Foreskin Man Fights Circumcision and Jews' Blood Sacrifice of Non-Jew Children

[RoadKingLarry]

Please provide examples of anti-masturbatory practices, and condemnations of same. Also, provide some examples of joyful vs. non-joyful cultures, and some kind of measuring stick by which to distinguish them.

Thank you.

Always got to be someone worried about measuring up

[Lanius]

Anti-masturbatory practices? For example Dr.Kellog's cornflakes (it was thought a bland diet would lessen these kinds of urges). Then you have the whole plethora of 19th century torture devices.. Graham crackers too.

Many listed here:

A pic:



http://www.ranker.com/list/top-10-most-brutal-anti-masturbation-devices/robert-wabash

Joyful cultures? Those not overly attached to Abrahamic religions. In Pakistan, for example, masturbation and nocturnal emissions is such a taboo topic people don't actually know what these things are, and are afraid that they're ill or something. You can find questions from bewildered pakistani youths at certain online places. Ancients Greeks and Sumerians saw masturbation as entirely natural. Egyptians were less fun-loving, but if ancient inscriptions were to be believed, Pharaohs in some part of their history were required to publicly masturbate into the Nile river.

Huh. Can't imagine a head of state doing that these days as a ritual. I mean...imagining the British Queen to crack one off in public as a part of some fertility tradition..  It sounds like something from Monty Python*.

Generally, cultures that are not worried that someone, somewhere, is having fun are more joyful. Less joyful cultures claim only a life spent denying our natures and fearing eternal damnation can produce good human beings.

I have no idea why do they think fear and abstaining from natural, healthy activites makes people better, but ..

To the wag who muttered something about a yardstick... get your favorite full size pistol and measure up to that ;-)

Yes, I know the majority of christian practice infant baptism, and thus are asscaps in my book. Never said those people were rational. I mean, just consider their silly beliefs in the end times, for example, or the Catholic church.

*this sketch is vaguely related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88goZsMye2s

[MillCreek]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/us/05circumcision.html

In this morning's NYT.  The same guy who writes the comic is the author of the circumcision bills on the ballot.

[Perd Hapley]

Oh, OK Lanius. Just some obscure devices (that may or may not have made it out of the prototype phase), and some nineteenth-century health foods. Do you believe that these things were actually used, or promoted for use, in the way that the writer claims? If so, what evidence have you seen? Also, did "the joyful" rose up in condemnation of these things?

As for your, ahem, yardstick o' joy, it appears to be just as one-dimensional as its namesake. I have asked you to define "joyful cultures" and you have but one criterion. For you, any culture or religion that disapproves of your chosen form of amusement is anti-joy. Any culture or religion that approves is on the joy list, with no apparent regard for any other practices they might endorse or abhor. Do you not think there is more to life than that?

Joyful cultures? Those not overly attached to Abrahamic religions. In Pakistan, for example, masturbation and nocturnal emissions is such a taboo topic people don't actually know what these things are, and are afraid that they're ill or something....

Yes, I know the majority of christian practice infant baptism, and thus are asscaps in my book. Never said those people were rational. I mean, just consider their silly beliefs in the end times, for example, or the Catholic church.

You don't think you're painting with a bit of a broad brush there?  

[Lanius]

Browse some of the literature from that time... they were indeed completely bonkers when it came to human sexuality.

And.. no. But puritans were also against drinking, which I enjoy, playing poker for money, which I enjoy, probably would frown upon sports like long distance running .. because it feels way better than drinking, running long distances. Fortunately, religious nuts are usually not into sports.

They also like to ban violent computer games, racy literature, literature that uses expletives, and almost everything which is fun...

Am I not flipping right? Name one thing that's great fun some kind of religious killjoy nut hasn't tried to ban, eh?

[gunsmith]

Am I not flipping right? Name one thing that's great fun some kind of religious killjoy nut hasn't tried to ban, eh?

Praising Jesus

[Lanius]

Praising Jesus

You are so... wrong. Commies and muzzies often ban praising jesus, and since both commies and muzzies are religious nuts to a T....

I consider leftism and communism particularily insidious religions. Both are nutty, deluded, and even more dangerous than catholicism.

[MicroBalrog]

Also, did "the joyful" rose up in condemnation of these things?

Haven't they, eventually?

[Perd Hapley]

Haven't they, eventually?

Where are these joyful cultures, and where are the condemnations of corn flakes coming specifically from those cultures? Then where are the killjoy cultures, and their acceptance of corn flakes and torture devices? And we can't just base this on the opinions of a few people, on one issue.

[Perd Hapley]

Name one thing that's great fun some kind of religious killjoy nut hasn't tried to ban, eh?

I didn't know we were just trying to establish that some religious nut somewhere has decried everything some people like. Heck, I was just reading some religious material last week, that condemned house plants and pets as idolatrous distractions from the things of God. I wish I was kidding.

But puritans were also against drinking, which I enjoy, playing poker for money, which I enjoy, probably would frown upon sports like long distance running .. because it feels way better than drinking, running long distances. Fortunately, religious nuts are usually not into sports.

Isn't this it in a nutshell? You have a stereotyped view of the Puritans, how they "probably would frown upon" anything that you think is fun. "Long distance running"? You know most people would rather wear those crazy bits of Victorian body jewelry than run longer than half a mile, right? So let's just admit that there are different ideas of "fun," and sometimes people oppose things for reasons other than "they're fun and I don't like fun."

You might want to go beyond the popular stereotype of Puritanism. After a quick Googling:

Puritans and alcohol and Puritans and gambling.


