Sknydpr

I see your point...but I'm pretty active in the naturist community around here. I'm even an officer for an Austin-based nudist club called The Hill Country Nudists.

Awesome. HCN is non-landed? Maybe we can meet up at Hippie Hollow, if I ever get around to going up there. I have too many piercings in the wrong places to be accepted into most nudist clubs, even though I'm about as vanilla as you can get (just shinier).

hey just wondering, are there many skinny-dipping vegans in Houston?

Just one that I'm aware of.

Are you sure? The Texas Constitution is long as hell...like 220 Amendments. It wouldn't surprise me if it were true tho...my higher power would be David Hasselhof...and I'm sure the Germans would agree with me!

"Germans love David Hasselhof"-Norm MacDonald

The Texas Constitution

Article 1 - BILL OF RIGHTS

Section 4 - RELIGIOUS TESTS

No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, in this State; nor shall any one be excluded from holding office on account of his religious sentiments, provided he acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.

You know he is for prayer in school, that's a tough one for me...

Led by the schools, or simply allowing the students to pray when/if they choose to? I have difficulty reconciling the first position to (what little) I know about him, but would have no problem with the latter and I'm only slightly less an atheist than Madalyn Murry O'Hair.

Speaking of which, did you know that the Texas Constitution prohibits anyone holding elected office who doesn't proclaim a faith in a higher power? They feel this is open-minded, as they don't care which higher power you follow.

Most of mine are unsuitable for polite company.

Well, that's not entirely true. There are these:

http://sknydpr.com/images/ahimsa-ink.jpg

http://sknydpr.com/images/leezard.jpg

http://sknydpr.com/images/calves.jpg

This one's NSFW

I have others that I could post pictures of, but don't have pics of them online.

I'm re-reading Watership Down after almost 30 years (the same copy of the book I read back then; I'm a serious book packrat). I recently adopted two bunnies and am rather obsessed with rabbits at present.

Eine bier, bitte.

I thought circumcision for men at least has added health benefits in terms of bacteria there as well as added pleasure in sex for the women, but not really much change for the men? It also gets dirtier easier without circumcision. So as far as saying that it is only cosmetic, I don't think would be valid since there are SOME benefits, whatever they may be. But I understand your claim.

Nope and big nope. Thousands of nerve endings are removed from the most sensitive part of your body, how could that not be a big change?

Your fingers get dirt under the nails, should we start removing fingernails from infants?

Circumcision cures nothing that soap and water can't fix.

1. What were you born into?

2. What are you now?

3. What made you change? (if you did)

4. What are your ideas on religions in general?

1. I was born into the Church of Christ, the son of an ordained minister. I don't think I missed 17 Sunday services the first 17 years of my life, and shortly before I joined the Navy and moved away from home, I was attending Sunday morning services (Baptist) with my parents, Sunday evening services (Assemblies of God) with friends of mine, Catechism classes on Thursday evenings, and Saturday evening Mass by myself. While I stopped going to church shortly after I left home, having grown disillusioned with the behavior of the other members during the other six days of the week, I still was fairly religious up until age 27 or so.

2. Stone cold "you die, you're dirt" atheist.

3. Not gonna go into the details, but some events in my life made me ponder just how loving and benevolent "our father" really is. I realized that there were really only two possibilities. Either he's not nearly as loving as I'd been led to believe (normally I phrase that a bit differently), or he didn't exist. I couldn't believe the former, so I had to go with the latter. Once that veil was lifted, so to speak, the situation became much clearer.

4. I think Jesse Ventura pretty much had it nailed. At best it's a panacea for those who need one, at worst it's a reason to hate everyone who doesn't believe the same way you do.

I hate circumcision. Possibly more than I hate animal abuse.

 

Whats your reasoning for that?

It's cosmetic surgery performed on an unwilling participent, completely incapable of defending himself or understanding what the fuck is going on, and it irreversably alters the level of sexual pleasure for the adult man he is to become. All for no medical benefit whatsoever.

And, much as it is in animal rights, people will treat you like a fool for trying to protect defenseless children.

I hate circumcision. Possibly more than I hate animal abuse.

Jesus Christ, now I know how people can argue over the meaning of the word vegetarian. I'm sorry, I really don't want to argue about it anymore. I just find it bemusing that a word with such a clear definition can be so broadly interpreted. A=without, theism=religion/god

I guess I should be glad that I'm not actually arguing religion and atheism.

