Thorned Rose

You can't honestly be serious?! Why he's for real?! And yes I will tell you it isn't good.The lyrics may well promote something good but how many people actually listen to the lyrics?When it comes down to it, he's just another 'homeboy' like the rest of them. I can't stand any culture that condones gangs, violence, glorifies the use of guns and dying, exploitation of women, drug and alcohol abuse etc etc etc.I've seen all too many rappers say their lyrics are meaningful and encouirage good behaviour yet in their videoclips they are just as blinged out, have just as many half naked women hanging off their arms etc as any other rapper.And how good is it to encourage young kids to speak a *BLEEP*ised form of english that noone but fellow 'homeboys' can understand?I'm not against the music (even if I don't like rap, I understand some do), it's the culture I despise.

Good on you man! It can be difficult and I know I'm a complete stranger, but I'm proud of you

I'm not sure that this is exactly great advice to give. Unless a girl actually *says* that she doesn't mind a guy having sex with other girls, exclusivity is the default. And even then, many girls say they don't mind just cause they're really into a guy and don't want to scare him off but don't really mean it and end up getting really hurt. Not to mention what it does to any girl's self esteem ("Was I not good enough that he had to go to others?").Exclusivity, I'm afraid, is a myth so that guys can get off scot-free when they have sex with women they shouldn't (many women too for that matter). No to mention that promiscuity is a good way to end up with an STD. Mich, you say in one sentence that "you just have a guilty conscience" and then in the next breath say "let your conscience be your guide" - well if the dude feels guilty and he follows his conscience then obviously his conscience is telling him that he did something wrong!

If you want to play a game which is almost entirely cliche check out Enchanted Arms for the xbox 360. You got an annoying young main character with a hidden power which can save the world. A princess in disguise when a big silent guardian to look after her. An annoying side-kick girl. Breakable barrels. A city desotryed early in the game. The world also has the whole instrustrial/fantasy thing down from Final Fantasy too.

I've got it and have to say its bloody awesome. Its one of those rare kinds of games where a 5 year old, 20 year old year old or 40 year old can play and really enjoy themselves. Heaps to do as well...you can finish the story missions pretty quickly but then there's secret areas and bonus levels you can then go back and discover. A big chuckle-fest when you play it co-op

World of Warcraft sucks up a lot of time i our househole. We've also just got Test Drive Unlimited and basically so long as you're hooked up to the net you can see and play with other people, heaps of fun!

I'm going to have to agree and pretty much repeat what the others say. You have to tell her. Things will be so much worse if she finds out for herself. You have to understand that once trust is broken, it is broken forever. Most people think that they can screw up, fix things then all will be fine again. Not true. Once that trust has been damaged it probably won't be 100% ever again but if she finds out for herself, that trust won't even have a chance to build back up again. Though it is entirely possible that when you tell her, it could end your relatioship. Which might make keeping it to yourself seem like the best idea. But look at it this way: If you don't tell her, she will find out and your relationsip will end. If you do tell her, there is a good possibility it will end but at least there will be room to make things better.As for being weak with regards to sex, I always make it a rule don't put yourself in a situation where you could screw up. If your friends wheedle you in to it whenever you see them, 1. tell them you are in a relationship and that having sex with them is not an option and 2. don't go anywhere alone - always take someone reliable with you (who knows the situation) and will watch out for you. If none of that works, then don't see those firends at all. If you are truely into this girl, it shouldn't be difficult.And finally, good luck man and all the best!

Flakes, your post concerns me slightly and I know most people won't believe me when I say this, but milk is really bad for you. Dairy products cause things like kidney and gall stones. Milk also causes osteoporosis (no that is not a typo - it does the opposite of what the dairy industry says it does). And because unfortunately most people believe the drivel the dairy industry touts, please go to http://www.notmilk.com/ and do some reading. It is a BIG eyeopener!

I've usually found that caffeine and too much chocolate (which also has caffeine in it) are pretty big culprits for UTIs and Cystitis. Although taking antibiotics for an unrelated illness will almost assuredly cause one so make sure as well if you are taking antibiotics to have a probiotic to replace the good bacteria in your digestive system.

