It's true: I've got a lot of pet peeves. Here are two of them: 1) the ludicrously low-amount of Food Stamps that the government says someone can live on, and 2) the asinine ban on liquids in carry-on luggage. What I never expected was that these two pet peeves could possibly collide in one big storm of pet peeviness. Here's the story: Congressman Tim Ryan has been participating in the "Food Stamp Challenge", in which he is trying to live on a $21.00/week Food Stamp budget for just one week.
As of Day 5, he only had cornmeal left, with only 33 cents more to spend. How did this happen? Because TSA confiscated his peanut butter and jelly!
I commend Rep. Ryan for taking the challenge, but am deeply disappointed that when confronted with the silly piece of security theater that is the no-liquids rule (and since when is peanut butter a liquid?), he merely shrugged it off as the Price of Freedom:
I'd like to thank the TSA for doing an exceptional job protecting our nation's airports and allowing me to illustrate that not even Congressmen get any special treatment at the airport.
Comments (12)
I have always considered a "liquid" to be something that can be poured. If you can pour peanut butter, then I don't think it's real peanut butter.
Homeland Security is a joke. I feel so safe now that I know there's no jelly flying above me at 35,000 feet.
I don't even recognize this country anymore.
The liquids ban is pretty amazingly ridiculous (especially as I spot more and more chemical sniffers at airports that could actually make the check).
To be technical, though, I think peanut butter counts as a non-Netwonian fluid, like ketchup and toothpaste.
The liquids ban includes gels and lotions too, so I guess they counted grape jelly as a gel, and peanut butter as a lotion? Strange.
I think he probably begged them to confiscate so that he'd be FORCED to eat real food. Darn that TSA!
When I flew from Orlando to Atlanta last year with my .02 oz of lip gloss, they said.. "Oh no.. you have to put it in a plastic baggie and run it through the screener." So I had to buy a fucking baggie for 35 cents.
Here's a photo of it:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/99/285154496_46adae9940.jpg?v=0
Ridiculous!
There seem to be a lot of commenters on that site that are criticizing the Representative's shopping as much as they applaud his attempt.
Does anyone here think it would be good to attempt this with an "expert" shopper? To show that, even with the best of knowledge, it is nearly impossible to get sufficient nutrition? Or is there the strong possibility for an observer to say "that's really not so bad?"
Well, if he'd only checked the food in his luggage he wouldn't be trying to subsist on corn meal alone.
I suspect too anyone living on food stamps is also probably not making trips via airplane. Which is really kind of the issue too, he's made exactly one very temporary change to his lifestyle versus those who have to live on very little all the time. Maybe next month he could try going to the doctor without health insurance, and the next not traveling in a car.
I certainly applaude the Congressman but seriously, he's only walking in those "shoes" about a 1/2 a block.
PS: actually apart from a pretty high concentration of carbs, peanut butter and jelly on wheat bread isn't the worst food in the world. I ate that for several "lean" years.
Well I just read a bit more on Kos.. another comment that struck me was.. He assembled his STAFF to plot out how to best use the money..
Ok pinch me, I'm sorry but who when trying to live on food stamps assembles their staff before going to the grocery store? WTF? sheesh.. grrrrrrrr and they wonder why they are accused as being out of touch. Dude you could have called anyone of a thousand who receive the stamps and asked their advice. Trust me it would have been a whole lot more informed.
Jules - You are seeing this very myopically. Yes, FS recipients can't generally afford plane trips, but the incident is illustrative of the "just one mishap away from disaster" scenario that many poor people confront. The point wasn't for Rep. Ryan to live exactly as a poor person might, but just give him a taste of some of type of challenges - which is what happened. Suggesting that he should have checked the food just strikes me as the same kind of compassionless victim blaming that poor people get all the time. So does the last comment, which echoes so many "well when I was poor I ate rocks and I liked it" type comments I hear when the issue of food insecurity comes up. I don't think Rep. Ryan is a hero, but I do think he has managed to bring some of these issues to the fore in a way that others have not.
I found Representative Ryan's "project" very interesting. I don't really care if he assembled his staff to help him, or that he was flying in a plane.
Actually, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he chose a week when he would be traveling to undertake this challenge. It seems to me it would be a lot easier if he was just going back and forth from home to work.
Did he get a true idea of what it's like to be poor in America. Of course not. But, I think his story is helpful and informative.
I'm not sure we disagree, but the impression I had was in the moment when his food was confiscated, that was the moment when things got real for him. In that instant when something very random, being late, not thinking that would be approved for carry on, that's when he realized this was no longer a "project" but actually had to worry about his next meal. Millions of people make these decisions every day, for years. They have to be careful. He's not a hero to me, he's on a fact finding mission to understand what it's like to live on food stamps, temporarily! He'll be dining out on this story for years, oh and telling us all how he lost weight in the process.
Is it weird that when he gives those speeches from the well in the US House that I find him oddly hot?
I'm not really sure what you want from him, Jules. Wasn't the whole point of the project that he have a wake-up call? Isn't that what happened in this case?