My ongoing reaction to the story is bafflement at why the Komen Foundation would take an action that's likely to lead to worse health-care outcomes...
Because the new VP of public policy at the Komen Foundation is a vehemently anti-choice politician (failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate) who campaigned on defunding Planned Parenthood?
...piled on top of frustration that continued ignorance about the work done at Planned Parenthood allows demagogues to thrive and mislead.
Because the new VP of public policy at the Komen Foundation is a vehemently anti-choice politician (failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate) who campaigned on defunding Planned Parenthood.
And, you know, the founder and president of the Komen Foundation is no prize herself.
Sometimes I think the most salient psychological difference between activists on the left and right is that the latter do not spend any time whatsoever worrying about how they come across to people outside their tribe.
It would be wrong to come out in favor of breast cancer just because of this.
As usual, snarkout gets it right. Go ahead and close the thread now.
And it's not like conservatives can't run good charities; both Lifewater and the Heifer Project are run by conservative Christians with whom I assume I would have serious political disagreements, but they seem vastly more interested in carrying out their charitable missions of providing sanity water and livestock to Third World villagers than in demonstrating their political/theological bona fides.
What's crazy water? Probably gin, right?
What's crazy water? Probably gin, right?
It's sanity water, so distilled water or rainwater or pure-grain alcohol.
Go ahead and close the thread now.
Right after I increase my monthly donation to the local PP.
What's confusing to me is why so many people on the liberal/progressive end of things buy into the mythology that SGK, American Cancer Soc., etc. are doing all they can to reduce cancer or whatever the disease is. The vast majority of these illnesses have well-documented environmental (i.e. industrial) causes, and yet these billion dollar "charities" do nothing to address that. What's more, in terms of actual research into new drugs or other therapies, very very little of that money is ever seen by actual researchers. So all of this "cure" bullshit is triply offensive on that level.
sanity water
I wonder what's in the water at the Komen foundation these days.
Hmm, so far absolutely everyone on this thread gets it right.
That NPR piece might be the least informative thing I've read on the topic.
I guess I shouldn't say that without posting a link.
I think this story is getting a lot of play because people have been looking for a reason to upgrade the Komen foundation from "Annoying" to "Pernicious" and didn't think pushing breast cancer screening for women too early to benefit from it was not enough of a reason to hate them.
I honestly didn't know until now that the Komen Foundation was a right-wing organization. I thought it was just an anodyne corporate public-relations moneymaking vehicle.
What's confusing to me is why so many people on the liberal/progressive end of things buy into the mythology that SGK, American Cancer Soc., etc. are doing all they can to reduce cancer or whatever the disease is. The vast majority of these illnesses have well-documented environmental (i.e. industrial) causes, and yet these billion dollar "charities" do nothing to address that.
I wouldn't say "well-documented". There's tons of pollutants out there that we seem to have evidence will cause some sort of cancer sometimes. Then there's way more potential pollutants the risks of which we know nothing about.
people have been looking for a reason to upgrade the Komen foundation from "Annoying" to "Pernicious"
Yes, this. Now I can decline requests to sponsor someone's Walk for the Cure&trade and feel smug about it instead of guilty.
Now if someone could just give me an equally good excuse not to buy Girl Scout Cookies (other than the fact that they taste like ass).
This just makes no sense to me as a business decision. "I'll take Alienate Our Donor-Base for $1000, Alex!"
Now if someone could just give me an equally good excuse not to buy Girl Scout Cookies (other than the fact that they taste like ass).
And who would enjoy eating ass? No one.
19.2 is deeply wrong, but (according to M/tch) there are a pair of Girl Scouts who are refusing to sell G.S. cookies on account of the orangutans.
This just makes no sense to me as a business decision
It was risky, for sure. But whether they truly end up regretting it depends on how energetically the pro-choice community can organize withdrawal / diversion of donations.
Sending checks to other breast cancer / women's health charities with "In lieu of donation to Komen" written in the memo space would be a good start. Mailing copies of the checks to Komen would be even better.
3 is right.
Also too, when the sweet middle-aged lady in your office who always brings in cookies comes looking for a donation in memory of her late sister and you politely bring this up, you will be the obnoxious one "making it political." The SKG organization was in no way doing anything political by taking breast exams away from poor women because abortion.
When I called my local Planned Parenthood just now, they said they'd had a increase in donations since the announcement, so, silver lining.
Umm, I meant to post 25 under my customary pseud.
The Contact Us page on Komen's site has categories. I've chosen "Report Improper Conduct" for my message.
