Malkin and conservative bloggers attack fat people in Ohio
Of course, she gently tiptoes around the actual slurs, leaving that to her commenters. But the meaning is quite clear. The women in the picture are morbidly obese, by medical definition. So that must mean they aren’t enduring food scarcity or the other difficulties of poverty.
According to the mother, who lacks a high school degree, a car accident at the age of 23 left her disabled, depressed and unable to work. She and her daughter subsist on $739 in combined government benefits, plus subsidized housing. The daughter has her diploma and has worked at restaurant and retail jobs but claims hiring is down, so she’s having trouble getting a job now. And their situation is complicated because Mom’s van broke down last fall, she can’t afford to fix it, and there’s no public transportation. She’s trying to obtain training to become a nurse’s assistant but the transportation cost is making that cost-prohibitive.
None of these details matter to compassionate conservatives. Clearly these women face no hardships because they are fat. Which is caused by their choice to eat too much.
They volunteered the information that they no longer buy extras like ice cream and have had to scale back meat consumption. And we all know that if you are fat, eating ice cream is a mortal sin. It is better that they load up on potatoes and noodles, as they indicate their budget now forces them to do.
Sure, it’s easy to make assumptions. It’s certainly possible that the family might benefit from dietary instructions from a nutritionist. But it’s just as easy to assume that:
a) there’s a hereditary metabolism problem at work here and/or a physiological problem that can’t be resolved by dietary methods,
b) depression provoked a weight gain that’s been difficult to reverse,
c) family dysfunction might play a role in their mental and physical states, or
d) other possibilities exist that have contributed to their size.
In the process, they neglect to consider the high percentages of Ohio families reporting similar financial difficulties, even those with family incomes between $40K and $79K. Paying for gas, getting a good job or getting a raise, paying for healthcare or insurance has grown difficult for between 1 and 4 and 1 in 2 Ohioans in that middle class income range.
They neglect to mention that the daughter seems motivated to work and to educate herself, while refusing to get pregnant to gain more assistance.
The two women pay $100 for rent, an electric bill that runs at least $100 a month and ranges higher, and spend their $102 of food stamps plus another $148 in cash on monthly groceries ($250 total) which leaves them a balance of $262-$289/month for other expenses. As they indicate their monthly transportation expenses have increased over last year’s $35/mo, it would be reasonable to assume their ‘disposable’ income is closer to $200/month.
So why did they have to cut back their grocery bill by $50.mo?
Okay, maybe they really don’t have a phone. Or cable TV. But they likely do require toilet/facial tissues, paper towels, hand soap, dish soap/ shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, bleach, toilet cleanser, maybe some ammonia or floor cleaner, window cleaner, and do they use a coin laundry? What of sanitary napkins, toothpaste, dental floss, deodorant? Over-the-counter remedies like Advil or skin cream. It’s not a stretch to assume at least a smattering of cosmetics. And then there’s clothing. Even assuming you can find plus-sized outer garments at thrift stores, guess what it costs for bras and undies if you’re extra large. A haircut’s likely now and then, too.
That doesn’t include recreation money, no DVDs or CDs, no movies, no drugs and alcohol, no dating expenses, no dinners out, no subscriptions to periodicals… but then again, it might mean a few of these. It’s fairly safe to assume it includes an occasional greeting card, postage stamps, birthday and Christmas presents, maybe a co-pay for medical or dental care.
But chances are high, if they’re feeling compelled to cut back on food, then their other ‘luxuries’ are few.
So I ask: do you eat more than $125 worth of food each month? Even you skinny folks? $125/mo (or their old budget of $150 per) doesn’t exactly sound like a gluttony diet to me.
That doesn’t matter, they’re fat. Which negates everything, apparently, like the point of the story. And everyone knows all fat people willingly choose fatness and deserve poverty for making that choice. At least that’s what Malkin implies.
And so does Van Helsing.
And Brian Ledbetter.
And Macranger.
And Crush Liberalism.
Gateway Pundit and his commenters are especially kind.
And Pam at Right Voices.
And Ed Driscoll.
And Laura of Pursuing Holiness (there’s a religion I can mock, no matter which voodoo she practices).
That’s what passes for news and commentary, economic analysis and conservative value systems. Condemn a 19 year old who’s trying, a mother who’s disabled and make all kinds of assumptions about them while ignoring the statistics about millions of Ohioans, even those better off.
