And boy, let me tell you how idiotic that notion is.

I could masturbate just fine with a defunct foreskin in place, and I still happily rub the odd one out now that I got taken care of. People are more or less like bonobo chimps, you see. We'll find a way to conquer any and all debilitating circumstances that stand in the way of us getting off.

And, to be clear, more power to us! I really wonder why in some cultures sex is a bigger taboo than violence. It makes no sense from any perspective you care to throw at it.

Vaccines are a technological solution to foreign bodies affecting our health.

The Foreskin is an integral part of our body that has a function, namely the protection of the male member.

Your argument sucks almost as bad as your abrasive attitude.

Even "secular" Jews and those that are self-professed atheists subscribe to a whole host of none too moral or tasteful ideas. This doesn't become apparent on the face of it, but only becomes clear when you're immersed in the local culture.

I've addressed this point in reply to someone else, above. I can add to it that as a Dutchman who also lived in Sweden for seven years, I hadn't imagined in my wildest dreams that there were still people that had such backward notions on human rights, the right to choose, and the freedom of religion.

But then, I am still surprised why gay marriage and adoption are a topic in the US.

Quite honestly, I'd like to keep it that way, because the minute I become complacent towards such idiotic ideologies, I have drank too much of the cool aid.

Masturbation was possible for me, but was more concentrated on pressurized movement up and down the shaft. Quite honestly, the girth of my head was quite OK for stretching until I was 12, and then I had a bit of a growth spurt (no pun intended).

This caused the girth of the head of my penis to grow exponentially to the point where attempts to stretch the skin across it, even while in flaccid condition, were too painful to even want to think about.

The decision to cut a significant slice of your own penis is not taken lightly, trust me. I would not have done that if I hadn't seen any other option.

And for those who are wondering, I am not build like Rocco Siffredi. It may have more than adequate girth, the length still leaves something to be desired as far as I am concerned. Luckily my wife doesn't seem to feel that way. ;)

This is rather untrue too. The Jewish Ukranian father of my wife is the son of a Jewish Ukranian mother. The Mother dictates the "Jewishness" according to the Rabanut. He wasn't circumcised until he moved to Israel, where he was met with racist comments and torment. As a result of this he was more or less forced to circumcise himself.

So far the crazy view.

Now in my view, nobody is born Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Hindustani. Babies are simply born, and they grow up to be that which we shape them into, and that which they choose to be in life.

So no, my boy is not Jewish. First of all there is no god, so the notion of "Judaism" is about as absurd as flying pigs, and second of all because it is his inalienable right as a human to determine his own walk of life.

You, on the other hand, seem to be somewhat of a hardliner whilst not being too familiar with the ins and outs of what you're talking about.

Shana tova to you too. However, I will respectfully relegate your new years wishes to the first of January since I follow the Gregorian calendar.

It's funny you would ask this.

There is an element of choice. I wanted to make sure he had the Dutch Nationality and Passport next to his Israeli one. The reason for this is that the Israelis see him as having the Nationality "Yehudia" and the Religion "Yehudia". So it says in his birth certificate.

His Dutch passport, or so I'm hoping, should serve him as a reminder that he has a whole continent he can choose to live in, because it also makes him an EU citizen.

The difference between the Yehudia- and Dutch nationalities is that he can renounce the Dutch one without further problems or ado. He can choose not to be Dutch anymore at some point. Since he is an EU citizen this could indeed mean moving to France and becoming a French citizen rather effortlessly. Or Swedish, Austrian or Greek, for that matter. The choice will be his.

However the Israeli stance is that you can never not become Jewish and therefore you are an eternal citizen of Israel by proxy of that notion.

So while I didn't ask him if he wanted to be a Dutchman, I did introduce further elements of personal freedom of choice into his life from the get-go.

This was well thought through.

Having said all that, I find your reaction to be a piece of in absurdum reasoning. He got violated physically at birth, and furnishing him with some means of ID isn't the violation we're talking about.

I am not against circumcision for sound medical reasons. Not at all. After all, I had this procedure of my own free choice and have enjoyed the consequences ever since. Greatly, I might add.

I am however zealous about not taking others' right to choices away from them, regardless of who or what they are born into. If you call that meaningless zealotry, I fear I think you're a strange and macabre person.

You don't get the point.

The circumcision is done as a matter of course for particular religious groups. As such it stands for the broader problems of not respecting individual self-determination, integrity and the right to one's own Faculty.