27: 400k in 24 hours almost half the annual Komen contribution
But still a huge victory for the right, as a demonstration of the power to take over an institution
Were people (broadly speaking) giving individually to Komen previously? I always saw them in the corporate sponsorship kind of context, which was plenty annoying in its own right.
The new VP is a first-order connected Republican operative
1) Has she given assurances that Komen will not lose money with this move
2) Does she have confidence or information that the Congressional Investigation will do irrevocable damage to PP? How is the Komen move being played on talk TV, which I don't watch?
3) It doesn't even matter if Komen is destroyed by this. The message has been sent, that the left and feminists cannot protect their own, that they are weak and can't fight. What have liberals destroyed lately?
4) Dr George Tiller us not yet avenged
But whether they truly end up regretting it depends on how energetically the pro-choice community can organize withdrawal / diversion of donations.
That won't even be difficult.
Who are the people who raise money Racing for the Cure? Who are the people doing 60 mile Three-Day walks? They are activist types who care about women's health.
What's the overlap of that demographic with people who are strongly pro-choice and who generally support the mission of Planned Parenthood? 80%? Higher?
31: Were people (broadly speaking) giving individually to Komen previously?
I was. Every summer I'd get a letter from friend of mine who raises money for her Three Day walks, and I'd send in a check for $50 or so to sponsor her.
I never cared much for Komen, but I like my friend, so I was happy to give to help the cause she was working to support. But she's a solid feminist, and so I don't expect I'll be getting any more letters from her.
A Balloon Juice thread provides a link to tell Yoplait to drop Komen here on their Facebook page.
Fear not, feminists of the world! Bob is here to defend you!
TBogg has a nice idea:
you can make a donation to Planned Parenthood and request a thank you card be sent to
Karen Handel
Senior VP of Fail
c/o Susan G. Komen Foundation
P.O. Box 650309Dallas, TX 75265-0309
Very interesting Kos diary. If accurate, Komen has been stealthily opposing the safety net in the breast cancer context for ages. Not just the crowding out of other charities (per Salon) and the general infantilization of the disease (per Ehrenreich).
I'm afraid I don't read bob's comments most of the time these days.
I'm with the Balloon Juice thought here:
If Komen can be completely and utterly destroyed or humiliated here, the next right-wing group that wants to fuck with women's health will think twice.
Please do tell Yoplait and the variety of other outfits endorsing Komen that this hasn't gone unnoticed.
39: Oh man, I just looked at a list. Some of those would be hard for me to boycott.
I bank at Bank of America for the ATMs and Nordstrom for the service and interest rate and points, and I don't really have a choice once I pick a bank about who makes the checks. And damn, Wacoal is about the only company which makes bras that fit me. There are a couple of others which cost much more. I usually buy them at Nordstrom, because that's where they actually measure you etc...
I wish that there was something that I liked but that wouldn't be too hard to give up.
There are times when Mike Bloomberg doesn't suck at all.
If Komen can be completely and utterly destroyed or humiliated here, the next right-wing group that wants to fuck with women's health will think twice.
Whaaat? Right wing groups don't give a shit if they destroy Komen. That's merely collateral damage.
No, the advantage of punishing Komen is that the next do-gooder group will think twice about capitulating in the face of right-wing pressure.
40: These things are very tough, BG, it's true. Gosh.
Hey, look, Georgia-Pacific, a Koch subsidiary, is one of the partners too.
43: Well, I don't know if you're joking or not, but if you're being sarcastic, I probably deserve it. Walgreens is somewhere I shop that would not be so hard to give up. Pepperidge Farm and OPI are also doable, though I buy them infrequently. I don't buy anything from most of the companies anyway.
42 - Given the presence of the head of Susan B. Anthony List on the Komen board of directors (and Nancy Brinker's own political history), I'm not sure that the "right-wing group" in question isn't the Komen Foundation.
41. Bloomberg has tweeted: "Join me in standing with #PlannedParenthood to protect and promote women's health: http://bit.ly/ylZqbs #standwithPP"
This might even have legs.
46.continued - Oh man, they lobbied against the Patients' Bill of Rights in 2001?
36: I was wondering how long it would take for armed revolution to appear here as the answer.
I used to give to the pink finks 'cause there was always some friend at a work-place walking/running/planking for the cure. No more. I gave four times what I used to give to PP instead yesterday. The whole thing pisses me off so much I'd get pregnant just to have an abortion and write about it!
49: I think you should do some sort of artistic rendition of that by dressing up in a costume and taking photos, since it's not biologically possible.
since it's not biologically possible
Stop oppressing him!