I’m not giving liberals a pass on hatred of the fat, but at least they’re not saying fat people have earned poverty. Or that fat people are all socialists. Or that they need to sell their non-existent big screen TVs to get by. They’re more likely to seek to convict them on their actual misdeeds, not indicate that their appetites made them guilty of a luxury life at taxpayers’ expense.
I do not consider $125/month food bills to be evidence of gluttony nor an argument against helping poor people fend off incapacities and starvation. I do believe that there are crimes of commission deserving punishment and that conservatives of all sizes will defend the criminals for no other reason than they agree with the politics of the perps. Because the law doesn’t matter. Fatness does. In fact, fat people should be exiled so as not to offend their eyes.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
You’re kidding right? Where exactly does Michelle herself attack fat people? The clowning is done by people who make the comments. So it’s ok for you to make a big headline proclaiming Conservative blogger are making fun of fat people, would you believe that liberals also comment on Michelle’s site? It’s an equal opportunity flame fest on the “Big Twins”.
If you read the post, the main problem with the story is neither want to get off thier big ass and better themselves. You cannot ride a bike, walk, or maybe bus your way to a job? Did you read where the whole family is in the same projects and on welfare and food stamps? It’s the culture of welfare, Darlin’, that promotes their lifestyle, that’s what’s the main clowning, not the fatness.
The stupidity never ends.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:16 am
To answer your question, I spend about 100 bucks a month on food. At least 90% of my meals are vegetarian and probably 50% are vegan. The little bit of meat I do use is more for flavoring; a few ounces of sausage in the red beans and rice, or chicken thighs used to make stock. I focus on whole grains. Quinoa is delicious, extremely nutritious and incredibly cheap. This morning I had a black bean, brown rice dish with some frozen okra and salsa over a tortilla. Total cost for the meal - less than 50 cents. Later today I’ll have in season blueberries mixed with a locally made yogurt and for dinner some stew I have in the freezer. Except for the yogurt, all homemade, cheap and nutritious.
I’m making this point to say that one can eat cheaply without resorting to those disgusting ten cent ramen packs, but it does take a little effort. Just a little though.
To address the rest of your post - undies really don’t cost much more, even if you’re extra large. Even if they do, how much underwear do you think these women go through? I spend less than 50 bucks a year for my clothes. I have two pairs of jeans, one a friend gave me, and another I bought at the Goodwill for 2 bucks. They look okay. I haven’t had a haircut in two years, and I trim my bangs myself. It looks about how you’d expect it would, but then again, it’s free.
The reason these people garnered so much ridicule is that they don’t seem to want to help themselves. They’re a family entrenched in the welfare mentality. If I could talk to that daughter, I would tell her to find a good community college where she could live on campus, thus making transportation a non-issue. With her family’s (non-existant) income level, she’d qualify for all sorts of grants. That would be a good use of welfare money.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:49 am
OK, if I’m the one paying for the welfare (I pay lots of taxes), and I have had to cut back on my purchases as a result of higher gas and food prices, why shouldn’t they? … And there are many reasons to be this overweight, but for the VAST MAJORITY of obese people, it is because they consume more calories and they burned. These sob stories just burn me. This woman (stated in the article) has NEVER WORKED A DAY IN HER LIFE. WHY?
July 19th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I would also like to say that I think our Government is complicit in letting these peoples lives go to waste.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Why is it that the left wing never fails to inextricably choose examples like the Hernandez family the to show the world how bad it is in the United States? Whoas me…I can’t buy organic food anymore…I can’t use my vacation home in the Keys - too costly…my child may have to transfer to a public school…the mortgage on our 4,000 square foot home - for the three of us - is overwhelming us and we may have to car pool ….all the jobs that are available have starting times that are too early for me…I have six kids with three different fathers who are in jail and I receive no child support… and most of the jobs require a high school diploma and I dropped out in the ninth grade because the high school didn’t have a day care ….These are are all actual examples used by the left! Find some real problems, for crying out loud! The fact is that the left can’t because - like this current example - good or bad economy, the Hernandez family will always be unemployed, under-employed or ready with an excuse to avoid working 40 hours or more a week.
If you can’t pay the rent, buy food, and are out on the street, then that’s news, but you’ve got to try at least. Give me a break!
July 19th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Is this some sort of weird joke?
