Liberals... what are they good for?

One of the things that pisses me off about liberals is how they like to lord it over the great unwashed about how wonderful they are. Well, they ain't. You want proof? They rarely give of their own money, but even when they set up charities, they usually turn out to be nothing but con games.

According to this post I found on instapundit (http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2008/11/ny-post-reviews.html), you wou.d be wise to avoid getting taken in by charities that have big names attached to them. Among the worst offenders: Yele Hait (Wyclef Jean Foundation), Tyra Banks' TZONE Foundation, Petra Nemcova's Happy Hearts Fund, etc.

What's going on is that either the money is not going to where it's supposed to go, or it's being squandered exhorbitantly, or overhead costs are through the roof. You remember this stuff: About 8 years ago, William Aramony, president of the United Way was caught with his pants down. He gave his mistress a six-figure job as some muckety-muck. Ditto Jesse Jackson with his Rainbow/PUSH coalition. Blah, blah, blah.

One of these funds, Bono's DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) Foundation spent over $350K on flying a whole bunch of The Beautiful People for a "learning and awareness-raising trip to Africa in May 2006. (BTW, I think Bono's a class act but he did screw up here.)

Anyway, who to give to? How about IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities), a relief organization associated with the canonical Orthodox jurisdictions in North America. According to one auditing firm, for every $1.00 you give, 91 cents goes to where it should: poverty, charity, disaster relief, etc. Their overhead costs take up the remaining 9 cents. (These figures were from 2 years ago, I haven't seen the latest.)

Basically, what I'm trying to say is give to those charities which you KNOW do good work: Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Salvation Army, Goodwill, Catholic Charities, etc. Or to churches which have disaster relief organizations that are know for their rectitude. (I.e. usually not those that are in the NCC/WCC nexus.)

Or you can do the best thing, which would be to sacrificially give of your time and treasure directly to someone in need.