Heritage Foundation: There is no hunger in the US
While most Americans were planning for the annual ritual of overconsumption known as Thanksgiving, the good folks at the Heritage Foundation, America's leading architects of conservative thought for at least three decades, were doing their part to add to the holiday cheer. According to a November 13 Heritage article, well-off revelers could stuff their faces unhampered by guilt about the less fortunate, because there are no longer any hungry people in the United States.
You have to hand it to Heritage for always being first out of the gate to exploit the latest event or finding to advance its aims-this is the same think tank that issued a comprehensive strategy, two weeks after Katrina hit shore, for using the hurricane as an excuse to slash federal social programs. This time, its thinkers found inspiration in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual report on Household Food Security in the United States, which is as close as the federal government comes to providing statistics on hunger among the nation's poor. The latest report states that 11 percent of Americans were "food insecure" for some part of 2006, and 4 percent-11.1 million people-experienced "very low food security."[..]
But the Heritage folks are looking beyond semantic tweaks: Far from having too little to eat, they argue, poor people are eating too much. By the time the USDA report went public, Heritage had readied its own salvo, titled "Hunger Hysteria: Examining Food Security and Obesity in America." In recent years, the U.S. media and public have become increasingly obsessed with the "obesity epidemic." And what better way to attack the idea of deprivation among the poor than to note that they are getting fatter? Rightly or not, people still associate obesity with the sins of gluttony and sloth, which jives nicely with the concept that welfare recipients are lazy people who would rather feed at the public trough than get an honest job.
Must. Resist. Impulse. To. Bang. Head. Against. Keyboard. I've been doing some reading on scientific study of happiness (i.e., how psychology and brain physiology determines our emotional reactions) and I truly believe that the empathy portion of the brain stem must be damaged or missing on conservatives. That's the only way that I can see how they can ignore the facts in front of them to come up with such a condescending and hateful hypothesis like that.
But it appears that the Heritage Foundation feels they are entitled to their own facts, much like the unintentionally hilarious Conservapedia. According to this BloggingHeads segment, Heritage is planning on starting their own version of Crooks&Liars, documenting examples of "liberal" media bias and when conservatives are shown in an unfairly bad light.
Hate to break it to you, fellas, but you put yourselves in a bad light all on your own.
Frist?
Oh my God, this is going to be funny. Man your battle stations. Or woman them. It's all gravy.
OK. I'm done with the "Through the Looking Glass' world. Take me back to Normalland. I am unable to suspend disbelief any longer.
Okay bring those bastards down here. I'll take them to West Palm Beach and let them meet those people who show up for free meals. They can talk to those people and ask them why if they are not hungry they would stand out in public waiting for a free meal instead of just cooking something up at home. Trouble is, these people have no homes and no means to buy food.
This infuriates me! I blog about hunger and the Farm Bill every couple of weeks, and this is such utter horse manure. So much of what this is about is to ensure Yum! Brands, McDonalds, Burger King, Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto continue to benefit from Corporate welfare. Rrrrrgh.
Those lazy fat poor. Can't wait until all the high risk loans come due. Going to be fat lazy people on every corner looking for a hand-out. Oh sh*t! That might be me....I better start putting some weight on. Never mind.
I'll drive these clowns into Camden, NJ, right down the road from me, any day, any time, to the food bank our Quaker Meeting supports.
Of course, that would mean they'd have to lose their delusions...
wow ........
With regard to obesity and the poor, let us also never mind the fact that junk food is by far cheaper than healthy alternatives.
The latest report states that 11 percent of Americans were “food insecure” for some part of 2006, and 4 percent-11.1 million people-experienced “very low food security.”
Semantics anyone?
Guess I can ask that poor kid in the south for all the money back i sponsored his way.
thanks Heritage Foundation.
Empathy is a higher brain function, not part of the brain stem and above the "reptilian" brain, so there's your problem right there...
Mommy, Mommy, I'm food insecure! Can I have something to eat?? Waaaaaaaahh
Put this one in the BTDT category: A pound box of elbow macaroni and a stick of margarine is dinner for a family of six, three or four nights a week. Not much nutrition there, but it fills the kids' bellies and helps them forget how hungry and ill-nourished they really are.
Well, like Ronald Reagan said: "Maybe they're all on a diet." Meh.
Well, that site will be down inaweek!
