War crimes and rogue behavior are nothing new, they happen in every war. Of course, acting like a barbarian outside of the rules of war is what terrorists aka "insurgents" do. How odd that these Blackwater guys are judged Guilty-In-Advance by the same libmedia hard at work trying to give subhumans caught on battlefields attacking US troops "rights" and legal protections reserved for real soldiers.

Taking a few mercenaries to task is not enough! It's important that all of Christianity be blamed because the accused may or may not consider themselves Christian "holy warriors". The accused could just as easily have believed the enemy were disguised Martians, but there's a huge diff between "Christian crazy" (pure evil!) "Muslim crazy" (not evil, just culturally 'different') and crazy but useful (Olbyloon).

The icing on the cake for the Olbyloon is yet another chance to blame Bush for something, as if Bush or Rumsfeld personally ordered Blackwater to commit war crimes.

Is there a story here? Sure. Is it that the entire Iraqi war was a cover to distract the world from the actions of a few mercenaries who were somehow going to kill all Muslims by themselves?

Anything to take people's minds off the Obama Recession.

It can or can't be racist depending on context... But lots of shit is considered racist in North America or other Western countries with lots of immigrants where everyone is suppoooosed to be made to feel undifferentiated for any racial/ethnic/cultural difference they may present. However, Rubadub is right. In China, Japan, Korea etc. the people will refer to themselves as "yellow people" when discussing skin color.

>> ^mizila:
ps: Does anybody know if Shin Chan is mocking anime, a word-for-word dubbed comedy, or a cartoon dubbed to be funny?
Yes, sometimes it's mocking anime... in a friendly way. It's definitely not "word-for-word." Word-for-word Japanese to English translation is pretty hard to do in the first place, and a lot of the jokes wouldn't make sense with the culture difference. But as long as it makes sense to the west, as much of the plot and as many of the jokes as they can stay basically the same and the rest is pretty much improvised.
I mean... that's what my friend tells me...


Shin Chan in Japanese relies on a lot of 'play on word' and cultural humor. The type of things you can't translate. The story lines in English are heavily adapted but I believe it's still more or less in the same spirit of the original.

ps: Does anybody know if Shin Chan is mocking anime, a word-for-word dubbed comedy, or a cartoon dubbed to be funny?

Yes, sometimes it's mocking anime... in a friendly way. It's definitely not "word-for-word." Word-for-word Japanese to English translation is pretty hard to do in the first place, and a lot of the jokes wouldn't make sense with the culture difference. But as long as it makes sense to the west, as much of the plot and as many of the jokes as they can stay basically the same and the rest is pretty much improvised.

I mean... that's what my friend tells me...

"Cultural differences." What a ridiculous phrase that can be. No culture gets to receive carte blanche - same goes for religion, political view, etc etc... If it's truly culture that spawns such barbarism, then we have to call it as it is. It's not cultural differences.

That being said - is this an aspect of their culture, or a case of horrendous individuals? Before I go off on a rant or form opinions, it's important to do the research, especially with a topic so dire and consequential.

>> ^Oblyvious:
yeah but its a cultural difference. its tragic that the parents are disowning her. but in the middle east, dont rape victims get stoned to death? i rather get disowned then get stoned.
all four boys should be punished. i think that the parents should be able to chose how they raise their child. i mean if i had a daughter and she was raped i would be upset that she got raped.
i would like to know why the girl went into the shed to begin with. couldnt they just give her the gum outside of the shed? why were the boys planning this attack? what did she do to the boys or what was her part in provoking the situation?
we all need more details before we can fully judge


Blaming the victim for "causing the rape" is never ok. Forcible sexual assault is never ok, no matter "what she was wearing".

I don't care how it happened, it shouldn't have happened. Cultural differences or no, they're human beings and no human being should be treated the way this girl has been-- either by the boys or her parents.

I know, I shouldn't feed the trolls. But this troll has obviously never had a vagina and doesn't know what rape is, obviously.

>> ^Oblyvious:
yeah but its a cultural difference.
i think that the parents should be able to chose how they raise their child.
i would like to know why the girl went into the shed to begin with. couldnt they just give her the gum outside of the shed? why were the boys planning this attack? what did she do to the boys or what was her part in provoking the situation?
we all need more details before we can fully judge


You simply must be baiting us. No ethical, sensible person would say what you just said.

>> ^Oblyvious:
yeah but its a cultural difference. its tragic that the parents are disowning her. but in the middle east, dont rape victims get stoned to death? i rather get disowned then get stoned.
all four boys should be punished. i think that the parents should be able to chose how they raise their child. i mean if i had a daughter and she was raped i would be upset that she got raped.
i would like to know why the girl went into the shed to begin with. couldnt they just give her the gum outside of the shed? why were the boys planning this attack? what did she do to the boys or what was her part in provoking the situation?
we all need more details before we can fully judge


O.o Are you serious?! All the facts?! You are actually considering that there is any merit in considering whether the girl (8, EIGHT years old) provoked the act?!! There is no excuse whatsoever for the actions of these 4 boys, the oldest being 14 (yeah, fourteen). The girl was lured in because as a child, she probably didn't imagine that these other children would mean to hurt her, especially in this horrific way. The younger boys were probably pressured into it by the older boys, but that's no excuse either. The teenagers knew what they was doing, knew it was wrong, and did it anyway. I thought all this went without saying, but apparently not!

