Afternoon InquisitionSkepticism

AI: High Fiving Humanity

Today is a good day to be a human being. So I’m high fiving humanity.

Last week the  Susan G Komen Fundation tried to strip funding from Planned Parenthood. The masses were outraged. The decision was reversed. The masses were unappeased. Today, Karen Handel (alleged leader in the defunding crusade) resigned. The masses are pleased, or at least somewhat pleased.

Then later today Califonia’s Prop 8 banning gay marriage was ruled unconstitutional.

Today, if just for today, I’m going to say we’re ahead. Today it’s not okay to deny equal rights to gay people. And today it’s not okay to tell women their bodies and lives can be sacrificed over politics.

Today I want to take some time to celebrate our wins.

Why do you want to high five humanity today? Or, if you can’t be brought to slap all those hands, whose hands deserve to get some skin?

Featured image courtesy the fine art collection of Rebecca Watson

Elyse

Elyse MoFo Anders is the bad ass behind forming the Women Thinking, inc and the superhero who launched the Hug Me! I'm Vaccinated campaign as well as podcaster emeritus, writer, slacktivist extraordinaire, cancer survivor and sometimes runs marathons for charity. You probably think she's awesome so you follow her on twitter.

Related Articles

21 Comments

  1. I second your high fives. Mine will go to Nissan for bringing a a mass-market electric car to America (and the rest of the world).

  2. Not a huge thing, but the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (@whitehouseostp) held a science fair today in the WH, and answered questions on Twitter with Neil DeGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) and Bill Nye (@TheScienceGuy), which was cool. Not like a huge leap forward for humanity or anything, but it felt good to see the government pay at least some lip service to STEM. Also Maker Faire got a shoutout somewhere in there!

  3. Well derserved those, also Rush Limbaugh is shitting himself because the economy is picking up and his former hero Clint Eastwood pointed it out.

    *jowly* It’s a conspiracy by the libruls in this country, every time the conservatives make some headway the libruls gotta call for a time out. Well I say we don’t give it to them, keep pounding them I say. I say we pound them harder then I pounded that Hatian… *jowly*

    Cry me a fucking river Rushbo. Ha Ha

    The sounds of irrelevance, my friends.

  4. *does the running man*

    (For some reason, I always see myself doing the running man when I am celebrating. Idk, it just seems like the ultimate dance to celebrate a victory.)

    *does a little jig*

  5. Hi5 indeed my fellow skeptics and freethinkers.

    With every victory we gain for human rights we get closer to our ultimate goal of destroying the moral fabric of Western Society and bringing the great Satan to earth.

    Mwahahahaha…

    1. Satan? I thought we were doing this for Cthulu. And for the baby eating opportunities, of course. Remember – every time some unvaccinated kid transmits pertussis to a baby who then dies, we lose a potential meal.

  6. Awesome. It’s good to remember that we do win some, and that our society is generally advancing even if it seems to take a couple steps back sometimes.

  7. This is a downer question for such a positive thread, but re the SGK/Planned parenthood thing: I have heard critics of PP make the (I assume bogus) claim that PP wasn’t doing that many cancer screenings due to lack of demand, and was spending the money on their other operations. It would be nice to be able to shoot this down with some numbers. Does anyone know:

    a) How much PP was spending on cancer screening & prevention

    b) How much SGK was/is giving PP for that purpose

    c) If the funds were earmarked and bean-counted accordingly?

    1. I know that you have to get a prescription a lot of the time for mammograms, and PP was an affordable place women could get that, if they did not have insurance, even if that particular PP didn’t provide mammograms or other screenings (not all locations do).

      That’s all I know, and I haven’t seen actual evidence of what you’re afraid of. A few bits of conjecture, but no evidence. I know that recently Planned Parenthood was investigated and given a very short amount of time to collect paperwork to prove that they were utilizing government monies the way they were supposed to (no abortions, of course). Nothing has come of that because PP is very, very detailed with their paperwork. They have to be.

      I’d be VERY surprised if your claim was actually true, and if it were, the Komen Foundation would have jumped on it.

      1. I’d be VERY surprised if your claim was actually true, and if it were, the Komen Foundation would have jumped on it.

        I’m not the one making the claim, I’m looking for the numbers I need to shoot it down next time I hear it. I have one of those numbers: $750,000 provided by SGK for cancer work. So long as PP was spending at least as much on cancer work as they were receiving from all sources specifically earmarked for cancer work, the accusation is bogus.

        1. I know you’re not making the claim; my sentence was just poorly worded. :)

          And I guarantee the accusation is bogus. If it weren’t, as I said, the Komen Foundation would have jumped on it in a heart beat. Instead, they had to create new rules to get rid of PP.

          So, I’m not surprised that those accusations exist … but I’m pretty sure it was the anti-abortion crowd that started the rumor, and it doesn’t have any basis in reality.

    2. They gave around $750,000. Given that the funding was revoked based on special rules created to revoke funding from PP, I’m guessing the money was being spent appropriately. Otherwise they could just revoke the grant based on misuse of funds.

      1. Yeah, PP just can’t mess around with the money they receive. Their services are far too politically charged. They are cleaner than every single politician ever, and certainly cleaner than the shady Komen foundation.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button