Jim Webb's Fictional Excerpt Is NOT ABOUT SEX OR INCEST

[ruggerson]

It is about Vietnamese culture.

It has nothing even REMOTELY to do with sex or incest.

It's a passage about watching a strange Asian cultural norm and having a character react to witnessing it.

AND IT IS FICTION!

Matt Drudge and George Allen are lying, as usual. Which is pretty much the only way they know how to win elections.

[Beetwasher]

1. Please Post The Full Excerpt In Context (Ok, Here It Is):

It makes it very clear.

[YDogg]

2. Do you think republican voters care to make that distinction?

[Beetwasher]

5. Who Cares What Repub Voters Care?

I don't. They ain't voting Dem anyway. Wake me when this is off drudge and there's a media frenzy. Otherwise *yawn*

[YDogg]

7. republican candidates care that some voters will recoil against what they think ...

... Webb was writing; that's why they trot this shit out.

I believe some republicans might vote for Dems. This foul smear doesn't help.

[Beetwasher]

10. *yawn*

Yeah, I notice you're very concerned. :eyes:

[fooj]

3. Yes. It's a piece of fiction.

Geesh...

Let's not make this an issue...

I couldn't agree more.

[Rockstone]

6. So was John Mark Karr's confession

but it didn't help his image, did it.

The important thing it that it is not even accurate to the intended allegation. It is out of context.

[AlCzervik]

4. stop making sense!!!

[WinkyDink]

8. Any Vietnamese here to comment on that bit o'culture?

[Windy]

9. read my post on the GREAT REVIEWS the book got

and the endorsement of John McCain

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2491317&mesg_id=2491317

[blitzen]

17. did you see the Freeper review? The one dated Oct. 26, 2006...

claims that material on p. 333 is "prosecutable under federal statutes."


poor, lame little Freeper

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. No, no, no! This is bad, bad I tell ya.

He's doomed in Virginia now, he may as well hand over what funds he has left to the GOP and fade away into the sunset. It's over!








:sarcasm:

I just read that other thread and couldn't stop myself from a bit of snark here, forgive me. :)

[LostinVA]

19. That thread is hysterical -- some posters need better writers

This is a job for the Three Billy GOats Gruff!

[Mr_Spock]

12. I think I'm going to vomit

:puke:

Have I told you recently how much I hate these motherfuckers?

[ruggerson]

18. You're not alone

Matt Drudge, as the internet mouthpiece for the RNC, is an incredibly duplicitous and destructive piece of garbage.

[Skinner]

13. here is the full context

Here are the three pages surrounding the excerpt. I got them from Amazon.com "search inside this book" http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Soldiers-James-Webb/dp/0440240913/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/104-8554294-0553546

Clearly Drudge has taken this way out of context.

[ruggerson]

14. Thanks

this should hopefully get circulated far and wide.

[flowomo]

15. Skinner, check this out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2490697&mesg_id=2491054

and

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2490697&mesg_id=2491128

could this put a different spin on the scene?

[Skinner]

16. I would think so.

That's useful information.

[Mr_Spock]

20. Imagine that - they found this on Amazon and excerpted it for political gain

That is low-down skumsucking pig swill. This needs to be exposed for all in Virginia to see - it's absolutely amazing the depths that these RW monsters are willing to stoop to in order to trash another person. Why would we want these hateful people in our government?

[struggle4progress]

21. The Communitarian Impulse

Colorado College's 125th Anniversary Symposium
Cultures in the 21st Century: Conflicts and Convergences

Delivered at Colorado College on February 5, 1999 at 3:00 PM
in a discussion forum with the same title

by Richard Shweder

... My example comes from a legal case in the state of Maine. One of the problems of life in a multicultural law and order society, especially for immigrant and minority groups, is that the law of the land often presupposes and codifies the substantive beliefs, values, emotional reactions, aesthetic standards, and pictures of the world peculiar to the group with the most power. And this was the case when, in 1985, the state legislature of Maine wrote a law making criminal any sexual act with a minor, non-spouse, under the age of fourteen, and went on in its wisdom to define a sexual act as, among other things, "direct, physical contact between the genitals of one and the mouth of another." Thus, in 1993, when Mr. MK, an Afghani refugee, who had been residing in the United States for three years, was seen kissing the penis of his eighteen-month-old son, he found the police descending on his house, and he was arrested and convicted of gross sexual assault in Superior Court. A few years later, his conviction was overturned by the State Supreme Court, relying heavily on cultural analysis. As it turns out, kissing the penis of a young child is commonplace in MK’s cultural community and is viewed as a sign of love and affection. It is precisely the father’s willingness to kiss what is viewed as an unclean or unholy part of the body, a place where urination takes place, that makes the act such a powerful display of love. Photographs of this type of act are displayed proudly in family photo albums in the community ...

By the way, this practice may be more common than we suppose. Years ago, I was told a story by a psychiatrist friend about a colleague of his, an Iranian man, also a psychiatrist, who had married a Jewish-American woman. When his son was born, the man’s mother visited from Iran, walked into the infant’s room, and started to stroke and kiss his penis. The Jewish-American mother of the child was shocked. "What are you doing? Stop that!" she said. Her mother-in-law, equally astonished, said, "What do you mean! I’m stimulating his growth so one day he will be a man!" "Never do that again in my house!" said the angry and near-hysterical daughter-in-law. "Look," said the Iranian mother-in-law, "I did that to your husband when he was a child, and he turned out all right!" ...

[struggle4progress]

22. Cambodian woman faces sexual assault charge

Attorney: Putting son's penis in mother's mouth cultural display of love

By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL

A mother from Cambodia could be sent to prison for an act that her attorney describes as a cultural transgression but one that under the law could be considered a sexual assault.

Authorities believe that between July 1 and Aug. 1, the 28-year-old woman performed fellatio on her 6-year-old son.

However, attorney Robert Langford said his client kissed her son's penis once when he was 4 or 5 years old because in Cambodia, the act is a sign of love ...

Thira Srey, office manager for the Southern California-based Cambodian Association of America, said it is acceptable for a mother or caretaker in Cambodia, especially those from rural areas, to kiss the penis of an infant or put it in her mouth as a sign of respect or love ...

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Oct-14-Sat-2006/news/10225038.html

[AspenRose]

23. This could potentially backfire

There are many, many Vietnamese in No VA.

They may come to Webb's defense.