Oh, the Children.

The young ones stole the headlines over the past week with underage suicide bombing, high-speed texting, getting checks cut from the Catholic church, stunt riding on the hood of car, and being the subject matter of sexy Spanish photos. Now, age is an interesting factor in determining one's individual ability to function within the whole of human society: eg. There are those adults who say "But, oh, they're so young," others who espouse "That child knew what he was doing," and also the ever wistful "They grow up so fast, don't they?" One of the difficulties, I would argue, in determining how much responsibility should be placed upon kids comes from, what I would consider, the real and imagined effects of age on mental acuity.
This idea is not ground breaking, and this is not what will be discussed.
Let me start by saying: I have nothing against children as a specific group of people; everyone of us was a child at one point. I do, on the other hand, tend to view children the same way I view all other people; Most kids, just like adults, I find to be fairly obnoxious. This does not alter the fact that I believe they should -again, just like adults- be treated with the compassion that all humans deserve. I would like to believe most people can agree with that statement to some extent.
Now, after all that retarded exposition I can get to the very short point I was going to make. If you were going to find how compassionate people can be towards children, look to the Middle East. -Wait, he didn't just say that did he?- Oh, I fucking did. President Hamid Karzai pardoned a 14 year old would be suicide bomber. The president realizing the boy had been taken under a malicious wing pardoned the kid and wished him "a good life." Incredible. I can remember a few years ago there was a fifteen year-old boy in Florida who was given life in prison for accidentally killing one of his friends while the two of them were practicing wrestling moves they saw on TV. At this time I will withhold my opinion on the Floridian event and leave it up to you the reader.
This does not excuse the Middle East or any other region of the world from other crimes committed against children, I'm just pointing out that while the western world was taking naked photos of kids, placing them on the hood of a car, or leaving them in the hands of dodgey religious figures. Those oh-so-hated Middle Easterners were showing some compassion. Or if you're a cynical fuck such as myself they were just getting some much needed good publicity.