Category Archives: ethics and morals

The Food Stamp Lie **edited

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**edited.  I missed the claim that he purchased all of this on $21.55  + 6.03 …. So, he’s saying that he used this for a week? At five weeks, that would be $137.90…and that’s only if you live within walking distance of a big box store (that pays minimum wage to its employees) …..but it still stands that this is not  healthy nor sustainable, without meat, fruits and veggies, butter (or olive oil) and eggs.

Donny Ferguson, an aide in the office of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), made the bogus claim that he could eat well on the amount of food allowed with Food Stamps, or SNAP, as it is officially called.

I was surprised to see such a well thought out response here.  Not expecting that from Forbes, for sure. 🙂

I read a rather lame article on MSNBC.  (not linking to it, you’ll have to google it.)   The article writer didn’t bother listing the food items that Ferguson bought, but started with the headline “Republican Staffer Beats Food Stamp Challenge”   I don’t know why folks think MSNBC is liberal…it’s not.  Save for a couple of the more enlightened ones.  I’m sure they’ ll be gone, however, if they really stick their necks out….a la Phil Donahue.  (I find it highly ironic that I grew up on Phil Donahue and my kids have control freak and bully Dr. Phil.)

The llist of the items bought by Ferguson:

For $21.55 Ferguson purchased at Dollar Tree:
Two boxes of Honeycomb cereal
Three cans of red beans and rice
Jar of peanut butter
Bottle of grape jelly
Loaf of whole wheat bread
Two cans of refried beans
Box of spaghetti
Large can of pasta sauce
Two liters of root beer
Large box of popsicles
24 servings of Wyler’s fruit drink mix
Eight cups of applesauce
Bag of pinto beans
Bag of rice
Bag of cookies

For $6.03 at the Shoppers Food Warehouse next door Ferguson bought a gallon of milk and a box of maple and brown sugar oatmeal.

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First, there are no can sizes listed. Highly suspect.  How big a box of sugar-coated cereal?  How big a can of chemically suspect red beans and rice?  How big a jar of grape jelly?

Speaking from a Celiac viewpoint, I couldn’t get past Day One of this wheat based diet.  I would be ill after the first meal, and in a hospital by the end of the month….if I made it that long.

Secondly, as the Forbes article mentions, this diet is void of fruits and vegetables.  And meat, too.  Not one egg.  No flour.  No butter. It has everything to encourage heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dental decay.  There is nothing nutritious or healthy about this diet.

I don’t drink milk, but if I did before the crash and burn, I would have stopped by now because it’s too expensive and nutritionally questionable with pasteurized milk from grain-fed cows kept in captivity shot up with antibiotics.

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This is not a sustainable diet–for the planet nor for its inhabitants.  It’s disingenuous.  And no doubt if someone follows this diet, the repubs would be blaming them for getting sick and costing taxpayers $$$ dollars in healthcare costs.  Pffft.

The Voting Rights Act

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What can I say?

Roberts says that times have changed and things are different now.  Yes and No.

Yes we have our first African American president.  I see African American professionals in many places.  It was especially poignant to watch the coverage of the recent tragedy in Philadelphia–when the building collapsed.  The mayor, the head of the fire dept., and another official were all African Americans.  That was a proud moment.

But, No,  racism has not been eliminated.  Roberts should know this….in his own backyard of Laporte County, Indiana, was a case of someone spraying racial slurs on the sidewalk of an African American church about three years ago.  There was snow on the ground, to make tracking easier….but somehow the culprits got away….

Voting Rights Act was put into place because of the stuff we’re seeing yet today…

…like the attack on ACORN…an organization that sought to get the poor and others registered to vote…

…Florida thwarting voters…

…so to say that everything is just fine and it’s okay to let these states once again do as they please is just plain wrong.

Saying racism is “over” is like saying that sexism has been eliminated because we see *some* women in positions of power.  And those women don’t necessarily speak for women who stay home, out of the rat race, so to speak.  So it’s not a fair representation of all thoughts.   It’s also not a representation of actual progress.  When women who stay home are acknowledged as contributing to society as much as a woman who brings home a paycheck;  when rape is no longer seen as the fault of the woman; when domestic violence is acknowledged for its devastating effects on women, children, and society; when tenderness is no longer seen as weakness….only then will anyone convince me that sexism is no longer an issue.

