Kelly @GC once again making a fool of herself

[Effie]

Someone I know recently made this comment: “I love free insurance…no medical bills, yay!â€. She really does think it’s free. Obama’s health plan feeds the notion that “we all deserve health careâ€. It would be nice, certainly. But it’s not an inalienable right.

Well, I think all people deserve health care. It should be free, for everyone. Why not? Is there really some kind of argument in her text? She wants us to realize that not everything is free. I will argue that some things should be free. I am happily paying high taxes so I can help other people which have less than me. Why would I not?

And a recent proposal by the President will work wonders to further state-dependency rates: it mandates that in a school where 40% or more of the students qualify for free breakfasts and lunches, every student will be given free breakfasts and lunches. Why? To eliminate the stigma. Like manna from heaven…free for all. Don’t get me started on “eliminating stigmasâ€.

I think the proposal is a great idea. Why would we want hungry children in school? Then they will have a hard time focusing and they will naturally learn less. Yes, it's a great idea that this will be equal for everyone. Doesn't Kelly remember how it was like to be in intermediate stage and the senior level of compulsory school? Doesn't she remember how cruel some kids can be? How children tend to choose an "outsider" to pick on? Oh wait... of course Kelly can't understand this. She was probably the bully in school.

If I spend my childhood being given everything I want, all my favorite clothes, movies, electronic devices and sports equipment, (because everyone else does and I may be stigmatized if I don’t), if I get a new car when I turn sixteen, insurance paid, and gas money to putter around, if my mother does all the housework and cooks all the meals and my father makes all the money to pay all the bills while I spend most of my time having fun and receiving all that I want with little exchange of effort, I will likely grow up with an entitlement mentality.

Well yeah, it's true that some children are spoiled, because they get everything they want. However a life insurance doesn't mean a child is spoiled, neither does free food in school. Health care and food are what a child needs, not necessary what he/she wants.

[Austin]

She is such a friggin' idiot. Geesh.

Her hubris is really staggering.

[MrsYoungie]

Did she really compare getting a decent breakfast to getting a car when you turn 16? Really?

Also as to universal health care (not really free, but paid out of taxes) - it's not a perk. It should be a basic human right. When I hear stories of parents who can't afford to take their children to the doctor or to get an operation they need it breaks my heart.

How can you sleep at night knowing that someone is hurting like that?

How can you be pro-life, yet not be willing to allow every woman access to proper pre-natal care? Does not compute.

Up here in socialized (!) Canada - we don't deny our poor the basics of life. Hmm - didn't someone else say that was a requirement? Someone like, Oh, I dunno, maybe JESUS!

[Witsec6]

I love that she's compared nutritious food and needed medicine to electronics and a car. What a ridiculous argument.

[Koala]

You know how kids are....you give them breakfast and healthcare, and it makes them entitled little brats :roll:

[Burris]

She really does think it’s free. Obama’s health plan feeds the notion that “we all deserve health careâ€. It would be nice, certainly. But it’s not an inalienable right.

So much for the "Culture of Life." Idiot.

[Austin]

I'd like to know what all these fundies who would deprive healthcare to people do with these words of Jesus:

If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. -Luke 6:29b-31 NIV

Basically, Jesus is saying that you can't give enough, and you should give even when you don't want to (if someone takes your coat, give him your shirt, too).

These people aren't extreme Christians; they're extreme capitalists.

[Hane]

My dad tells me how embarrassing it was, when he was a little kid in the 1920s, not to be able to afford milk at school. The kids who couldn't afford milk had to put their heads down on their desks when the milk was passed out to everyone else.

Several years ago, our city (same town Dad grew up in) administration and school board were fighting against a mandatory free-breakfast program. The story made it into the Italian news as "The City of the Hungry Children."

My sister keeps graham crackers and things in her desk for kids who come to school hungry. (Yes, I know that parents who just can't be arsed* to bother feeding their kids breakfast deserve scorn, but why should their kids suffer?)

