Food Insecurity: when you're tied with Alabama, it's never good

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Tuesday November 30, 2010 · 5:38 AM PST

2010/11/30 · 05:38

This is crossposted to Vermont's Green Mountain Daily

A new federal report on hunger issued Nov. 15 found that Vermont and Alabama have had the highest increase in "food insecurity" during the past 10 years.

The term "food insecurity" is a useful and specific term from a policy perspective-- it's more accurate than "starvation," though it does lack the emotional punch.

So let me give a little perspective.

Poll

75 votes Show Results

Have you ever experienced food insecurity?

75 votes Vote Now!

Have you ever experienced food insecurity?

Yes

48 votes

27 votes

To me, Daily Kos has never been about the crazy

juliewolf

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Monday November 29, 2010 · 2:50 PM PST

2010/11/29 · 14:50

I will, for a moment, quote The Simpsons:

Doctor: Mrs. Simpson, I'm sorry, but your husband suffers from a persecution
complex, extreme paranoia, and bladder hostility.
Marge: Doctor, if you just talk to him for five minutes without mentioning
our son Bart, you'd see how sane he is.
Doctor: You mean there really is a Bart?! Good Lord!
[...]

Doctor: Mr. Simpson, after talking to your wife, we believe you're no
threat to yourself or others.
Homer: That's the most flattering thing anyone has ever said to me.
Can I have it in writing, please?
Doctor: Of course. [hands Homer a certificate:
This certifies
HOMER SIMPSON
not insane.]
[...]

juliewolf

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Sunday November 28, 2010 · 5:59 AM PST

2010/11/28 · 05:59

I love living in Vermont. Our birds aren't as exotic as the Southwestern Species, and we don't commonly get the coastal excitement that they do over in NH and MA, but we get birds that are adaptable to the cold. Fall in Vermont is especially interesting because we get boreal birds passing through as well as some occasional surprises. One surprise happened to me just the other day in the form of this Barred Owl

I didn't photograph it for long, but apparently it's been hanging out in this one spot, not far from my house (I could walk there without too much hassle), for months.

Below the fold, I'll share some of our other local Fall birds, as well as a fairly major surprise/life bird.

juliewolf

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Sunday November 21, 2010 · 5:17 AM PST

2010/11/21 · 05:17

I'm going to do something that makes people uncomfortable-- I'm going to admit to some racism that I found difficult to shake. This was inspired by this piece by Rexy Meteorite, but it's something I've been thinking about for some time now.

So-- some twenty years ago, I found mixed-ethnicity couples difficult to understand. It wasn't that I disliked people involved in them, but if I saw a black woman with a white man, or vice versa, I was just baffled-- I honestly could not get how that could work.

There's no question that this was racist-- not a whit of it, and I couldn't even tell you exactly where that racism came from, though I have my suspicions.

After the fold, I'll talk about how I approached it once I realized what was going on in my head.

juliewolf

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Wednesday November 17, 2010 · 6:41 AM PST

2010/11/17 · 06:41

I kind of hesitate to tread into this, but I thought about it and realized that I needed to explain it in more detail. When reading this thread, something occurred to me that I posted in a different forum (since this is jumping to more than one blog):

I don't disagree that the comment... is nasty and inappropriate. Comments about Ann Coulter attempting to paint her as transsexual don't help anything and are actually more demeaning towards transsexuals than they are towards Coulter.

I do, however, disagree with using it to attack the content of his post and with charging after him repeatedly in thread after thread over this, especially with no context for anyone-- it doesn't change Skeeter's mind because he's dug in so hard that he won't listen to you and it doesn't change anyone else's mind because they don't get what the issue is without some education.

So instead of digging in and raising the heat on this, I'm going to just try to explain it and hope it sinks in a little bit among people who still don't get it.

juliewolf

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Tuesday November 16, 2010 · 1:06 PM PST

2010/11/16 · 13:06

Thanks for the updates everyone-- I fell for it, and feel like a moron. --julie

I am a civil person. I do not, as a rule, engage in name calling. I try to see multiple sides to an argument and I avoid obscenity.

But sometimes I read things like this:

According to KWTV News, 18-year-old Melissa McKenzie said she was kicked out of Del City High School in Del City, Okla., at the beginning of the semester when the principal found out she was living with her girlfriend instead of her family. The principal then told her if she returned to her family's home, she would be welcomed back to school.

The upshot of this story is that students are being discouraged from graduating because they are lesbian. I normally focus here on Vermont, and this is in Oklahoma, but it's important to understand that this sort of backwater, ignorant, hateful nonsense can happen anywhere and needs to be called out, not just in our own backyard.

juliewolf

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Sunday November 14, 2010 · 2:24 AM PST

2010/11/14 · 02:24

I originally posted this in Vermont's Green Mountain Daily. It was intended for a Vermont specific audience, so I need to explain that 7 Days has a reputation for being Vermont's alternative, left-of-center, paper, which is why this editorial in particular set me off.

