Posted on 06/30/2006 12:09:04 PM PDT by presidio9
Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates 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.
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.
"The merger of Gates and Buffett may spell doom for the families of the developing world," said the Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, a Roman Catholic priest who is president of Human Life International.
Referring to Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi death camp doctor, Euteneuer said Buffett "will be known as the Dr. Mengele of philanthropy unless he repents."
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America issued statements praising Buffett and Gates for their generosity. Gloria Feldt, a former Planned Parenthood president, said she was appalled by the harsh attacks on them.
"What an outrage that these people have the gall to cast aspersions on other citizens for standing up for what they believe," Feldt said Thursday. "They have no right whatsoever to criticize people who put their money where their mouths are."
The foundation founded by Buffett, and now named after his late wife, Susan, came under fire from some anti-abortion groups in the 1990s after it gave $2 million to fund clinical trials of mifepristone, more commonly known as the RU-486 abortion pill. The foundation also has supported various abortion-rights and family-planning groups, and Susan Buffett was eulogized after her death in 2004 as a champion of women's reproductive health.
Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, wrote a commentary this week holding the Buffetts partially responsible for the approval of RU-486 in 2000.
"Since then, approximately 500,000 American babies have been killed with RU-486," Perkins wrote. "Buffett's billions have the potential to do damage like this on a global scale."
Staff at the Susan T. Buffett Foundation office in Omaha, Neb., said its executive director, Allen Greenberg, would have no comment on the criticisms.
The Gates Foundation also is a patron of reproductive-health programs, funding research on new contraceptive technologies and initiatives to improve access to birth control.
Planned Parenthood, which is the leading provider of abortions in the United States, has received $34 million from the Gates Foundation over the years — out of a total of $10.5 billion in grants worldwide, according to foundation spokeswoman Jacquelline Fuller. She said the foundation does not fund abortion services, earmarking the grants for other Planned Parenthood programs.
Joseph D'Agostino, a spokesman for the anti-abortion Population Research Institute, said the foundation position "is simply dishonest."
"Abortion services are the primary mission of Planned Parenthood," he said. "If you fund one side of an organization, that frees them up to transfer funds to the other things they do."
Feldt confirmed that the Gates Foundation stipulated that its gifts to Planned Parenthood not be used for abortion services. But that policy has not spared Bill Gates' Microsoft Corp. from anti-abortion protests over the years.
At the 2003 annual shareholders meeting, anti-abortion activists cited Microsoft's support for Planned Parenthood during an unsuccessful attempt to stop the company from directly contributing to charities.
Beyond the issue of abortion, some critics oppose the Buffett and Gates foundations' support for global family-planning and population control programs.
"Some of the wealthiest men in the world descend like avenging angels on the populations of the developing world," wrote Population Research Institute president Steven Mosher, a frequent critic of Gates and Buffett. "They seek to decimate their numbers, to foist upon vulnerable people abortion, sterilization and contraception."
Buffett-Gates Axis
The day it was announced that Buffet was throwing his billions into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bright red flags went up for me. The Foundation's support of Planned Parenthood coupled with Buffet's overt support of same, and a firm believer in population control sends shivers down my back. Population control doesn't only entail abortion, but also euthanasia, as well as genecide.
How sad that those billions of dollars couldn't be spent in cleaning up America of pornography and obscene television "sitcoms"; raising the standards of our system of education at all levels; getting rid of anti-American movements by exposing them; funding wholesome activity for latchkey kids; and making grants to teach welfare recipients how to earn their own bread; and even establishing a newspaper dedicated to the truth, to present the who, what, when and where only of the news without all the yellow varnish. These men could be heros rising from the ashes to fight evil, but instead they choose to fund it.
That's the second idiotic post out of you today newbie. Maybe you're trying to be sarcastic, but how about giving it a rest?
Yeah, 50million dead Americans are nothing compared to 10million butchered under Hitler or 20million under Stalin. < /sarc >
They don't want a smarter America. Keep them dumb, voting as a bloc, and keep them entertained so they don't commit much crime or have time to organize (or educate themselves).
You may not like the causes Buffett supports, but do you deny his right to leave his money as he wishes? You can leave your billions somewhere else, after all.
There's more to it than the abortion issue.
