Unclean, I feel unclean

[moragmacpherson]

(Warning: many things in this post make me despise large sectors of humanity. But I have good intentions.)

Okay, so if you don't check fandom_wank regularly, apparently SPN-fandom has reacted to the news of the potential-mini-Padalecki in spectacular and horrific form.

Yeah. I've already spewed my RAEG at Squid. But, well, even the vaguest connections that I might have to some of those nonnies at spn_gossip make me feel all filthy-by-proxy (and not in a good, porny way either), because for whatever reason I believe in the concept of karma if not the actual existence of it. Thus, my immediate reaction is to note that Mr. & Mrs. Padalecki have requested that in lieu of presents for their sprog, they'd much rather have folks donate to St. Jude's Children's Hospital, a fine and noble cause, and whip out my credit card... oh wait:

I don't have a lot of cash on hand (I'm donating what remains of my "buying a dress and having a good time in NYC/Washington" fund - about $35), and when it comes to things like this, I like to make sure the charity gets every bloody cent. Which brings me to my next point, because I am also a bleeding-heart-anti-corporate-liberal crusader: did you know that most credit cards don't waive their merchant processing fees (usually approx. 3%) for charitable donations? I didn't until the Haiti Earthquake, when a bunch of them got called on it and they temporarily reduced but didn't eliminate the charges for donations headed to Haiti.

(Sorry, I have to go smoke a cigarette while hating humanity for a second after remembering this fact. My misanthropic tendencies are having a field day today.)

Anyway, I'll be sending my donation to St. Jude's via check, but there is (potentially) another option. And here's another thing I never thought I'd do: endorse Capital One. Despite being one of my least favorite and predatory usurers, they redeem themselves through a program called "No Hassle Giving" wherein you can look up a charity on their website and donate using (only) a Capital One credit card and 100% of the donation actually goes to the charity. For the lazy, here's the link to the form to donate to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

If you have a Capital One card, I highly recommend going this route, if only to encourage its continued existence and maybe help shame the other companies into following suit. If anyone else knows of a permanent site that performs the same function for any other credit card company, please feel free to share. For everyone else, here's the form for donating to St. Jude's by check.

Also, I'd love it if I could get a signal boost on this information, but I refuse to go anywhere near spn_gossip right now, I'm not sure that it's appropriate for spnanonhaven or any of the other fandom comms I'm a part of, and I don't have twitter or tumblr - if someone has the balls to tweet it to Jared I'll actually dig around and find ten more bucks to throw on the check in your name (and hell, I'll throw in a charity fic prompt as well, because hey, that's how fandom rolls - at least a drabble, any fandom except for RPF/J2 for obvious reasons, to the first person who sends the tweet). Feel free to copy/paste any of the above information and spread it however you can - I don't care if my name's attached to it, I just can't stand pretty much any of the facts that I've just listed above and I'm gonna stop now before my RAEG gets completely out of hand. But if you have any questions, go ahead and ask.

Comments

[jjhunter]

I do not need to have faith in humanity: I have faith in you.

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I have no idea if the Cap One program works with this site or how to add a comment to that comm that doesn't involve putting my real life name out there (it seems there's a facebook group attached). I'm trying to figure out a way to get the information to this person, will let you know if I have any luck.

[dhark-charlotte.livejournal.com]

I attempted to read teh crazy, but my supper threatened a reappearance so I stopped.

I just hope Pada!Baby NEVER reads about all of the hate. Children are precious and a gift. Thanks for the info!

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

You made the right choice - I'm still trying to come down from the RAEG that overcame me when I read that (although the f_w commenters are rather funny) as well as when I remembered the credit card charity skimming thing (and looked into it and found that no, most of them still haven't changed their policies). I think I'm focusing on the credit card thing because at least I can help/inform people with that - teaching their child how to cope with the internet will be the Padalecki's job and I don't envy them it one bit.

[idc-chan.livejournal.com]

....

Do you remember awhile back, a couple years back maybe, there was a nonnie who was flabbergasted that all this tinhat stuff existed? Yeah that was me. I still don't get it. These situations make me worry about the disconnect some people have from reality.

However the hospital donation stuff is cool and that's good information to have about the credit cards. Thanks for that. :)

[moragmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you. I understand RPF -- emphasis on the F is for FICTION -- it's easy to use the looks and public personas of well-known people as handy references for the paper-dolls that become characters in the FICTION people write. It's the confusion of the paper-dolls with the people who really wear those faces that worries me.

And I'm always happy to keep money out of the hands of credit card companies. Spread the good word!