National Propaganda Radio has really sunk to a special low

[MrsSmith]

Hardhead (1000+ posts)       Fri Jul-18-08 07:27 PM
Original message

National Propaganda Radio has really sunk to a special low
 

Can you spot the problem with this article?



For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach



by Yuki Noguchi



Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.

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.

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.

"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"

They both reject that as a plan.

"I'm trying to get a job," Hernandez says. "I just can't get a job."

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.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545

Now is this story really about the high price of food? Perhaps you noticed the delicate subtext underlying most of the story. (I'll let someone else sum it up. Just six words will capture it.) Are these two ladies average representatives of the lower class? Or might there be a special piquancy to having them as subjects? I'm not exactly perceptive to subtleties. You have to hit me over the head with things. So I'm pretty amazed by this article, because subtlety clearly was not part of the agenda.
 

  

[rich_t]

How do you get that fat on food stamps?

 

[mamacags]

As a side note...  A couple of days ago I was leaving Walmart and there was a man and woman by the road with a sign.  The woman had me by a good 75-100 pounds and the man was not skinny at all.  Their sign said "Hungry, no money, no gas, please help."  At my size I could probably go a month with no food before you noticed a difference.  At her size they could eat half of her thigh to get them by for a month.  Am I a horrible person because I didn't feel any sympathy at all (not the 239823849 other reasons why I am a horrible person)?

[Miss Mia]

As a side note...  A couple of days ago I was leaving Walmart and there was a man and woman by the road with a sign.  The woman had me by a good 75-100 pounds and the man was not skinny at all.  Their sign said "Hungry, no money, no gas, please help."  At my size I could probably go a month with no food before you noticed a difference.  At her size they could eat half of her thigh to get them by for a month.  Am I a horrible person because I didn't feel any sympathy at all (not the 239823849 other reasons why I am a horrible person)?

No, you're not a horrible person.

I have sympathy for the man that asked me to buy him a sandwich, not the one that asks for money. 

[Willow]

How do you get that fat on food stamps?

 

I don't think you can on $102.00 a month worth of food stamps. They should be skinny like scarecrows! Are all the folks over at DU drama queens?

[Lacarnut]

Our liberal TV station did a spot on kids lunches at a public school and how this might be the only hot meal a day they get. Of course, everyone of these black kids were porkers. On the other hand, I live within 3 blocks of 2 catholic schools and one magnet school. I see these kids jogging every day. I guess the porkers don't jog and have lousy eating habits like these 2 ton Annie's. 

[Lord Undies]

Poverty is fattening.  It's true.  Starchy foods are cheap.  Potatoes, Ramen noodles, rice, pastas, beans, breads.  The cheap meats are loaded with fat.  Cheap hot dogs, cheap bologna, almost-hamburger.  Then there's the Dollar Menu at Gertie's Gallons of GreaseBurgers.  It takes its toll.

Yes, it is possible to exist on these things and not become fat, but it takes intelligence, education, discipline, and the right frame of mind.  It can be especially burdensome for those predisposed to weight gain, which has a lot more to do with being fat than society cares to acknowledge.

The idea that the economically challenged among use should be the skinniest is just not based in facts.

[mamacags]

Canned veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, potatoes are cheap.  Stuffing your face with massive ammounts of these is not only expensive but fattening.  Even on the cheapest foods you have to work at it to be fat.  I should know.

[Taxman]

A couple of observations...on another board they showed a larger pic than the one shown here on CC...the "girl" in pink has a tat on her arm....didn't know you could get them with foodstamps. 

I am thinking meat is out of reach not because of prices but maybe due to their size.   

[PatriotGame]

Whoa! The village is getting fat.
Musta be one of them epidemics I keep hearing about.

[MrsSmith]

Poverty is fattening.  It's true.  Starchy foods are cheap.  Potatoes, Ramen noodles, rice, pastas, beans, breads.  The cheap meats are loaded with fat.  Cheap hot dogs, cheap bologna, almost-hamburger.  Then there's the Dollar Menu at Gertie's Gallons of GreaseBurgers.  It takes its toll.

Yes, it is possible to exist on these things and not become fat, but it takes intelligence, education, discipline, and the right frame of mind.  It can be especially burdensome for those predisposed to weight gain, which has a lot more to do with being fat than society cares to acknowledge.

The idea that the economically challenged among use should be the skinniest is just not based in facts.

The people that are most likely to end up in poverty are the ones who are least likely to have the ability to plan decent meals on few dollars, and least likely to have the "gumption" to get off their rumps and work off some of their food.  This is one of the reasons the Dim Plantation is so successful...it has caught so many of these people in it's trap.  Of course, they go on to raise their children in the same mindset and eating patterns, and the trap catches them, also. 

God knew what He was doing when He gave us work to do.   

[Uhhuh35]

Can you spot the problem with this article?
For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach
by Yuki Noguchi

A Japanese person has better grammar than most Americans?

[jinxmchue]

No, you're not a horrible person.

I have sympathy for the man that asked me to buy him a sandwich, not the one that asks for money. 

Amen!  The people who want money and only money want only one thing: booze.  They can't buy that with food stamps or get it served to them at a soup kitchen.

