Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
For the 12 years I was active, plus the almost-three that I have been aware and working on legislation, that has been one of the most frustrating aspects of this issue. Only, ONLY the most worthy and deserving people (plus those who are flogged and prodded by their social workers armed with the regulations and laws they enforce) are inwardly, morally motivated to get off assistance. Their "reward" is all-too-often losing the child care and health benefits that absolutely make the difference between "can" and "can't". ..when then ONE glitch, one trip-up that would mean just an inconvenience to everyone NOT on assistance...(car broke down, sick kid..etc..) destroys all the months of work it took to get back on their feet and off assistance. Once a human being has been through this cycle two, three, six times...that individual tends to lose confidence in herself, the system and everything else. Everything else. Oneself. Whom else? (10 hrs ago | post #1663)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
Outstanding point. I have long held that NO cash, ONLY vouchers, coupons, or direct deposit of assistance benefits should be the paramount rule of entitlement programs. Coupons for hygiene allowances would be part of such a reformation of welfare. (11 hrs ago | post #1652)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
I am proud to have been one of the many who helped your family out. I wish you had had more help than you got. Now, you, your mom and siblings have, no doubt, contributed FAR more in taxes than you ever received in benefits. Kudos! (11 hrs ago | post #1651)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
I am blessed. Smooootch! (12 hrs ago | post #1649)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
I gave no statistics! Once I read some statistics that had me astonished at how closely they matched my profile- it also included piercings, tattoos, how often a month a family ate fast food and a couple of other weird things. If I do find it, I'd like to see it again. It was in an article in a social work academic journal, several years ago. I worked with kids from a rural white "ghetto" where that stereotype includes the fact that most of those kids' UNparents were racial bigots along with the rest of those characteristics I noted. Every single social pathology that has racists pointing the finger at (fill in the blank) was glaringly, tragically destroying those little white kids just the same as any other color little UNparented kid in any other impoverished ghetto full of generationally anywhere in the nation. I got started de-lousing "chronic " kids whose addicted, alcoholic, lazy, stupid, disorganized, uncaring UNparents just never seemed to manage the job. We also ended up using some of the grant money we were given to set up a mini-laundromat and get vacuums and cleaning supplies (along with the free de-lousing supplies and training) but ended up doing a lot of the laundry/cleaning too. While de-lousing these poor kids,(who were dirty, failing in school, who had rotting teeth, chronic ear-nose-throat problems from being marinated in cigarette smoke since before birth, malnourished from a junk-food diet, sleep-deprived from no bedtime, non-stop TV and video games, blaring 24-7 trash music, and traumatized from constant chaos and violence from Mom and grandma's party-life and serial boyfriends, stepfathers, whatever...) they come to trust you, because de-lousing (over and over again) takes a looooong time. They talked to me, and that is what led me to my work against child sexual abuse. My "profile " is all too horribly accurate. I helped many decent women in DV work start new lives away from abusive partners and part of that was helping with the forms and procedures of getting the assistance they and their children needed and had every right to receive. I was proud to do it. Those people were NOT the ones who fit my profile of the cheats and abusers. (12 hrs ago | post #1648)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
Take a breath. You are wrong, and completely wrong at that. I worked with kids from a rural white "ghetto" where that stereotype includes the fact that most of those kids' UNparents were racial bigots along with the rest of those characteristics I noted. Every single social pathology that has racists pointing the finger at (fill in the blank) was glaringly, tragically destroying those little white kids just the same as any other color little UNparented kid in any other impoverished ghetto anywhere in the nation. I got started de-lousing "chronic " kids whose addicted, alcoholic, lazy, stupid, disorganized, uncaring UNparents just never seemed to manage the job. We also ended up using some of the grant money we were given to set up a mini-laundromat and get vacuums and cleaning supplies (along with the free de-lousing supplies and training) but ended up doing a lot of the laundry/cleaning too. While de-lousing these poor kids, (who were dirty, failing in school, who had rotting teeth, chronic ear-nose-throat problems from being marinated in cigarette smoke since before birth, malnourished from a junk-food diet, sleep-deprived from no bedtime, non-stop TV and video games, blaring 24-7 trash music, and traumatized from constant chaos and violence from Mom and grandma's party-life and serial boyfriends, stepfathers, whatever...) they come to trust you, because de-lousing (over and over again) takes a looooong time. They talked to me, and that is what led me to my work against child sexual abuse. My "profile " or "stereotype " that you objected to is all too horribly accurate. I helped many decent women in DV work start new lives away from abusive partners and part of that was helping with the forms and procedures of getting the assistance they and their children needed and had every right to receive. I was proud to do it. Those people and the ones you spoke for and about in your reply are NOT the ones who fit my profile of the cheats and abusers. Please respond and tell me why it is wrong for people who are paying for the food for people who cannot pay for their food to object when those who are receiving that aid don't spend it wisely? It is nobody's concern if one's own money is spent on whatever; if somebody else is paying, it's the paying party's business. Have you never given or loaned money to someone who was desperate for some reason and then found out that they spent it on something foolish and lied about it? Or lied about being desperate? How did you feel? This is a serious question. (13 hrs ago | post #1647)
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Mo...