That pair are about the furthest away from deserving sympathy that i can imagine. The idea that they are fat because they might be suffering
‘’a) there’s a hereditary metabolism problem at work here and/or a physiological problem that can’t be resolved by dietary methods,
b) depression provoked a weight gain that’s been difficult to reverse,
c) family dysfunction might play a role in their mental and physical states, or
d) other possibilities exist that have contributed to their size.'’
Is just self evidently nonsense. They are fat because they eat too much and exercise too little.
They live off the dole, live in subsidised housing and complain that they aren’t being given enough handouts. Seriously, if you want to provoke my sympathy for a more generous welfare system, this isn’t the example to use.
The fact they are so grossly fat is directly relevant. If they were suffering real financial hardship they wouldn’t be able to afford all the bags of groceries necessary to maintain such gluttonous and huge bodies.
There is no mitigation here, they are disgusting. Lazy, gluttonous, parasites.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Am I Mean-Spirited?…
When I read this National Public Radio article on the “starving poor,” and I saw the photo that illustrated it, this is the first thing that came to mind:
Can’t wait to see that attraction.
Aunt Barb, I can see you shaking your head out there….
July 19th, 2008 at 10:01 am
You have missed the point completely. The point is this was a radio story not a TV story. You see it’s about media bias…oh never mind.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Sleapneat: Read what I wrote: Malkin tiptoed around directly attacking them for being fat but her intent is evident. I also state clearly that some liberals also attack fat people though I remain skeptical that they took part in the fatbash-fest at Malkin’s.
And you say that neither wants to help themselves when the article clearly says the daughter has worked at several jobs and is trying to find work currently still. How is that ‘not trying to better herself’?
And yes, I read that MOST of the family is in similar straits. As I noted, ‘family dysfunction’ is a distinct possibility. Which makes it all the more commendable that the daughter is trying to break that trap. But the trap is not government institutionalizing them with a generous assistance plan. Try to live on the income they do and see for yourself whether it creates an incentive in you to continue to subsist at the edge of obliteration.
It’s frightening to most people who do.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Michele: You spend ‘about’ $100/month on food. I’d be willing to bet the same food you buy will vary in price by $30-$40 depending on the state, the state sales tax, etc. On one site yesterday, I saw someone indicate they were buying Porterhouse steaks for $4.99/lb. Really? Out here, they start around $8.99/lb, though once or twice a year a sale might lower that price some.
And yes, I know “it takes a little bit of effort”. But how did you acquire your knowledge of cooking and eating well? These days, I find many, many people who can’t cook much more complicated than a burger or maybe some crockpot assemblage. I, too, know how to cook efficiently and tasty and cost-effectively, but I give tremendous credit to my mother for teaching me the ropes, both of cooking and of thrifty buying.
I also know what ‘undies’ cost. I have a medium size daughter who’s very busty. Bras that provide her any comfort aren’t cheap. And women I know - who do work hard - have told me there’s a markup for plus sizes. Yes, I know that clothing bills aren’t a constant, as I’m a minimalist myself. But rest assured, they’re likely to go through more shoes because of their weight. And undies do wear out faster because elastics wear out faster.
I’ve also cut my own hair. Some people can. Not all people can. Not all folks have the same skills and resourcefulness to know how to cut such corners. Again, a lot comes from upbringing and training. That doesn’t mean society’s at fault of anything. It just means that the point of the story remains: it’s getting harder to get by. Even the higher income, working and more resourceful are saying so. Why is that being ignored to make points about two women out of millions?
It is, however, nice that you would counsel the daughter about some community college options. Maybe that’s all that’s lacking there. Maybe, like many poor people, she thinks it takes loans and she’s fearful of taking on debt. I don’t really know. And my critique was centered on the fact that most of us don’t know. But some condemn based solely on assumptions.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Lily: They HAVE cut back. And the mother in the article hasn’t worked because she’s disabled. What’s her disability? I dunno. Is it legitimately keeping her from working? Again, I dunno.
It’s easy to assume, but it doesn’t mean our assumptions are correct. If the mother qualifies for Social Security disability payments, there has to be at least a physician or two who believe the disability limits her capacity to work.
Were the government not providing its modicum of support, would their lives go to waste anyway? Possibly. Again, we don’t know. Without such support, they might be dead. They might choose to support themselves via illegal means: stealing, prostitution, whatever. And it’s often costlier to counter that than to provide subsistence income.
