SC Gov compares poor children to Stray animals

[yojetak]

nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/01/south_carolinas_lt_governor_co.html

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Holy shit balls, fuck you.

Loss for words right now, but when I find them I'll let you guys know.

[Thejebusfire]

And I thought my governor was an asshat.

[ironbite]

....for realz?

Ironbite-I should beat this person into a pulp.

[Lucifer]

Wow. What an asshole. Vote against him in the next election.

[dasfuchs]

Look at it this way, he's no doubt a shoe in after this with conservatives to take Sanford's old spot...SC, you're such a nice state, one i planned to visit one day, can you please, please kick these asshats out?

[Aqualung]

Newsflash: poor people will fuck and have babies whether or not you feed them. Can't afford birth control? Huuuuuurrrrrrr, I'll have the baby instead! *brain implodes*

[Amaranth]

Jan 24, 2010 10:32:01 GMT -5 Aqualung said:

Newsflash: poor people will fuck and have babies whether or not you feed them.

I never get this logic, yet they always seem to go in with it, swinging for the proverbial fences.

I'm wondering if anyone has yet suggested health care is bad because it encourages people to get sick.

"If we don't give out flu shots, people won't be so prone to risk flu-causing conditions!"

But when it's sex, it's all "If we don't care for the chilldren," or "If there's some punishment for sex," or whatever, then "People will have less sex."

For example, South carolina has a really restrictive sex ed system (Unless it's changed in the last 2-3 years), and has frequently come up in the list of top ten states for teen pregnancy.

You know the difference between a stray and a person? Telling a dog to wear a condom has no results.

[Vene]

As somebody currently in poverty, I do have to wonder if they really are trying to starve us to death.

[Spark]

Not to death. Children should just think of the hunger pangs as encouragement to do better. Or as punishment for not doing better.

At least it looks that way, given this comment:

I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina. You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period.

And his explanation for it:

"So how do you fix it? Well you say, 'Look, if you receive goods or services from the government, then you owe something back.'"

Bauer said there are no "repercussions" from accepting government assistance.

"We don't make you take a drug test. We ought to. We don't even make you show up to your child's parent-teacher conference meeting or to the PTA meeting.

"You go to a school where there's an active participation of parents, and guess what? They have the highest test scores. So what do you do? You say, 'Look folks, if you receive goods or services from the government and you don't attend a parent-teacher conference, bam, you lose your benefits.'

www.thesunnews.com/575/story/1276292.html

[MaybeNever]

If we'd just sterilize everybody with an income below the median, the problem would sort itself out in a couple generations.

I can't even begin to address how astoundingly wrongheaded this governor is, but the school lunch thing is completely confusing cause and effect. Children in poverty have this crazy tendency to lack the stability necessary for most people to learn effectively or to potentially be able to care enough to learn. Kids are not good at long-term thinking. Address the causes of poverty and you'll take care of the majority of known social ills.

The thing is, I actually like the core conservative ideology of personal responsibility and self-reliance. If they would quit using it for unspeakable evil and from positions of astonishing ignorance I might actually sometimes vote for them.

[Ian1732]

I didn't think that the Republicans SERIOUSLY didn't care about poor people, but... Jesus Christ...

[Dragon Zachski]

This man goes beyond "asshat." He's an "assCROWN."

I hope hope hope HOPE to god that the republicans kick him violently out of the party. Otherwise, my faith in humanity will take a critical hit.

[dantesvirgil]

Giant oversimplication, here we come. There is so much more to poverty issues than the way the lt. gov has it. There's lots of reasons why parent teacher conferences don't get attended, and it's not always because the parent is lazy and doesn't give a shit. There's a reason free & reduced lunch areas have lower test scores (which is true), but scores would be much MUCH worse if there was no free & reduced breakfast/lunch program. The best thing that could happen for kids in poverty is to have year round schooling -- but then the lt. gov would have to pay the teachers to teach them and cough up a few more free breakfasts and lunches; and I suspect the success of children in poverty is just not worth that much to him.

[meshakhad]

Someone rip his frakking tongue out.

[Vene]

Jan 24, 2010 14:28:36 GMT -5 Spark said:

Not to death. Children should just think of the hunger pangs as encouragement to do better. Or as punishment for not doing better.

I know the rationale, the rationale is wrong (and I know you think it is too). It's just that, when somebody can't get basic nutritional needs, it is very hard (to near impossible) to get anywhere. Like, with job hunting, I've got a suit, but the only time we do laundry is before an interview, because other than that, the cost of doing laundry is not worth it compared to the cost of food and gas to get the food. If it wasn't for living in a fucking cheap place, that suit might not be able to get washed because the choice would be between that an not eating. If it wasn't such a low cost of living here, I might not be able to afford the gas to get to the interview or even the insurance for the vehicle. Without a certain level of basic necessities, you can't get anywhere.

Now, I have a degree, so I'm in better shape than Oriet or Magni, but I don't have a clue how they'd get out on their own. Especially because the second they earn any income, they lose benefits, often more than what that income would provide. So, they do what anybody else would do, not bother looking.