Posts: 1017
From: acousticgod@sbcglobal.net
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posted June 20, 2009 02:10 PM         

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LOL ... Never!

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Posts: 592
From: U.K
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posted June 21, 2009 04:04 PM         

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Koi ~ Librarian pics are top notch, perfect for cheering people up.

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From: Australia
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posted June 23, 2009 03:19 AM         

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Excellent!!!

Pictures of sheelas are ........interesting. I'd never heard of them before - What an amazing.....effigy.

Ummm, I wonder what their purpose was. I think gargoyles are on churches to scare away evil spirits - do you think a sheela is meant to do the same? Or is she there to welcome and encourage people into church??

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posted June 23, 2009 03:30 AM         

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The English are basically heathens. They need something to drag them into church.

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posted June 24, 2009 12:17 PM         

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Discourse on virtue
and they pass by in droves;
whistle and dance the shimmy,
and you've got yourself an audience.

~ Diogenes

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posted June 24, 2009 12:52 PM         

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Diogenes was the man in the barrel, wasn't he?

The one who sat around masturbating in public to show how easy it was to satsify one's sexual urges.

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posted June 24, 2009 01:19 PM         

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Yes, he lived in a tub, and it was, to him, a mark of pride. He was the one who proved the Stoic adage: "He is richest, who requires the least." He masterbated in public because, to him, sex was not something to be hidden. He said, "If only I could satisfy my hunger by rubbing my belly."

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posted June 24, 2009 01:22 PM         

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“If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”

~ Alexander The Great

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posted June 24, 2009 01:42 PM         

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*disables LL's edit button*

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posted June 24, 2009 02:03 PM         

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Whilst I have no objection to men wanting to play with their todgers on the quiet, I don't really want to have to watch it in action on the streets of my town when I am walking to Tescos to buy some teabags. I don't believe I am the only woman to feel this way.

But, hey, this is the pointless argument thread, let's argue the toss about it! a little Finbar Saunders moment there for the British contingent

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posted June 24, 2009 02:11 PM         

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I think in Diogenes' case people would have been like: "Let's see what that crazy Diogenes is doing right now. Masturbating in the street? Oh, OK."
They all knew what he was capable of so I doubt that shocked anyone.

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posted June 24, 2009 02:56 PM         

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blue,

Your aversion to that behavior is learned, and has nothing to do with its inherent tastefulness or distastefulness. If you grew up in a culture where that was the norm, you would be arguing about how silly it is to masterbate in private (and how pointless it is to argue otherwise, lol). Diogenes challenges you to reflect on how many of your most cherished convictions are really just learned/inherited from your culture, and not a reflection of logic or truth. No wonder he gets under your skin. "What good is a philosopher who offends no one?" ~ Diogenes of Sinope

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posted June 24, 2009 02:59 PM         

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"What good is a philosopher who offends no one?" ~ Diogenes of Sinope

I can't be a good philosopher. Too much Libra influence!

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posted June 24, 2009 02:59 PM         

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Deux,

quote:

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*disables LL's edit button*

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I'd be happy to repost it,
if you really want to go there.

I was following blue's lead.

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posted June 24, 2009 03:00 PM         

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Yin,

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posted June 24, 2009 03:27 PM         

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If you like watching other men having a w@nk, it's all the same to me. I'm just saying if I am walking down the street I'd rather look at a tree or maybe a brightly coloured weed pushing it's way through the cracks of the pavement. It's just one of the little differences between people that make this world so richly variant.

Not sure why I am going heavy on the @ as no-one west of Cornwall uses this expression.

Just out of interest I wonder how big this barrel was, it couldn't have been a beer barrel, else how could he move his wrist up and down?

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posted June 24, 2009 03:32 PM         

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haha

Very good, blue.

You know how to keep things light.

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posted June 24, 2009 03:39 PM         

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I'll tell you one thing... I wouldn't mind checking out the masterbating women. Well, some of them.

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posted June 24, 2009 03:40 PM         

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Like I say to my multi-Scorpionic friend, "as deep as my f@nny."

He doesn't like crassness so that winds him up. I know you shouldn't tease a Scorpio but it is irresistible and that's why us Geminis love you so much.

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posted June 24, 2009 03:43 PM         

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posted June 24, 2009 03:48 PM         

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Yeah, think about it now. This Diogenes is a stinky old man in a barrel. It's not like we would get to watch Sean Bean covered in oil getting it off by candlelight.

Whatever the equivalent is for the red-blooded male, that could be a pretty sight but if it is all for free on the street, you could just as well be forced to look at something quite unpleasant. Say you were off to the grocery store to buy some bananas. It could really switch you off the whole concept being out in the open.

Time to go now, it was fun.

The Diogenes barrell story is an old joke between me and my brother, it was something I told him from a book just to amuse him, he is a Gemini too. We are shallow people.

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posted June 24, 2009 04:05 PM         

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It's a tub, not a barrel.

The point about the learned response is that you would not have the same reaction; not just your opinion, but your visceral reaction, would be different. In cultures where the women go bare-breasted, it is not an incitement. Only for us, who have made it taboo, has it acquired this power. Talk about Scorpio. Pressumably, it would not bother us to see people whom we think of as unattractive engaged in sexual behaviors. It would just be something we grew up with. For us, though, who have grown up with all sorts of dirty, repressing views connected with sexuality, it can be difficult to imagine not losing our appetites at the sight of such things.

Shallow people don't bother me, particularly when they can admit to being shallow, just as long as they don't try to mess with people -- who are (admittedly) deeper than them -- for being deep. That's all there is to that.

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From: acousticgod@sbcglobal.net
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posted June 24, 2009 05:27 PM         

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I don't necessarily believe that it is a programmed response. I'm sure we would all naturally take offense at certain things even without a societal context. I only need to think of the ramifications for a second to realize that I would be all for getting these public masturbators off the street. So I challenge Diogenes to reflect upon how many of our cherished convictions are the result of perfectly sound reason. I'm not watching a teacher masturbate while he lectures. I'm not cleaning up after every Tom, Dick, and Harry who leaves a mess at the theater or in the stadium. Screw that.

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posted June 24, 2009 09:18 PM         

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lol

I dont know if he did it often, or only once or twice, to make a point. It's also said that once, after had he entered into the center of a crowd gathered to hear him lecture, he proceeded to defecate in their midst, and then make his exit. This may be the earliest example I know of performance art. So, what's the point? That is the question. Maybe just to make us think about what is simplest, and most natural. Maybe to suggest the scatalogical character of other philosopher's teachings. Maybe just to utterly subvert expectation. Maybe "all of the above". For my part, I'm glad such a man existed. I do think, now, that maybe public masterbation or intercourse would divest the experiences of their sacred character, and, eventually, maybe even their power to arouse. Perhaps the act of creation ultimately requires secrecy.

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posted June 24, 2009 10:40 PM         

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Public masturbation & public sexual intercourse=

Exhibitionism.

D

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Love is life force, hate is death force.

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