Larry Craig isn't gay.. He's just heterosexually challenged.
Kind of makes you think that these ultra rich people are begging for a revolution of the French kind. Of course I don't think they would be thinking so highly of it if they saw guillotines going up everywhere.
I guess this is good-bye. I'll be at the heritage site. lol
Well, until all their heads explode.
We don't need food; we got CAKE!!!
It must be so nice to be in a political party that merely has to click its heels together to bring themselves back to the fantasy land that is Republican Island.
When reality gets too hard, demeaning, embarrassing or downright not profitable enough, they just say "There's no place like our bubble! There's no place like our bubble!"
A bunch of tools, each and every one of them!
Cheap food-high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, crap, crap crap. Might as well feed them suet for all the actual nutritive value they get.
As a little kid, I remember being taught in Sunday School about Jesus feeding the hungry. I don't recall him turning people away because they were overweight.
I am not a religious person but those sorts of stories stuck with me.
...I truly believe that the empathy portion of the brain stem must be damaged or missing on conservatives...
LOLZ
You cheer me up from time to time, even as we are both wrecking our desks with our noggins.
Jeon Ji-Yung @ 2:
Wow, as if C&L didn't go after dishonest people on the left. That's what I love about this website. If somebody this site normally likes were to come out with some homophobic or racist rant, they would get skewered right here without mercy. It's kind of like The Simpsons or Southpark. Nobody gets a free ride.
The problem is that people who get cancer, lose their jobs, then lose their health insurance, then lose their home or apartment because social security denied their disability claim and have to live in their car and have the audacity to ask for a little help from their neighborhood food bank are just f**king lazy.
Well, what about all the "obese" (FAT) rich slobs: Limbaugh, Rove, Cheney - what's their excuse!?? I would say they're gulity of the most sins - including gluttony and sloth!
Do any of these so-called policy experts ever shop in a grocery store? Good, nutritious food is expensive and the cost has been going up more quickly over the past couple of years. Every time the price of oil goes up there is a concommitant rise in the cost of food. A loaf of bread (the whole grain type) costs $3.89; a gallon of milk is just about $4.00; green beans and asparagus are $2.99/lb; brocoli is $1.99/lb; oranges are $1.00 each! If you're making $7 an hour = $280 gross a week (if you're lucky enough to even have a job) how can you possibly afford to pay rent & heat, buy clothes, pay for transport to work, and buy nutritious food??!!
pissed off patricia @ 4:
Now now, you know as well as I do that "homelessness" is just a vicious rumor spread by people who don't have anywhere to live!
lilorphant @ 22:
SERIOUSLY! It's alomst like a long-range conspiracy plan to further erode social programs.
"See those fat-assed po' people? Yeah, they eat too much. Therefore, we don't need to have any kind of social programs to help their lazy, CLEARLY over-eating behinds. Oh, and say, *heheheh*, while we are on the subject: I have this GREAT plan for privatizing the food banks that yer just gonna loooove..."
I know I'm splitting hairs here...but strictly speaking, it can be argued that the Heritage Foundation is (albeit very disingenously) correct in the letter if not the spirit when they say that there are no "hungry" people in the United States. That's because in 2006, the USDA in its infinite sagacity and wisdom [/sarcasm] decided to officially redefine "hungry" as "experiencing very low food security" -- rather convenient little euphemism, isn't it? Does anyone seriously believe that they did this entirely on their own volition, without any pressure whatsoever from the White House or attendant Bush administration supporters? Let's put it this way -- I wouldn't wanna bet my life savings on it.
One of the things which these people are all-too-conveniently choosing to ignore is that obesity has a lot to do with the kind of food that you eat as well as the amount. I wrote a paper on this back in college. Whenever a culture is experiencing a good shortage, the fashion ideal tends towards a plumper figure because it shows that person can eat well. Whenever a culture experiences an abundance of food, the fashion ideal tends to a slim figure because it shows that this person can afford not to eat and can pay for weight-loss aids such as special diets, nutritionists, personal trainer, and/or cosmetic surgery. In the latter cultures, obesity often becomes perceived as an indicator of socio-economic class -- the heavier you are, the less well-off you are perceived to be be and this may be at least in part attributable to diet. Ironically, in heavily-industrialized cultures where there is an abundance of food (such as ours), many of the cheapest foods are processed foods of the highly-processed variety which typically contain a lot of simple carbohydrates and often a goodly amount of fat, sugar, and sodium as well. Think about it...it isn't often that you see coupons in the Sunday paper for meat, milk, or fresh produce, is it? I read something recently to the effect that in areas of the country where there are higher percentages of people living in poverty or in lower socio-economic strata, the number of convenience stores (which would sell primarily snack and/or highly-processed foods without much nutritional value) are outnumbering grocery stores. Bet the Heritage Foundation didn't take that into account, did they? Of course not...