*I don't mean parents who are broke, and/or are at work when their kids are getting ready for school.

[Koala]

if my mother does all the housework and cooks all the meals and my father makes all the money to pay all the bills while I spend most of my time having fun and receiving all that I want with little exchange of effort, I will likely grow up with an entitlement mentality.

Rant ahead:

Yes Kelly, that's about half right (probably closer to being right than you've ever been before). Congratulations. :clap: A stay at home mom (such as yourself) generally WORKS AROUND THE HOUSE. They cook meals, do house work, and wait for it....RAISE THEIR OWN CHILDREN. The father in such a situation? Yeah, just like you said, he usually goes out and WORKS TO PAY THE BILLS (the horror :o ) without expecting his kids to work to help him support his massive family that he is not able to support on his own. Money that the kids make, belongs to you know....THEM, not their parents.

And as far as the kids "spending most of their time having fun"? Well here in the evil real world, most of our kids DO indeed have "jobs". It's called: SCHOOL. We send them there for 8 hours a day, and then they come home and study a bit more. You see, most of us as parents think it's OUR JOB to ensure that ALL of our kids receive a proper education, so that one day they CAN grow up and support themselves and their families.

Oh, and believe it or not, we don't expect our kids to become instant moms and maids for us, just because we can't seem to get a handle on the fact that we are people, not broodmares. Most of us actually WANT our kids to be.....KIDS (gasp) and have fun and enjoy their childhoods while they can. But that's a foreign concept for you I'm sure.

Rant over. Kelly makes me sick.

[Hane]

I'd like to know what all these fundies who would deprive healthcare to people do with these words of Jesus:

Basically, Jesus is saying that you can't give enough, and you should give even when you don't want to (if someone takes your coat, give him your shirt, too).

These people aren't extreme Christians; they're extreme capitalists.

Yeah--Jesus, that crazy commie bastard. You know, the ones the fundies are supposed to be basing their religion on.

[Koala]

My dad tells me how embarrassing it was, when he was a little kid in the 1920s, not to be able to afford milk at school. The kids who couldn't afford milk had to put their heads down on their desks when the milk was passed out to everyone else.

Several years ago, our city (same town Dad grew up in) administration and school board were fighting against a mandatory free-breakfast program. The story made it into the Italian news as "The City of the Hungry Children."

My sister keeps graham crackers and things in her desk for kids who come to school hungry. (Yes, I know that parents who just can't be arsed* to bother feeding their kids breakfast deserve scorn, but why should their kids suffer?)

*I don't mean parents who are broke, and/or are at work when their kids are getting ready for school.

That breaks my heart. No child should ever go hungry :( :(

[Witsec6]

Kelly made me go out and look for information about school nutrition programs and how they help/hinder kids.

This is semi-OT, but I thought it was interesting and you might too:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/08/29/f-food-insecurity.html

The gist of it (despite the horrible headline):

Parents and older children will do anything they can, including going without nutritious food themselves, in order to feed younger children. So while school nutrition programs are a great way to teach children about nutrition and healthy choices, they are not actually alleviating child hunger. When children come to school hungry (in Canada at least), it is often a sign of neglect or abuse. Not poverty. Still important though.

[treemom]

Kelly made me go out and look for information about school nutrition programs and how they help/hinder kids.

This is semi-OT, but I thought it was interesting and you might too:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/08/29/f-food-insecurity.html

The gist of it (despite the horrible headline):

Parents and older children will do anything they can, including going without nutritious food themselves, in order to feed younger children. So while school nutrition programs are a great way to teach children about nutrition and healthy choices, they are not actually alleviating child hunger. When children come to school hungry (in Canada at least), it is often a sign of neglect or abuse. Not poverty. Still important though.

It does help allieviate child hunger when it is based on income and other qualifying factors. The children get food an the parents can provide food in other ways.