I was hospitalised with a kidney infection when I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter. I had to be put on longterm preventative antibiotics as if I got another infection, my kidneys would've been pushing up the daisies. I think in the end the antibiotics caused more trouble than they were worth. But at any rate by midwife at the time recommended cranberry juice which I had until I discovered cranberry tablets. I take a brand that contains 10,000mg of cranberry plus horsetail and vitamin c. That was over 6 years ago and I'm still taking it - works amazingly well for preventing infections. My only problem remains that I get Cystitis (bladder inflammation) and urinary tract inflammation very easily after the first kidney infection.The midwife I had for my second pregnancy recommended lemon and barley juice which when I tried, blew me away by it's efficacy.My recommendation - Cranberry tablets (Red Seal brand Cranberry Power if you can get it) and Lemon and Barley juice (just make sure it contains real barley flour and not just flavour as otherwise it won't do anything). Works like a dream! Now anitbiotic, kidney infection and virtually cystitis free

I think that definition of science is a very narrow and limited one. The universe is it what it is. Things work the way they do. Humans have morals for reasons.... Science is what it is. It explains how and why things are the way they are. If it explained morals it wouldn't *become* a religion, it would explain what morals are and why humans have (or don't have) them. Science doesn't change how things it work, it just defines and explains them thus it cannot 'create' morals just show the ones that are already there.For the record, I'm against fetal stem cell research. I think however that when science shows that these 'fetuses' have souls, the people behind the research will have a moral obligation to stop and look at adult stem cell research instead. Whether they choose to do the right or wrong thing has nothing to do with science or religion. Already science is starting to show more and more that things like abortion is wrong. It's unfortunate that people choose to be immoral and ignore the facts.I don't think pornography is in direct competition with religion and I don't think that it has any great impact upon religion. Yes people who aren't religious are more likely to be looking at porn but I think they are non-religious for reasons other than they want to look at porn. Porn is immoral full stop, religious or no. You don't need religion to know that. The fact that it exploits women is unquestionable and science can easily show this.

killerbichon, you bring up some very good and intelligent arguements although I have to say I disagree.Human beings like most other mammals instinctively require hierachy. You will see this is very small groups as well as large populations. The size of the group really doesn't matter. Religion has nothing to do with instinctive hierachy behaviour. It's just another way humans have found to force their own hierachy on others.As for having more time, hunter gathers still had more time then at any other point in human history and they weren't 'religious'. They had beliefs, yes, that were passed down but these beliefs were formed in lieu of science. They didn't understand how things work so without any way to measure or experiment they formed their own ideas and beliefs which made logical sense at the time.Another reason for religion's existence - to explain things that aren't yet understood. This is part of the reason why religion is on the decline and why intelligence = less likelyhood of being religious. People who have knowledge don't need religion to explain things because science has given them the answers. That's not saying science knows everything, just that many of the things religion once claimed has been explained away by science making it obsolete. (Take the whole bats are birds thing, or men have one less rib than women)As for science not having a moral framework, I believe given anough time it will. Unfortunately it's at a place where it knows enough to do a lot of things but not enough to do it safely. Take your example about people with mental disabilities. My brother has Downs Syndrome. Science currently will tell you that his body is defective and does not work correctly. That's all it says. It's only humans putting their own ideas on this that can make science immoral. i.e. it is people who say that because he is defective his life isn't worth living. With time science could prove that he is happy and fuctional and just as deserving of life as anyone else. It could also one day find a way to reverse genetic abnormalities such as Downs making it a moot point.And I have to agree with many of the points BooZker made especially that religion gives people something to descriminate against. Yes, people are inherently descrimatory (another biological function to ensure survival of the fittest) unfortunately some people take it too far and do descriminate against those of differing beliefs. And no offence intended to Christians but out of all the religions I have been around, they have been the worst for descrimination. Out of all the people I have been with only the Christians have outright told me I was sinful and evil and to revoke my ways.killerbichon, I have to say I resent the reference to porn. People are less likely to be religious if they are educated and are more intelligent so I don't see how porn has anything to do with making people less religious. I've known plenty of 'religious' people who still looked up porn if what you mean is that people who like porn don't go religious because then they wouldn't be able to.Whew, that's long. Though I would imagine because of that a lot people won't read what I've said, lol

Well, as I keep saying women probably wouldn't lie about such things if they weren't labelled as 'dirty' etc for doing so.