But SSD is not easy to obtain, nor is it given based on costing out the alternatives. Without the disability, they’d get what most poor adults get: food stamps. So it’s not like they’re representative of the majority of poor Ohioans, nor of the middle class Ohioans that the article also covered.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Mike: The leftwing chose no example. NPR did. I don’t know any liberal who believes NPR represents a liberal point of view. And all your strawman hypotheticals reflect nothing real about the lives of the two women used as examples.
Unless you can demonstrate that the Mom’s disability DOESN’T prevent her from working, and remain willing to overlook the daughter’s claim that she has worked and is continuing to seek work, it appears the validity of your complaints can’t be verified.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Harry Palmer: Proclaiming I’m perpetuating a ‘weird joke’ is a bit ironic coming from such a screen name as yours.
But you said
And I say you’re guessing because you don’t know exactly how much they eat or exercise, or whether other factors are at work.
One thing, though, that’s directly refutable: neither complained that they weren’t given enough assistance. In response to a reporter-driven story, they simply described a cutback they’d made in their food budget, a problem they had with transportation and a lesser number of available jobs the daughter complained about in her search.
And your final sentence says more about you than them.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:05 am
That’s right, Kevin...NPR is not a liberal voice. If you can’t see the problem with the NPR example, you’re in need of a reality check yourself.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Proclaiming I’m perpetuating a ‘weird joke’ is a bit ironic coming from such a screen name as yours.
And what’s wrong with irony?
And I say you’re guessing because you don’t know exactly how much they eat or exercise, or whether other factors are at work.
I don’t need to. I hear all the excuses, how fatness is a disease, how it’s societies fault, how it’s hormonal or it’s glandular, and on and on and on. The simple fact is, fatness is due to diet and exercise, people just don’t want to accept responsibility for their own sloth and gluttony.
One thing, though, that’s directly refutable: neither complained that they weren’t given enough assistance.
Actually, the entire interview was one long whine about how they weren’t given enough handouts.
And your final sentence says more about you than them.
Yes, i hope it does. It tells you that prepared to tell the truth even if the truth is unpleasant, something ‘liberals’ seem to have a hard time doing. Just to reinforce the point, here’s that last sentence again
‘There is no mitigation here, they are disgusting. Lazy, gluttonous, parasites.’
July 19th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Conservatives will go to any lengths to rationalize their counter-intuitive inhumanity, justifying their credo: “Fuck the poor.”
Under (then) governor Voinovich, Ohio was THE pioneer in welfare reform. Typically, they cut the benefits, limited the “dole,” but never followed through with affordable health care, job training, day care and forget about higher education which has outpaced inflation even at state subsidized schools.
The tuition increases at Ohio’s “State” universities (Ohio State, Ohio, Kent, Akron, Miami, Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton, Cincinnati) have gone up 10%/yr for the past 20 years. Pell Grants and similar State grant programs have not kept pace, community colleges students face similar tuition hikes. And sadly, the public high schools still don’t adequately prepare kids for post secondary education.
The voucher experiment in the Greater Cleveland area has been a joke, turning into a 100% subsidy for private religious schools who glean the best of both the teaching pools and the brightest of the student bodies, leaving the public system more in the dust than before — and the Charter School system which is state-wide, for-profit schools subsisting on taxpayer dollars, is hardly the revolutionary concept envisioned — cutting every corner possible to maintain shareholder value while their overall performance lags behind comparable yet hardly stellar public counterparts.
The real problem here in Ohio is something simple, and way beyond welfare and education problems. THERE ARE NO JOBS HERE.
We used to be THE manufacturing center of the nation. Akron was the “Rubber City,” Toledo was the “Glass City,” Youngstown was the center of the “Steel Valley.” Those days are long gone. We don’t make anything here anymore. All those jobs, jobs you only needed a high school diploma to get, if you even need that, are history. But the social infrastructure has completely failed to compensate or adjust to the transformation necessary. We’re so rocked by outsourcing and have been hemorrhaging population since the Seventies, and have yet to recover from the last recession let alone ready to deal with the new one.
We’re hurting here. So if you oh-so-compassionate conservatives can offer nothing but scorn and platitudes, fuck off.
July 19th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
That sort of pathetic whining is exactly what is wrong with the left. People sitting around, complaining about how hard life is and how no one is coming to solve all their problems for them.
