Last week we posted about the story the Los Angeles Times did on the Gates Foundation and how a lot of the Foundations investments are contrary to the charitable work they do. We refrained from heaping scorn on the Foundation because by that time they had agreed to review its portfolio "to determine whether its holdings were socially responsible" and what a portfolio, by the way: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has some $65.95 billion in holdings according to the L.A. Times.

The Gates Foundation's portfolio does include holdings at some noxious companies that work directly against the Foundation's charitable initiatives, but after the L.A. Times article came out there was a bit of a splash about that fact and the Foundation made some definitive statements about making a positive change. Hooray, L.A. Times. Hooray, Gates Foundation. Hooray, Planet Earth. Last Wednesday the Seattle Times reported the story of the Foundation's pledge to review their investments. However, that fantasy world was quickly revealed to be a sham. The Idealog blog smelled the Foundation's backtrack way before it was reported in the in an editorial in the L.A. Times over the weekend in which the Gates Foundation CEO basically says, "Screw you, we aren't changing shit. C'mon, little people, do you really think we don't know what we're doing here? $66 billion isn't some boutique fund that can afford to care about anything other than sustaining itself. Sure, we're in it for 'doing good' with our gigantic pile of money - The problem is that there is no greater good than a gigantic pile of money." Or something to that effect.