Me too, all I like is the status he's gained through his tactics.
The fawning over his work's content is silliness, it's his guerrilla game and public acceptance/approval of civil disobedience for the win-More public nudity NOW!

Skyclad
Historically, Witches worked Naked, and there are many references to naked Witches standing on their clothes. In a few illustrations, the Witches are clothed in the clothing of their time, but examination of the drawings indicates that the artist rarely knew a real Witch.
Gardner introduced the term Skyclad into the Craft in the 1950's with the reference to "Witches worship naked which is called in the East (Indonesia), 'Skyclad'" and the term stuck as a poetic way to refer to ritual nudity. Witches worshipped Skyclad in 1950's and today, but in the 70s, the Welsh and American Celtic Witches began to wear robes, which became the standard way to worship for years. By the late '70s, the Feminist Witches began to experiment with Skyclad worship, so by the late 80’s about half of the American and European Witches worship Skyclad.
There are a number of reasons for nudity, the first being that in the Charge, which was written by Doreen Valiente from older sources, The Goddess said,
"And as a sign that ye be truly free, ye shall be naked in your rites."

This Charge is so beautiful that many Witches who reject the Gardnerian Traditions, retain the Charge as one of the few declamations that, if not directly from the Goddess, was unquestionably inspired by Her. Thus, the argument follows that we MUST worship naked because it is the will of the Goddess whom we love.

This argument is countered by a later version of the Charge that says,
"as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be equal in your rites."
However, this is a later American version not as originally written.
A more convincing counter to the Charge is simply to reject the Charge outright.
Reject all Traditional and Gardnerian ideas, so it is then easy reject nudity as well.

A second reason for ritual nudity is the practical one. Witches all over the world often report that naked is safer.
In rites where I have been robed there have been accidents, incidents where a person stepping on the hem of another’s robe, and causes them to trip. In a nine-foot Circle, if one person goes down, usually all follow.  

Naked people are more aware of their surroundings, so you step more carefully and bang into the Altar and others less than clothed Witches.
You feel the heat of candles, as opposed to not detecting the heat until after your robe is in flames, so it is simply safer to be naked.
At Sabbat where we had three Covens worshipping together in Circle, some were from our Outer Court, so wore robes. During the rite, one woman stood too close to the West candle and set her robe on fire. She did manage to extinguish the flames with little disruption, but I did hear about the accident after the rite ended.