Exactly the same people who complain that there aren’t any jobs support massive 3rd world immigration because the migrants ‘do the jobs Americans won’t’. The fact is that America is the richest country in the world that millions of people with no skills or education enter, precisely because there are jobs to be done. It’s just a case of getting off your bloated, fat backside and getting stuck in, it’s just a shame that so many people would rather live off the dole for decades while complaining about how hard it all is.
These people don’t deserve sympathy, they need to get on their bikes and start earning their daily bread for a change.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
You’re not listening. We don’t have people entering Ohio, they’re leaving. When we lost our manufacturing base here, it wasn’t just those high-paying union jobs — jobs that have been shipped to those third world nations steadily over the last 30 years or systematically eliminated with the cooperation of a labor department whose goal has morphed from worker protection to union busting — we also lost jobs supporting that manufacturing base, suppliers, shippers, even grocers and bartenders.
We’re not whining that nobody has come to fix our problems, we’re pissed that the government and their corporate minders came and CREATED our problems.
Those bikes you want them to get on used to be made here, now we import more from Asia than we make here. When we were the largest creditor nation on the planet, that hackneyed idea that we were the world’s richest nation had some merit. Now, as the largest debtor and net importer of cheap crap on the planet, that’s a tired myth told to little wingnut children so they feel better about fucking over their neighbors.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
You’ve missed my entire point, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Where’d I acquire my mad cooking skillz? Well, if you can boil water, you can make beans and rice. Throw an onion in and whatever frozen vegetables you’ve got, throw it on a tortilla, and that’s dinner. It’s not any harder than cooking a crockpot meal. Quinoa is two parts water to one part grain, and it’s easier to cook than rice. None of this is cordon bleu.
Have you considered that maybe some people don’t want to help themselves? That’s it’s easier to get someone else to take care of them? And if there is such an individual, what do you think the solution is for him or her? Do you think it is doing a person any favors to provide him with more than his basic needs, if it takes away his incentive to work? Lastly, what do you tell the people you deprive in order to give to those like the Nunezes? An above post points out that educational grants in Ohio have been slashed. Is it because the state has to support so many welfare families?
Look, no one is telling the working poor to eff off, as the above poster has inelegantly claimed. The resentment you hear is from those frustrated with those who won’t - not can’t - won’t take care of themselves. Do the same story, but swap it out with a couple who are trying their best to make ends meet and who need just some temporary help to get back on their feet, not two overnourished nonworking women who are complaining because they can’t afford ice cream.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I can’t believe that there are people on this site defending these two. Take a look at the photo again. Both of these women are at least 200 lbs. overweight. This wasn’t caused by not being able to afford healthy food. This was caused by an extemely high calorie diet coupled with lack of activity.
I’m sorry, but these two are a drain on society. In addition to the thousands of hard-working taxpayer’s dollars that they spend on food and their subsidized apartment, you can bet that they are also a drain on the local health care system as well. I’m willing to bet that the mother has been to the emergency room dozens of times for problems like diabetes, hypertension, palpitations, etc.
I’m sorry, I’m not buying the “depressed and unable to work” excuse. When this “accident” happened, her daughter was just a few years old. What kind of mother sits on her fat butt for 17 years and allows her daughter to live in poverty because she is “too depressed” to work. Think about it, the article stated: “Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree.” How does she know she can’t work if she has never even tried?
I do have some sympathy for the daughter. She had a lousy role-model. Unfortunately, I’m willing to bet that she turns out just like her. A morbidly obese, irresponsible whiner and leach on society.
I wonder if Ms. Nunez and her daughter ever thank God for the millions of hard-working Americans who haven’t given up. Who have some pride in themselves. Who take responsibility for their lives. If it weren’t for them and their tax dollars, the Nunez family might have get off of the couch and burn some calories working.
July 19th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
i wonder if some of the commenters read the entire article. ms nunez is 40 years old. she had an accident 17 years ago, when she was 23. her daughter is 19 now, so she was 2 years old at the time of the accident. i fail to understand why there is such shock that the mother never held a job. i thought conservatives wanted women home taking care of the kids.
any of you live in fostoria? anyone ever been there? i haven’t. i have no idea what the employment situation is other than what npr reports:
that’s 400 new people competing for jobs. toledo, i suspect is the biggest city near fostoria, and that’s 40 miles away. how are these people supposed to get there? they don’t have a car, and, even if they did, how do they pay for gas? maybe they should move. anyone have any suggestions how they can pay for that?
instead of addressing the real crisis in this country, you would rather focus on these unfortunate women. yes, they are obese. i have no idea if the problem is diet or heredity or cultural, and neither do any of you. that’s not the real story here, though. the real story is that this is america, and people are hurting. do you want to give them a hand up so that they do not become part of a permanent lower class, or would you rather say the hell with all of them, because these 2 particular women are overweight?
