right. A serious disability is often accompanied by depression and the docs put you on crap that causes you to gain weight even if you eat the same as before, or less.
You want to bet that for any job that there is more than one applicant the skinnier one gets hired.
Don't tell me that everyone commenter here is normal weight and never acted in a foolish manner.
Fair enough, Joan. I suspect, however, that the phenomenon depicted in this story is less prevalent than it was thirty years ago, and that there has been some divergence of view between reporters of the sort who filed this story (on the one hand) and politicians (on the other). I doubt Marian Wright Edelman has anywhere near the respect and influence she did a generation ago.
yet they both look like starving africans, or jews just released from a death camp....
excuse me to both of the FAT ASSES....
TRY A DIET
My question is this: Do you think NPR even tried to find a thin family to profile as "poor and starving," and either couldn't find one, or found ones that weren't the politically-correct ethnicity to profile?
Or is NPR so blinded by their bias and ignorance that they honestly did not foresee the hilarity that would ensue after they chose two people who clearly NEED TO STOP EATING FOR A WHILE as their examples of people who are "starving"?
Bad enough that left-wingers think conservatives have no brains; now they think we don't have eyes, either.
Donna, it is conceivable that she has an occult injury. The thing is, this news feature is of the genre 'sob story'. A discussion of her disability would buttress the reporter's point and counteract the data on her work history and appetites. That he did not specify what the disability is is suggestive. Also, any psychoactive drugs given her are not going to effect her daughter's metabolism. (I am about 30# overweight, if you are interested).
That there are hurdles to be cleared in garnering Social Security disability does not tell us whether the hurdles amount to an appropriate sorting of the population which applies (as opposed to mere red tape). The reviews undertaken in the early 1980s suggest that the institutional environment of the antecedent 25 years had led to the award of benefits to hundreds of thousands of people who were not among the program's intended beneficiaries. What goes on is often opaque.
One other point, Donna. The article indicated that of the set composed of herself, her siblings, and their spouses, only a minority were employed, and these part-time. It is doubtful that occult injuries are the source of that problem.
no job, no car, no prospects, dependent upon government....
Grossly overweight....
And if you look closely, a big old tattoo on the young un's wrist.
Who is going to hire her?
And just a question, if the husband retired from GM, shouldn't the wife, even if he is dead, be collecting his pension?
Being a bit 'plump' and having decided to 'take off a few pounds' I have - as works best - decided to eat a LOT more fruits and veggies. I have just come back from the grocery store, with a HUGE load of fresh fruit, and a small quantity of 'junk' ( diet soda and such) and let me assure you that the VEGGIES were 3/4 of the cart but only 1/4 of the bill.
Not only CAN you eat well and save $$ - but if you DO eat well you WILL lose weight and WILL save big bucks.
Actually, Dave, Dean Wormer said "drunk and stupid is no way to go through life."
Oddly enough, most "poor" people are both drunk and stupid!
Try harder next time, dear.
I kinda feel sorry for the reporter. Her boss probably forced her to do the story. "Uhm, yeah. Uh, we need you to do a story, uhm, on how people are not, uhm, getting enough to eat because, you know, food is expensive. Uhm, we have two people in mind for, uhm, the interview."
The reporter probably got one look at the two orbiting planets and replied, "you want me to do what?!"
I can both empathize with these people, and still harshly condemn them. I'm currently rated 100% disabled, with degenerative disk disease, osteoarthritis, chronic pain, tinnitus, and a couple of other problems. I worked until these problems were just too much for me. I eat healthy food because I also have reactive hypoglycemia - meaning a a diet as free from sugar as it's possible to do in today's world. I weigh the same today that I did when I got married 42 years ago (although it's not necessarily in the same places), yet the military considers me "obese" now.
I have a 34-year-old son who is also on Social Security disability. His problems stem from child abuse that happened long before we adopted him 30 years ago. My son CAN work, but he can't do the things work would require of him, like handling his own money and making simple decisions that require thinking about the future. He lives as much in a day-to-day world as a conscious human being can. If he works, he loses part of his social security. He has to live in a managed setting, because the portions of his brain where long-term decisions are made (i.e., next week, in his case) has been severely damaged. Social security, group homes, and sheltered workshops are a lifesaver for him.
BTW, I'm 61, and my wife and I recently adopted a 3-year-old who is in need of special help. Working a job isn't the only way you can continue to contribute to society - just be open to what you CAN do.
wow.. is all I can say seems like they could pass on a few boxes of twinkies. people like this crack me up get a job and lose the weight and quit living off the working people.
Can these women get a job?
Yes ... I work from home and was able to upgrade my lifestyle. They either cannot imagine anything better, or it is easier to sit back( and they must sit all the time to get that big) and wait for the checks and the charity. I rec'd charity for Christmas once... I guess it made the givers feel good, but next Christmas I would rather have a friend to chat with than any free stuff for me and my kids!
I have made it to a better place, and they can too.
One day did it for me, never wanting to go back to that public aid office and be questioned about my bank statements like I was doing something illegal( Oh maybe they only did it to me cuz I looked like I did not belong there...white, healthy looking, pretty, not huge and fat, not on drugs...)
