Hopefully their new president will focus more on the breast cancer research and less on the politics.

/still no hope for getting rid of all the pink ribbon crap

Confabulat: I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more disasterous PR mistake any company has made since what, New Coke?

And it wasn't intended as any sort of a PR campaign, either. They instituted a new policy that prohibits donations to any organization under investigation, a bunch of anti-abortion idiots/legislators in Florida filed for an unnecessary investigation of PP, and Komen immediately cut their funding. It was calculated, dumb, obvious, and 100% political.

FTFA: "32 years after my promise to my sister to end breast cancer, I want now to focus on Susan G. Komen's global mission"

Well you dumb b*tch, you broke that promise to your sister the moment you cut funding to an organization that provided breast cancer screenings for your own selfish, political reasons, didn't you?

About farking time. Was this a 'wait until everything dies down before I leave' or 'the ship is sinking so it's time for me to bolt anyway?'

Either way, the farking cow that cut Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve another job. She's just another Republican mental patient trying to limit her own rights because she's afraid God will hate her if she doesn't destroy her life with spurious and unneeded legislation. What a farking tool.

Confabulat: I've said it before, I'll say it again:

I happily paid to murder my own child in a woman's womb about 20 years ago.

Best decision of my life. That biatch was psycho and I was too drunk to handle raising a child. What good what I have accomplished by letting it live?

I've had regrets in my time, but killing my unborn child is not one of them.

You paid to end something that couldn't exist outside of its mother's womb at the time. That's all.

I haven't had an abortion (I'm quite paranoid about using *multiple* BC methods) but if I do have a kid, it's going to be an adoption. There's enough people in this world, and enough who need homes as it is.

If I do get knocked up, it's a statistical effing anomaly, because I've done the math as far as effective % of the multiple forms of BC the SO and I use. Maybe I'll keep it (my friend who was told outright by two different doctors that she was barren ended up having a kid two years ago), but if I notice early enough, probably not.

There are too many kids in this world who need a home. I don't need to bring another one in if I don't have to. While the whole "letting my genetics/name live on via my direct offspring" idea is tempting, I'm not going to flatter myself *that* much to think that I'm that important.

Benevolent Misanthrope: Yeah, this. Part of my charitable giving goes to a local foundation that does breast cancer awareness and screening. Komen can kiss my lily-white.

Feel free to donate to your local Planned Parenthood too, who (at least where I'm located) still does that sort of thing regardless of available funding. At least in my case, they're getting a good chunk of the money I'm saving this year since my health insurer has to treat my non-contraception-prescribed birth control the same as any other medication. Considering they gave me BC on credit when I was broke as hell for several months, I just consider it long overdue interest.

randomjsa: Let that be a lesson to you, don't even THINK about not paying your protection money to Planned Parenthood.

Oh yes, that's totally it. You've seen through the ruse! Congraduf--kinglations!

Or maybe if you claim to be anti-women-cancer, you could not cut funds to the group that's on the front lines in screening women who would ordinarily fall through the cracks and never be screened in the first place. Mayhaps!

McJudo: I support you in your cause to end breast cancer! Wait, whats that? You don't agree with me on everything else I think is important?

Except that's not the problem at all. The problem is they claim to want to end breast cancer, and then cut funding to an organization that provides breast screenings to women who wouldn't normally have an opportunity to do so.

At least try to be informed about something before interjecting your disingenuous commentary into the thread.

propasaurus: SGK was never about cancer research. It is and always has been a money-making scheme. It's primary purpose is enriching its top execs. I see nothing in this announcement that changes any of that.
fark them.

And they stole the pink ribbon.

Wondering if you saw Pink Ribbon Inc. too. Any time one of my friends or family members sends some pink ribbon bullshiat on facebook, they get that lecture from me.

The cashiers at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart, Safeway, etc. just looooooove me.

Some companies are better than others regarding this stuff, but 99% of the time they're in it for themselves, to build a warm fuzzy feeling for their brand. They don't give much, but are happy to take. Now that I clearly see things this way, I've been pretty vocal about what I think of places that uses peoples' traumas to further their bottom line.

If you want to donate to something, do your homework and find an organisation that does authentic research for cures (not just expensive drugs that need to be taken long term that "sort of" help), one that collaborates with other organisations like it, and doesn't have have a ridiculous overhead.

Ambivalence: Elandriel: The My Little Pony Killer: Hopefully their new president will focus more on the breast cancer research and less on the politics.

