{"id":7821,"date":"2006-06-30T13:13:39","date_gmt":"2006-06-30T17:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7821"},"modified":"2006-06-30T13:13:39","modified_gmt":"2006-06-30T17:13:39","slug":"the-downside-of-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-downside-of-philanthropy\/","title":{"rendered":"The downside of philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[tag]Warren Buffett[\/tag] is poised, through tens of [tag]billions[\/tag] in charitable donations, to literally change the face of international [tag]philanthropy[\/tag] and relief efforts. The ability to ease suffering, combat disease, and reduce poverty received an unprecedented boost. It is, by any reasonable definition, a development to celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, everyone around the world is impressed and inspired by the generosity. Well, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2006\/US\/06\/29\/billionaires.abortion.ap\/index.html?section=cnn_latest\">almost everyone<\/a>. (thanks to slip kid no more for the tip)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Warren Buffett&#8217;s new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire [tag]Bill Gates[\/tag] won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs.<\/p>\n<p>The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to which Buffett has pledged the bulk of his $44-billion fortune, devotes the vast majority of its funding to combating disease and poverty in developing countries. Less than 1 percent has gone to Planned Parenthood over the years. And the Gates Foundation does not permit its gifts to Planned Parenthood to be used for abortion services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world,&#8221; said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.<\/p>\n<p>Referring to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi death camp doctor, Euteneuer said Buffett &#8220;will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy unless he repents.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s not just some random priest. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a powerhouse religious-right group, wrote a commentary this week blasting Buffett for funding clinical trials of RU-486 in 2000. &#8220;Since then, approximately 500,000 American babies have been killed with RU-486,&#8221; Perkins wrote. &#8220;Buffett&#8217;s billions have the potential to do damage like this on a global scale.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And Steven Mosher, head of the far-right Population Research Institute, said Buffett and Gates are dangerous. &#8220;Some of the wealthiest men in the world descend like avenging angels on the populations of the developing world,&#8221; Mosher wrote this week. &#8220;They seek to decimate their numbers, to foist upon vulnerable people abortion, sterilization and contraception.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Is <i>this<\/i> where the right wants to go? Lashing out the most generous philanthropists the world has ever seen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[tag]Warren Buffett[\/tag] is poised, through tens of [tag]billions[\/tag] in charitable donations, to literally change the face of international [tag]philanthropy[\/tag] and relief efforts. The ability to ease suffering, combat disease, and reduce poverty received an unprecedented boost. It is, by any reasonable definition, a development to celebrate. Naturally, everyone around the world is impressed and inspired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}