So says Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, an anti-abortion group.
Apparently, the $34 million of support that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided Planned Parenthood is analogous to Nazism:
"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."
Now, I'm quite tired and a little cranky, so I'm not going to spend too long writing about this, but having seen nothing about this story in the diary list, I had to write something.
There are lots of reasons why Euteneuer is wrong. We live in a time when 29.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with AIDS/HIV where women and children are most at risk, when 1192 people die of AIDS or related illnesses in Asia every day, when the prevalence of AIDS in many developing countries exacerbates pre-existing severe problems, and when even people in developed societies stigmatize AIDS victims.
And that's just AIDS.
Planned Parenthood offers safe sex education and resources and services that demonstrably help reduce HIV transmission. (And while I'm on the topic, I could discuss the sheer idiocy of relying on "abstinence only" programs, but have neither the time nor the inclination at the moment.) In short, they save lives.
Further, I'm disgusted by the comparison of Gates and Buffett to Mengele, and in general by Rethugs comparing people with whom they disagree to Nazis. We've seen it recently when the empty talking heads called Al Gore a Nazi for making a film exposing the truth about Rethug policy, their corporate polluter owners sponsors, and global warming. We saw it during the 2004 campaign, when BushCo depicted Kerry as a Nazi and the Coors campaign (CO-Senate) called Kerry "worse than a KKK murderer". We've heard it from the likes of Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin. This is disgusting behavior. It's offensive to me, and not just because most of my family was murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Check the profile of Mengele at Wikipedia. Then tell me if what Gates and Buffett are doing is in any way comparable. (Hint: if you think there's a valid comparison to be made here, there are several hate groups where you'd probably feel more comfortable.)
In fairness, we've heard Nazi comparisons from Democrats too, but those have always been in situations where George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and their merry band of fascists certain individuals have asserted totalitarian authority and reckless disregard (or even disdain) for human life. I'm still not particularly comfortable with those comparisons, but at least they're, well, comparable in some way.
In these trying times, we need more people as generous as Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett, and more organizations like Planned Parenthood. These people have dedicated their lives and their fortunes to help save and improve lives. They don't deserve to be compared to Nazis.
(End rant.)
Update: If anyone can recall specific examples of when Rethugs have made such inappropriate Nazi comparisons, please post them. I wouldn't mind having a more comprehensive list in an easy-to-find place.