CqK

Jayman, on 2012-05-16 03:54:25, said:

Here we go again.  There are three races in this world:  Asian, White, and Black.  "Hispanic," "East Asia," and "Eurasia" are not races.  Hispanic (Spanish-speaking) people includes several ethnic groups and include those of both White and Black races.  East Asian, Eurasian, American, Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, etc., etc. are not races and not ethnic groups - these are coyuntries or geographical regions.

"Sadly this seems to be turning into 'one textbook per child'. "

That would be a major improvement. In the rural areas they have one textbook for per five or ten children.

JohnAllan, on 2012-02-16 13:15:56, said:

What a thoroughly biased and one-sided view of the Middle East. Israel has every right to protect her citizens from the actions of those countries or individuals that do not even recognize its right to exist. Is that what you interpret as “trampling over the rights of any that stand in its way”?

I don't recall Israel ever having threatened to use against any country, the nuclear capability you state it possesses.

Yes, there is, as you say, the devil in Iran……the entire world, not just Israel, will be safer as a result of Iran being prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons. Apart from any other consideration, the Iranian regime has a particularly atrocious record on human rights.

The regime in Tehran is, for good reason, hated by the majority of Iranians who voted against it in the fixed election. The international community has very good reason to oppose the nuclear arming of an obviously unstable and terrorising regime that has even denied the Holocaust ever took place.

You conveniently fail to mention the continual rocket attacks, emanating from Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians in Israel. When Israel rightly retaliates, every possible effort is made to avoid civilian casualties, despite Hamas deliberately placing children in harms way.

No country should reasonably be expected to sit idly by whilst its citizens are being threatened by those whose open intention is to annihilate them. Israel is the only stable democracy in the region and the world is a much better place for that.

So many people (largely male) constantly need something to rage about. In many western countries, it used to be gay people who were the scum of the earth, 'an affront to common decency' was the war cry of the anti-gay mobs of the early 20th century. Then (and before) it was 'colored people' who were 'coming over here, taking our jobs'. More recently it's been Muslims and paedophiles, who of course must be 'the spawn of the devil'. Society constantly needs scapegoats to throw to the baying pack, to assuage their blood lust. To detract from other important issues of the time that political activists would rather not tackle. And, of course, the mob has always been used by vested interests to promote their political/commercial/power agendas. Sexual predation is wrong whatever the age of the 'victim'. And I see plenty of it over here. I wonder how many of the baying hounds come here because many Thai women look more childlike than western women. Because most are less assertive, and because feminism hasn't taken root here to any noticeable degree. I wonder how many kid themselves that they're really ok because their 22 year old girlfriend only LOOKS 14. I wonder how many, who call their small Thai wives/girlfriends 'baby' or 'my little girl' actually search deeply inward, seeking the real reason behind their fantasies. Maybe none. Maybe many. I'd suggest at least some. I guess I was fortunate enough to have had a life where my orientation has been in sync with the agreed majority. But I also realise it could have been very different. What if I had been born with a predisposition to be gay or non-white, to worship Allah, or with tendencies toward paedophilia? How would I have coped with the calls for my blood by the unthinking mob? Perhaps others should ask the same question before condemning that which they cannot understand. The old adage about walking a mile in another's shoes seems to be relevant here. If those who are different, who we see as 'the other', can bring out such anger, such ferocity, the anger must have been there long before the trigger arrived on the scene. When I was a child I was able to walk freely in my neighborhood, without fear, without fraught parents worrying about my safety because they saw a paedophile around every corner. Paedophilia is anti social. And therefore requires thinking people to find solutions to it. It doesn't need a mob. This person should be removed from the streets, for his own protection and for that of the subjects of his desires. But he is still a human being, regardless of the attempts of some to dehumanize those with whom they do not agree, and cannot understand. On reading many of the responses to this post I have to wonder just how many of the respondents have read a book of any substance in the past 5 years.

DIG

newermonkey, on 2012-02-06 19:39:58, said:

Ask the kids how they feel.

housepainter, on 2012-02-06 19:53:11, said:

That is a ridiculous statement....woman can choose what they do themselves and an agreement of mutual benefit between both parties is suitable to both parties for various reasons...