In the news today

[UChessmaster]

I`m gonna go with he was lying for money.

[Animeniax]

I'd hope that's the reason he's mad, but it sounds like it could be part of having his childhood memories tarnished.

Btw, can a 16 year old consent to sex? If Sesame St is filmed in NY, the age of consent there is 17.

[Uchiha Barles]

My previous answer was a little tongue-in-cheek. Wrongly accusing people of things that pose a threat to their freedom, their reputation, and their ability to continue on in society as they choose is a garbage move. I'll admit though that I think it's par for the course and would not have cared so much if the subject of the accusation hadn't played as much of a role in my young life as he did. If I didn't recognize the name/character, I'd have glanced over the story as background noise thinking "well that's shitty...what's new?"

[Buffalobiian]

My previous answer was a little tongue-in-cheek. Wrongly accusing people of things that pose a threat to their freedom, their reputation, and their ability to continue on in society as they choose is a garbage move.

That line of thinking is part of why I choose to evaluate people the way I do.

Mere accusations are able to tarnish people's reputations. I dislike the fact that it happens, as well as the weakness of human minds allowing them to be led astray by such unproven accusations (dislike of the weakness, not the human - and I'm not necessarily blaming the person for having the weakness).

Even if the fact is unproven, the idea that He could be a paedophile can still influence one's thinking however, so I take an objective approach and reason that It doesn't matter even if he is a paedophile.

By writing off the "possible fact" as being irrelevant, I am more able to ignore the accusations and not judge someone based on mere possibilities or rumours.

[Xelbair]

Sparks of war are once again in Gaza Strip.
it starts with Israel targeting Hamas' military chief(successfully)
then Palestine responds in kind - by launching missiles(killing 3 people - less than 'precise' strike by Israel - they launched hundreds of rockets)
then Israel mobilizes military reserves and gets ready for fight.

Now let me ask this - Why most countries are supporting Israel, despite the fact that this time they fired the first shots and provoked this?(for example US said to give support to Israel)

mind you - I'm not saying that Palestine are good guys in here - I'm saying that this time they aren't the most evil ones. I'm fascinated by military tech, weapons and special forces operations but imho war=hell on earth(and shitload of wasted lives, resources and it's generating more loses than gains).

but take into the account feelings of Palestine's people - Israel was 'recreated' not so long ago

the British were formally awarded the mandate to govern the region in 1922. The non-Jewish Palestinians revolted in 1920, 1929 and 1936. In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
source - wikipedia

I was always very skeptical and always had my doubts when it came to Arabian people(even before 9/11 and terrorist attacks) - but this time land was taken from them and was used to create the country of Israel - and now they are being repressed by Israelites. It would be ironical for it to turn into mass extermination...

[Ryllharu]

I'm stepping on a landmine here...but I'll respond.

It's okay Xel. You're only skeptical because you're Polish. You don't trust Israel because you're a homophobe and sexist.

The researchers also asked whether “Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era.”

Almost half the Germans questioned responded in the affirmative; the country’s 48.9% result was the highest among the Western European countries. The Netherlands provided the lowest percentage, with 17.2% affirming that Jews were trying to exploit the Nazi era. The number for Poland was 72.2%, and Hungary reached 68.1%. France reached 32.3%, England 21.8%, Portugal 52.2% and Italy 40.2%.

Küpper said that Poland and Hungary were also plagued by extraordinary levels of sexism and homophobia.

As the above illustrates, a very carefully crafted PR campaign, decades long.

As for the US, a whole chunk of morons believe that the Rapture only can come true if the Jewish people are in Israel, so it is their duty to defend them.

[Kraco]

Now let me ask this - Why most countries are supporting Israel, despite the fact that this time they fired the first shots and provoked this?(for example US said to give support to Israel)

What are most countries? If you ask Arab countries, I'm sure they would be more likely to support Palestinians, at least on a spiritual level if not on a realpolitik level (since nobody hates an Arab as much as another Arab, even if they all hate Israelis as well). Even the politicians of great many Western countries voice support for Palestinians. The countries themselves might obey the laws of realpolitik enough to continue relations and trade with Israel, though, because let's face it: There's absolutely no profit in officially supporting Palestine against Israel. Israel knows this as well, which is why they are acting so cool all the time, caring little what individual politicians utter here and there, and they continue to do whatever they want.

[Xelbair]

Ryll - i said I'm skeptical towards Arabian people, not Jews. I don't think that Jews are taking advantage of having been victims(and even if some do - its their damn right after what happened to them). Reading comprehension 101.
But in there we have a case of a real army vs kindergarten.

and about the countries i was speaking about western world - and from what I've read the only support for Palestine came from Egypt this time. and UK said that they will retract their support if it turns into a war(tl;dr supports Israel, wants peace).
Heck - polish army mobilized 50k ppl just in case(to support the Israel).

P.S.
Poland is homophobic as fuck. Extraordinary isn't big enough word to describe it.

[Ryllharu]

Ryll - i said I'm skeptical towards Arabian people, not Jews. I don't think that Jews are taking advantage of having been victims(and even if some do - its their damn right after what happened to them). Reading comprehension 101.