/still no hope for getting rid of all the pink ribbon crap

I'm sure the #1 goal will still be to sue anyone using pink to promote their advocacy. Or advocate their promotion. Whatever.

When this whole kerfluffle started, I remember it being said that it's already been established in courts that Koemen doesn't have exclusive copyrights to the pink ribbon. It can be used for any breast cancer charity.

They have sued other charities in the past for using *anything* for the the cure or for a cure. As if they own the words for and cure in regartds to fundraisinig.

For this reason, my wife and I no longer support this organization. If they spend their money and time focusing on research instead of suing other productive charities it would be different.

douchebag/hater: SO WHAT if the SGK fund decides to drop funding for Planned Parenthood?

SO WHAT if people don't buy shiat with a pink top on it because of the politics of SGK?

Freedom of speech != freedom from the repercussions of your speech. Like right now, I am calling you a tard for not understanding that.

MrHelpful: "tolerant"

You know that it's not intolerant in and of itself to be intolerant towards stupidity, hate, greed, and evil, right? I am sorry if you are evil and find this offensive.

Ashtrey: Wow, that seems like a lot of fallout for a bad, but not necessarily disaterous decision to duck some fundie outrage.

They seem to mostly do good work, and restored the funding.

No, no they haven't.
Planned parenthood got most of the press, but what I find more disturbing were their other funding actions at the same time; For instance, they also decided to cut funding to any research institutions that did any work with stem cells - as part of breast cancer or any other research for that matter. That cut out something like 5 of the top 7 oncology research centers IIRC, places like Johns Hopkins for farks sake.
They went full retard trying to become fundy culture warriors, but even before that they were known for both;
1) a vanishingly small percentage of money going to research after it made its way through the bonuses and management salaries and the like, and expensive lobbying for anti-abortion and GOP causes and candidates.
and
2) for being litigious as all hell against other charities.
They wanted the lions share of the donations for cancer, they wanted to keep them for themselves, and they had a political agenda.

So fark them, fark them with a rusty barbecue fork.

McJudo: I support you in your cause to end breast cancer! Wait, whats that? You don't agree with me on everything else I think is important? How Dare you! You are a terrible organization and I will never ever support you again! Heads better roll!

Litmus tests will eventually result in us all wearing gray jumpsuits and having to get the same haircut, just to be sure we don't offend anyone.

I don't care about their politics really. The exec paychecks that came out during this was an eye opener though. It's completely gross that some people waving the "good deeds" banner are nothing more than cash vacuums. I got turned off by the Red Cross paydays too back when Bob Dole was running for President and they revealed his wife was paid $400K a year to be in charge. Filings claim Brinker got $417K for 2010-11 and then suddenly claimed to be "uncompensated" after that. Though if true was to improve her image. The previous Komen CEO got $459K. Really? That's a mighty big mountain to climb before you even have cash to start helping out. And I don't give a rat's ass what other CEOs make, this ain't Applebees, it's a charity and you should expect to not quite make what the other the guy/gal makes.

Weaver95: NowhereMon: So, the deck chairs are in their final position then?

yeah, basically.

these folks were idiots. for whatever reason, their president decided to listen to the fundies and cut funding to planned parenthood. WTF man? PP was probably the best way for them to get funding to poor and disadvantaged women in need of cancer screenings. but no, they just HAD to follow the lead of pro-life idiots and put themselves smack into the middle of a fight they didn't need.

This was all about successful terrorism. The fundies went to war against PP and anybody who supported them. SGK was afraid of being attacked also and cut funding with PP. That is how terrorism works, you attack one target so hard that anybody connected to them runs away fearing that they will be next.

What SGK learned the hard way is if you don't support your friends when under attack you lose credibility in everybody's eyes. And this isn't over for SGK by a long shot. They have shown the right and the fundies that they are weak and will fold under pressure. The next time the right wants to give oil companies a increase in subsidies or cut taxes for the wealthy and need to cut government spending somewhere to get it done, they will get their propaganda machine rolling and convince the fundies that breast cancer screening is against gods plan and get them to mount a campaign to defund SGK because they know SGK is weak and won't fight back.

In order to avoid "Truth in advertising" laws, the SGK organization will now be known as:

Susan G. Komen: Race for the CA$H.

Kormen?

Ashtrey: Wow, that seems like a lot of fallout for a bad, but not necessarily disaterous decision to duck some fundie outrage.

They seem to mostly do good work, and restored the funding.

Huh? only a small percentage of the money they raised went to actual good work - cancer screening and cancer research. Most of the money raised was to pay themselves for fundraising and in-house "cancer awareness" work which has a very broad meaning.