[Austin]

If my two sons who are still in high school would buy their lunch every day at school, I need to give them $15 each per week. It would be an additional $5 each for breakfast. If I was poor, that $40 would certainly go some ways towards being able to provide food at home for my children. So I don't understand how free/reduced lunch doesn't help poor children with hunger. Even if the cupboards are bare at home, at least the child can get two meals a weekday at school.

My husband teaches in a very underprivileged school. It is a fact that many of those children count on those two meals at school every weekday.

[Lainey]

Free stuff is only acceptable if Kelly is the recipient.

[kaetrin]

I’ll never forget hearing one of the young men (single, strong, able, employed) who once lived with my parents in an assisted living-type ministry upon a return visit: “Man, Obama has to do something…I’ve got bills to pay.†Yes, this is the generation we have raised.

And what do you know, yet again we have Kelly willfully misinterpreting casual remarks to "prove" her "point" about the entitlement generation. If I heard someone say that, I wouldn't interpret it as "I expect Obama to pay my bills 'cause I don't want to!" but rather "Obama needs to resolve the economic situation because my paycheck isn't stretching as far as it used to." (Whether and how Obama can do that is another question, of course, but not Kelly's.)

[keen23]

Free stuff is only acceptable if Kelly is the recipient.

This. So, so much this!

My kids go to a school where almost 90% of their classmates received free or reduced lunch. As a result, our school system provides free breakfast for the whole school. During the summer, the cafeteria is open from 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM and again from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM to provide anyone under age 18 with free breakfast and/or lunch.

[Burris]

Kelly spits in the eye of God when she begrudges other people their portion even while accepting an abundance of gifts and offerings for herself.

These monies and items were given to her, rather than being spread around through a social service agency, merely because she's a minor celebrity who could command the charity or her readers.

Rather than being humbled, however, even as so many others would be after their having lost everything only to be restored by the goodwill of their friends, Kelly has doubled down and become even more selfish.

Kelly says God is sovereign; that he allows and sometimes commands the ill wind even as he does the gentle breeze. She was laid low at his hand, even as we all are; but then restored, unlike some, that she might attain the “gift of mercy†which she at one time (on her blog) claimed to lack and to desire.

And yet, even with that gift in front of her, there for the taking, Kelly has become as the merciless creditor:

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished ato settle accounts with his servants.

When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him bten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’

So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’

He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’

And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, ntil he should pay all his debt.

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. -- Matthew 18:23-35

Likewise Kelly, who owes a massive debt not only to the God she says has saved her and set her apart but also to the people who helped her when she was in need, and yet she grudges those without her advantages for taking far less individually from the common purse that they might eat or receive medical treatment for an illness.

She would throttle them and say they owe her the portion of her taxes they've taken, telling them that medical care is not an inalienable right.

Her friends and readers did right in giving.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. -- Luke 6:30

Kelly is merely a bad recipient.

Those who show mercy will obtain mercy. Those who do not are in danger of having their own debts called.

[Joykins]

My kids also go to a school where free breakfast is provided for everyone.

I mean, what is she complaining about? That little 5-year-olds haven't yet raised themselves by their bootstraps and started sweeping chimneys to earn their keep?

I swear these people wouldn't recognize Jesus if he was right in their faces.

[anniebgood]

This. So, so much this!

My kids go to a school where almost 90% of their classmates received free or reduced lunch. As a result, our school system provides free breakfast for the whole school. During the summer, the cafeteria is open from 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM and again from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM to provide anyone under age 18 with free breakfast and/or lunch.

I live in a small (2 mile square) city in the LA area. Our school district opens it's cafeterias in the summer for free breakfast and lunch for children under 18 as well. It's a working class area and kids during the summer sometimes don't eat. I think it's a great idea.

I got one of those purported letters from a teacher from some friends decrying free breakfasts and lunches at school....I wrote them back and said when I was a teacher I saw a marked improvement in attention and learning when the kids had breakfast. And who doesn't want to have attentive students?

rant over

[mirele]

I posted a rant on Kelly's website:

Here's your reality check:

You compared getting a poor kid getting a nutritious meal at school in the morning to kids getting sporting goods or a car? You think that getting a nutritious meal, maybe the only decent meal a child might have that day is the equivalent of a teenager getting a car? I am absolutely gobsmacked at your sheer heartlessness.

