6 Things You Need To Know About the Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood Controversy

“In the harshest judgment, the breast-cancer cult serves as an accomplice in global poisoning — normalizing cancer, prettying it up, even presenting it, perversely, as a positive and enviable experience.”

AlterNet/Sarah Seltzer/2 Feb 2012

By now, unless you’re living on Mars, your newspaper reports, radio waves, Facebook and Twitter streams are being swamped with stories, images and chattering about the shocking decision of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation’s most ubiquitous breast cancer awareness foundation, to essentially sever financial ties with Planned Parenthood.
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Komen Foundation ousted their Democratic lobbyist just before hiring Karen Handel

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Komen Foundation ousted their Democratic lobbyist just before hiring Karen Handel:

It wasn’t until 2008 that the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a 501(c)3, founded the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Advocacy Alliance, a 501(c)4 non-profit that, under IRS rules, can spend unlimited donor funds on lobbying. It’s that arm of the Komen Foundation that former Secretary of State and failed gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel (R-GA) was hired to run in April 2011, despite being once investigated for issuing voter ID regulations that the Department of Justice determined to be discriminatory against non-white voters. She’d been serving “as a consultant” to the organization since January 2011.

[rawstory/Megan Carpentier/2 feb 2012]

Anti-choicers are modern day witch hunters

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Anti-choicers are modern day witch hunters:

As I noted last night, I have a blog post up at Slate about Susan G. Komen—who purports to be a women’s health charity—abandoning their alliance with Planned Parenthood, even though 17% of Planned Parenthood’s services are cancer screening and prevention. They claim that it’s because Planned Parenthood is under investigation, but it seems that excuse was ginned up because it was easy cover for caving into anti-choice nuts. The investigation has been launched as a nuisance investigation by an anti-choice congressman, and is not compelled by any sincere concern that Planned Parenthood is violating the law with its funds. It’s completely obvious that they’re caving into anti-choice activists, and specifically, as I noted at Slate, into the ridiculous idea that you can separate “good girl” health care from “bad girl” health care, the latter being everything from cervical cancer prevention and treatment to abortion. And yes, before we forget, it’s all lumped together with the anti-choice movement now. That’s how they made the HPV vaccine an issue in the Republican primary, because it’s widely believed that preventing cervical cancer gives girls “license” to be sluts.

In other words, a supposedly anti-cancer charity just threw their lot in with people who believe that cancer shouldn’t be prevented if it’s linked to sexually transmitted diseases. Objectively pro-cancer, at least for women they deem slutty, i.e. about 95% of us.

[T]he war on reproductive health care is basically a witchhunt, and the religious fundamentalists behind it are the modern day version of medieval paranoids of old who believed that women who didn’t conform to their exacting standards were consorting with Satan.

Anyone who thinks breast cancer can be neatly cordoned off from this growing circle of hate for all things women’s health care is fooling themselves. That’s not how witch hunts work. The fear here is not about fetuses or babies per se, but a deep-set fear of female sexuality. Already anti-choicers have scooped breast cancer under the umbrella “abortion”, claiming that abortion causes breast cancer. (It doesn’t.) Komen would rather side with people who see breast cancer as god’s judgment on you for having an abortion rather than side with people support comprehensive health care for women. That tells you all you need to know about their organization. I’m all for picking up your sneakers and taking up running as a hobby, but recommend now you do it for you, and not for the ever-elusive cure for cancer.

[pandagon/Amanda Marcotte/2 feb 2012]

Breasts Yes, Vaginas No? Race for the Cure Group’s Bizarre Capitulation to Right-Wingers (And How to Hit Them Where it Hurts)

How the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation put their corporation-friendly image before women’s actual health concerns.

AlterNet/Amanda Marcotte/1 Feb 2012

It’s probably the fastest-spreading story in Internet history about the relationship between two non-profits. Late Tuesday afternoon, Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure announced that Komen would be withdrawing grants given to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings. Despite Komen’s lame attempts to claim otherwise, it was widely understood that this was about Komen aligning itself with the anti-choice movement, despite the anti-choice movement’s long history of opposing not just safe and legal abortion, but also access to contraception and even the prevention of cervical cancer through the use of the HPV vaccine.
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Riddick, Fast Six, Dodge, Rectal Exams, and Stupid Canadian Law [I read stuff]

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

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Second Photo of Vin Diesel on the Riddick Set:

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Following the first photo of Vin Diesel on the set of Riddick comes this new shot posted by the actor on Sunday.

[comingsoon.net//29 jan 2012]

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A Day in the Bark Park, The Grey, 5 Lights, People doing good things, Compliance, People doing bad things [I read stuff]

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

What Playing in a Dog Park Looks Like from a Dog’s Point of View (Hint: Awesome)
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Walken reads, Duchovny on X-Files, Don’t Eat That, and we’re not property [I read stuff]

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

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Where the Wild Things Are (as read by Christopher Walken):
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David Duchovny: ‘The X-Files made me a better actor’:
YoungAtHeart868David Duchovny has credited starring in The X-Files with helping him become a better actor.

Duchovny, who played Special Agent Mulder on the sci-fi series, commented that he learned a great deal during his nine years on The X-Files.

He explained: “Every day I had to go to work and every day for 14 hours year after year after year. I don’t know if I would’ve made it to this point if I would’ve just gone from movie to movie to movie like a three-month stint here and a three-month stint there.

“It was very good for me and my particular sense of myself or my craft to have to go in every day and do it.”

[digitalspy.ca/18 jan 2012]

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Active duty soldiers send message of tolerance to gay teens

Active duty soldiers send message of tolerance to gay teens:

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A group of active duty soldiers in Bagram, Afghanistan recently released their own contribution to the “It Gets Better” video series, sending a message of tolerance to gay and bisexual teens hounded by bullies and their peers.

“It’s really hard, being accepted, to be different,” one soldier explains. “But it’s even harder to be somebody that you’re not. So, once you find that group of friends that embrace who you are, just go with the flow. It gets better.”

The video is an outreach effort by the group OutServe, an LGBT support organization for U.S. soldiers. It was published on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012.

[rawstory.com/Stephen C. Webster/23 Jan 2012]

An award for Dom Toretto, Fast Six in London, and Reproductive Rights! [I read stuff]

Wherein I read things, laugh [or not], and pass them on to you…

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Nominated for an NAACP award, for the portrayal of Dom Toretto:
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Vin Diesel
We all know, I tend to shy away from award shows…

/smile

However, I can’t tell you how honored I am to be Nominated for an NAACP award, for the portrayal of Dom Toretto in Fast Five.

Haha… one to be proud of…

I am lucky to have such a great ensemble of actors, director, writer, producers… and even the studio. Film is truly a team effort, and everyone gave above and beyond.

P.s. Thank you NAACP for validating my work, and more importantly, validating all those who have believed in me.

[facebook.com/VinDiesel]

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