Bill Gates against repealing the inheritance tax
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_inheritance.html
"Gun-Control Group Changes Name, Keeps Agenda"
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5C%5CNation%5C%5Carchive%5C%5C200106%5C%5CNAT20010615a.html
(and Bill is a contributor)
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/july-dec97/guns_11-4.html
(more money for gun control from Gates and his father)
"Is Bill Gates a closet liberal?"
http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/01/cov_29feature.html
(Bill Gates for gun control, pro-abortion, etc.)
http://vikingphoenix.com/news/madminute/1997/mm970040.htm
(Gates on gun control)
The Left-Wing Billionaire Collectivist Pigs
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/9/25/191020.shtml
Billionaire Collectivist Pigs on a Roll
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/11/171315.shtml
"Bill Gates Is No Free Market Hero"
http://brian.carnell.com/articles/2000/12/000046.html
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $8.8 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/women/12/11/health.women.gates.reut/
Where did either of you get the idea that anybody was suggesting otherwise? The point is the fact that a lot of his money is going to a cause founded to reduce the black population of this country means that he may not be the big-hearted softie that the MSM has been fwaning over.
I have no idea what the legalities of giving money to the two organizations you mention would be, since they operate outside the law for the most part.
Don't worry about me being tolerant and non-judgmental; you have enough intolerance and finger-pointing for both of us, and then some. :)
So, you do deny his right to leave his money as he wishes? If you think it is evil, why not file an injunction and see what happens?
It is his money and I have no say or opinion who he gives it to.
The Fortune magazine article on this which I got in the mail yesterday had an interesting factoid that illustrates just how big the Buffett bequest really is.
John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie's fortunes are compared with Buffett's $30 million; in today's dollars, each of them "only" come out at $7 billion apiece. Put together, they don't add up to half of Buffett's.
This is patently untrue. Both NAMBLA and the KKK are legal entities. You just find their activities more distasteful than those of Planned Parenthood. Many of us don't.
"Since Nov 7 2005". At what point of time is one promoted out of the newbies? How long is the boot camp? If one has to serve half a year, then in his case it has been accomplished.
I call BS on that one too. Carnegie Hall the Carnegie Museum and Carnegie Mellon university alone are already worth about that much.
No, I'd say you remain a newbie for a full year.
The number one cause of poverty is socialism.
If Gates wanted to end poverty, he would work to abolish poverty world-wide by putting $30 billion towards create open free-market economies in every country on earth.
Protect property rights, lower taxes, and make it easier to start a business.
The number two cause is illiteracy and lack of education.
If Gates wanted to end poverty, he would create a free educational system, lets call it education-on-a-CD that every child in the world could access. There is a way to do that: Hand cranked PCs that can be networked and cost only $100 a pop. Give one to each village in the world.
I'm talking about the value of Rockefeller's and Carnegie's bequests when they were originally made, in today's dollars.
"You, on the other hand, think that doctors who make baby-frappés for a living are providing a valuable service to society."
You know I have never said anything of the kind. Your grip on the truth really slips when you get start to get hysterical. The Jebbies would be ashamed that you didn't learn any better debating techniques than that.
I have done so many times, on these threads. You haven't been paying attention. But you DO know that I have never said anything even remotely like what you quoted. I challenge you to find where I have. That should keep you busy and out of the grownups' hair for several weeks, I would think.
The brief synopsis is that I am against it, but do not think that making it illegal will work, and will likely have unintended consequences. I am in favor of any and all forms of contraception that will prevent unwanted pregnancies.
You won't agree with any of that, and that is just fine with me.
Don't let the sand get into your eyes. :o)
Right on! But you are preaching to the choir, wg. :o)
Go get thee taxed. It clarifies perception.
>I'm impressed with how tolerant, and non-judgemental you are......Defending someone's right to do evil makes you a party to their wickedness.<
Very astute of you, Antoninus. linda must have been educated in the last 20 years where values clarification
(there is no right and no wrong), and situational ethics have been either insidiously or even overtly impressed on hungry young minds in the public schools, as well as in some private institutions. It takes time to create a zombie, and Satan adores a zombie.
No, actually, I went to Antoninus' university, several years before he did. Good guess, though.
I just don't believe in passing laws that will be ineffective from the get-go. You prefer to make the grand declaration in favor of something unworkable. Chacun a son gout.
Wow, I don't live up to your moral standards. I will weep into my pillow tonight, over that. No - wait - my husband and I are going out tonight; tomorrow night, too. I'll weep into my pillow over it on Sunday night, okay? Is Sunday good for you? ;-D
Why did you bother to go there, then? And you've said before it's BC, no need to be coy about it here. The Jebbies have always been the intellectual outlaws of the Church, that's no secret.
If you didn't want that, why did you go? Jerry Falwell's place might have been better for you.
>No, actually I went to Antoninus' university, several years before he did.<
Then either you are party to the reason rather than to the result, or you are very adept at creating divisiveness for your own amusement. I do not find killing babies amusing.
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