Amitola @ 27:
Oh...so that's why my mom and dad fed us buttered macaroni four nights a week. I thought they just wanted us to be fat. Now it all makes sense.
Bluestocking @ 30:
And those convenience stores charge prices that are higher than the prices at a grocery store. Don't forget that.
WTF, well maybe not for caviar & foie gras downed with a magnum of Dom Perignon but hunger none the less!
At home in Pittsburgh for the holiday the city Light Of Life Mission served over 8,000 (THAT'S THOUSAND. NOT A TYPO) meals with the NFL Steelers on hand.
At least 35,000,000 (THAT'S MILLION. NOT A TYPO) Americans go to bed hungry each & every night as if not getting enough to eat was not the same as famished hunger.
These people are not only unaware and insensitive but TOTAL ASSHOLES.
Oh, bloody hell what's the use!
Lyon @ 12:
Actually, I'm talking about a deeper, gut check response, not the higher cognitive functioning. The book I'm reading now (here) speaks to studies done on people who have had tumors or damage done to the brain stem and no longer have access to their emotions. They know they should feel something, but cannot apply it to their behavior. These people lose their relationships with others, are unable to make choices between seemingly equal options and tend to not be able to keep their jobs. They retain their higher functioning thinking, but lose the gut check aspect that allows them to retain what you and I would call their humanity. Empathy is equal parts higher cognitive functioning and what you term "lizard brain".
Rural Orangeburg offers poor choice for more healthful, lower cost food
"A study by the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health examined the "nutritional environment" of a rural county to determine the number and types of food stores, the availability of stores and the price of a specific list of staple foods representing the main food groups...
"Stores offering more healthful and lower-cost food selections were greatly outnumbered by convenience stores, which offered fewer healthy foods," said Dr. Angela Liese, an associate professor at the Arnold School and the study's lead author...
Among the findings:
* Only 4 percent of convenience stores carried high-fiber bread;
* Only 28 percent of any of the stores sold any of the fruits or vegetables listed on the survey - apples, cucumbers, oranges and tomatoes.
* Only 2 percent of convenience stores carried low-fat or skim milk;
* Eggs were available in 29 percent of convenience stores, and none of these stores carried ground beef (lean or high fat), chicken drumsticks or chicken breasts;
* 98 percent of convenience stores had off-street parking and only 36 percent offered handicap parking;
* Food stamps were accepted by all the supermarkets, 63 percent of the grocery stores and 2 percent of the convenience stores.
People living in rural areas are at a marked disadvantage in being able to meet [the Dietary Guidelines for Americans]."
JIBES
Dont' people understand that it's not how much you eat, but what you eat that effects metabolism? Anyone ever wondered why foods that are better for you are more expensive? Anyone ever wondered why poor folks don't have such great bodies? It's because they lack the resources necessary to take care of them.
This is like telling a coal miner that he's got lung problems because he doesn't breathe correctly.
S.C. ranked among top five states for hunger
An average 15 percent of South Carolinians endured "food insecurity" between 2004-06, according to a recent federal study. That puts South Carolina among the nation's top five states where people aren't getting enough to eat.
Nationwide, 35.5 million people, or 12.1 percent, said they did not have enough money or resources to get food for at least some period during the year, according to the annual hunger survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The survey was based on U.S. Census Bureau data and does not include the homeless. According to a January survey conducted by the South Carolina Council on Homelessness, there were more than 6,700 people without a place to live. That's about 16 people for every 10,000 South Carolina residents.
Class warfare, plain and simple.
There would be some hunger if the folks had some good sh*t to smoke, let's get on that and quit screwing around planning to steal food from poor people because they have too much and are getting fat.
Is 'being conservative' the same as 'needing psychological help'?
When you perform a lobotomy on a conservative is that the same as liposuction?
Are their heads really bigger when they're fat?
Food insecurity. There's you first problem. They name it something flowery and almost poetic. It makes it easier to live with.
