OpalCat,
>What about Africa? What about Haiti?<
Go to this cite http://www.cirp.org/library/
Click on the search engine.
Type in the word “aids” and you will get several articles explaining the sexual behavior among Africans that contributes to the AIDS epidemic.
Jack, I’m impressed - you gave me a cite that was actually on point, and didn’t suggest I use a search engine. :eek:
Now, the cite you sent me to (from the CIRP library, so I’m more than a little dubious) said:
No shit.
That’s nice, except that HIV is a virus. And despite the internal references in the article (which I am not competent to comment on), I’d really like to see something from a respectable site.
But maybe you’re getting the hang of this “debating” thing after all… 
Either give me a cite or admit you don’t know. Telling me to search for a cite is the equivelant of saying you don’t have one.
Well, in the Pit thread devoted to JDT, our boy said he did not have to prove everything he says.
Just bumping in the hope this thread becomes a peace magnet. :rolleyes:
My bad. My very, very bad.
Wow, what a charged thread. I think y’all are losing perspective here, and that everyone on both sides of the issue should try to realize why the other side gets riled up:
One side claims it’s “sexual mutilation”, and may consider themselves to be “sexually mutilated” without their consent. Obviously this is quite a good reason to get royally pissed off.
The other side hears this, and by implication reads it as they’ve been “sexually mutilated” or supported such, possibly to people close to them. Obviously this too is quite a good reason to get pissed off.
Now, for my take on the issue. I’m a circumcised male who absolutely loathes the practice. I think it’s the most disgusting shameful little “secret” of American society, as most males won’t even be able to tell you what it is, or if they’ve been snipped or not. However, I will try to put it in an impartial light:
It is permanently and significantly altering someone’s body (a very personal part of their body) without their consent and often without need.
Enough said. To put this in perspective, imagine if all males were left alone and then at their 16th, 18th, 21st birthday (since these are the common ages of legal consent), the process was explained to them and they were then asked if they wanted to go through with it. How many do you think would consider it even for a moment? As someone else has mentioned, think of the instant gut reaction of any male that has the procedure described for the first time.
It’s not a penile equivalent of the appendix, it’s a relatively integral part of the structure. Every male animal with a penis (that I can think of) either carries it internally or has a protective sheath, the latter of course being the best analogy to the foreskin. If you’re religious, then (insert deity here) put it there for a reason, and if you’re not religious, then if everything else has such a thing too, it must have been developed for a reason.
And as for that reason itself…I’ll say that every circumcised male that’s ever masturbated, and had a chance to do the same to an uncircumcised male, will immediately see the benefit to it. I did 
It is instantly and undeniably recognizable, and makes for something of an epiphany, encompassing shock, horror, outrage, shame, and a wide range of other not-pleasant feelings. 
It’s been a few years and I’ve personally gotten over most of it now, but it’s still an icky subject I don’t like to think about, and one that I can get easily infuriated by when it’s casually dismissed by such things as “why do you care so much?”. I look at it as violating the most sacred thing of a male’s body: the way most females consider rape, for instance…so yes, I care a great deal about it.
But I still think everyone here on both sides of the line should realize how emotionally sensitive this topic can be and cut everyone else a little slack when it gets ugly.
The problem is that cutting the slack starts the whole problem over again.
[Moderator Hat: ON]
reprise said:
You “bump” one more thread and I will seriously consider bumping you right off this message board.
David B, SDMB Great Debates Moderator
[Moderator Hat: OFF]
Do you think that when Jack Dean Tyler gets to an activist level that he will rush into a briss throwing turtlenecks screaming that “Circumcision is MURDER”?