The Why Not Guy: Oh, so they've moved past that, have they? No regrets. The names on the letterhead might be different but nothing is really changing.

Reminds me of a friend's boyfriend who was very gung-ho about invading Iraq. He went on about how Arabs aren't human, everybody over their except the Israelis are liars, there are tons of WMDs and questioned the patriotism and manhood of anyone opposed to the invasion. When the war was a disaster, he took the same "I've moved past that" tone and refused to talk about it or even acknowledge his previous support. He was like a child who got bored with a new toy and set it aside. It amazes me how many people think they can part of creating a disaster and then just walk away and expect everyone to pretend nothing happened.

Sadly, I doubt we've seen the last of Karen Handel. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if she made another run for governor in Georgia and ended up winning now that she's proven her loyalty to the cause.

lohphat: I submitted this with a better headline.

"Komen loses another boob"

/yeah, I went there

That's really awful, but headline of the year worthy, but really awful.

Here's the part that matters:

In response to questions Wednesday about the controversy, Komen spokeswoman Andrea Rader said "I think Liz (Thompson) made clear in her statement that we feel that we've moved past that."

Oh, so they've moved past that, have they? No regrets. The names on the letterhead might be different but nothing is really changing.

So, the deck chairs are in their final position then?

propasaurus: SGK was never about cancer research. It is and always has been a money-making scheme. It's primary purpose is enriching its top execs. I see nothing in this announcement that changes any of that.
fark them.

And they stole the pink ribbon.

This, this, and so much more this. Komen went rogue around the same time MADD did, when I was still in elementary school.

/Kormen?

StreetlightInTheGhetto:
All you have to do is say "no thanks".
Really, that's it, 99% of the time. That last 1%, just ignore them.
...
Just smile and say no thanks. That's all.

Sometimes I smile and say no thanks. Sometimes I make a short commentary (I don't harrass them). I know it's not the cashier's fault the boss will yell at them if they don't ask every customer. But I figure if it's fair game that a random stranger bugs me about a "social issue" when all I'm trying to buy toothpaste or condoms, then it's fair game for me challenge the expectation I'll donate.

It's almost always a short sentence following the form of "I don't donate to charity X because of Y". My intent to provoke critical thinking in the cashier and other customers in line, not to berate the cashier.

I often get a surprised look because people aren't expecting that. I get a dirty look if they're not open to the idea that some charities operate with a different agenda than what one's told.

I believe in minding one's own business for the most part, but us Canadians can be so passive to the point of it being unhealthy. Sometimes there's the expectation of voicing an opinion different than the status quo would be rude. I can't live like that any more. We need more discourse about issues that matter.

Dear SGK,

You made it clear that your goal isn't women's health, it's politics.

You may as well fire everybody and close up shop. A few changes to the names on your letterhead won't make any difference.

You lost a lot of supporters, like me.

This organization just needs to shut down. It's nothing but fail.

tinfoil-hat maggie: JustinCase: lohphat: Chinchillazilla: I think the best way to make her sister feel bad is to start terrible rumors about Susan G. Komen herself and totally tarnish her memory. I'll start.

Susan G. Komen used to wear white after Labor Day.

And then she *stepped* on the ping-pong ball! Can you believe it!?

/obscure?
//mmm...strained tuna fish, clam juice and peanut butter

omFg! Get outta my head!

Auntie Mame - "I stepped on the ping pong ball"
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dkj7i88LQ9DE&v= kj7i88LQ9DE&gl=US

I have a young gay friend that hasn't seen it yet. When he's back in town, I get to watch his face while he watches it for the first time!

/my phone GPS is Agnes, Agnes Gooch.

Oh my, that was just ghastly :) Love that movie and yea, gay friend of mine got me in to it.
Oh and clinky linky goodness,just in case.
/And yea I'll donate to the causes I like and try to skip the middle man.

Thanks for the HTML.

Two of the comments for that video:
is that anne romney? lol.
Now I understand Mitt Romney.

lohphat: Chinchillazilla: I think the best way to make her sister feel bad is to start terrible rumors about Susan G. Komen herself and totally tarnish her memory. I'll start.

Susan G. Komen used to wear white after Labor Day.

And then she *stepped* on the ping-pong ball! Can you believe it!?

/obscure?
//mmm...strained tuna fish, clam juice and peanut butter

omFg! Get outta my head!

Auntie Mame - "I stepped on the ping pong ball"
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dkj7i88LQ9DE&v= kj7i88LQ9DE&gl=US

I have a young gay friend that hasn't seen it yet. When he's back in town, I get to watch his face while he watches it for the first time!