Ok, but this wouldn't fit in with Agnostic. Would this just be a Deist?

 

And like I said they see it as a Force, not as God. Much like how Gravity is a force, just that this one is the greatest force.

We're getting a bit off topic here. Deism, as far as I understand it, is a specific philosophy that believes that there was/is a supreme being that created everything but has had little or nothing to do with humanity since.

I'm not sure why you feel that agnosticism doesn't work.

However, on the dating websites I've been to, they often call themselves 'spiritual'.

Well what about someone who claims they are Athiest and doesn't believe in God perse, but a force or energy that is greater than anything else?

I would say they've picked the wrong word.

1. Believe in One God (no Trinity but either than that I don't matter what religion, just believe in One God). Athiest could fit in, but it depends on the person that is Athiest since I believe that some of them do have a concept of God, just that it doesn't fit a certain religion.

Pardon the minor correction: atheists do not believe in any god. That would be like a vegan that eats cows.

I think you're thinking of agnosticism.

My ex-wife was vegan when we met (online). We were together for almost six years.

My on-off-on-off-on again girlfriend was not vegetarian when we met, although she had been for awhile in her teen years. While she knew that the issue was near and dear to me, and would definitely be a source of conflict long-term, I never pressured her to change. After a few months, she did, completely on her own. I'm sure I was just lucky, though; I doubt that would have happened with any other person. Actually, my biggest concern initially was her career goal: she had wanted to obtain her M.D. and go into virus research. Thank Gautama that that blew over, too.

Now if I can just survive her commitment issues. We've been together almost 2 1/2 years, brief splits included.

I was alone for a long time -years- before I got married, although not entirely because I was a veggie. I'd gotten fairly comfortable with being a bachelor. Now I don't handle being alone nearly so well.

Wifebeater does indeed originate from all the programs where they show domestic disputes and the guy is invariably wearing such a tank top and drinking cheap beer.

"I" call it an A-top.

 

Does that make me a dork?

*I* call cheap beer "swill". Does that make me a snob?

Well, you're right: not many people buy me drinks. Or at least I tend to stay out of the kind of bars where they might.

i like to go with Emma Goldman on this one

 

"If voting changed anything they would make it illegal"

That's a good one, hadn't heard it before.

The two party system is complete bullshit, I can go for hours about it, it pisses me off so much. It is entirely geared to keep anyone but mainstream politicians from becoming elected, and the Democrats and Republicans are nothing more than two sides of the same goddamn coin. Ralph Nader couldn't even get on the ballot here in Texas last year.

Plus, with the electoral college, Topher is literally correct: the individual vote means nothing in Presidential elections.

Man, it is way too late for me to start talking politics. Maybe I'll get back to it in the morning.

ate at night I go for 'chocolate milk' - my own concoction of soy or rice milk with chocolate liqueur....it's a good dessert before bed

That sounds far too healthy.

(And girly. )

Dan: all this talk aboutr martinis is making me want one too - but it is 2:30 am here now and all the liquor stores are closed.

Oh, I have gin and vermouth in the fridge, and a solid nickel shaker that I paid too much for in the freezer. I just don't want to drink something that potent at, lessee, 1:45 a.m. local time.

That is why i love dirty martinis, (and, in case some of you might be wondering, they are called dirty because the splash of olive juice mixed with the vermouth and gin or vodka makes the drink look dirty/cloudy instead of clear). Garnish with 9 olives and you have an olive juice lovers paradise. Mmmmm.

 

Oh ya, and I like my martinis shaken, not stirred.

I'll give you credit for the "shaken, not stirred", but dirty martinis are ing. Martinis are meant to be little more than very cold, slightly watered-down gin.

I mix a mean Bombay Sapphire martini, man... Damn, now I want one but it's too late for one.

Back when Jeffrey Dahmer was being tried for murder and cannibalism, my supervisor -who was a bowhunter- thought for some reason that I'd be especially interested in the case.

I asked him "what's the difference between him and you?" That ended that topic of conversation.

Don't know him, but then I haven't been paying that much attention to WWE for the last year or two.

I once flipped Ted DiBiase the bird at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

Okay, that was way off topic...

I want some.