July 19th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Nice try. As I also pointed out the welfare roles have bee slashed dramatically in Ohio. The problem is the tax base is drying up due to job outsourcing and population reduction. We don’t have an IMmigration problem, rather the reverse. Too many people and jobs going elsewhere.
And excuse me if I am unmoved by the faux frustration of the right wing when demeaning people with real frustrations.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I would just like to thank several of the commenters on this thread for making Kevin’s point for him. All bile and bigotry, you concoct your “arguments” (if I can press the word that far) in assertions about the family that dismiss what’s known and presume what isn’t and then season them with a considerable dose of sneering condescension about them in particular and fat people in general - making for an exceedingly noxious brew.
One other thing:
d) other possibilities exist that have contributed to their size.
Such as, for example, having to “load up on potatoes and noodles” because adequate amounts of the alternatives are too expensive.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Not sure if anyone mentioned this fact but often poor people are fat because of the food they must buy. Out here in southern California, there are actual ‘deserts’ where there are no local grocery stores. None. Due to crime, poverty, bad neighborhoods, no company wants to build in certain areas.
So often people who are unable to leave the neighborhood must buy their staples from liquor stores of which there are many. No fresh vegetables, no basic foods, just processed crap which makes them fat.
Often people in extreme poverty will not have the education to know about healthy eating. They have no concept that what they eat (fast food, sodas, processed foods) is bad for them.
The other thing that can happen with poverty is extreme stress and depression, which can lead to health problems and overeating. Health problems such as diabetes which go unaddressed because it costs money to diagnose. Overeating is often an attempt to comfort oneself rather than address the unsolvable: how to stop being poor.
These women are fat BECAUSE they are poor. They are eating all the wrong things because that’s what they can get.
We who live with good health services, public transport, and grocery stores, have been educated on nutrition, given job opportunities have no idea what such hopeless poverty can do to the human spirit.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Interesting debate. Curious, though that the liberals are the first to resort to obscenities…
First, the posting on Michelle Malkin’s site was by contributor See-Dubya, not Michelle. The name of the author follows the headline. It is also disclaimed at the end of every non-MM post, who is the actual poster.
Second, while conservatives can’t help but see, in living color, the ironies on display, it is the liberal who contorts himself to see and hear only what the other liberal is telling him. It seems to me that it is the liberal who is being dishonest here; saying one thing but thinking an entirely different thing.
Third, it is the height of cruelty to defend policies that have contributed to this family’s misery. That the possibility of becoming pregnant with a child JUST to get more food stamps or other increased public assistance, is mentioned only passing is a damning indictment of the welfare system.
Conservatives are giddy because we are looking at all the effects of liberal policies in a single photo and the liberals themselves just don’t get it. We are both looking at the same picture and reading the same interview and reaching entirely different conclusions. There is not a HINT of irony in the story, meant for radio, about the size of the family and circumstances described. One would have thought, that oh so enlightened liberals would have added some of the liberal excuses (on display in this blog) to explain the photo accompanying the web version of the story.
But no. Here is what a family “on the brink of obliteration,” looks like.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:55 am
The liberal tripe just keeps on coming. Reading these excuses for not taking any responsibility for there own lives just strengthens me in the knowledge that the liberal welfare mindset is utterly decadent and dishonest.
The incredibly condescending idea that people who are poor are too stupid to know that eating lots of potatoes and noodles will make them fat because OBVIOUSLY poor people are too ill educated to know any better is patronising guff. These people are not children, they are adults, unless they are genuinely mentally retarded then they do know that lots of food and little exercise equals being fat.
And as for the idea of ‘food deserts’ another liberal fiction. Even in the poorest areas it’s still perfectly possible to buy a can of sweetcorn rather than a box of frozen burgers.
These women are fat because they eat too much, they exercise too little and because everyone is clammering to tell them that it’s not their fault. As long as people are going to absolve everyone of responsibility for their actions then they aren’t going to change their behaviour.
