An interesting piece of trivia. While only 10% of the general population is left-handed, there have been 6 US Presidents out of 12 since World War II who were left handed (and 3 of the last 4), being Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (naturally left-handed but actually ambidextrous), Bush the first, Clinton and Obama.

Prior to WW2 and back to Washington, there have only been two other left-handed US Presidents, James Garfield and Herbert Hoover.

It appears that the reason for the once dearth of left-handedness is most likely a religious one. As left-handedness was once considered a sign of the devil, most likely prior to WW2 natural left-handers were forced to become righties.

The end of WW2 heralded a rapid decline in religious superstition (at least Christian superstition) so perhaps resulting in the sudden rise in occurrences of adult southpaws.

If so, it’s another powerful argument for secularism. Many of those who walked away from the rubble and ashes of Europe after WW2 and those who came after recognised truly that religion had failed humanity and respect for human dignity, freedom and rights, beyond what religion would allow, was the only way to ensure that such a catastrophe did not happen again.

tallowood wrote on Feb 21^st, 2009 at 8:17am:

Generally no issue for Chistio-centric peoples... the dexter hand, or the other... or both.

tallowood wrote on Feb 21^st, 2009 at 8:22am:

Not with Christianity. Left-handedness was once thought to be a sign of the devil... nothing to do with a crappy arse.

Actually, if everyone ate with their dexterous hand, and wiped with the non dexterous hand (this is back before the era of toilet paper), then lefty's would need to be ostracised. You wouldn't want to shake hands with one. They would be disease spreaders, worse than the joos.

Two words- WHO CARES!

Is there a real leftorium, or is that a Simpson's reference?

Quote:


Food safety is no laughing matter Abu. People can do from poo sandwiches.

How is a leaf hard?

How did they go about using water in the old days, before they had plumbing?

freediver,

Quote:


It is a 'solid' last time I checked. Haven't seen too many liquid or gaseous leaves around lately.

Quote:


You're not as stupid as you often appear (like when trying to conjure up arguments against Islam) I'm sure you'll work it out if you think long and hard enough.

Tallow,

Quote:


Speaking about it in an informative and respectful manner is a world apart from what we've seen so far by the childish elements in this thread, including yourself.

abu_rashid wrote on Feb 21^st, 2009 at 10:39pm:


Statement of a fact is not childish, abu, unless you suggest that the "Apostle of Allah" was infantile.

Here is another one.
Quote:

Sure, I can think of plenty of options, but none of them seem very practical.

That was for drinking right? So what did they do with it? Rinse off afterwards?

how?

I'm just asking how they did it Abu. Surely it is still relevant, as that situation may arise again, and a good Muslim such as yourself needs to know what to do with the waterbottle, a clingon and a gumleaf.

It's what to do with the water bottle that has me intrigued Abu. It's a simple question. I din't see why you are shy about it all of a sudden. Are you embarrassed about the Koran?

Also, in places where they had no plumbing, but plenty of water, I would assume they had some kind of bowl of water next to the latrine. What did they do with that?

Quote:


You tip it? Does that require a bit of gymnastics? The arsehole would have to be the one part of the human anatomy that you can't simply tip a bit of water on out of a water bottle. Not that I've actually tried. Maybe those gross squirty water bottles everyone sucks on these days were designed by a muslim.

On the 'my culture is better than your culture' argument, didn't the Romans have extensive plumbing well before Muhammed turned up?

Quote:


Try it out, and make some first hand (make sure it's the left though) observations, if it's such a topic of interest for you. Nothing like a bit of [left] hands on experience now is there?

Quote:


They did, but I've already expressed my views on the hypothetical connection between the great civilisations of Greece and Rome, and the Western European civlisation of the last few centuries.

It's about as irrelevant as Muslims claiming the achievements of Pharaonic Egypt or the ancient Indians for themselves.

freediver wrote on Feb 22^nd, 2009 at 8:42pm:



As far as I'm aware the mohammed made restrictions on "cleansing with dung or bone" and "right hand" only but I could be wrong.

Left handed people include the best  - Even if I was forced to use my right hand at school.

muso wrote on Feb 23^rd, 2009 at 11:24am:


Did they have surveillance cameras in the school toilets to make sure that you don't cheat?

I think the problem was they just didn't know how to teach left handed students.

Quote:


Were they all left handers back then? When and why did they change?