What?! What's wrong with just beliefs? Religion is just collective beliefs with organisation anyway. And yuo can still believe in God without being religious - as I said religion is beliefs in an organised and indoctrinated way. Unfortunately religion tends to pray upon peoples' weaknesses liek fear, insecurity, hierachy and religious leaders take advantage of this.Believe what *you* know to be true or what is true in your heart not what someone else tells you is true.

You have to remember though that most of the nudity on tv at the moment is 'adult themed'. And also remember the fact that males are sexually stimulated whether nudity is tasteful (art, science etc) or pornographic.

I agree - this is something I keep saying but I keep getting attacked by Christians for saying it. I believe that humans are perfectly capable of living their lives in a good way without having resorting to religious indoctrination to do it but I keep being told that humans are fundamentally sinful and weak and can't possibly be decent people without god's guidance. Funny, because I'm a good person, more moralistic than many people purporting to be christians. It comes down to integrity not religious beliefs. I was talking about the concept of living up to religious figures the other day and how silly it was of the Council of Nicea to make Jesus the "son of god" rather than a prophet as he was up until that time. Rolemodels are far easier to follow when you can relate to them and see them for people. No human on this earth could live up to the standards of a 'divine being'! Rolemodels are far more effective when we can look and them and say "What an amazing person. If they can do it, so can I!". You can't say that of someone who is 'divinely perfect'. You just end up wasting your whole life trying to attain the unattainable. I'm not saying that because Jesus as the son of god is perfect, his teachings aren't worth merit, just that he is a better role model as a person. Even then, you still don't need someone to 'follow' to be a good person. As I said, it comes down to integrity. I hold myself accountable to my actions, I don't need someone or something else to do that for me. If I want to continue to be a good person I need to hold myself accountable for my actions and own my mistakes and learn from them. I hardly think screwing up and then getting god's forgiveness straight away just because you are a Christian etc makes for very good integrity. Hence why reincarnation was another thing taken out of the Bible - if people thought they got another chance at life, they could do what they want and be damned with the consequences because ultimately there weren't any - they would still go to heaven and they could be a better person next time round just so long as they said the right prayer and genuflected at the right moment. I'm probably going to be flamed by Christians for saying the Bible has been changed but I don't apologise for being factual.

I believe that sex and nudity a bodily functions are completely normal and nothing to be ashamed about etc but I also recognise that there is an emotional aspect to sex and nudity that I think comes from human evolution. Males are aroused by visual stimuli (i.e nudity) whereas women are more stimulated by touch (this is probably why men are more accepting of nudity on tv and other media than women). I think this probably comes from the human equivalent of the courtship dance.This doesn't however make nudity in the media ok. Quite the opposite. We have far too many people becoming 'overstimulated' by the constant barrage of sexually connotative images. It's no wonder promiscuity and sexual misdemenors are on the rise.I'm also a firm believer in sex for love (no I'm not religious). I think casual sex ends up being more trouble than it's worth (just look at spiralling STDs). With this in mind, sex and nudity in the media is flouting something that should be sacred and special between two people.

We get games through my husbands work so we end up with most of the major games on Xbox 360 and PC - far too many to play I was going nutted on Sims 2 with the new expansion and before that Oblivion but I just got my grubby little hands on World of Warcraft and have been playing that and nothing else for the last few weeks lol. I read an article a little while ago where some doctor reckons that 40% of WoW players are clinically addicted. 2.5 million people addicted?! - I doubt that. 40% is way higher than general population addiction which I think sits at around 6-7% which seems a little more likely to me (about 400,000 people lol). I'm not sure that I would class me as one of those people, though I'm probably not far off

Ao)K-General, yes you are right. Bodily fluids like semen and cervical mucus do carry diseases like HIV, Hepatitis and more commonly chlamydia although most of the time it requires genital-genital contact i.e. sexual intercourse. Some diseases however can definitely be caught through poor handwashing like hepatitis, gastroenteritis and other nasties.I know that a study done a while ago found that 90% of female toilets had semen on the *inside* of the door. I don't know if that has dropped since then but it's pretty gross. Not just because there's semen on the door handle but also because it means that men are somehow getting into womens' toilets to perve.gaea, I don't use internet statistics, only ones that have been researched legitimately and then posted on the net.