40: Even if you don't know whether you could follow through on a boycott in the end, it's worth writing the companies you patronize. Even something like "I spend money on your product, I'm alarmed by the Komen foundation politicizing breast cancer research, and I ask you to reconsider your affiliation with them," without saying whether you'll continue your support, will light a fire. You can make an impact before you decide how far you plan to take it.
Boycotts are usually impulsive and poorly thought out, but this is one where the stars align. The important piece now is delegitimizing Komen. There's no need to boycott its sponsors yet, the important thing is to let them know their sponsorship is no longer attractive to you, and to applaud anyone who does get off the pink train.
...since it's not biologically possible
Which brings to mind a discussion I once had long ago. If some (essentially magical) way of easily and quickly changing one's body completely from male to female and vice versa existed, and it could be reversed with no problems too, would anyone but me try it?
I would do it, it's an experience that's otherwise not available without tremendous effort, expense, blah, blah, blah. I'm not unhappy with my body (except for the myopia) but I'd jump at the chance to be an alien lifeform for a time.
Some SGK officials are resigning, according to HuffPo. Armed revolt can't be far away.
53: Who wouldn't? The question is how much would you pay/how much uncertainty/expense/delay of re-transitioning would you endure.
If some (essentially magical) way of easily and quickly changing one's body completely from male to female and vice versa existed, and it could be reversed with no problems too, would anyone but me try it?
I would totally try it, if it were done by magic. As it stands, I have no idea what it means to have hanging bobble doohickeys between my legs, with all the attendant stuff you lads apparently undergo along with.
52: There are a few that are kind of hard to boycott and others that aren't things I'd ever buy anyway.
And who would enjoy eating ass? No one.
It's against the law for me to eat Girl Scout ass. On the other hand, the market for inverted boneless pork rectums is apparently enormous.
52: I still refuse to shop at Whole Foods for many reasons.
There was recently some facebook thing saying that Girl Scout Cookies are politically happy.
I would opt for the Tiresias Procedure (Tiresias Treatment?) but not if it took ten years to change back.
55: I'd pay several $K for, say, a month of a magical (Star Trek transporter variant?) transformation and then back but not one involving cutting and such. Gotta be strange, and it's not a place my imagination can get me to other than the obvious stuff Hollywood does.
The Tiresias Experiment.
I wonder if the age at which one underwent this would be relevant. I was briefly tempted to say that missing puberty would be a mistake (tempted mostly because one hears that that age is meaningful, and formative, for the male type), but I think not: it would be good enough just to have the opposite accoutrements at age, oh, 30. Bewildering, since you'd have a hell of a time figuring out how to dress.
Would be interesting having female biology for a bit, but I wouldn't want to have to be bad at math or anything.
I wouldn't do Tiresias, for the same reasons I would give away the winning lottery ticket. "Make do with what you got" is a challenge, opportunity, duty.
Anyway, without the history, experience, mind it's all bullshit. I'd be a man in a woman's body, just as I would be lower middle class in a mansion.
bob, I think you're missing the point.
I'd be a man in a woman's body...
That's the point. Center of gravity would be different, hips would be different, the hormone ocean would be different, strength would different, and so on.
And other men and women would react differently and all that too, so the entire experience wouldn't be at all the same old thing only with boobs or balls switched.
Ooh, Komen ad just before the nightly-news segment on them.
Balloon Juice has a bunch of stuff about Komen. Pulling this from the top post:
In addition to pulling funds from Planned Parenthood for The Susan G. Komen Foundation also decided to stop funding embryonic stem cell research centers making it fully transparent the organization has evolved from non-political non-profit to a partisan advocacy organization.
That means the loss of $3.75 million to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, $4.5 million to the University of Kansas Medical Center, $1 million to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, $1 million to the Society for Women's Health Research, and $600,000 to Yale University. That's a loss of nearly $12 million dollars in research money to eradicate breast cancer this year alone.
bob, I think you're missing the point.
New mouseover?
I think the Komen foundation is fucked. They are a parasitical organization that offers a kind of placebo feminism. They got away with it because who wants to come out in favor of breast cancer? Now everyone has an excuse.
53: Yes, certainly. There's an episode of Misfits about this (one of the new powers of the main characters is exactly this).
A friend is participating in an Avon Walk for the Cure, and I've pledged money. Is there a way to tell if the Komen Foundation is linked to that?
All good: "The Avon Foundation for Women is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and is not affiliated in any way with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer event series is a project of the Avon Foundation and has no connection to any Susan G. Komen event."
You could google it and find:
"The Avon Foundation is not affiliated with any other breast cancer organizations or programs such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, American Cancer Society, or Breast Cancer Research Foundation."
I'm not pwned because apo wasn't properly dismissive.