/my phone GPS is Agnes, Agnes Gooch.

and to take it one step further: does anyone have the fantasy of walking in on the board of directors of their most hated company/organization and just breaking out the water-boarding therapy? Group forced marches in the Gobi desert? Naked death matches in front of a revived Shala the Hutt?(the winner is torn in half and eaten, but they don't know that) Russian Roulette with an semi-auto pistol? Being forced to play the role of Paul Atreides in the next Dune remake? Being force-read the script to the next Indiana Jones movie? Clockwork Orange-style viewings of the Smurfs?

/just me, huh?
//la la la la-la-la, la l-la la la...

lohphat: JustinCase:
/only has one for now until reconstruction. They're going to take fat and skin off of my belly and use it to make a 'frankenboob'. No really, GIS "reconstructed breasts". They look like frankenboobs. Especially with a fake nipple forced by wound string and later tatooed in attempt to color match the existing original.

*hug*

/has two close friends in stage IV
//humor is holding us together from going crazy dealing with it
///lost another friend @ 37, still sad when I remember
////FARK CANCER

Oh yeah, around 2005 in Australia they managed to GROW a new boob with all functioning glands and ductwork etc. by using stem cells. (This was on a mouse) That researcher is at Harvard now but she is working on something else. Haven't seen any mention of human trials...

lohphat: JustinCase:
/only has one for now until reconstruction. They're going to take fat and skin off of my belly and use it to make a 'frankenboob'. No really, GIS "reconstructed breasts". They look like frankenboobs. Especially with a fake nipple forced by wound string and later tatooed in attempt to color match the existing original.

*hug*

/has two close friends in stage IV
//humor is holding us together from going crazy dealing with it
///lost another friend @ 37, still sad when I remember
////FARK CANCER

Thank you. *hugs back*

Laughter always helps. Remember, it wasn't a good party unless there's at least one bra twirling around on the ceiling fan in the morning.

Have them check out:

the Meta picture. Com - awesome images constantly updated
Texts from last night.com
Post secret.com
Ted.com

And the fark video section depending on attention span and eyesight... I was too exhausted to follow the plotlines on network sitcoms.

Also check out clinicaltrials.gov

It wasn't until after I was diagnosed that I learned that stage IV does not necessarily indicate terminal. I met more than a few that have been that stage for 5+ years.

Also, if it IS terminal, then can think about who they might want to "take with them" so to speak.

ladyfortuna: Genevieve Marie: Yea, the problem here is that in the wake of this disaster of a decision, all kinds of other nasty little facts about Komen came to light, and anyone that actually cares about women's healthcare found out about all kinds of fun things- stuff like their continual refusal to fund or acknowledge research that explores environmental causes that could cause or contribute to breast cancer. They're so focused on their partnerships with major corporations that they actively work to kill off any research that could reflect badly on the products distributed by said corporate overlords.

I would be especially interested in the environmental causes research, if you have links. BOTH my parents had BC; mom died when it came back five years later, dad has 7 years survived but keeps getting sick from other stuff... and I can't help but wonder if the lovely old Kodak incinerator north of our town might have had anything to do with it. It was miles and miles away, but if you ever watch the way lake effect snow moves over Rochester, you have to wonder about stuff getting into the atmosphere from that.

Holy crap, get your mammograms. So sorry to see that.

Google: NIH "breast cancer" "DDT"

And then try: NIH "breast cancer" "environmental"

Then again with 'breast ' removed for overall cancer.
Mighty interesting reading.

lohphat: I submitted this with a better headline.

"Komen loses another boob"

/yeah, I went there

Oooh. I like that.

/only has one for now until reconstruction. They're going to take fat and skin off of my belly and use it to make a 'frankenboob'. No really, GIS "reconstructed breasts". They look like frankenboobs. Especially with a fake nipple forced by wound string and later tatooed in attempt to color match the existing original.

The My Little Pony Killer: Hopefully their new president will focus more on the breast cancer research and less on the politics.

/still no hope for getting rid of all the pink ribbon crap

I'm sure a fundie is already lined up...

Nancy Brinker freaked me out from the start. The beehive hair is only part of it...

Nancy Brinker, who has long been the public face of the charity, will relinquish her chief executive's role for a position focused on fundraising and strategic planning

And how is that the least bit different from the far-right political scumbaggery you've always dedicated your "charity" to, you douche?

EnviroDude: Because killing babies in the womb is a way to prevent them from ever getting breast cancer....