But whatever happened made me never want to go back there... so I bought a computer on my CC and searched online for businesses I could do at home and found an angel on line that did a little hand holding and showed me the ropes.
I did it!
I did it because I want more!
I never want to have to go back there, or get bags of charity dropped off, thank you.
It is a sad place to be, yeah it is free, yeah you can be lazy... but what a legacy to teach your kids and brothers and sisters.
If you are fat, disabled, on pubic aid, there are still jobs you can do! and Go for a walk or swim daily, it will get better with each day.
Whoever gives these people this money are doing it cuz it keeps them in a job too. so wrong!
Poor dim dave in nyc now whines: "If you doubt whether anything in the NPR article is factual, then on what basis are you questioning whether this family is here legally? Their last name? The color of their skin?"...
Hmmm, let me guess dim dave in nyc, you NEVER bothered to check other materials available on the internet to verify or crucify something from the socialist entity you seem to hold in high esteem, right?
"These are racist attitudes, and there's no sense continuing to deny it. I hope that you can realize it, and then you can try to do something about it."...
Oh dear! Racist attitudes?!?! Oh my! Not pandering to parasites is now a form of racism according to dim dave in nyc...
Do something about it?
Well I'm working trying to eliminate any and all entitlement programs...
Let me guess, that's racist too, right dim dave in nyc?
BTW dim dave in nyc, how come you aren't on your way to Ohio to hire these poor, carless bovine beasts? They're hungry you know...
We should drop them on Mexico City if we can get the plane off the ground. Fat bitches!
"She receives Social Security and food stamps now, according to the article. "
Food stamps = Welfare.
Social security for what? being fat? She didn't work and pay into SS to retire.
Did her baby daddy die and she gets SS until the kid turns 18?
She has NEVER worked! Get that? Her kid is 17. In 17 years she has NEVER worked.
There is no reason why those two cannot work. None. Car broke down? So friggen what. Walk to work like I did for five years. Take public transportation. What ever. Not a reason in the world except for some reason people these days seem to think that it is okay to just abuse the system, after all, it doesn't cast them anything.
raping the people who actually pay taxes. When the top 1% of society gets tired of this and with holds their tax payments what are you poor people going to eat? What? You think these fat worthless life forms can or will support your infrastructure? Think again.
democrats are the lowest form of animal life forms known. Republicans run a very close second.
"Adipose. The fat literally walks away."
this is just disgusting, seeing pictures like this and going to the free health clinics and seeing them as basically a maternity word for the poor, I am beginning to think maybe some type of communist/facist rule isnt such a bad thing
Sorry, Anon 10:00. No one here is taking that bait. Crawl back to Kos.
To answer Pardo's question: (Someone had to get between momma's legs (bad)....What do you think he found when he got there (worse)?)
Picture a bulldog with a mouthful of mayonnaise....
"The car broke down so now the daughter can't even look for a job."
Uhhhh, ever hear of the bus? Oh wait, those gigantihuge bodies wouldn't fit through the bus door. Soooo, why the h*ll not walk? As any person with 1/4 brain in there head could CLEARLY see, EXERCISE WOULD HELP THAT 'POOOOOOOR OHIO FAMILY'.
What a load of complete nagel. Many thousands if not millions of people around the world, walk to work and anywhere else they need to go...INCLUDING THE GROCERY STORE!!! You mean to tell me, they can make it to the grocery store and back with their groceries, yet cannot make it to a damn job interview???
Just one of many people who take advantage of the state and government programs meant to help people in need. What the h*ll does this family need? A whole cow, 5 pigs, and 30 chickens-worth of meat for a week.
Bite me, there's some protein for ya.
How mean to make fun of these poor people. Shame on all of you.
Sduran...you can bite me too. These people are poor by choice. Read ALL of the comments, especially the ones from people who have been poor and have, (key word here Sduran,) WORKED their way up to where they are today. It's people like YOU that keep encouraging lazy people like that to suck the system, and hard WORKING tax payers dry. Just coddle them some more. Hey, while you're at it, why not let convicted pedophiles work in schools with small children with little or no supervision. Then go cry to everyone else when your 5 year old gets raped.
George Carlin's Solution to Save Soldier's Lives, Gasoline and deal
with Illegal Immigration.
Bush wants us to cut the amount of gas we use. He also wants to save
American soldier's lives and deal with Ilegal Immigration.The best way
to stop using so much gas is to deport 11 million illegal immigrants
to Iraq, Talk about troop surge! That would be 11 million less people
using our gas. The price of gas would come down.
Bring our troops home from Iraq to guard the border. When they catch
an illegal immigrant crossing the border, hand him a canteen, rifle
and some ammo and ship him to Iraq . Tell him if he wants to come to
America then he must serve a tour in the military. Give him a
soldier's pay while he's there and tax him on it. After his tour, he
will be allowed to become a citizen since he defended this country. He
will also
be registered to be taxed and be a legal patriot. This option will
probably deter illegal immigration and provide a solution for the
troops in Iraq and the aliens trying to make a better life for
themselves. If they refuse to serve, ship them to Iraq anyway, without
the canteen, rifle or ammo.
Problem solved.