So you started with a rumor that circumcision was designed to discourage autoeroticism, then moved on to the horrors of cereal grains and some scary museum pieces. If this is the evidence of anti-masturbatory practices, then I'd call it inconclusive. On the one hand, if those devices of torture (or nineteenth-century medicine, it can be difficult to tell the difference) ever saw the light of day, it is entirely possible that they were condemned by a joyful culture. After all, they don't seem to have survived. On the other hand, I've never heard any condemnation of the anaphrodisiac qualities of Graham crackers, so maybe we live in some killjoy culture.


On the subject of joyful and killjoy cultures, we have the Greeks, Sumerians and Egyptians arrayed against the monotheists. I, for one, have always seen the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as a rather bleak and fatalistic culture, but I had not yet learned to view them strictly through a lens of self-pleasuring enjoyment. Silly me.

[MicroBalrog]

Where are these joyful cultures, and where are the condemnations of corn flakes coming specifically from those cultures? Then where are the killjoy cultures, and their acceptance of corn flakes and torture devices? And we can't just base this on the opinions of a few people, on one issue.

What I mean is: haven't attitudes towards sexuality become more liberal (in the dictionary sense) in today's culture over the last 100 years or so? Was it not, in part, through the efforts of people opposed to the Victorian worldview?

[roo_ster]

Browse some of the literature from that time... they were indeed completely bonkers when it came to human sexuality.

And.. no. But puritans were also against drinking, which I enjoy, playing poker for money, which I enjoy, probably would frown upon sports like long distance running .. because it feels way better than drinking, running long distances. Fortunately, religious nuts are usually not into sports.

They also like to ban violent computer games, racy literature, literature that uses expletives, and almost everything which is fun...

Am I not flipping right? Name one thing that's great fun some kind of religious killjoy nut hasn't tried to ban, eh?

Yeah, I think you need to go back and slap your history instructors and then read some primary sources.

"Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness."
----Increase Mather

A discussion of same:
http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=19281.0

Also:
Song of Solomon

IOW, you are not flipping right.

[Lanius]

IOW, you are not flipping right.

So, you are saying that the US temperance movement, responsible for the prohibition.. was not religiously motivated at all?

I'm smelling something here, and it's not my feet, as I've showered two hours ago.

[roo_ster]

So, you are saying that the US temperance movement, responsible for the prohibition.. was not religiously motivated at all?

I'm smelling something here, and it's not my feet, as I've showered two hours ago.

Yes, that is you, working up a sweat whilst moving the goal posts.

[Lanius]

Nothing wrong with winning by re-defining objectives....
I mean, the greatest country on Earth does that with some regularity 

But no really. You've got muzzies. You've got mormons. And a host of other religions that prohibit drink.
Although I'm fairly sure if drinking cold lager daily were prescribed in teh Quran, there'd be no suicide bombings or honor killings. These people need to relax.

Anyway. So, one of the prominent temperance orgs, the Women's Christian Temperance Movement...
it had nothing to do with Christians, right?

[freakazoid]

Because they speak for all of Christianity right? I can't help but think of a certain drink that is had at a certain important point in Christian history... And to repeat roo-ster, Song of Solomon, nuf said. 

[Perd Hapley]

Anyway. So, one of the prominent temperance orgs, the Women's Christian Temperance Movement...
it had nothing to do with Christians, right?

Okaaaay. So a group that opposed alcohol based on the social cost, ruined families, etc; this qualifies as an anti-joy movement to you? 

Nothing wrong with winning by re-defining objectives....

Not if you're just trying to save face on the internet. When you're actually trying to posit and defend a rational argument, though, there is something wrong with it.

[Lanius]

Okaaaay. So a group that opposed alcohol based on the social cost, ruined families, etc; this qualifies as an anti-joy movement to you?  Huh?

That's what they said. Around here, we have always been very suspicious about motives of anyone who tries to ban booze. Or guns. Or pork. These three things we gotta have.

Besides, banning something rarely if ever solves anything. As long as there is appeal, and you don't live in a completely draconian society, banning something just creates a black market.

Because they speak for all of Christianity right? I can't help but think of a certain drink that is had at a certain important point in Christian history... And to repeat roo-ster, Song of Solomon, nuf said.  cool

Of course not. But it takes religion-level delusion to make people believe they  can change human nature by legislation..

 

[MicroBalrog]

Okaaaay. So a group that opposed alcohol based on the social cost, ruined families, etc; this qualifies as an anti-joy movement to you?  Huh?

Yes, of course.

[red headed stranger]

A comment on the article:

Yes, it’s antisemitic. You can tell at a glans.

Made me LOL.  

[Perd Hapley]

Of course not. But it takes religion-level delusion to make people believe they  can change human nature by legislation..

 

[gunsmith]

 but I had not yet learned to view them strictly through a lens of self-pleasuring enjoyment. Silly me.

The obvious solution is to start drinking more, probably some kind of cheap "malt liquor" would do the trick, along with some candles & Marvin Gaye to set the mood

[roo_ster]

The obvious solution is to start drinking more, probably some kind of cheap "malt liquor" would do the trick, along with some candles & Marvin Gaye to set the mood

How'd that work out for Marvin Gaye?

[MicroBalrog]

How'd that work out for Marvin Gaye?

He used his music to woo Janis Hunter.

I call this a win:

[roo_ster]

He used his music to woo Janis Hunter.

I call this a win:

Okey.  Sounds like that was a pretty decent year or two of his life.

I was thinking more about the drug addiction, suicide threats, physical abuse of his father, and eventually being killed by his father after beating up his dad & mom.