That bolded part should be made into a sign or a bumper sticker, btw.  It's simply poetic.

[Peter3_1]

A Couple of decades ago someone bought a house with food stamps. Seems that a really swift person could buy booze theu some subtraguge, say, like buying a filet mingon for someone if he will give you a bottle of Old Overcoat?

[Wineslob]

Poverty is fattening.  It's true.  Starchy foods are cheap.  Potatoes, Ramen noodles, rice, pastas, beans, breads.  The cheap meats are loaded with fat.  Cheap hot dogs, cheap bologna, almost-hamburger.  Then there's the Dollar Menu at Gertie's Gallons of GreaseBurgers.  It takes its toll.

Yes, it is possible to exist on these things and not become fat, but it takes intelligence, education, discipline, and the right frame of mind.  It can be especially burdensome for those predisposed to weight gain, which has a lot more to do with being fat than society cares to acknowledge.

The idea that the economically challenged among use should be the skinniest is just not based in facts.

It's all about bad choices. My family and I shop at Grocery Outlet (some peeps call it "Gross Out"  :P with the gas prices we have to, but they have good wine bargains! ). The "welfare mommas"  that shop there load up on crap, crappy cereal, crummy lunch meats, snack foods, (lots of snack foods), etc.. It's not that they couldent get good food there at the same price, they choose not to buy any. I have no sympathy for them.

[dandi]

Canned veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, potatoes are cheap.  Stuffing your face with massive ammounts of these is not only expensive but fattening.  Even on the cheapest foods you have to work at it to be fat.  I should know.

I do not know of one single city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that does not have some type of farmers market or fresh veggie stand.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that you cannot find the materials needed to can veggies.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (except for maybe Ohio  ) that does not have a Barnes & Noble where you can find a recipe book / canning book written by the Ball Co. 

There is no excuse.

[jtyangel]

Canned veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, potatoes are cheap.  Stuffing your face with massive ammounts of these is not only expensive but fattening.  Even on the cheapest foods you have to work at it to be fat.  I should know.

I do not know of one single city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that does not have some type of farmers market or fresh veggie stand.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that you cannot find the materials needed to can veggies.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (except for maybe Ohio  ) that does not have a Barnes & Noble where you can find a recipe book / canning book written by the Ball Co. 

There is no excuse.

As an Ohio resident, I can assure you there are Barnes and Noble...I can walk to one from my house...hey look at that...you can even exercise to get where you need to go

[Ptarmigan]

In the past, being fat was being a rich and a status symbol. Now it is the reverse. Still, in Hispanic culture, being fat is a sign of being rich, which explains the high obesity rate among Hispanics.

[dandi]

Canned veggies are cheap, rice is cheap, potatoes are cheap.  Stuffing your face with massive ammounts of these is not only expensive but fattening.  Even on the cheapest foods you have to work at it to be fat.  I should know.

I do not know of one single city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that does not have some type of farmers market or fresh veggie stand.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (especially in Ohio) that you cannot find the materials needed to can veggies.  I also do not know of one city or town in America (except for maybe Ohio  ) that does not have a Barnes & Noble where you can find a recipe book / canning book written by the Ball Co. 

There is no excuse.

As an Ohio resident, I can assure you there are Barnes and Noble...I can walk to one from my house...hey look at that...you can even exercise to get where you need to go

 

[Lauri]

all of the actually healthy stuff in any grocery store is around the perimeters; fruits, vegies, meats and dairy.

all the crap stuff is on the aisles; cereals, boxed crud, sodas, etc.

just dont walk up and down the aisles for the food stuff and i bet that 100 dollars would go quite a bit further.. but it does take some due diligence.

[Lacarnut]

all of the actually healthy stuff in any grocery store is around the perimeters; fruits, vegies, meats and dairy.

all the crap stuff is on the aisles; cereals, boxed crud, sodas, etc.

just dont walk up and down the aisles for the food stuff and i bet that 100 dollars would go quite a bit further.. but it does take some due diligence.

That reminds me of the first time my ex and I went grocery shopping together. She did not know how to cook; we had gotten a basket half full of chips and dips and knicknacks. So I told her no more junk food; we got into an argument and left the basket in the store. Told her I don't eat like that and from now on I will do the shopping and cooking. Why she never had a weight problem was a mystery to me.   

[Peter3_1]

Lacar....,
I'm amazed you're still married to her. Unless sha wanted you to do the shopping and cooking from day one. Cook any meals for her BEFORE you married?
Peter

[BlueStateSaint]

Peter, you didn't catch the bolded word, did you?

That reminds me of the first time my ex and I went grocery shopping together.

[Peter3_1]

Yes, I missed ther "ex" , sorry!  But, then, I sort of assumed that the marrage would be over between the grocery store door and the car......mine would have been, despite the fact that I had to teach her to cook.

We ALWAYS bought what she liked FIRST, my choices second, then I'd "help" her get started....

Her mother never let her near the kitchen, and home economics were not for her. Trig. Calc. and mechanial engineering drawing  were her forte.  I, on the otherhand, was lucky to do well in algebra. But my visual spacial scores were great, and  I am quite good at suspension and engine work.....but my testing has to be emperical.