The other piece of background is that there was recently an incident in Bellows Falls, VT, where a barber refused service (by pretending not to be in) to a black customer, which stirred a letter to the editor and got a small group of us to do a short demonstration followed by a fairly complicated and intense discussion in the town. It's the demonstration which sparked the blog post that this references.

juliewolf

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Monday November 08, 2010 · 3:17 AM PST

2010/11/08 · 03:17

This was crossposted to Green Mountain Daily

There's a fairly subtle line between ignorance and hatred that can be difficult to discern from time to time. If, for example, a barber refuses to cut the hair of a black man...

I am a black physician looking for a change of scenery after 30 years of working in a major U.S. city.

While visiting other medical practitioners in Bellows Falls, I thought I would have a haircut. I walked into a local barbershop.

Two gentlemen were playing cards inside. I asked them if the barber was in and one of the men said the barber was not. So I returned an hour later and the same person who said that the barber was not in was cutting a Caucasian patron’s hair.

I am very pleased to know that I would not want to work or live in Bellows Falls with the above behavior of your local businesses.

Darryl Fisher, MD,
Silver City, N.M

...may not be hateful of blacks, but that doesn't mean this incident (which has been confirmed by the barber) was handled well or with any grace or tact.

juliewolf

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Saturday November 06, 2010 · 3:15 PM PDT

2010/11/06 · 15:15

It's been a long, crazy, week, and I'm just exhausted.

I'd seriously thought about posting something about the election, about activism, etc. Then I thought I should do a "Keith Oblerman eaten by teh kittez!" pootie diary, but I'm not up for that either.

So I'm just going to ask a bunch of random questions:

Who are you?

What's the worst possible story you can imagine making into a musical?

What's the most complicated Halloween costume you've ever tried?

What's the worst movie you've ever sat through all the way through?

How long have you been posting on Daily Kos?

What is one food you've seen someone eat that you will never, ever, eat?

Did you hear about Keith Olbermann? I heard somewhere he got eaten by kittens. Someone should write a diary about that.

What do vegetarian zombies eat?

What time will it be twelve hours from now?

P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight. I think we're supposed to go back eight years.

Luck be damned. This is about work.

juliewolf

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Friday November 05, 2010 · 4:20 AM PDT

2010/11/05 · 04:20

I'm posting this again because it's worth saying twice, but it's getting buried back and forth of the blame cycle --julie

This piece stems from a comment that set me on edge this morning-- I talked about Vermont maintaining its Democratic control of both houses and regaining control of the Governor's office and was told that Vermont was lucky. Here's what I wrote:

Not Lucky.

We worked our assess off for this on multiple levels. This was one of the most engaged and active races we've seen here since Dean's last election to Governor here.

Elections aren't about luck. They're about extremely difficult, scrappy work and careful planning. We have tea party groups here, but they don't have power, not because we are more left wing than the rest of the country (we are not) but because our left wing is extremely active, engaged and inspired.

The original commenter apologized for the comment, which I respect. This piece isn't about that or meant as a rebuke. It just got me thinking and I feel as though the broader issue of what it takes to build movements and foster change is worth discussing.

juliewolf

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Thursday November 04, 2010 · 1:06 PM PDT

2010/11/04 · 13:06

Not Lucky.

We worked our assess off for this on multiple levels. This was one of the most engaged and active races we've seen here since Dean's last election to Governor here.

Elections aren't about luck. They're about extremely difficult, scrappy work and careful planning. We have tea party groups here, but they don't have power, not because we are more left wing than the rest of the country (we are not) but because our left wing is extremely active, engaged and inspired.

juliewolf

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 26, 2010 · 7:17 AM PDT

2010/10/26 · 07:17

This is a piece I just wrote for Vermont's Green Mountain Daily. The back story here is that David O'Brien, an official in our Republican administration, has decided to actually get into an argument with us on our blog.

He's been acting in a fairly partisan fashion: when concerns were raised about the safety of Vermont's aging and leaking nuclear power plant, he blithely claimed it must be close to an election, so you get that he's coming from a place of honest and thoughtful insight.

I'm not writing this to argue about nuclear power. I'm writing this to talk about mendacity, disregard for public safety and incompetence.

Original piece after the jump

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Food Insecurity: when you're tied with Alabama, it's never good

To me, Daily Kos has never been about the crazy

Dawn Chorus: Fall in New England

An admission of racism and a thought about homophobia

Pretending that Ann Coulter is transsexual to demean her actually demeans transsexuals

Please ignore this diary. It is unconfirmed and may be based on false premises.

Snarky, informed and witty I respect. Ignorant, petty and patronizing? Not so much so

Dude. Seriously? Being more overtly racist does not help.

So I'm posting a stupid survey

Luck be damned. This is about work.

Vermont was not one of the Lucky Ones this election

If a public official writes in a diary that's fallen off the front page, does he make a noise?