I got to go to Jordan on business a couple years ago, and it was probably my favorite trip anywhere, ever. Petra is astonishing and absolutely worth a visit. Gerash and the Dead Sea were just as captivating, and the Jordanian people were lovely.

Your video, PETRA:People for the Ethical Treatment of Robotic Animals, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

besides, being put through years of psychiatric and medical and legal inquiry before a procedure like this can be done is by no means a magic failsafe that this could never happen to the wrong person who didn't really "need it"

people can be bought. Just take a look at regular cosmetic surgery. You think for one second those people care about the ethics of what they're doing? Nope, it's just a price tag that needs to be met and they'll do whatever cutting on a whim if someone pays the right price. All most of these people see is a market to be exploited and weak-minded people to prey upon their insecurities

Petras couldn't even articulate in a mature way how people react to her when they find out that she used to be a boy. But yet we just accept it at face value that she's mature enough to make a lifelong decision like this?

@MilkmanDan

Please watch the video and interview. There is no way a kid can get anywhere near hormonal treatment, let alone grs, before going through a battery of psychiatrists and doctors over a period of many, many years. Do you think a "dumbass" with mixed ideas about their identity could possibly slip through?

As for calling this "genital mutilation", @CaptainPlanet, I am frankly disgusted at your flippant use of the term. You know what would've been genital mutilation? When a young Tim Petras tried to cut off her penis out of frustration of being in the wrong body. As a strong opponent of genital mutilation (including male circumcision performed on minors), I am doubly insulted, as would surely be Kim. Calling grs "genital mutilation" is akin to calling this "facial mutilation": technically true, connotatively false.

@bmacs27

Talking about consent makes it seem the parents were the ones who pushed this on her, instead of vice-versa. I doubt that's what you meant, but I just thought I'd clarify. Like I mentioned above, gender identity isn't solely a question of sexuality, and it is defined long before puberty. Moreover, the hormonal treatment - which is reversible at any time - spanned at least four psychiatrist-followed years. I'm pretty sure if there had been the slightest inkling of a doubt during that period the shrinks would have picked up on it and vetoed the surgical procedure. Also, please notice that her grs was not "pre-pubescent": seriously, how many kids hit puberty at 16? Moreover, while the hormone treatment is reversible, male puberty is not (cf my above comments).

As for data, there surely is (too lazy to look now), showing that those who come to the idea of grs because of confused sexual identity or problems linked to abuse are kindly redirected during the long psychiatric process. I happen to know a psychiatrist who specialises in transsexualism (in CH you are required by law to see one minimum 1 year before being considered for hormonal treatment, 2 years for grs, in addition to being over 18), and she told me that cases of perceived transsexualism due to childhood abuse and/or confused sexual identity (notably repressed homosexuality) are not rare. There are instances of hormone use, namely in Brazil, for simply lucrative purposes ("dick-girl" prostitution), which I am obviously against if pressured upon the person (sadly the case sometimes).

'Verily I say unto you, the popstar shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For teenage pop is an abomination unto the Lord, yay, as is the wearing of mixed fabrics.'

And they brought before Jesus a man named Biebarus, who was a Gentile, and a seducer of virgins. And many a young woman followed after, and there was weeping and throbbing of hearts.

'Behold, this man keepeth his hair as maidens do, and singeth in womanly tones. Pray cast out the demons that possess him, lest he become as the sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah.'

But Jesus, tiring of the multitudes, withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place, to enjoy the fellowship of his disciples.

Matthew 19:23-27



>> ^DerHasisttot:

>> ^GenjiKilpatrick:
boy. you're goin' to hell cause Jesus thinks that shit is gross.

I agree. Teenage-popmusic sucks.

I'll admit I have seen DC Talk, the band who does the original version of this song, in concert a time or two. They are probably the Christian band I've seen the most after Carman (who I've seen more times than I care to admit). My first concert ever was Petra at Red Rocks... yeah, my first and last Red Rocks concert wasted on Petra, but I enjoyed it at the time so...
I don't know as if it is Public Access or not. I've seen lots of TBN in my days, and the locally produced TBN shows were on par with this... Heck some of the National aired TBN content was on par with this.

A lot of the idiot abroad series is tame compared to the podcasts and radio shows. Karl isn't putting anything on (except for the 5% hamming it up bit), but gervais is laughing extra hard because - well, he has to, he made a comedy tv show about it.

