The last hotbutton, by Mark Morford

[madokie]

What do Judy Blume, bleating bishops, and the Supreme Court have in common?


And then came the swell tale of sweet Judy Blume, she of tender, coming-of-age "Are you there, God?" 'tween lit fame, sending out a letter on behalf of Planned Parenthood that dared to suggest that Mother's Day might be a terrific time to make a donation, and wouldn't it be nice to help women in need on this most charming of maternal-themed days, so sayeth the woman who taught you about masturbation and hormones and unbearable teen angst when you were 12 and bepimpled and tingling in the most interesting of places?

Can you guess what happened next? Of course you can.

Yes, the desperate anti-choice groups got a hold of Blume's letter and went appropriately apoplectic, accusing her of besmirching our most beloved of soft-focus Hallmark holidays by endorsing a group that "kills babies" and eats live kittens for breakfast and oh yes also helps women get informed and take charge of their own health and sexuality lest they accidentally get pregnant and give birth to uptight right-wing zealots who never have sex.

Upshot: Blume reportedly received a flood of hate mail, verbal attacks, even death threats. Planned Parenthood, smart enough to know a hunk of invaluable PR when they see it, did the right thing by leveraging news of the harassment and reportedly received a flood of donations in response. Thanks, zealots! ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/05/13/notes051309.DTL&nl=fix)

[geckosfeet]

1. Morford for poet laureate!

[Blue_Tires]

2. lol

"Obama, apparently, accepted. And then Angry Catholic God (ACG) spewed coffee through His nose.

It's true. From what I can glean, upon hearing the news, ACG made a quick collect call to numerous conservative archdiocese around the nation and woke up a very tired army of old, peevish white men who also never have sex but who fantasize more about vaginas than any gaggle of humans on the planet, and told them to rally the faithful and launch a protest against Obama's speech, clearly not realizing that most Catholics love this president and no one really cares what conservative cardinals or bishops have to say. About anything. Ever."

[a la izquierda]

3. Fantastic read...

I almost spewed coffee through my nose a few times...

[Laelth]

4. Beautifully written. k&r n/t

:dem:

-Laelth