Not every kid lives the charmed life that you have provided for your children. You need to get out of your bubble, go to one of those "bad neighborhoods" you probably avoid like the plague and actually find out why there is poverty and why it is not a sin or a crime for the government to give a little money (pennies in comparison to the defense budget) to give kids one decent meal five days a week.

And yes, this is a dissenting comment. Feel free to delete it; it will be posted elsewhere.

ETA: wow, I must be furious, my grammar went all by the wayside.

[desertvixen]

I'm pretty sure the guy who said "Let the little children come to me" would gladly have given them free breakfast (fish and loaves, anyone?)

Let's face it, a lot of people don't have enough. If you look at the military, even - we have members on food stamps and at least on the base I'm on, we're having a serious problem keeping the food locker full. Not "ramping up for Thanksgiving" but keeping it full on a regular basis. Now, yes, some of these families are in a bad economic fix because of decisions made or NOT made about family size, a spouse staying at home and not earning a wage, etc, but it is NOT THE KIDS' FAULT.

[Joykins]

I'm pretty sure the guy who said "Let the little children come to me" would gladly have given them free breakfast (fish and loaves, anyone?)

That's an interesting story to think about because in it the only person able--or at least, willing--to share was a child.

[Rosa]

The gist of it (despite the horrible headline):

Parents and older children will do anything they can, including going without nutritious food themselves, in order to feed younger children. So while school nutrition programs are a great way to teach children about nutrition and healthy choices, they are not actually alleviating child hunger. When children come to school hungry (in Canada at least), it is often a sign of neglect or abuse. Not poverty. Still important though.

I think it's different in the US - our social programs and foreclosure crisis are worse, and I don't think we have as much subsidized child care, so we have more kids in charge of kids in the mornings before school.

I'm sure neglect and abuse are a big chunk of it, but feeding the elementary aged kids helps the whole family, sometimes even the neglectful parent, who may be spending all of the money on drugs and also not eating.

A lot of times the older children are the ones going hungry, so if the little kids get breakfast at school the teens get breakfast of their own, which they would skip if they were feeding younger kids instead. Teens need food as much as littler kids. Making sure homeless teenagers eat is a real priority in our school system, because they are in school during prime soup-kitchen hours.

The stigma issue is just about 100% solved by making everyone welcome at free lunch and having electronic lunch money accounts instead of different colored tickets. My son's school has universal free breakfast, and he goes occasionally despite us having lots of food at home - mostly to hang out with his friends and because he has a habit of eating breakfast twice from when he was in daycare. Most of the kids have NO IDEA it's a program to alleviate poverty, and I think that's awesome (the quality of the food is less awesome, but that's a funding issue.)

I am not sure it matters to me why kids aren't fed at home, in terms of what we should do about it. When the food goes directly to kids it bypasses neglectful or abusive parents. Can you imagine what Kelly would do if she had little food in the house and someone gave her food for her kids? I'm going to guess it's not "Feed them joyfully until they are full and feel loved and valued."

It seems like the Christian response to hungry kids would be to FEED THEM, and I'm sure that happens, but just in general someone's going to take on the project. Where districts don't do free food programs, teachers and PTAs take it up themselves - in my hometown, where there is no school breakfast but most of the kids get subsidized lunches, there were usually a case or two a year of middle-school-aged kids saving most of their food to take home to siblings not yet old enough for school, and the teachers organize food backpacks for those families when they notice it. And here, the city parks department has free lunches for kids (18 and under) all summer because of the marked increase in child hunger when school is out of session.

[starfish]

quoting from desertvixen:

"I'm pretty sure the guy who said "Let the little children come to me" would gladly have given them free breakfast (fish and loaves, anyone?)"

This. So This. And I quite unexpectedly have tears in my eyes.

Resent a child having breakfast and lunch at school ? For shame.