The china one was alright, the taj mahal one was hilarious, but the latest one at petra was really tame. But that's from the perspective of someone who knows him. Anyone who knows him will watch them all and find something to laugh at, people who don't mind not even see it as funny.

For example in the petra one, he was telling a story about getting blackmailed into going to church and getting kicked out for bouncing a ball in the aisle. On the podcasts, not only is it told funnier, but gervais/merchant are riffing off it and he goes off on tangents about the people in the story, whose stories are even more outlandish and weird than the first.

Some snippets of the stories he's told about where he lived:
His school used to make them correct travel magazine print errors for a little earner, making them think it was a class exercise
His neighbor had a horse that lived in their house (in the middle of a city)
His friend lives in a hole underground which he dug in a field because he 'wanted to live like in the army'
Woman who spoke to everyone through a mirror
Woman with a strange looking head
2 kids at his school who had very big heads and webbed hands
His uncle used to use a rubber dinghy as a bed
the list goes on........>> ^dag:

quality explanation. I don't always enjoy Karl as much as Ricky seems to. It does seem to be a bit put on at times.

Although poverty seems to be a thread here, a lot of the evidence also leads to youth just being arogant and disrespectful of the people and country that have taken them in a immagrants. Here is some of what I found:

What Muslim Immigration Has Done to Sweden
March 23, 2009 by BNP News
http://bnp.org.uk/2009/03/what-muslim-immigration-has-done-to-sweden/

Sweden: Why Are They Rioting?
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2009/09/sweden-why-are-they-rioting.html

VIOLENT MUSLIM RIOTS IN SWEDEN
Monday, December 22, 2008
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/12/violent-muslim.html

Muslim youth riots in Sweden
Sunday, November 6
http://www.healinguniverse.com/2005/11/muslim-youth-riots-in-sweden.htm


Quotes of Muslim youth from an interview by Petra Åkesson for her thesis in sociology:
http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/muslim-rape-epidemic-puts-sweden-at-top-of-euro-rape-statistics-peace-in-europe-surrender/

“Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet.” The boys explain, laughingly, that “there is a thrilling sensation in your body when you’re robbing; you feel satisfied and happy; it feels as if you’ve succeeded; it simply feels good.”

“It’s so easy to rob Swedes, so easy. We rob every single day, as often as we want to, whenever we want to.” The immigrant youth regard the Swedes as stupid and cowardly: “The Swedes don’t do anything; they just give us the stuff. They’re so wimpy.”

The young robbers do not plan their crimes: “No, we just see some Swedes that look rich or have nice mobile phones and then we rob them.”


Please feel free to post any further arguments to what I found, I looked for some reports that sided with the youth but couldn’t find any. I realy would like some more personal “first hand,” oppinions on these envents.

What bothered me the most was the geography...

I live in Israel. Geographically, we're between Egypt (where the pyramids are) and Aqaba (the most south-west city in Jordan). They also travel to Petra after reaching Jordan, which is about 100 miles north of Aqaba in a straight line (and there are no straight roads in that region).

- There is no way to see Jordan from the pyramids.
- There is no border crossing between Egypt and Jordan (Israel is in the way).
- The pyramids are in Egypt. Why would Jordanian helicopters be the ones coming to assist?
- There's no way to get from the pyramids to Petra by ground vehicle in under 10 hours (even if you ignore having to cross two international borders). They do it twice in the movie.
- Petra isn't exactly one tiny spot with only one cave.

So whoever wrote the script for the final 50% of the movie didn't even have Google maps at his disposal.
Either that or mixing facts into the script is a big no-no in Michael Bay movies.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Marisa Miller, Melissa Keller, Petra Nemcova, Jessica White' to 'Marisa Miller, Melissa Keller, Petra Nemcova, Jessica White, painted, boobies' - edited by JAPR

>> ^HollywoodBob:
This must have been produced prior to the influx of Christian rock bands, that have become so popular with the young people.


Actually, given the bands they're citing, this was right in the heyday of Christian Rock. This was back when Petra was still rock (instead of pop), Stryper was going strong, and parents insisted on taking their kids to seminar after seminar about how even Christian Rock was the devil's music.

As long as I'm a member your 'cheesefest' will last and last. Now I'm going to youtube to shop for a Petra video.

"it takes a GOP slant before anyone notices. CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC have been doing the same in the opposite direction for years.

And the liberal media myth claims another victim.
Sad."


Sure. Newsweek, CBS, etc... are all very even-handed, not liberal in the least.

And I'm dating Petra Nemcova.