“If they would rather die…they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Scrooge lives!

The Rick Santorum diet.

What a humanitarian.

Wow. From Zanesville to Laredo. She must have been suffering culture shock, too…I know something of both places, and have been in similar situation (just the geography, I mean).
To be unable to feed her kids, too…overwhelming.

I imagine she came to Texas because she kept hearing Rick Perry say how great the economy and the jobs situation are in Texas. Then she got here and found out the truth.

And of course, part of welfare reform is yes, to cull the ranks of those getting those luxurious “food stamps” so they’ll go get a job instead./s (do I need to add the snark tag here?)

Rick’s Xtian heart will shed not a tear for this dead woman; he’s more likely to be pissed that she didn’t finish her deed and left poor defenseless Texas with 2 more kids mooching off the medical system for their near-death at the hands of their desperate mother.

Oh, Rick Santorum, is there any discussion you can’t make stupider by adding your two cents?

Probably not. How about this gem as his contribution to “Obama’s War on Religion” (and I’ll bet you didn’t even know there was a war)?

OTOH, in the “every cloud has a silver lining” department, the video did produce this rather devastating response.

“Leave the governing to sodomites and infidels” — now THAT is a campaign slogan I can get behind.

It’s really hard to snark about the case in Texas — can’t even imagine the plight of those two kids.

But the Frothy One can’t seriously be trying to claim credit for that bit of free market social engineering, though — the credit clearly belongs to Rick Perry, the undisputed master of the callous swagger. The fact that the woman was able to get a hold of a handgun but was repeatedly denied food stamps must have given him such a massive hard-on that he had to shift his loaded magnum to the other pocket just to make room. Yep, Perry’s a man’s man, and that other Rick better realize it.

No snark here – from an article in my local paper, SA Express-News, starting with the news that the 12-yr old daughter died last night. RAdio says father is in town at hospital with son. Article also says mother was known to have mental health issues, and dad had tried to get social services intervention for her, without success. (surprise? not.)

Now here’s a kicker, in the third line:

In Laredo, where about 30 percent of the 250,000 inhabitants live below the poverty line, some $40 million is given back to the federal government each year in unused food stamp benefits, Otero said. People don’t know they’re eligible, or they give up because the 18-page application process is too onerous, he said.

She often relied on food supplied by neighbors and was distraught over being denied food stamps.

Her application was rejected last summer because she hadn’t submitted all the required paperwork.

Their poverty stood out even in a poor part of Laredo.

“They came barefoot sometimes,” said Moises Nuñez, 10, adding that he played with the Grimmer children. “Their clothes were ripped.”

What kind of country are we living in now?

“If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?” Santorum asked.

Uh, Rick? It’s because the only food they can afford and/or find is crap that makes you fat, clogs your arteries, and spikes your blood sugar levels, but doesn’t provide much in the way of nutrients to counter these bad effects.

Don’t believe me? Check this out, you Randroid knucklehead:

Professor and obesity researcher, Dr. Adam Drewnowski set out to determine why income is the most reliable predictor of obesity in the U.S. To do this, he took a hypothetical dollar to the grocery store. His goal was to purchase as many calories as possible per dollar.

What he found is that he could buy well over 1,000 calories of cookies or potato chips. But his dollar would only buy 250 calories of carrots. He could buy almost 900 calories of soda… but only 170 calories of orange juice.
If you are poor and hungry, you are obviously going to buy the cheapest calories you can find. And in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk foods – whether those foods are found at the grocery store, the gas station, or in the fast food restaurant, conveniently located just down the street.
But this raises another question. How can industrially-processed foods and their associated marketing costs be so much cheaper than real, whole foods produced from water, seeds and sunlight?
In a New York Times article, author Michael Pollan asks this very question…

“Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget. So how can the supermarket possibly sell a pair of these synthetic cream-filled pseudo-cakes for less than a bunch of roots?

Pollan goes on to answer his own question…

“The Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and wheat — three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year.”