Latest news is that Sony hasn't even begun production of the PS3 yet despite the release date only being about three months away (remember Microsoft started production months in advance of the release and still had severe shortages). Not to mention the fact that Sony hasn't given the third party launch title developers SDKs and documentation so they can't actually complete any games yet. Vivendi has released screenshots of F.E.A.R. for PS3 here and I have to say I'm not wowed. They're certainly better than PS2 graphics but I've seen better on the original Xbox. If you think these screenshots aren't so bad go IGN here for a comparison.

Cerebral Stasis, I never meant to imply that men are unable to continue after ejaculating. I was making a joke - the whole image of men having an orgasm, rolling off and falling asleep (whether the woman is finished or not). Of course men can continue, only that most men can only ejaculate once during sex. I have heard men say they can ejaculate multiple times but I don't know whether that is scientific fact or wishful boasting.Tsunami, masturbation, sex and genitalia are not perverse just normal. In answer to your questions:1. Yes women are more likely to wash their hands than men. 90% of women and only 75% of men wash their hands after going toilet. Women also do a better job of washing their hands.2. Men have 'toys' too - usually some form of fake vagina, they also have a 'g spot' in their rectum so men can get stimulation that way as well.3. I don't know which study you are specifically referring to but most sample across a variety of ages, backrounds, marital status etc.

terminal2k, I'm not dead nor I think is there any need to be rude. I fully expect people to disagree and nobody has to believe me but that's no reason to be nasty. I have died, I do remember it and there was no tunnel or light at the end. And yes I do agree the whole tunnel thing is probably random misfirings of neurons kicking up the daisies because of oxygen deprivation. I do remember being dead just as I am able to remember many of my past lives. There was no heaven hell or any of that sort of thing. No feelings, no sadness, no happiness as it were, just peaceful contentment (although I guess that's open for debate whether that is an amotion or not). I have come close to dying on two other occasions with similar experiences. And once again, you cannot say no one knows without a shadow of a doubt. You are not all-knowing and you do not know what everyone else knows. As for logic and realism. Many things in science are not as yet conclusively proven and yet because they are logical and have indicators towards their reliabilty they are taken as true. Nobody really knows what an atom's structure is but what we are taught in school is a given. Why? - because it's logical and because experiments have helped (only helped not proven) the validity of the theory. As for science not being able to prove life after death, humans don't currently have the technology nor the know how to measure and quantify this aspect of the universe yet. You can't prove something if you don't know how to. Not to mention most scientists won't go near the 'paranormal' with a 10 foot barge pole because of the controversy and the potential for them to be labelled as quacks. If you want logic then here: Evolution is all about a species learning and become better able to fits it's biological niche. The afterlife is the same. Living things have souls to store life experience and to take that experience to the next life to avoid making mistakes and the like. The soul is just another aspect of evolution and becoming better.

LOL. I'm not sure what you are getting at there. Are you trying to say that male prowess is so mighty it leaves women swooning?! Maybe some women are like that but most women can keep going i.e. women have more than one bullet in their gun From what I've heard, it seems the men are too tired to go on after orgasm

I wouldn't say that male or female orgasm is better than the other, seens as orgasm is very subjective. To a man, male orgasm feels wonderful, to a woman, female orgasm feels wonderful. You can't say one is better than the other especially as you cannot experience female orgasm and don't know how it feels. From what I've read, male orgasm is a build up in 'pressure' with release (correct me if this is wrong, guys) whereas female orgasm feels like a wave that builds and then crashes over. However you can't go past the fact the women can have mulitple orgasms which is extremely difficult for a male to achieve

I agree, I think it is far better to relieve sexual tension by masturbating than to have sex with a lot of different people. When my kids are older, I would much rather them do that then be promiscuis. I think mutual masturbation is also a great way to avoid sex. If you look at promiscuity from a natural and evolutionary standpoint then nature is saying that having sex with a lot of different people is not a good thing to be doing - the more promiscuous a group of humans is, the higher the incidence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, many of which cause sterility. I'm not saying that all people who get STDs are promiscuous and/or deserve it, just pointing out an obvious correlation. My sister caught chlamydia and got pregnant (at age 17) because she "only had unprotected sex once". It's so not worth it.