Breast cancer screening is a much, much larger chunk of what PP does than abortions. Most of their locations don't even provide abortion services, they stick with referrals unless there aren't any other local alternatives.

//Primarily because they don't want to annoy local doctor's that'd otherwise be getting the business, not due to any kind of moral squeamishness, obviously.

ladyfortuna: Genevieve Marie: Yea, the problem here is that in the wake of this disaster of a decision, all kinds of other nasty little facts about Komen came to light, and anyone that actually cares about women's healthcare found out about all kinds of fun things- stuff like their continual refusal to fund or acknowledge research that explores environmental causes that could cause or contribute to breast cancer. They're so focused on their partnerships with major corporations that they actively work to kill off any research that could reflect badly on the products distributed by said corporate overlords.

I would be especially interested in the environmental causes research, if you have links. BOTH my parents had BC; mom died when it came back five years later, dad has 7 years survived but keeps getting sick from other stuff... and I can't help but wonder if the lovely old Kodak incinerator north of our town might have had anything to do with it. It was miles and miles away, but if you ever watch the way lake effect snow moves over Rochester, you have to wonder about stuff getting into the atmosphere from that.

Sigh. I could help you on that, but I just spent the last 5 hours doing other Great Lakes research and I'm spent tonight.

EIP; I can probably follow up this weekend if you'd like.

Until then, here's an awesome song about Lake Effect Snow. Seriously, they're awesome. Enjoy.

/sorry it's a Myspace link though

Genevieve Marie: Yea, the problem here is that in the wake of this disaster of a decision, all kinds of other nasty little facts about Komen came to light, and anyone that actually cares about women's healthcare found out about all kinds of fun things- stuff like their continual refusal to fund or acknowledge research that explores environmental causes that could cause or contribute to breast cancer. They're so focused on their partnerships with major corporations that they actively work to kill off any research that could reflect badly on the products distributed by said corporate overlords.

I would be especially interested in the environmental causes research, if you have links. BOTH my parents had BC; mom died when it came back five years later, dad has 7 years survived but keeps getting sick from other stuff... and I can't help but wonder if the lovely old Kodak incinerator north of our town might have had anything to do with it. It was miles and miles away, but if you ever watch the way lake effect snow moves over Rochester, you have to wonder about stuff getting into the atmosphere from that.

geekybroad: The cashiers at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart, Safeway, etc. just looooooove me.

All you have to do is say "no thanks".

Really, that's it, 99% of the time. That last 1%, just ignore them.

A [retracted national chain drugstore] around here had a 'buy two candy bars, keep one, we'll send one to the troops" thing going on for awhile. I just smiled and said "no thanks" instead of adding something like, oh, ]

"you don't know how much f--king time and money I spent trying to help my ex who was left out on his own dealing with PTSD after serving in Iraq, after joining post 9/11 when he thought he'd actually be fighting against those who caused 9/11 and get money for college, neither one of which happened, and I still do donate to groups that give small comforts to troops overseas but I haven't vetted your program that's mainly set up to give good PR to your company I'm sure so I'll pass".

Just smile and say no thanks. That's all.

lohphat: Which color is reserved for colon cancer?

I know you're trying to make a funny with that tired joke, but in reality it's blue.

Elandriel: The My Little Pony Killer: Hopefully their new president will focus more on the breast cancer research and less on the politics.

/still no hope for getting rid of all the pink ribbon crap

I'm sure the #1 goal will still be to sue anyone using pink to promote their advocacy. Or advocate their promotion. Whatever.

Agreed. When one charity starts suing other charities over bullshiat like variations on their motto then I think their priorities have gone awry.

NFL pink month is ACS, not Komen

The My Little Pony Killer: Hopefully their new president will focus more on the breast cancer research and less on the politics.

/still no hope for getting rid of all the pink ribbon crap

You know, if PP had been found guilty of something illegal, that'd be one thing. But yeah, agreed. That was a dumb move that they likely thought would make a supposedly increasingly far-right country happy, and it backfired.

FTA: Komen restored the funding after a three-day firestorm, but it didn't quell the criticism. At least five other high-ranking executives also have resigned, and organizers of many Race for the Cure events saw their participation numbers drop.

All of the above but especially the last just gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Confabulat: I'd be hard-pressed to think of a more disasterous PR mistake any company has made since what, New Coke?

Chrysler taking a private plane to the bailout conference was pretty bad. Considering they subsequently went Chapter 7...

Apparently, Komen has been directed by the most powerful organization in the USA to fix their management problems.