Here is a list of sources and links. Now; you can review and tell me how much out-of-my-undersiz ed-arse-misinforma tion I spewed your direction! Books: Jared Diamond; The Third Chimpanzee Bernard A. Wood; Human Evolution http://www.nationa lgeographic.com/fi eld/projects/human -origins.html http://www.ecotao. com/holism/huevo/b ody_index.html http://johnhawks.n et/weblog/ Obviously this is an extremely short list- but you'll find some good information! Have fun, Laura (14 hrs ago | post #881)
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Mo...
If you only knew just how far I'd like to go off-subject with PM....consider these diversions substantially restrained. But...you are correct. I needed a spanking. And I am no brainiac- just a science junkie. (14 hrs ago | post #880)
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Mo...
That's the limit! You might not be my heuro any more! If you think umlauting about necrophiliac jokes; forget it! I'm not just being stochastic- there's no justification for such filth! Anyway, RogerR is getting sick of these random trajectories. This is a unique thread and we keep popping in and out with silly stuff that shouldn't exist here. So there. (ewwwwww....yes, I know) (14 hrs ago | post #879)
Why are we all so afraid of allowing gay marriage?
You have no idea how difficult what you're asking of me is...but I'll try...next month...maybe. (15 hrs ago | post #2117)
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Mo...
Schroedinger equations...sigh.. ..my hero. At least I know how to spell the catherd's name. Always wondered how people who thought they'd solved one knew for sure, in that moment, they reallly had one solved. (22 hrs ago | post #873)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
Sigh...yes; that's the demographic we're dealing with. Here is a description of who is on assistance minus racial statistics: *Single/divorced/n ever-married mother with kids. Early/teen first pregnancy. *Smoker. *Un-or-Underemploy ed. *Not graduated from HS. or HS only, but limited literacy. *Obese *Heavy religion. *Low-achieving children. *Obese children. *Children frequently absent from school. *Multiple fathers of children. *History of drug abuse/alcoholism/p etty crime such as shoplifting. *(This is an oddity) Unusually large number of pets. Disability is another whole can of worms. There are many people on assistance who flog social workers for the disability designation, and many who adopt disabled children or do their utmost to have their kids designated as disabled in some way to get more government money. Makes people who are truly disabled want to scream. (Yesterday | post #1554)
Should people on food stamp be able buy junk food?
I am having a tough time here...there are at least three conflicting reactions: 1. Outrage in sympathy with Orthie. 2. Hysterical laughter...why would anyone find a fruit-salad-free-f or-all remotely stimulating? 3. Is it ethical to "out" people from other, entirely unrelated threads? (Yesterday | post #1553)
Why are we all so afraid of allowing gay marriage?
Blue Lamp ROCKS!!!! SHINE YOUR LIGHT, SHINE ON, SHINE ON!!!!!! (Yesterday | post #2089)
Europe's Ancestors: Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Mo...
There was no need for a "freeway ". People have always followed rivers and, most importantly, coastlines where fish/shellfish are always to be found. We still do. In ice ages, so much of the earth's water was locked up in ice that sea-level was much, much lower than it is now. As I said, not only was the land between Siberia and Alaska high and dry, but so was the land between the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. Not too long ago a diver off the Mediterranean coast of France (forget where) found a cave as spectacular as Lascaux. It's entrance had long been drowned deep, but following it up in scuba gear, he broke into a chamber with breathable air...and spectacular Cro-Magnon artwork. The Sahel and Sahara used to be much wetter and more hospitable. There are ancient encampments, some caves that were inhabited alternately by Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. The remains of H. erectus are found throughout Asia and Europe, not just Africa and the Middle East. In Israel, Portugal, Spain, and Gibraltar, (incomplete list) Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans were contemporaries living not far from one-another's encampments. The little Georgian hominids weren't much removed from Lucy. The very primitive tools associated with the Australopithicenes (Sp.?) suggested that they did a lot of scavenging the kills of large predators, and perhaps they made their way out of Africa following the predators and their prey. Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons were the only people that lived long enough in low-light environments to select for the degree of adaptation we see in modern Europeans and are aware of in extinct Neanderthals from DNA analysis. If I don't get you some websites, someone really should kill me. (Yesterday | post #864)