In Holland, since the Unie van Utrecht in 1579, we've had some kind of "Freedom of Faculty/Religion" clause in some kind of Constitutional document.

This means we have a 430+ year history of personal liberty that's enshrined in law. Furthermore, I live a stone's throw away from a Frisian monument from 700 CE on which it says "Better to die free than to live as a slave".

Having said all that, personal freedom and respect for the rights of the individual are what I stand for. If you think that my world revolves around circumcision, you seem to have a serious lack of understanding of context.

Could you explain to me how an eight day infant feels about a stranger slicing off a piece of their body, thus scarring them for life?

Because it's nice that I need to be sensitive towards the religious fucknuttery of the parents, but this doesn't quite take care of the screaming that rings in my ear from the day they sliced a piece of my son's dick.

The boy was crying. From pain and fear.

So tell me, how am I supposed to be "sensitive toward how others feel"?

Quite honestly, since I had a circumcision in adult life, I never put my foreskin anywhere.

All that aside, I had a relationship with a Jewish woman of middle eastern descent. We had already decided to end said relationship, because of cultural differences. As we were preparing to stop living together amicably (tee hee), she discovered she was pregnant.

Because said individual had a congenital heart problem and therefore had a limited window of opportunity to have children, I didn't raise the question of abortion. Instead I stayed for 1.5 years more until I found Israel unbearable.

At the time, she was of Jewish descent, but not particularly religious. Doesn't believe in a god, is an engineer, doesn't keep kosher, drives on shabat, etc etc etc.

It really was the peer pressure from her family that caused her to oppose me on this. So don't come to me and tell me to think before I do, because none of this was practically accidental.

Oh, by the way, how do you define "Man"? Is it when the testes descend? Or is it the neurological wiring of the brain prior to that?

Or is your idea of a man someone who, like a bit of an idiot, shouts at other people to man up, whatever that may mean?

Quite frankly, the best and most long-standing study on the merits of having a foreskin was conducted by Nature itself.

We've evolved for hundreds of millions of years, and apparently it is an evolutionary stable strategy to be born human with a foreskin. We all have one at birth. Now you can claim all you like, but I for one don't argue with evolution over a geological time-span.

Apart from that the Dutch Association of Medical Practitioners advises people not to do it based on medical and statistical data. As such, the German Constitutional court agrees with them.

Now on procreation I can say that there are 450 million Europeans versus 320 million US citizens. I think we're doing just fine in the sex department with our foreskins intact, thank you very much. Hell, you might even argue the Europeans populated the US largely too. After a spot of genocide, but that's another discussion.

And lastly, I don't like men with beards that try to cut bits off me. Period. I don't care who or why, I just don't like that notion. And that should be argument enough.

Being Jewish is in no way important where I come from. First and foremost, you are a citizen as defined by the Constitution. The religion/opinion/superstition/belief of the day is hardly a factor of relevance in your rights and duties.

Apart from that I truly wish I had mod points to give to the guy with the mountain-bush-god comment.

I am plenty preoccupied with my own penis, thank you very much. And I really do wish people would let the penises (or other bits) of children be until the age of consent (which is 16 in this country, by the way, a healthy age to start thinking about your bits).

You're clearly not seeing the bigger picture here. According to the Constitutional Court of Germany, the parents don't have the right to choose this, and I for one find it sad that the Netherlands doesn't have a Constitutional court. I would have to get a law banning circumcision through Parliament to get a similar situation here. Although it would be a sweet reason to go into politics. ;)

You call yourself Airish (Irish?) Tiger, I assume, but since you were circumcised at birth, you must be either American or Jewish or both. If you are an American, I think it is sad that I as a European need remind you of the freedoms and rights that are enshrined in your Constitution. It is not the parents business to screw with the physical integrity of the children, and it is not up to the parents to deny their children the freedom to their own opinion, faculty or religion for that matter.

This is a matter of principle. Do you respect the freedom of the individual, yes or no? Now the State of Israel is a Theocratic Apartheidsregime that cares about neither freedom nor equality. It does not have a Constitution, and hence it doesn't guarantee anyone's rights as long as they are not Jewish Israeli.

I do hold a grudge. To the State of Israel for not respecting my son's freedom to choose his own walk of life, to my ex and her family for not respecting my judgment as a father, and to every Tom, Dick and Harry that tells me what happened to my son and myself is "not a big deal".

To cut a long story short, I can honestly not find anything more intelligent to say to you than "Go fuck yourself". I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but you are being annoyingly callous and presumptuous.