It could still be a shitty charity for other reasons. I have no idea.
78: The same reason as always. Give a woman a cancer cure and you'll cure her for a day. Teach a woman to cure cancer... and... hmm. Maybe this isn't a one size fits all template.
They're always slightly different sizes.
73: that's a really terrible power for a superhero to have.
"The thief went this way!"
"Oh no! He's hiding... in a men's lavatory! How will we catch him now without breaking the unwritten code of decency on which our society depends?"
"Step aside, ladies. TIRESIAS POWERS ACTIVATE!"
NMM to Komen Foundation's cutoff of funds to Planned Parenthood. Wonder if it came soon enough to save Komen. Hope not.
Here's a link:
We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
I wrote Walgreens, and I got a quick response suggesting that I contact the Komen foundation myself. Full text:
February 03, 2012
Dear [Bostoniangirl],Thank you for making us aware of your concerns about Susan G. Komen's funding policies.
In 2011 Walgreens established the Walgreens Pink Promise Program as part of our Way To Well Commitment to focus on prevention and early detection of three chronic diseases - cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
The Walgreens Pink Promise Program raises donations for Susan G. Komen for the Cure® to support Breast Self Awareness programs, including mammograms, to under-served women in support of the fight against breast cancer. Through this association, much needed funds are provided directly to women in need. And this effort continues today.
It's our understanding that Komen implemented more stringent eligibility and performance criteria to support its strategies. In our discussions with Komen about these new criteria, we have been assured that Komen is working to ensure there are no interruptions or gaps in services for women who need breast health screening and services.
We appreciate your concerns around Komen's funding policies. Please know that we will take into consideration your comments in our discussions around future programs. We would also encourage you to contact Komen directly with any specific questions around its funding decision.
Sincerely,
Tiffany W.
Consumer Response Representative
82,83:Bullshit
With Five Updates link from LGM
bob, Komen reversed the decision that pissed everyone off. That's what they were asked to do.
Yes, that's insufficient. The nutcase lobbyist and the president have to "resign", the organization has to bump up its funding of PP, and then it needs to be strangled for donations anyway and shut down. But this is a nice, and very real, first step. What happens next is up to donors.
87: What?? No guns? No lampposts? Nebbermind.
Komen reversed the decision that pissed everyone off.
Whether the reversal is for real or just misdirection, it's going to piss off the forced birthers something awful. Komen ignored the classic wisdom: "If you set out to take Vienna, for God's sake take Vienna!"
||
This at Cowen's is a hoot.
"Can you guess this woman's politics from this simple picture?"
Steve Sailer is all over the comments, he knows she is jewish. If she were British, we couldn't tell. Married women with kids are fat and have short hair. They don't have short hair because they need to fend off trophy wives.
Tons of fun
|>
I don't think many people will change their opinions back after this reversal. As a policy decision it represented only 1/1000 of their budget. As a PR decision it was a loud, calculated statement that "This is a right-wing organization." Most people never even thought of them as a political actor before, except the maniacs who boycott everything for anti-abortion reasons. Now people know what side their leadership is on.
It'll be interesting to see whether the Komen VP will resign, or the Board of Directors undergoes a reorganization. I'm not inclined to let bygones be bygones on this one; if Komen is at all smart, they'll do more than just keep their heads down and hope it all goes away.
92: I think lots of people discovered they could easily donate money directly to PP and other organizations they supported. There's no reason for them to return to giving to Komen once they've learned that.
the Board of Directors undergoes a reorganization
The part that gobsmacked me is that (allegedly) the board approved the new policy after asking who it would affect, and being told just one organization right now, PP.
Yet as I understand it the policy refers to ""an applicant or its affiliates" that are under investigation "for financial or administrative improprieties by local, state or federal authorities."
I cannot imagine being a board member of an organization (especially one as big as Komen!) and being dumb enough to accept that answer. ONE? Among all of their grantees? It's transparently ridiculous -- among other things, it would require the board members to believe that mammoth university health systems like Yale or Penn* or so on are never going to be under investigation.
Seriously, who could believe that? What kind of board votes to approve such a broad, loose policy?
*Or Penn State, to whom Komen actually did give a grant for research.
To which. I do realize Penn State is not a person.
Well, right. It's particularly mind-boggling given that Komen's Director of Public Health, or of Public Relations (some such -- I'm hazy on the details, alas) resigned in protest when she learned that the Board was adopting the new policy. How is that not a warning sign that something is very wrong?
95: Corporations are people. Universities count as three-fifths.
97: corporations are people. Grad students count three fifths.
100: well, does she have a sister we can hate?
Grad students count three fifths.
Do they count them and then drink them?