Uncut penises are gross

People are weird.

I'm not sure this practice is still American - an Irish buddy of mine had his removed by his parents. Just crazy - there is no need to do it.

Aw, jeez.

This is a touchy issue for many people. Let me simply say that flouride, applied topically to the surface of teeth, has good scientific data to back it up. So, putting it in toothpaste was a simple, good idea. It does what it is supposed to do. And you can spit it out after applying it, so you don't have to swallow it.

OTOH, flouride in water provides only a brief, and mostly ineffective topical exposure. Further, it requires you to ingest the stuff. Ingesting it has no proved benefits. Even if tiny amounts of flouride constantly ingested over a lifetime were actually harmless (and this is a very big 'if'), still, dumping millions of dollars worth of the stuff into the water would remain a fairly wasteful and comparatively ineffective approach, compared to topical application in toothpaste.

Now, odds are, someone will passionately challenge this (perhaps the the offspring of a dentist) and assert that the evidence in favor of flouridated water is overwhelming and utterly crushing in its massive authority. So, let's just call this my opinion. I really doubt anyone here is willing or eager to read the hundreds of pages of studies available on both sides of this issue... and flinging conclusions without sound data has been the norm in this debate for decades.

Nope.

No, it most certainly does not.

I will not have my future son, Lyle, circumsized.

A question for the ladies (and why not for gay men too).

Tuomas, no, I am not expecting.. but someday, totally!

* Apparently 2-3% of these operations result in complications, whilst many adults who were circumcised report problems of sexual dusfunction.

I'm going to call bullshit on this. What are these "complications"? Is a crying baby a "complication"? There's no way these can be permanenly scarring complications.

** Currently 85% of the world's males are not circumcised (including the vast majority of Europeans, Latin Americans, Japanese, and Chinese)

So? This means nothing. 85% of the world's males (and females) aren't Christian. Does this mean that nobody should bother being a Christian?

Also, the Salon article focused on medical circumcision, which is considerably queasier than Jewish ritual circumcision (= the baby cannot be restrained in the manner she described, and the use of anasthetic IS allowed (and I'm not just talking about wine)). Being a Jewish person, she might have wanted to mention this before going into her whole "OMG I'm wrestling with this Jewish moral dilemna" guilt trip.

Er, what percentage of uncircumsized males report problems of sexual dusfunction and at what median age do these reports start occurring? Also, is "dusfunction" what you call it when dust shoots out of your dick instead of semen?

Wait, where is outlawed?

Circumcision started with desert peoples (Ancient Egyptians were ciricumcized, and that's perhaps where the Jews got the idea) because, apparently, with little water it becomes hard to clean out in the desert, and things get very irritated very fast.

Getting a BJ must really suck if your cut.

Giving one is kinda boring if they're cut.

Barry, I agree that there's no need use shock tactics, but don't you agree that circumcision for non-religious reasons is kinda pointless if it causes problems to at least some adult males and minor loss of sensitivity to all?

That's taken as read, Barry.

It's odd that anyone can genuinely argue on the side of mutilate vs not mutilate.

The truly scary stuff are the reports of botched circumcisions where the entire head of the penis is mistakenly cut off. I don't know the circumstances surrounding these cases (ritual or non-ritual? What sort of hospital, what kinds of precautions, etc?) and the chances of any serious complications are very low (likely less than one in 10K) but frankly, I believe Bayesian statistics may apply here. I'm not sure I want to take even the 1-in-100000 roll of the dice for the miniscule chance that my future son will grow up with half a dick.

xpost

zarr i'm not surprised that your friends are small-minded assholes.

massively otm.

I'll tell you what we got: Laughs. And respect. And girls that wanted to 1. insert Skoal into their own places and 2. sleep with us. It's good to have a foreskin.

uncut penises aren't gross. you guys with intact foreskins do not have gross penises. so not gross.

speak for yourself

rip van wanko mind u

Actually have encountered so many uncut men with weird foreskin issues, mostly that "the overalls are too tight" and have to deal with stress and strain. Two men I know have had adult circumcisions and one man I know needs one

Ah the ole hulk pants problem