People need to stop enabling self destructive behaviour out of a misguided sense of compassion. It’s only when people are made to face up to their own responsibilities that they are going to change. Telling people that it’s not their fault that they are fat and out of work, as they stuff their faces with junk food and drop out of school, aren’t doing them any favours at all.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:58 am
- Kevin Hayden Says:
“Malkin tiptoed around directly attacking them”
I think I see your issue here: reading comprehension - Michelle Malkin hasn’t even posted on this yet. (Clueword: “byline”)
- Kevin Hayden Says:
“They HAVE cut back.”
Well, at least you got that correct, NPR does note: “they don’t buy extras like ice cream anymore”. (The horror, the inhumanity!!)
If the Democrats are really determined to present these two as their “Hunger In America” poster children, please, please don’t let me discourage you!
July 20th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Hmm. I guess I didn’t make myself too clear by being sympathetic to their plight. Somewhere between total pity and total scorn is the truth. Yes, both these women have become fat. They have clearly been involved in this process. They are responsible for themselves. And yes, there are educated thin poor people who are nutritionally minded. No, all poor people are not stupid. It’s easy to fall into these traps when arguing in generalities.
About the mention of lack of knowledge about nutrition, I based that on an article on teaching highschoolers and very young mothers about food. A mother said that she would stop thinking she’d given her kids a good meal when she took them to the local fast food joint. She had had no idea of her options.
The first thing anyone does when faced with a tangled problem is to start sorting it out. To tell a person to snap out of it and be responsible is just as moronic as thoughtlessly throwing money about. Recognizing the humanity of everyone without breaking the bank, overtaxing, creating a ‘welfare state’ etc. etc. makes a functional society.
Everyone wants to be useful. Give someone a job and their attitudes change. Give someone the promise that hard work will allow them to achieve more, and you have established a loyal workforce. Make this process achievable by everyone and you have an unstoppable economy. Understanding where this process has broken down might actually help everyone rather than refusing to help at all. If part of society has fallen through the cracks, you get inequalities and building anger that creates fear and division which in the end will hurt society and hurt the economy.
A bunch of generalities again. But:
1) Food deserts are not a liberal myth.
2)” Populations that live in poverty or have low-income are at highest risk for poor nutrition. Quality food is often missing in local grocery stores in poorer neighborhoods; fresh fruits and vegetables are often unaffordable. People who eat fast food are also at risk for poor nutrition. Fast food menus provide large servings that are inexpensive. Foods eaten away from home are in high calories, sodium, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and are lower in fiber and calcium than foods prepared and eaten at home.”
3) Determinants: “Lack of consistent nutrition messages; lack of establishing healthful eating habits early in life and practices over a lifetime; lack of nutrition education as part of comprehensive school health education programs; lack of appropriate health education services; certain lifestyles (eating away from home, etc.); food accessibility and quality (e.g. year-round fresh fruit and vegetable quality in communities); lack of (or poor marketing of) healthy food choices in community settings (restaurants, worksites, schools, etc.); abundance of inexpensive fast foods that are high in sodium, saturated fat, and sugar and low in dietary fiber, iron, and calcium; poverty; limitations of old age (mobility, physical problems, side effects of medications); and persons with disabilities.”
3) “Growing up in a neighborhood where families feel unsafe can increase the odds that a child will become obese, a new study concludes”.
4) Humor can help people understand the difficulties of being fat.
Throwing all these facts and generalities about won’t help someone take responsibility for themselves, but acknowledging the difficulties and giving them the tools to change their lives could be all they need.
Mockery and scorn makes those who do it feel superior but does nothing but create more anger and hopelessness for those who receive it.
July 21st, 2008 at 12:45 am
What cracks me up is the sheer Darwinian nature of that mindset, the law of the jungle that everyone is for themselves and we shouldn’t be bothered helping our fellow human beings. Yet, at the same time the folks who preach this inhumane ideology find evolution a canard and against the teachings of their church whose primary mission is helping the poor and eliminating poverty.
Indeed, the coalition of Christian Churches representing every denomination in the country except the Southern Baptist Evangelicals (go figure) has agreed on one thing and one thing only that they can put aside their differences on and move forward together, and that’s elimination of poverty.
Harry, you’re morally, ethically and socially bankrupt have zero appreciation for what makes a civilization better that anarchy.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:07 am
Make that “better thaN anarchy. 4am fingers.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:41 am
Okay, Mark, I’m going to make one more statement, and then I’m going to bow out because I don’t think we’re accomplishing much here except barking at each other.