The parents of the girl disowned her because in their culture, as in some middle eastern Muslim cultures, men cannot be held responsible for giving into to lustful desires for women who "MUST have been asking for it" (hence the mere existence of the burka). Toleration of this is just unacceptable, but of course, you can't force the parents to care. Hopefully the girl will be placed with a family that is not so heartless and loveless.

Rightly, the older boy is being charged as an adult in a sexual assault. The younger boys will likely be placed in a juvenile sex-offender institution for counseling, containment, and evaluation (probably for a year or two). Some boys recover in these places. Some repeat the offense later in life despite it.

yeah but its a cultural difference. its tragic that the parents are disowning her. but in the middle east, dont rape victims get stoned to death? i rather get disowned then get stoned.

all four boys should be punished. i think that the parents should be able to chose how they raise their child. i mean if i had a daughter and she was raped i would be upset that she got raped.

i would like to know why the girl went into the shed to begin with. couldnt they just give her the gum outside of the shed? why were the boys planning this attack? what did she do to the boys or what was her part in provoking the situation?

we all need more details before we can fully judge

>> ^MaxWilder:
... Imagine this is your girlfriend, sister, or daughter. If you still think what he did was acceptable, there is no hope left for you.


This kind of thinking shouldn't change how partial you are to this guy hitting her. This kind of thinking only perpetuates things like lynch mobs and over punishing someone. Also it feeds a stereotype that women may do no wrong, only because they are women.

I feel they both stepped over the boundaries of whats socially acceptable and it ended in 2 idiots looking stupid, for 2 different reasons. There is no right and wrong here, only two wrongs.

Furthermore those who have no tolerance or understanding for cultural differences, and the unavoidable accidents that happen because of them, are the hopeless ones among us, not the people who place logic over emotion in their thinking process.

We social scientists have to talk about cultural differences every day. We face it directly. When I talk about my areas, linguistics and education, I openly categorize people, and nobody listening perceives it as racist because it isn't: Mexcans are more focused on production; Koreans are more focused on learning accuracy; Turks are more focused on giving the correct answer in class. It's only people who aren't listening who automatically jump on the "racist" button as soon as anybody makes any comparison between cultures. This vid has nothing to do with racism.

The topic of this vid is how cultural differences affect performance in different jobs. That's an awesome topic.

>> ^jerryku:
Interesting stuff but I gotta wonder what this guy really thinks about black and Latino crime in the States, and if he's holding back on the topic for fear of having his career destroyed.


You bet.

Racial, ethnic and cultural differences are the ultimate black sheep for social scientists and genetic researchers.

They have a lingering paranoia that it's unethical to even consider differences and instead tippy toe around any findings they produce. I think it was Gladwell or perhaps another popular statistician that stumbled upon data so shocking concerning races in America that he intentionally refused to publish the results or even discuss them on camera.

I disagree with Gladwell in that cultures are malleable. Cultures can transform themselves, but to expect a culture to change is ridiculous.

Will a jetliner pilot learn to speak English if he wants to keep his job? Of course.

Is it ethical or even worth consideration to "improve" a culture through injection of xenoethnic aptitudes? Absolutely not.

Cultures will evolve as they see fit. Social engineering is no-one's business, which is why multiculturalism is a failed policy.

Are you kidding? She's 10 kinds of awesome in my book. Perhaps our cultural differences range even beyond placing superstars with average bimbos on a tv show.

>> ^Pprt:
Here's her quote:
“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”—Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in her Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law in 2001


Taken out of context, no surprise, coming from you.

Here's a little better snapshot of her sentiments:

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

New York Times

It's sad to see these examples from USA. Back here in Europe these things are SO rare that it is frontpage news if it happens. Could it be the more reasonable gun laws? Or is it just a culture difference? Don't know but i have to say that i've been dealing with police a lot in the past and none of them have showed me any signs of force, even when in some cases i would've probably been tasered in US. No, i haven't shown any resistance of arrest just the common arrogance of youth. Every cop i've been dealing with have used common sense and things don't get heated up. This video doesn't show everything but the comment about "you should drop to your knees when someone shouts", hmm let's see: He was not actively running anymore, it doesn't look like he was running like hell anyway and maybe he was getting ready to kneel. I mean, would you DROP to your knees in a concrete? Probably not.. It hurts..

These videos are coming a bit too often. There's certainly something seriously wrong in the US of A. It seems like everybody's mad there. I'm just happy i don't have to live there and while it is a magnificent country, the way thingsa are now, i don't even dare to visit there. Too bad, like i said, it is a magnificent, beautiful country. Canada in the other hand is a whole different place.. What's the difference? You tell me...