And racism and sexism are created from the same mindset of power-over.

Goliath is winning…

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….this is not good….we have third generation bee farmers who are giving up because of the genocide of bees. (buzz-a-cide?)

From the Chicago Tribune link:

Die-offs of bee populations have accelerated over the last few years to a rate the U.S. government calls unsustainable. Honeybees pollinate plants that produce roughly 25 percent of the foods Americans consume, including apples, almonds, watermelons and beans, according to government reports.

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I’m afraid that they will wake up too, too late….and it won’t be until the crops have died and the fields are empty.  God help us then.

Moyers on ALEC

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on Bill Moyers covering the dirty dealings of American Legislative Exchange Council.  It states that this was all over the nation on PBS stations this weekend.  If it was on my local station, I saw no advertisement of it, so I missed it.  (Boy, do I miss FW, which has such a kick butt public radio station, and three PBS stations, as well. )

Luckily, there is a link here to watch the show online. Also, there is a link for finding out which of your own state’s representatives belong to ALEC.  I found a couple of surprises, there, such as Win Moses, who was the former mayor of Fort Wayne, and John Gregg, the guy who just ran for governor.  Mike Pence was not listed, but yeah, he seems to be doing their bidding:

mikepence.com/newsletter/pence-hires-atkins-policy-director

See…this exposure of ALEC is a double-edged sword–you’re getting the word out and people are paying attention, but they (ALEC)  will find ways around it by people who are off in the wings, such as Atkins.

Solid Canada

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Color me shocked:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-24-2013/money-boo-boo—the-canadian-banking-system

Canada has NEVER had a financial crash. Yep.  Even during the Depression here, they were solid….because they were…wait for it…REGULATED.

Unbelievable, eh?

Listening to the American Tabacco’s *cough* joke at the end kind of tells of his mindset not only of women, but of those he perceives as weaker.

(….and anyone not willing to profit at others’ expense is…weaker….in his sociopathic view.)

 

 

Failing to disclose NSA ties

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Psuedo-journalist David Gregory of Meet the Press failed to disclose a lobbyist for a private defense contractor that is employed by the NSA. (hat tip crooks and liars.com)

John Amato has this up, too.  A good summary of the media’s coverage…

…and their lack of true journalism.

Intelligent discussion

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…is hard to come by on the airwaves, but the CSPAN discussion with Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight  is one of those discussions:

 

POGO has this link to the NY Times OP-Ed on Snowden and the exposure of the extent of outsourcing government work…and we’re not getting our money’s worth. Color me shocked. Not.

From the article:

At a Senate hearing on intelligence contractors in September 2011, a witness from the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group, cited research from 2008 showing that the government paid private contractors 1.6 times what it would have cost to have had government employees perform the work.

I haven’t watched today, but in the past few days, MSNBC has been running a rabid campaign on Edward Snowden, making his fleeing capture the story instead of the warrantless wiretapping, which should be the object of discussion.

CNN is doing a little bit better–it depends on which broadcaster is on at the moment.

It’s just mindboggling that these are supposed journalists who are like rabid dogs going after a whistleblower…especially after the revelations of phones being tapped at the AP.

What is really intriguing is that Judge Vaughn Walker had ruled that the wiretaps were illegal.  So….why were they still doing them?

Another story on the cyber surveillance here.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has this up.  Note that they claim there are “no names”, but as the article states there are names kept separately.  I mean, really, what would be the point if there were no names attached to the phone numbers?  Wouldn’t that be counter to the objective of tracking people?

Here is an excellent point:

They contain information on criminal activity or a threat of harm to people or property.   

—This is not very comforting – the Fourth Amendment wouldn’t mean anything if the government could search your house everyday, but would only act if they found evidence of a crime inside.

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(italics mine)

So…I have a question…why is it NOT okay to track someone with GPS without a warrant…but quite all right  to track someone by phone without a warrant??

This also from EFF.  They are fighting the good fight trying to get this out in the open…where it belongs.