Jezebel.com has a good summary/timeline up: The Complete Guide to the Susan G. Komen Debacle. The closing sums it up perfectly IMNSHO:

in order for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to revamp it’s image as a anti-abortion social club more interested in popularity and profit than actual good works, they’ll have to do some housecleaning. Either that or get better at lying.

and they also have another good read: Susan G. Komen’s Downfall, by the Numbers

Number of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year: >200,000

Number of women cured by useless politicking, lying, and doubletalk from charities that are supposed to be helping them: 0

But the fact remains that by making an unforced error in denying Planned Parenthood funding (in the grand scheme of things, a paltry $680,000) the Komen Foundation exposed themselves as a rats nest of wingnuts, irreparably damaged their brand, lost countless supporters (and therefore millions of dollars), and gave Planned Parenthood an enormous boost at a time when they really needed it. Corporations who have been pink-mailed by the Komen Foundation now have the ability to gracefully withdraw and focus their attentions elsewhere. Other corporations who have been threatened by the forced birthers to withdraw any funding of Planned Parenthood got a glimpse of the type of whirlwind they might reap for making such a move.

As everyone and their brother have written about the FAIL, and that the backtracking was nothing more than CYA (from the Komen press release, emphasis mine):

“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.”

Just CYA to buy time. I’m not going to lose any sleep over their FAIL, they screwed the pooch, got busted, and we can only hope that real charities will reap the windfall.

The Salon.com title says it all: Komen for the Cure sells out women, again (emphasis mine)

…Komen itself cops to portioning just 24 percent of its funds to research – and 20 percent to fundraising and administration. For an organization with reported revenues of nearly $350 million, that’s still a lot of money for research. It’s an awful lot for itself, too.…

Komen also famously outsources its merchandising. It’s teamed up with the likes of KFC for “Buckets for the Cure” – because nothing says you care about women’s health like a big vat of fried chicken.

Women’s healthcare is not about lace-trimmed scarves and bottles of perfume. It’s sure as hell not about some feel-good, lip-service version of what my colleague Rebecca Traister calls “infantilizing Pepto-ed advocacy.” It’s not even — for anyone still stupid enough to think Planned Parenthood is some giant fetus-killing complex — about abortion. It’s about screening. It’s about treatment. It’s just that simple.

or from the Guardian: By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women (emphasis mine)

Mission accomplished, Komen. We are now aware of breast cancer. And now we are also aware that the Susan G Komen Foundation is more about bringing awareness to Susan G Komen and its corporate benefactors than it is about “Racing for a Cure”. Last I checked, a pink breast cancer awareness toaster isn’t a substitute for affordable chemotherapy.

And from PBS NewsHour: Questions Linger About Komen’s Commitment to Planned Parenthood

Even after the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity reversed course Friday and said it would not halt grants to Planned Parenthood over a Republican-led congressional investigation, a number of observers wondered if Planned Parenthood might eventually be turned down because of other concerns about how it refers women for mammograms.…

The questions are lingering in part because Komen officials and spokespeople had emphasized two different reasons over two days for halting grants to 16 of 19 Planned Parenthood clinics that do breast cancer screenings…

Reporters openly wondered throughout the day whether Komen was leaving itself an out.…

The Sr. Management Team at the Komen Foundation made their bed, now they’re going to have lie in it (pun intended).

“Atheism is like a religion is like abstinence is a sex position”

jump to about 3:40 if you want to see the good bit

Proof (watch it if you can stand it)

From an email I received from the local affiliate:

By now, most of you are probably aware of the controversy and questions regarding Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s recent granting strategy and performance criteria revisions, as well as their potential impact on Planned Parenthood and other grantees. Like you, the Komen … Affiliate is concerned about these changes and we, in tandem with the other Affiliates in the … Collaborative, are in discussions with Komen National headquarters. Our top priority in doing so is to do all we can to protect you, our supporters, and assure that the funds you so loyally invest in our work locally, are put to the best possible use to advance our community’s mission in the fight against breast cancer.

Sorry, it sucks to be you. No more money from me to you, unsubscribed from all email completed. Buh, bye.

Iowa Nice

Ever since Tom Lehrer recorded his imperishable anti-Christmas ditty all those years ago, the small but growing minority who view the end of December with existential dread has had a seasonal “carol” all of its own:

Christmas time is here by golly: disapproval would be folly.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly, fill the cup and don’t say when.
Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens, mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens—brother, here we go again.

a little later…

In their already discrepant accounts of the miraculous birth, the four gospels give us no clue as to what time of year—or even what year—it is supposed to have taken place. And thus the iconography of Christmas is ridiculously mixed in with reindeer, holly, snow scenes and other phenomena peculiar to northern European myth. (Three words for those who want to put the Christ back in Christmas: Jingle Bell Rock.) There used to be an urban legend about a Japanese department store that tried too hard to symbolize the Christmas spirit, and to show itself accessible to Western visitors, by mounting a display of a Santa Claus figure nailed to a cross. Unfounded as it turned out, this wouldn’t have been off by much.

then…

I once tried to write an article, perhaps rather straining for effect, describing the experience as too much like living for four weeks in the atmosphere of a one-party state. “Come on,” I hear you say. But by how much would I be exaggerating? The same songs and music played everywhere, all the time. The same uniform slogans and exhortations, endlessly displayed and repeated. The same sentimental stress on the sheer joy of having a Dear Leader to adore. As I pressed on I began almost to persuade myself. The serried ranks of beaming schoolchildren, chanting the same uplifting mush. The cowed parents, in terror of being unmasked by their offspring for insufficient participation in the glorious events…. “Come on,” yourself. How wrong am I?

It’s definitely worth the read.

Direct Link

Dhammapada 3.35

Itivuttaka 3.88

Sutta Nipāta 3.710

Sutta Nipāta 3.725

This is the time of year we should all follow his example and call out the bullshit spewed around us and defend our rights (the First Amendment and the remainder of the Bill of Rights, let alone the Constitution).

Dīgha Nikāya 3.273

(bigger version)

On this day in 1918 CE, the armistice between the Allies:

• the Kingdom of Serbia
• the French Third Republic
• the Kingdom of Belgium
• the British Empire

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

the Dominion of Canada

the Commonwealth of Australia

the Indian Empire

the Union of South Africa

the Dominion of Newfoundland

• the Kingdom of Nepal
• the Kingdom of Montenegro
• the Empire of Japan
• the Kingdom of Italy
• the Portuguese First Republic
• the Kingdom of Romania
• the United States of America
• the Kingdom of Greece
• the Republic of the United States of Brazil

and the Central Powers:

• the German Empire
• the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• the Ottoman Empire
• the Kingdom of Bulgaria

was signed. The Russian Empire had withdrawn from hostilities in 1917 after the revolution.

Sutta Nipāta 1.150