But in there we have a case of a real army vs kindergarten.

a) Develop a sense of humor. It doesn't matter whom you, individually, distrust. That article is absurd, but a very good example. Each time the study found a group who doesn't blindly follow Israeli interests, they toss in some random fact that makes the people of that demographic worth loathing or that they are simply misguided.

b) The point is there is a decades-long, multifaceted relations campaign to ensure that the Israelis are always "the good guys," even when they raid aid ships or clearly violate the Geneva conventions by use of white phosphorous weaponry. Or the countless other examples you can find if you look for it.

c) No, it's called asymmetric warfare. One side has RPGs and what barely qualifies as rockets, while the other has CIWS missile defense systems, F-16s and tanks. A practice that the US was criticized for quite a bit during the war in Iraq and the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan. Hamas fires three of their shitty rockets, two damage buildings only, the other kills 2 people, injures 3. In retaliation, the IDF drops a JDAM on a house or office building, cratering an area, killing 11, injuring 20. See the problem?

The Israelis put Palestinians into what are quite blatantly ghettos, refuses to let them leave or travel (without immense hassles), slowly bulldoze those regions for "settlements," and keeps Gaza in particular near poverty levels. Israel runs projections on exactly how many calories of food Gazans need to sit just above malnutrition levels. They control exactly what goes in and out. Food, building materials, etc. That's why Gazans had smuggling tunnels from the strip into Egypt. Thankfully, another Israeli human rights group outed the study's existence. The government claims that they didn't implement those levels of food controls.

I cannot side with a group who does those kinds of things.

[Xelbair]

My bad then - didn't expect sarcasm from that 1st part. with B) i agree completely - i've got article in one history magazine that Israel obliterated US military ship and everything was ok... I'll look for that article later.

It seems you haven't got my point - i am NOT siding with Israel in this war - i find them to be aggressors and they are the ones who provoked this.

[Xrlderek]

Norway is also siding with Israel. Sort of hard making sense of the whole thing by navigating news articles since they all say different stuff.

[Animeniax]

It's quite unfortunate. The Onion is so good, that it's content is generally even more entertaining despite being obviously fake, while still giving us the opportunity to mock the few who still don't get it.

Hahahah! China took the Onion's "Kim Jong-Un sexiest man alive" article seriously:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2#...hits-china.cnn

[Kraco]

Hahahah! China took the Onion's "Kim Jong-Un sexiest man alive" article seriously:

The communists aren't known for their sense of humour, so naturally they would take it seriously. They still have some way to go before they catch up on mass media quirks.

[Uchiha Barles]

I can see how his round face, plump physique, and dead eyes might appeal to women with a zombie dough boy fetish.

In other news, O'Reilly once again puts his foot in his mouth, probably on purpose:

Gangnam Style Sucks

[Animeniax]

As many times as O'Reilly has been owned for his views, I can only imagine that it's a character he plays and will continue to play in order to appeal to his viewer base. He and Ablowhard have one part right about the song being "without intelligible words." 99.9% of those who like Gangnam Style don't understand the lyrics and don't care.

For my part, I will try to watch the video a couple times everyday to get it to 1 billion views.

[Uchiha Barles]

Yeah, sure. I even agree that the song is kind of unsophisticated pop stuff that has a dulling effect on an intellectual level. But um...the guy's not singing gibberish, he's singing in korean. Where do you get off describing someone singing in a foreign language as "unintelligible"? You're asking to get your ass kicked. Furthermore, the song is social satire, so for those who can understand it, there is intellectual validity in the lyrics. To just dismiss that on account of ignorance is crass.

[Animeniax]

Like I said, 99.9% of those who like the song don't know what he's saying and don't care what he's singing about, they just like the catchy beat and fun dancing video. To anyone who doesn't speak Korean, it can be considered unintelligible, the definition of which is '"not able to be understood; incomprehensible." Sure they could look it up with google translate, but how many do you think actually did that?

[Uchiha Barles]

I understand that most people Bill O'Reilley is considering don't understand what's being said in the video. But O'Reilly is being a dick by being dismissive of the fact that the video is a product of an actual culture.

"This is a little fat guy from Yong Yang or some place..."

"Elvis Presley could sing. His songs had words.""

"There are like 16 guys named Psy on Long Island that I could tell you about and they don't look like him."

These are offensive statements. Again, I get that unless you speak Korean, you don't know what the song's about, but Psy isn't singing gibberish. The song has words. English isn't the only language on the planet. There's got to be a better way to say what he's trying to say.

[Animeniax]

Well he's speaking to his fan base in the only language they understand or care to hear, which is racist and xenophobic. Don't let anything he (or any of the loons on Fox) says bother you, just watch some Youtube clips of him getting owned by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

[Carnage]

I used to hate Bill O'reilly. But the older I get, the more I enjoy his show. Granted he's biased, outdated, and often plays to an audience. But the Jon Steward is also biased (albeit less so) and plays to his audience as well.