The primary reason that lower-income people are more overweight is because the unhealthiest and most fattening foods are the cheapest. If you were broke and had just three dollars to spend on food today, would you buy a head of broccoli or a Super Value Meal with French fries, a cheeseburger and a Coke?
Because you’re reading this publication, you might choose the former. But for most people who have very little to spend on food, the choice is clear.
And make no mistake. This does not represent a failure of the capitalist free-market system. Modern agri-business and government food policy represents a perverted version of capitalism – crony capitalism – where those with the most money and the most powerful friends in government control the markets.
What they have done is use your tax dollars to subsidize certain commodity crops (at the expense of others) to ensure that the cost of oils, sugar and grains stay artificially low. With low input costs, food manufacturers can turn a tidy profit. The end result is that processed foods – even though they require more technology, more labor and more marketing to produce and sell – are cheaper to the consumer than real, whole foods.
Consider that between 1985 and 2000, the inflation-adjusted prices of fruits and vegetables increased by an average of 40%. During the same period of time the real price of soft drinks fell by almost 25%.
There is no doubt that obesity has become a public health crisis. But because most politicians either do not understand the issue or because they are too corrupt to do the right thing, most “solutions” to this crisis are completely wrongheaded.
Some politicians are calling for a tax on fat people themselves. Currently, many state governments have imposed taxes on soft drinks and junk foods. And calls are growing louder for similar taxes at the federal level.  
It is completely insane that in a country where the surgeon general has identified “an epidemic of obesity” that we are simultaneously subsidizing the production of high-fructose corn syrup. It is equally insane that the government is helping to artificially lower the cost of foods that are driving up national healthcare costs (i.e. killing us), while having a national healthcare debate about how we are going to pay for those costs.

Next question?

Those kids had already been born, so this is just fine with the conservatives.

Wonderful link, PW.

Now that we know that carbs are the real culprit, not fats, you would think more people would understand this.

Forty years ago, my first husband, from a small, poor southern Indiana town, used to refer to some townspeople as “potato fat.” I used to argue that potatoes didn’t make you fat! Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Especially, of course, if you’re eating your potatoes as potato chips.

I am so glad for people like Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman who are making the argument that our whole food system is, as you say, perverted. Maybe we can get it changed at last. Some schools are changing their menus, and my city manager eliminated the cheapo low-nutrients from vending machines in city offices a couple years ago.

There are signs of hope, but they don’t come from the right wing Santorum types.

Grimmer had recently moved to the border city from Zanesville, Ohio

Ummm….

Oh, my, but aren’t we shrill today?! But high fructose corn syrup is natural.

And because (as a nation) we grow our food far away from where we actually eat it, that means it needs to be shipped further and stored longer. Processed foods meet that requirement a lot more readily than fresh produce does. By eating locally grown foods, we’d be healthier, use up a lot less energy, treat our food animals a lot more humanely, and perhaps increase social interaction with the person actually producing our food.

I know. That’s really, really complicated…I guess it’s a lot easier to ask stupid questions like, “If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?” because the rubes just love that santorum.

By eating locally grown foods, we’d be healthier, use up a lot less energy, treat our food animals a lot more humanely, and perhaps increase social interaction with the person actually producing our food.

Yeah, but then you’d be a communist, too (or at least an arugula-eating elitist). Priorities, man.

On the plus side, Rachelle Grimmer didn’t abort her kids, no one appears to be gay, and the 2nd Amendment, once again, provided a simple solution to a complex issue. Win-win-win

whoa … tbogg done nailed that sucker flat …

That photo…some of us of a certain age…the slick poly shirts under a leisure-jackety poly sport coat…

{/fetal position}

Let them eat sanctimony.

Gaud. Doesn’t he just look like the The Beav in the 70s.

I can’t blame this poor woman for leaving Ohio. It’s a great place to be from- far from. She moves to where the jobz r!!! and finds out you gotta speak Spanish, work every bizarre hour of the day, and take minimum wage with no real benefits. I escaped Ohio a long time ago, and I recommend that to anyone left there, at least until the Republitard infestation is eradicated. Her mental condition no doubt blinded her as to who really needed shot- it wasn’t her kids, or herself. Terrible shame, and Ol’ Frothy just adds to it with his ignorance/cognitive disconnect. I wonder how much more worse it needs to get before the natives get really, really restless. I’m holding out for sooner rather than later, so there aren’t more casualties from the Class War.

Hush now.

He may look like the Beav, but certainly does not have the moral character.

I’m telling you, it’s a diet. He’s concerned about obesity, and taking steps to help the poor people eat fewer calories.

And Rick Perry wants to curtail unemployment so that people don’t have money for gas, because driving causes global warming.

These are selfless, selfless people, concerning themselves with the welfare of poor people by denying it to them, caring about the health of poor people by making sure they don’t have any, and improving the lives of gay people by passing laws to insure that they never are.

Plus the Santorum Diet™ is great, the pre-measured meals include “Man on Hot Dogs” and come with a special sauce.

Bingo, and this is also a good illustration as to why Rectal Ricky watched Newt pass him by in the polls. Cuz Newt (he is so goshdarn book smart!)has come up with an answer – these kids should be working! Heck, as janitors they’ll not only earn some spending money, but the constant inhalation of cleaning fluids will kill their little appetites! Win-Win!

Rick has a plan to fight obesity. He plans to cut $5TT from the budget in 100 days if he’s elected President. So we’ll all be on starvation diets in 120 days.

