Actually, I agree with Hatton on this one. There's something to his logic. Hatton's. Rush loses me with the Unicef rant, what the hell. A swollen belly is a sign of starvation. Those people in Somalia are happy to get rice because they need all the calories they can get, but their bellies aren't swollen from too many calories.
Hatton is right about food pantries. Food boxes tend to be very heavy one processes starches. Spaghetti, Ramen noodles, mashed potatoes. That is what keeps. WIC, which I did get, provides formula, milk, processed cheese and some processed cheeses. Only some srpecific items are approved. I still can't stand Velveeta and that was almost fifteen years ago. Some people buy junk food with their food stamps because it's comfort food, and others because there is no grocery store in their neighborhood. In either of these cases they are likely to run out of food stamps before the end of the month. I mean, it's fun to condemn the ignorance of others of course, but if anyone actually wants to know why, there you are. As an additional problem, I will mention that all these programs are extremely fragmented and that it becomes rather like Russia -- you stand in one line for the bread, another for the milk, a third for the utilities and a fourth for the rent. By the time you are done with any one of those the kids are whitefaced and screaming. And you still don't have diapers. Or soap, or money to do laundry, or buy a bus pass. When I lived in Gaithersburg I knew a couple of different multigenerational welfare families, and I agree that nobody should grow up in the expectation of being taken care of. It really frosted me off that I was out driving a taxi with my kid in the car, and the people who were doing well were the people whose mothers put them on the section 8 waiting list at birth. What the hell kind of expectation does that create in a child? But I don't think their life was easy. It was just the only one they knew. And by the way, obesity does tend to correlate with poverty. My proposed solution: Mandatory college classes for families that seem mired in the underclass. Good, licensed and low-cost daycare. What I don't have above is pushing people out into the workforce, or limits on the length of time people can be on some sort of assistance. That is because they are already in place. I do think that we have gotten away from the idea that some people sometimes need a little help to a sort of alternate life that solves nothing. Pushing people out into the work place solves nothing if they don't have a safe place to take their kids. There is little incentive to postpone having children if you can't imagine any other life for yourself. Thus the the college classes. On 8/31/06, C. Hatton Humphrey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Well, my point was the irony of a fat guy, who's also an avid liberal > > basher, blaming obesity on liberals. But let's talk about the points > > you bring up: > > I know he lost a lot of weight some time back (yes, the jokes could be > made about pain killers and appetite loss, that's up to you) but from > what I've seen as of late I'm more overweight than he is. > > > (1.) As I understand it, food stamps can be used to buy food - any food. > > Depends on the program. Food pantries (typically government > subsidised but privately run) give out whatever they have on their own > shelves. WIC is a program for women (and children) that only allows > for certain things. Food stamps will only cover certain items from > what I recall. Depends on the bureacracy running it (especially since > those are run at the state level). > > > (2.) More importantly, even if they only buy potato chips Limbaugh > > claims to push a conservative philosophy, a major tenant of which is > > personal responsibility. He should be blaming the people, therefore, > > not the government. To a real conservative (and he's only a fake one) > > it's the people's fault, not the government's. > > He is saying that because poor people have gotten used to living on > the government dole and based on what the article was saying, his > translation of the article is that it is the government's fault. > > 'Course then again it doesn't matter what he or I say, he could say > that a broken clock is right twice a day and you'd say that he's > saying a clock isn't right 98% of the time. > > > So it's about choices. That is, personal responsibility. If > > anything, Limbaugh should be criticizing education, but for a > > conservative he should be criticizing people. > > My point on welfare is this: people will continue to be on welfare > until the system is redesigned to push them into the workforce. > Handing someone cheese, butter and bread from now until eternity is > not the way to deal with public assistance. We do need better > education and assistance that is geared towards putting people in > jobs. Right now the systems that were created by liberals going back > to FDR have done very little for the reeducation and/or placement of > the unemployed. > > Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and > you feed him for a lifetime. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:214706 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
