Quick Takes (v75): Treat Everyone the Same

According to an article from one of my local news stations, Onondaga County, where I live, has received a renewal of a New York State Department of Health grant to help educate residents on the benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise.

I'm fine with that; as the article notes, CDC data from 2023 indicates "around 37% of the county's population is obese and around 9-10% have diabetes."   Further, 

The northeastern and southwestern parts of Syracuse both have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the county. They also have the highest rates of physical inactivity.

And, 2022 data shows that around 4% of county residents don't have health insurance, so they're likely not getting the health care and education they'd typically get from a primary care physician. 

Taken together, my area is ripe for this kind of program, and hopefully the money will be spent efficiently and effectively, helping move the dial a bit. 

So what's the post about? Not the grant, but the comments from people inside and outside our community that belittle and denigrate others. Here's a taste:

Talk about throwing good money after bad, ridiculous waste. No amount of money is going to change the food choices of the obese population.

We could do a lot better if we did not allow people to use EBT on fast food, junk foods, soda, etc. A physical should have to be done. People who smoke should not be allowed EBT services.

Put the people that are on EBT etc.. Put them on MREs and watch what happens.

Now, in the overall scheme of things, these aren't half as bad as many comments that typically accompany stories about SNAP recipients or others, some of whom are living at 400% of the federal poverty level and are still eligible for government benefits. 

Bur whenever I see a comment on an article like this, or on MAHA statemenrs from RFK Jr., or Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, or Dr. WhoEver suggesting that folks who get food assistance should have a physical before they can enroll, or not get benefits if they're obese or a smoker, and not be allowed to get soda or snacks, or a steak, or lobster, or even a stupid birthday cake for their child, I think,

OK, let's do this! If we want strict rules for people who receive benefits paid for by us taxpayers, let's be fair and apply them to everyone.

I hope you're aware it'll be a LONG list:

• all federal, state, and local government employees, and their families
• all elected officials, from dogcatchers to governors to senators to the president, and their families
• everyone who receives a government pension, and their families.
• everyone on Social Security, disability, unemployment, and workers' comp
• everyone on Medicare and Medicaid
• everyone in the military, and our veterans, and their families
• everyone who works at any company, college, university, K-12 school, hospital, nursing home, rehab center, charitable organization, foundation, institution, many day care providers, or any other entity that receives government money through a contract, grant, reimbursement program, or bailout, and their families, and
• dairy farmers, crop farmers, and livestock farmers, and their families

This means everyone in law enforcement and their families; your kids' favorite teachers, lunch ladies, coaches, and bus drivers, and their families... It also means anyone who receives a tax benefit, on things like OT, tips, Social Security, mortgage interest, car loan interest, home office expense, 'stuff teachers buy' expenses, mileage reimbursement, property tax write-off, and so on - and their families.

Have you found yourself on the list yet?

Before you know it, almost everyone would be unable to have junk food, soda, lobster, energy drinks, or anything like that without a medical exam, and, (if we channel our conspiracy theorist gremlins), without a household visit; an audit of grocery purchases; a review of corner store, dollar store, bodega and gas station surveillance footage; a complete rmedical history and health insurance claim review; and so on.

And, if you're approved, you'll have a food intake monitor, an exercise monitor, and 24-hour monitoring via cameras in your cupboards, fridge, freezer, and on your stove.

All this, just to make sure you're not abusing your benefits by eating the wrong food and not working out, or treating your child to a birthday cake on the taxpayer's dime.

Is that really what we want? Is this really who we are?

Cheating is Cheating

Some of you may remember that New York State is facing an unexpected budget deficit, to the tune of some $2.3 billion.

The shortfall is tied to lower-than-projected tax collections towards the end of last year, and in the first few weeks of this year, we were told - and that in part stems from the changes to the federal tax code that limited the deductibility of state and local taxes, or SALT, in the vernacular. Both Tom DiNapoli, the comptroller, and Andrew Cuomo, our Sonofa Gov, made that declaration when they told us about the problem.

Cuomo even went off to Washington to talk the president about doing something about the SALT limits, without success; if I remember correctly, each time Cuomo said SALT, Trump said abortion, so it wasn't a resounding success.

And even though things have been getting better, Cuomo told us, wealthy people are leaving New York to go to states where the tax situation is more palatable for them.  You know - states like Florida and others in the south and out west that don't have an income tax, and/or that have significantly lower property taxes.

Now, how many people really did that because of the changes in the tax code, vs. the people who age out of NY (the ones who are tired of dealing with winter and retire to warmer places, either fully or who live as snowbirds, we may never know.  But the state tax department is aggressively pursuing rich people who leave, to make sure they're really not New Yorkers anymore, and to make sure they're not cheating on their taxes. And that, of course, has people all riled up.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v25)

Listening to the wind blow outside, and also in many other places around the country. Sort of like the intro to ABC's Wide World of Sports. You know, "spanning the globe... the thrill of victory...the agony of defeat." That kind of wind blowing.

There was the wind from the Duck Dynasty Dude, Phil Robertson, for example.  The man who, with a simple turn of a phrase, likely caused a payer breakfast full of indigestion.  Robertson was talking about the dangers of atheism, which apparently include being victimized in horrific camouflaged bearded-man fantasies.  Listen, or just read it, for yourself.

I'll make a bet with you. Two guys break into an atheist's home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and time him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and they decapitate her head off in front of him. And they the can look at him and say "isn't it great that I don't have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there's nothing wrong with this?  There's no right or wrong, now is it dude?  Then you take a sharp knife and take his manhood and hold it in front of him and say "wouldn't it be something if there was something wrong with this?" But you're the one who says there is no God, there's no right, there's no wrong, so we're just having fun. We're sick in the head! Have a nice day. 

I'm wondering, on Wednesday, if the bet Robertson wanted to make (which is unclear to me after reading this and listening to it a few times) was something along the lines of "I bet I can make you hurl your sausage biscuits and gravy."  Do you think anyone at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast managed to keep their breakfast down?

Their goal this:

Through the inspiration of this gathering, the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast hopes to encourage each participant to be a part of a small group that cultivates growth and facilitates positive change to create God-centered communities. 

Are you ready to go out and create the kind of communities Robertson was invited to inspire?

And then there's the wind out of Missouri. The Show Me State appears to have one of those forward-thinking conservative legislatures, the kind that takes up bills like the ones pushed by State Representative Richard Brattin.  Last year, Brattin wanted women to have to get permission from the man who got her pregnant before she could have an abortion - unless of course there was proof of a legitimate rape or proof that the man was dead.

Brattin's back; this time, he wants to make it impossible for anyone receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from purchasing fish, steak, soda, cookies, chips and energy drinks.

Do you think that Brattin thinks lobster and shrimp are fish? Or is he looking out for these folks, and not letting them eat fish sticks?

The editors at the St Louis Post-Dispatch aren't wondering much:

Among many, if not most, Republican lawmakers in Missouri, it is an article of faith that people on "welfare" are lazy good-for-nothings who prefer to sit on the sofa watching TV, eating steak, gawking at pornography and soaking up fabulous government benefits instead of hauling their able bodies to work. The facts behind poverty in Missouri belie this notion, but never mind! Why let facts get in the way when stereotypes are so much easier?

I'm having a hard time not being stereotypical myself.  The editors are right - it is so much easier to stereotype than it is trying to understand statements like Robertson's gleeful expression of pornographic violence against someone who does not believe as he does, or than trying to understand people like Brattin, the Republican legislator from Missouri, who boldly (if blindly) go there with their plans to improve the lot of those less fortunate.

I just don't get these people.