One of the better trends of the past few decades has been the urban garden. Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Youngstown and Detroit are in the vanguard of this movement, where vacant land is reclaimed for community gardening.

+1 PW, excellent link.

Locally grown foods are a lot more expensive. Poor people can’t afford them.

Mrs. frsbdg is from Zanesville. She confirms they got a whole lot of crazy goin’ on there.

Anybody that brings home their dead lifeless still born baby for their brothers and sisters to meet is Batshit crazy INSANE.

Trying to discern reason from an insane person is well….batshit crazy INSANE.

are you here woman ?
the discussion about remembering about my father gave me nightmares last night ;-) I had locked him outta of my dreams for ten years, until last night.

They can afford them if they grow them themselves:

http://www.growpittsburgh.org/growpittsburgh/

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/dhfs/homegrown-home.asp

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Urban-Farming-Grows-in-Detroit-134053423.html

By the way, we have a new right-wing troll for your viewing pleasure. It calls itself “givethemspoons” and it first showed up last night to harangue Eli. It’s currently over at Kevin’s Occupy Boston thread.

Yeah, like poor people have time to grow their own food. Just like they have time to read to their kids, help them with their homework. That’s after 2 parents work 2 subminimum wage jobs each. I know people like that. And like growing any amount of food is easy. I have an herb garden, bc herbs are weeds. I have lots of friends with gardens and it takes them inordinate time & effort & money. If they were to calculate the cost/veggie, they would never do it. My own honey is expensive beyond calculation.

Sorry about that.

PTS stays with you forever in my experience, and gets worse as you age. Don’t know what can be done about it.

Talk therapy helps to understand, but it can’t reverse.

I’m ok with people like you to finish my walk with.

He was so in love with money there wasn’t room for any other love.

Oh, and what happens if the crop fails in a particular year, like happened here to experienced farmers bc of floods in October. Many lost all their crops. So where do the poor, who are not experienced farmers, turn to food in that event?

My winter CSA is eliciting donations for farm workers who worked on those farms that lost their entire harvest.

Actually, I’ve seen givethemspoons before today.

I saw BackEast again today too. That’s HeadedWest’s sockpuppet.

We’re with you tjbs. Sorry you had a rough night.

I’m flattered ma’am. Of course in this land of free speech I will probably be classed as a spammer soon and denied access to this August collection of fine Americans. But I do appreciate it that you follow my work.

These so-called Christians are such soulless pieces of trash, devoid of any decency or humanity.

I’ve BEEN in both places. It is quite the contrast. But down and out in Laredo is a lot worse than down and out in Zanesville.

This is the result. Sickening.

Amen. I am fortunate. I have a good local farmer’s market or three, and they all accept food stamps.

You still in Texas? All our farmers markets (I think all, in my area) accept food stamps.
The one better thing about Laredo compared to Zanesville (I’ve been in Laredo, only past Zanesville, on the highway) is the weather. Horrible hot in summer, but at least you won’t freeze to death in winter.

Oh, and updated: the little boy died tonight, here in San Antonio, at the hospital to which both kids were flown. So, so sad.
It seems that Ms. Grimmer went to Laredo, then moved to Corpus Christi, then back to Laredo. She told her neighbors in Laredo that people in Corpus “didn’t like her.”
Her Laredo neighbors, nearly as poor as she, brought her food and things for her kids, and tried to help her out. But she couldn’t figure out how to navigate the “welfare” system.

Wrong Rick, but entertaining nonetheless.

He’s actually better looking now. I know, faint praise but still…

The entire Republican Party and their idiotic minions are nothing more than the resurrection of the Know-Nothing Party.

“If hunger is a problem in America, then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger program?”

Actually, this is the strongest argument for atheism I’ve seen yet: ie, If God exists, then why do we have Richard Santorum?

I’ll tell you what – when my wife had a devastating stroke, I had a Hell of a time trying to figure out how to get her onto SSDI; every time I went in to the SS office, they sent me back home with a whole new set of forms. If I’d had a gun then, there’s a sporting chance I might have taken some of them with me at one point. Eventually, she ended up getting it done once she was able to get around well enough to get in there herself. I guess she finally found somebody who still had some shreds of empathy. And this was 25 years ago. God only knows what it’s like now.

Well, we could debate that point until the cows come home but for me, the issue isn’t the cost of the food, it’s infrastructure. Our “food delivery system” is based on interstates and railroads and jet planes. Food grown where you eat it is more likely to be less expensive. Local coops and food banks would be more likely to be established to assist low income people. Of course, you can’t force poor people to make healthy choices (just as you can’t force wealthy people to make those choices). But I’m not going to automatically assume poor people would rather eat crap.

So, what’s your solution?

You’re right, my bad.

So hard to keep your idiot Ricks straight (pun intended) without a scorecard.