What helped me to understand this mindset was reading John Dean's "Conservatives without Conscience". That was a remarkable book and breaks it all down very well.
Jeon Ji-Yung @ 2:
Finally, a conservative blog where the closeted gay can speak their minds.
Good for them ! Widestance4Evah
Obviously, the people who run the food banks are liars when they say that they don't have enough food for the people who are seeking it. There are no people there. It is all a sham. Everyone of these rightwingnuts should be forced out onto the streets with nothing but their hands in their pockets and let them be turned down by the food banks, and told that they have no food for them. What a sickening bunch of self-centered, narcisstic neoncons. Starvation would be too good for this whole bunch.
If you think there is no hunger in the US come to a school on Monaday morning and see the children gobble down the food because they have had so little over the weekend.
If you think the Heritage Foundation is weird, how about the American Enterprise Institute?
Did you know crews of their members go out on the streets starting at about 1 0'clock each morning, picking up all the coins they can find on the sidewalks, checking out all the return coins slots on phones, vending machines, bottled water machines, newspaper machines, etc., collecting as much money as they can, because 'if the homeless and the other poor people were to find these coins, they would just lose their incentive to work and spend the money on dope and alcohol and cigarettes and do harm to themselves'.
So the AEI is saving the poor from themselves by selflessly collecting all the spare change they can find. Damned white of them, wouldn't you say?
Did you know the AEI is a zionist institution? Do you suppose that has anything to do with it? Collecting all the coins, I mean?
It's not called hunger anymore... it's been renamed "food insecurity". Hunger sounds so, oh, painful and unpleasant. I do believe the empathy is missing. Conservatives are just wired that way, though I do think if they allow themselves the freedom of an open mind that the wiring can be changed. It's that whole open mind thing that scares the hell out of them... why, they may actually think it's okay to be gay.
How come we lose every frigging war we get into? I mean, c'mon, we used to be a much better warlike nation, we'd win at least once in a while. Do you suppose it's because the doofusses we have now, attempting to run the country, have never known anything about war except what they see in the movies and on TV, and are grossly incompetent, to boot?
Or do you think it's because they're just plain stupid, at least a lot more stupid that the people they pick fights with, like the dopers, and the Muslims, and the Arabs, and the other dictatorships?
What can we do to change this? We can't teach them anything, because they're ineducable. We can't talk to them, because they don't listen. I guess we could shoot them, but even these days, that might be against the law.
But putting up with their dumbness, day after day, is sure wearing.
In a nation of 300,000,000 there has to be a fraction that is lazy. I see lazy people everyday. Lazy people rarely have good outcomes, no matter what the system.
As far as hunger goes, it isn't necessary a lack of stuff to cram down one's gullet, it's the fact that most of the stuff we eat is absolute crap. A trip to the grocery store is a nightmare for a biochemist. We need to go back to unprocessed foods.
Heritage Foundation: There is no hunger in the US
good I was waiting for these assholes to fix that problem...it's about time. and I'm sure as God is our witness we will never be hungry again!
I posted this link a while back, but us 'mericans are undernourished.
I'm just a dollar menunaire. Spread the wealth. I had no idea I was so rich!
Dahgrostab'ph-r-i @ 49:
Frankly, my dear, the HF doesn't give a damn.
As far as the heritage foundation is concerned, there isn't any hunger, or need of any other kind. that's because to them, the only people who matter or have objective reality are the rich and powerful. Everybody else are just abstractions whose reality can't taken be taken seriously.
nicole, you need to turn that bird's backside to the camera!
folks need a graphic reminder of the view the world gets when the ostrich buries its head in the sand!
Oh, they have empathy alright. For themselves. Because every single one of them worked* for the life they've got.
*offer only good in the presence of preexisting wealth or privilege.
I love it when people who've never been without assume that being without, because they've never experienced it, is something that only happens because you're trying for it. Hate to argue from example, but I've worked as many as two steady jobs plus whatever I could pick up in odd jobs to pay the rent and feed the kids (while going to grad school.) Every farking time I've ever gotten aid, I've gone to use it and gotten chewed out by the clerk (usually by the clerk announcing to everyone in line that I'm using WIC/food stamp benefits and that's why s/he can't process it fast. Repeatedly. Especially the WIC/food stamp part. Sometimes I even get eye rolling and deep sighs.)
