Carpetbagger Talks Philanthropy

"The downside of philanthropy
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Warren Buffett is poised, through tens of billions in charitable donations, to literally change the face of international philanthropy 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 by the generosity. Well, almost everyone. (thanks to slip kid no more for the tip)

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. And the Gates Foundation does not permit its gifts to Planned Parenthood to be used for abortion services.

"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."

It'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. "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."

And Steven Mosher, head of the far-right Population Research Institute, said Buffett and Gates are dangerous. "Some of the wealthiest men in the world descend like avenging angels on the populations of the developing world," Mosher wrote this week. "They seek to decimate their numbers, to foist upon vulnerable people abortion, sterilization and contraception."

Is this where the right wants to go? Lashing out the most generous philanthropists the world has ever seen?"

I've asked several people, right, left, middle, what they think about this event, and the general response is abject confusion; perhaps, the puzzlement will mature into enlightenment.