Harry makes the point that we are not doing some people any favors when we infantilize them with welfare. That we psychologically bankrupt individuals with nonexistant expections - no dear, you don’t need to work, to take care of your family, to cook anything healthy, you just need to breathe in and out on a regular basis and here’s some free money! Free to you, anyway. Someone else had to work and earn that money, even if they suffered from depression, or physical disability, or whatever excuse the Nunezes use.
Well, Mark, don’t worry. When Nunez the elder dies in the next few years of diabetes, or coronary artery disease, or apnea related heart attack, or any other of a plague of illnesses associated with morbid obesity, you can comfort her weeping, also soon-to-be-dead daughter with the thought that your ideology is the kind, compassionate one.
You think Harry is a big meanie, scoot on over to Michelle Malkin and read those comments. One reader posted a picture of an ematiated African cradling her starved to death child. A lot of posters mocked this family for their obesity, a lot of cruel, unkind comments. But YOU, Mark, you told another human being to Fuck Off. How are you any different?
July 21st, 2008 at 7:11 am
I can’t believe that there are people on this site defending these two. Take a look at the photo again. Both of these women are at least 200 lbs. overweight. This wasn’t caused by not being able to afford healthy food. This was caused by an extemely high calorie diet coupled with lack of activity.
I’m sorry, but these two are a drain on society. In addition to the thousands of hard-working taxpayer’s dollars that they spend on food and their subsidized apartment, you can bet that they are also a drain on the local health care system as well. I’m willing to bet that the mother has been to the emergency room dozens of times for problems like diabetes, hypertension, palpitations, etc.
I’m sorry, I’m not buying the “depressed and unable to work” excuse. When this “accident” happened, her daughter was just a few years old. What kind of mother sits on her fat butt for 17 years and allows her daughter to live in poverty because she is “too depressed” to work. Think about it, the article stated: “Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree.” How does she know she can’t work if she has never even tried?
I do have some sympathy for the daughter. She had a lousy role-model. Unfortunately, I’m willing to bet that she turns out just like her. A morbidly obese, irresponsible whiner and leach on society.
I wonder if Ms. Nunez and her daughter ever thank God for the millions of hard-working Americans who haven’t given up. Who have some pride in themselves. Who take responsibility for their lives. If it weren’t for them and their tax dollars, the Nunez family might have get off of the couch and burn some calories working.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Chose my screen name to save you libs from having to read this to get my point.
Step back for a second. Mom’s family was “middle class” , but she didn’t finish high school. Her mother was married to an auto worker, but still lives in subsidized housing. All of her siblings live in subsidized housing.
Sounds like they were failed by Ohio’s public education industry- no jobs skills, no dietary/health skills, etc.
Sounds like Ohio was failed by industries and unions who failed to predict that high school level work skills can be paid middle/upper middle class wages without atracting lots of competition.
Sounds like Ohio was failed by politicians who worried more about tomorrow’s election than Ohio’s future.
So what’s to be done…. Surely not more political solutions, more government intervention, etc..
If that’s heartless, count me in. More of the same seems even more heartless to me.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Corporate lobbyists are the exclusive owner-operators of McCain’s Straight Talk Express. Voters are left stranded at the bus stop.
So your saying BO is not taking any money from corporate lobbyists? Sorry dear, you are very out of touch with the REAL world. Earth to Major TOM.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 am
[…] The recent dustup where conservative commenters visited this blog to assert that a couple of fat women on the public dole reminded me of all this. Being on the dole is definitely a demeaning existence. But the notion that getting jobs is the solution, or better dietary habits, or exercise, amounts to an ideology of wishful thinking. […]
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
d) Eating too often and exercising too little.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
[…] 24, 2008 · No Comments A “dust-up” on one of Kevin Hayden’s posts at a blog called The American Streetin which the cluelessness and ferocity of right-wing intolerance was vividly in evidence, brought together a number of things I’ve been thinking about since I came South. Savannah is, in some ways, the epitome of the contradiction that still exists between what people say about racism and what they feel. There is a genuine sort of truce here where, at least on the surface, people accept each other at face value and try to deal with each other that way. But the truce doesn’t affect any emotions that may be roiling beneath that surface. They remain as strong as they ever were, often for good reason. […]