I used to be such a mouse about it, but now I'm a huge beyatch. I will demand a manager and chew everyone in sight out. After all, my kids and I aren't hungry, we're just 'food insecure' (which must be the term for unable to sleep occasionally for worry about how to ensure everyone is getting anything resembling nutrition.)
Call Shepherdess Suzanne in Des Moines, Iowa and ask her if there are homeless and hungry people in America.
If you only had a dollar for lunch would you spend it on a fast food bacon cheeseburger dollar meal burger or on an apple?
Nice use of the ostrich image... I think that should be the new symbol of the Republican Party.
This anti-welfare anti-immigrant hysteria is sickeningly reminiscent of arguments that the rich, pompous elite has been pushing ever since feudalism... they were wrong back then, too. Time to update your 16th century mindset, Conservatives!
"I truly believe that the empathy portion of the brain stem must be damaged or missing on conservatives"
Heard it on NPR on the way home about Iowa voters. Although they didn't identify her as a Republican voter, I can only assume she must have been. The quote was "I don't want to pay for someone else's child to have breakfast at school any more." Yes --- God (I'm guessing she's a devout Christian as well) forbid that I help a child have one decent meal today. Lord, please protect me from your followers . . .
HHHMMMMPPPFFF!!!
Don't you guys have any women in power? Not one of them if they had a hand in this would ever ever ever do this to people. This is worse than criminal...
This is Orwellian.
conservatives won't acknowledge there is poverty or global warming because "free markets" are their god and they'd be committing sacrelidge to the supply sider gods
Wow! Just heard RANDI RHODES speak in Michigan. Give her WE BELIEVE speech a whirl. http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/ Explains the patriotic duty to IMPEACH.
I recall being outside Renfro Valley years ago with women walking. Bringing home bags of Mike-Sells potato chips to shacks with washing machines on the porch.
Just the good life huh tories?
America's poor live the life of Reilly.
Fill that belly with Spam and jelly.
And Mike-Sells potato chips.
Gee, perhaps they haven't seen the line-up to the soup kitchens I see every day. People line up at noon for a 4pm meal. And very few are obese. Yes, some are. A 25cent bag of chips is cheaper than a box of mac and cheese they have to make with water because there is no milk. Noodles, peanut butter and government cheese sure can plump you up....Heritage Jerk Wads.
heritage foundation is nothing without the GOP talk radio monopoly, their real voice, repeated to 50-70 MIL people across America
what a fucking disgusting joke the heritage foundation is. i know how they can avoid hunger this xmas--they can feast on my ba**s
Most people who can't afford to eat anything but pasta will get fat. Their weight is not caused by overeating.
"I truly believe that the empathy portion of the brain stem must be damaged or missing on conservatives."
Makes me think of Bohemian Grove...
Thats what the "Cremation of Care" ceremony is all about....
They say it is in reference to leaving the 'outside world' behind for a week...
I don't much buy that.
Within the ceremony, they sacrifice a human effigy to the owl.
The mall in Washington DC, surrounding the white house, is laid out so the gardens and streets form the image of an owl.
I find this strikingly similar to watching the 18-and-up year olds marching into a meat grinder, while all our pockets are pillaged.
In the name of the house, which sits inside the owl. "Cremation of Care"
So, am I nuts, or, did I blow your mind, or, Is this common Knowledge?
The Heritage Foundation has the same answer for all problems:
Well no, we don't know how to fix the problem but if the "Government" gets involved they will make the problem worse.
Or
Leave it up to the 1% to fix the problem. After all the 1% have a vested interest in solving the Worlds problems.............right?
Every year Texas foodbanks are reporting that they have less and less to go around.
Why isn't there a miracle of tuna cassarole and nut logs?
HERE IS WHAT ELSE IS IN AMERICA
http://justanothercoverup.com/?p=334
http://justanothercoverup.com/?p=334
http://justanothercoverup.com/?p=334
THE MORE YOU KNOW... THE MORE YOU SHOULD WRITE YOUR SENATORS AND MEDIA OUTLETS
oh god, no, 'government' is only for the perpetuation of CARTELWORLD. The creatures who own Georgie-Porgie and his psychofascist crew are not interested in all those FAT, DISGUSTING PO FOLKS. I mean, like, rilly, what's more sickening, the fat or the poverty????
Comments are closed on this entry