Nonprofits an obstacle to smaller government: aka those nonprofits are dragging us all down

Here is an "interesting" opinion piece from the Watertown Daily Times, which offers clearly a very qualified and well researched opinion about the nonprofit sector and the community in Northern NY (sense the sarcasm). This individual points to the nonprofit sector as the source of so many problems and offers his own "facts" for his case. Ironically, not one of the comments left after the article agree with his opinion. For anyone working in the nonprofit sector that reads any news online about nonprofits, there are always people making negative comments about the nonprofit sector. I guess people recognized these comments were a bit far fetched. Which brings us to the most important issue here: media due diligence. Really, we have to wonder about the media and highlighting comments like these for the general public? Clearly the Watertown Daily Times is working hard to bring the best opinions to their readers, and for this wonderful editorial, we thank you and Mr. Bonner:

A recent article in the Times stated that nonprofit organizations in the north country employ 12,000 people and spend $800 million yearly. As a fiscal conservative I was literally overwhelmed by this figure. When you realize that most of this money is taxpayer cash funded by various grants and contracts with local governments, it is easy to understand why our country is going bankrupt.

Over 90 percent of the people served by these nonprofits are also receiving benefits from the federal, state or local taxpayers. Seventy-five percent of Jefferson County’s budget is used to support the dependent classes, otherwise known as welfare recipients. Thousands of people are moving to the north country to take advantage of all these giveaways and services. Virtually all the crime in our area is committed by these very same people.

This is not the first time I have written about this problem, but now our country is rapidly heading for bankruptcy, and our political class is terrified about reducing the budget. How can any fiscally conservative politician win when 12,000 folks and their families plus tens of thousands of economic parasites all vote to steal other people’s money?

In the coming election, the most important since 1860, President Obama could well win a second term with the votes of the parasitic class. The Democratic Party has not put forth one single plan to reduce spending in any meaningful way. All they want is class warfare and more taxes on anyone they consider rich.

There are no easy solutions. All must sacrifice, all must give something to save our country from economic ruin. A very good place to start would be to get rid of all these worthless nonprofits that really do nothing but provide jobs, salaries, health benefits and pensions to left-wing liberal Democrats who couldn’t survive one day in the private sector. The year 2012 will be a very interesting one. As a nation we will either save ourselves or plant the seeds to another civil war.

Bart S. Bonner
Watertown

Nonprofit to launch porn site in name of animal rights

The headline says it all for this story, and makes the case for being featured here. Now to many (who fall into different camps regarding this recent action), this is not funny or silly, but you have to wonder what PETA is thinking? Like nonprofits across the US, they have an important cause that drives their efforts. This cause attracts passionate supporters and resources that enable their organization to carry out its mission. And like all nonprofits, PETA faces challenges getting their voices heard and cause acknowledged. But, following PETA's reasoning, all nonprofits can now benefit by starting their own porn sites featuring their causes and educational information intermixed with pornographic material (and maybe some recipes too- read the article). Because this is the audience and the type of business that makes sense for a charitable, tax exempt organization to carry out. So, thank you to PETA for your willingness to draw more much needed scrutiny and criticism to the nonprofit sector. Stay tuned for www.thenonprofittruth.xxx (please note, follow this link at your own risk).



As the article relates:
An animal rights group, which is no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website to raise awareness about veganism.

The nonprofit organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women's rights groups, said it hopes to publicize veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering.

"We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns.

PETA has been accused of campaigning for animal rights at the cost of exploiting women. A Facebook group, Real Women Against PETA, was launched after the organization paid for a billboard showing an obese woman with the message: "Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian."

Another critical Facebook group is called, "Vegans (and Vegetarians) Against PETA."

"PETA is extremely disingenuous," said Jennifer Pozner, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Women In Media & News. "They have consistently used active sexism as their marketing strategy to garner attention. Their use of sexism has gotten more extreme and more degrading.

"This may be in their minds the only thing left at their disposal to lower the bar," she said.

PETA has filed paperwork to launch its pornography site when the controversial new .xxx domain becomes active in early December. While many nonprofits and corporations are scrambling to protect their website names from being hijacked by a pornographer slapping on a .xxx domain, PETA is embracing the new domain as just another way to conduct business.

"We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals," Rajt said. "We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message."

Jill Dolan, director of the program in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, was critical of the PETA campaigns.

"Exploiting porn to get people's juices going seems lame; exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist," Dolan said in an email. "Come on, PETA. Don't be Neanderthals."

Rajt denied that PETA has been insensitive to women.

"Our demonstrators, the models, all chose to participate in our campaigns . . . It's not a very feminist thing to do to turn to women and tell them whether or not they can use their voices, their bodies to express their voice."

Visitors to the X-rated site will initially be presented with pornographic content as well as images from PETA's salacious ads and campaigns, Rajt said. Those images will be followed by pictures and video shot undercover of the mistreatment of animals. The site will also include links to vegetarian and vegan — using no animal products — starter kits as well as recipes.

PETA's ad campaigns have featured adult film stars Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson. In 2008, the organization's YouTube account was temporarily shut down after showing racy videos of celebrities and others posing nude.

"When people first visit the site, it will be very enticing and once they go just a little bit deeper, that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet," Rajt said.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/PETA+launch+porn+site+name+animal+rights/5424516/story.html#ixzz1YVNCq8aG