Tennessee may vote to stop feeding welfare children who don’t perform well in school

So – because we live in a seemingly Dickensian time where rich-old people are keeping the young-poor people down – the state of Tennessee (which is full of adult humans making decisions, apparently) is currently deciding whether or not to pass a law about whether to feed slower children.

A law. About whether or not to feed slow children.

I’m not saying “we are at a cold class war” here or anything, but having to vote on whether or not it is morally acceptable to feed children is just a little far into right field for me. It is right of the foul pole. It is out-of-the-stadium-analogy far right. Here’s a news article about it, tada.

The bill states that Tennessee has the right to withdraw welfare privileges from parents whose children aren’t performing well in school. It was worked on by the Department of Human Services and authored by two Republican representatives. That is a thing that happened and we all have to sit here and think about them sitting around, maybe eating scones—and there’s a conversation between them, and it goes a little something like this:

Senator Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville: You know what I hate?
Representative Vance Dennis, R-Savannah: What, Stacey?
SC: Poor stupid kids.
VD: Hey! Me too!
SC: We should really do something about it.
VD: Like what, Stacey?
SC: Starve ‘em.
VD: Yes. We shall starve poor children who can’t read.
SC: Or do math well.
VD: Yes. That is a thing that I think everybody in this state should do, too.
SC: Great job today.
VD: Yes, this is a conversation that actually happened.
SC: It sure is.

The bill states that children with learning disabilities are exempt and will continue to be fed (as will, I don’t know, stupid children of rich parents, who are apparently totally off the hook in a case like this).

Look, I don’t know. I’m not saying that there aren’t some realities where, as where Rep. Vance Dennis (let’s not even get into the obvious “Hunger Games”-esque names here) put it: the measure applies to “parents who do nothing.” That is high-school-theater-performance evil. That is Disney evil. And hey – I can understand that this bill is aimed at parents who refuse to school their children and pretend to homeschool them. There are methheads and alcoholics and people whose lives aren’t together and yes, the children may suffer. Yes, some parents are shitty. But there are always going to be shitty people. There are always going to be people you aren’t going to agree with. But you still have to cater to them. Jesus Christ. I don’t even wear glasses but I am going to buy a pair just so I can do this while I type this:

(takes off glasses slowly)

Are we really at a point where we need to vote on feeding children—even the ones falling behind? What are we, buffalo?

There has to be a better way to come to vote on an issue such as shitty parents. Maybe put more money into the school system? Hey, that’s a thought. Maybe when a school district has to resort to selling ad space on school busses… maybe… just maybe… there should be money in education. That’s all I’m saying.

I may also say: the two state representatives should at least buy the poor people of Tennessee a nice Italian dinner first, because everyone likes to be taken out for dinner before they get royally and truly fucked.

(via biscuitmuffin)

Source: nedhepburn

Terrorbird!: China given boxing gold: where's the outrage?

tumblingterrorbird:

China’s Zou Shiming won his second successive Olympic gold medal by beating Thailand’s Kaeo Pongprayoon on Saturday in a fight once again marred by controversial scoring. (Reuter)

From BadLeftHook:It has to be said, first off, that Zou frankly fought with a deplorably ugly…It has to be said, first off, that Zou frankly fought with a deplorably ugly style in this one, running and grabbing constantly, and at one point essentially tackling Pongprayoon.

The tactics favored Zou, as he opened up a 2-1 lead in the first round, and then led 6-4 after two. But he was given a public warning in the third, which in theory should have given Pongprayoon two points. That was wiped out when moments later, an undeserved warning was given to the 32-year-old from Thailand.

The London crowd felt that Pongprayoon deserved the victory, and pretty heartily booed Zou’s announcement as the gold medal winner. It was the final Olympics match for both, as they will be too old for the Rio games in 2016. Not the best ending to either man’s Olympic boxing career.


I saw the match between Zou Shiming and Kaeo Pongprayoon earlier today, and it was a joke. What I saw was blatant disregard for fair play sanctioned by the friggin’ judges/referee as Zou was basically handed the gold medal. The announcers spoke in disbelief how the Chinese boxer was being given the match, as the referee (the boxing federation replaced the official from Zou’s prior match because he dared to take points from Zou for his fouls - WTF?) finally gave a deduction to Zou after the umpteenth foul ONLY to take one from Kaeo as well. Why isn’t the Olympics committee looking into this event, one that relies on easily swayed judges? WHAT FRIGGIN’ FAIRNESS is this? This is the GOLD MEDAL match! And Zou had this to say: “We both fought very well, it was a very even contest and I felt I was just marginally better.” No, Zou, you were not. You were given that medal. Everybody saw it. The crowd was booing you. You did not earn it in the Olympics spirit. SHAME on the boxing federation, SHAME on the official who gave the match away, and SHAME on the Olympics committee for not looking into it. I hope the Thai team fight to the bitter end against this result. It may be a familiar story to those who watch boxing, but how can this be good at the Olympics? Apparently the IOC doesn’t care? I’m Canadian, with no tie to Thailand, new to watching boxing, and I’m outraged!

My dad and I watched it and was super upsetting as it would’ve been Thailand’s first gold medal in London. Other earlier boxing matches were rigged and wouldnt be surprised if China gave judges or the ref money. I feel like the judges were probably already swayed, even Pongprayoon was given a weird warning at 0:09 seconds that was unclear. Thailand was blatantly cheated out of this, even the U.S commentators knew Thailand had won. It’s okay Pongprayoon, you got gold in our eyes.

Pongprayoon was stunned by the result and questioned the scoring of the entire tournament.

“I feel that I won and I could see that the crowd thought I won. I don’t know why I lost,” he said. “I think the points system at the Olympics is wrong or strange - not just my fight but others didn’t go the way they should have.

“I’ve lost to him twice before and both times I think I should have won. I’m still really happy. I’m sorry I couldn’t get gold for my mum, my dad and my kid. I did all I could.”


Read the rest of the article