The magickal reason for nudity is that anything worn upon the body will interfere with and change the energy given off by the body. This includes clothes, make-up, perfumes, jewelry, glasses, contact lenses and so on.
This argument is quite logically countered by stating, “energy that can pass through a wall, cover miles of distance, and influence another person would not be stopped by a layer of cloth. “ Consider the greater awareness of your surroundings, being closer emotionally and physicality to the others in the circle. Being able to raise energy without the distraction of avoiding stepping on robes or pulling your sleeve up to keep in out of the candle flame.
Think of the Coven body, mind, and spirit that must generate a tremendous amount of power to send that spell over that distance. Once the Cone of Power is sent the spell won’t be deflected, but it can be deflected at the source by a relatively little. In other words, wearing clothing or non-craft jewelry or non-consecrated materials can easily deflect or alter the power that leaves the Circle. The spell, when it reaches its target, may be different or it may even reach a different target.
Nudity is rarely sexual, after ten minutes the naked Witch becomes bored with seeing bare breasts and genitals and is then free to work. A woman wearing a robe that cuts low in the front and is slit up the side to her hips will introduce into the Coven an attitude of sexual desire to the men as they try to see a nipple or thigh that, by being hidden, is desirable but when revealed by nudity is simply another body part. The men, in this situation, may have difficulty concentrating on the work in an effort to see what is barely hidden. Similar things occur in the female mind when the situation is reversed, though women are often trained to deny these thoughts to others and even to themselves.
There are Psychological factors to Nudity are that the people must accept themselves as they are or change themselves. It is difficult to put on a facade when you are denied a girdle, bra, wig, make-up, deodorant, aftershave, codpiece or other enhancements to your image. Once naked, the individual with their sags, and bulges shines and, becomes themselves and not a mask. 
When working magik, it is vital to know yourself and accept your own good and ill, for to attempt the path with false illusions will cause trouble when your subconscious rebels and forces your work to conform to a hidden truth.
To be naked indicates freedom from conventional mundane thought. When clothed in a suit or dress, you conform to societies expectations and become what they wish you to become. Your style of dress and hairstyle are a reflection, not of your own desires, but of what your peers wish you to be.
Equality between class and gender is assured when naked, as the rich no longer have jewels to show their class worth, and Women must face men as equals, both showing their inadequacies and realizing that the other sex is just as physically imperfect as you are. With this barrier down, men and women can accept each other as equals.
Once naked, you are free to place your mind into a sphere of magickal thought. A place between the worlds where the God and Goddess are not symbols hanging on a wall but REAL DIVINITIES, where all is possible.
It is necessary to be clothed at times; in public or when outdoors in winter it may be necessary to be clothed to allow the mind to concentrate on the goal and not to be thinking that the body is slowly freezing to death.
When this is necessary to wear a robe, it should be one that interferes with magik and mind as little as possible. It is best to wear a plain robe that is exactly the same as all others. To make a personal robe will introduce ego and class or sexual differences into the rite.
There are some uses to wearing robes. The simple act of putting on a robe that is reserved only for Ritual use causes the inner mind to awaken and to develop the attitude that "Now the mundane world is behind me, it is time for the magickal world to appear." This can be very effective to your working and will counter some of the physical drawbacks of wearing robes. If all are wearing identical robes, the attitude of equality within, 'the group' is enhanced, for there is nothing different between the people or sexes.
The robe must also be of a natural material such as cotton or wool since synthetics cause a great deal of interference with the power. A simple list of materials which will interfere with magickal power when worn from the least to the greatest effect is as follows: cotton, wool, conductive metals from silver, gold, copper, iron, synthetic materials such as nylon, or rayon, and Silk though a natural material is a strong magickal insulator.
In today’s world, you will find Witches who work Skyclad, robed, in costumes and even in their street clothes. Street clothes however; bring into the Circle all the influences that have become attached to those clothes over the day. These influences will affect your workings as well as your mind because the subconscious will see no difference between the mundane and the magickal, and as we spend most of our time in the mundane world, it is easy to see which will win.


"Nudity establishes a closeness and honesty among conveners and 'is a sign that a witches loyalty is to the truth before any ideology or any comforting illusions.” Starhawk.

I love the human body (though admittedly, primarily the female one), and I don't think the US should have such a stigma about nudity, but I'd be damned irritated if I were eating dinner and someone decided to do their bullshit photo-shoot in the middle of it.

@skinnydaddy1
the ignorance of your commentary is staggering.
it reveals a total lack of understanding in regards to:history,the fourth estate and the importance of whistleblowers.

you state that he betrayed an oath.
but what was that oath in regards to?
the government? or the citizens and constitution of the united states?

manning has stated quite clearly he felt the american people needed to know what was being perpetrated in their names.

he honored his oath.

as for HOW he released that information i disagree with as well.he should not have just dumped massive amounts of data,unlike snowden who vetted the information,manning just dumped it.

he gave this information to wikileaks.
a notorious and well-known site for whistleblowers to retain anonymity.
your accusation that this site "lies" is unfounded and has no basis in truth.

maybe in your mind wikileaks lies but that is speculation and conjecture.better known as "wishful thinking".

which brings me to my next point in regards to your willfully ignorant commentary.
you state:
"He gave information to a a group of people that used it to lie and put people at risk for nothing."

and yet in your ad hominem swipe at @Asmo you state:
"What secret did he give away that was damning to the US government? Oh thats right Nothing Other than information that gave away procedures on how informants were handled and oh! some of their names."

well?
which one is it?
were people put at risk or werent they?

you make an argument in one comment where manning is a traitor and had put people lives at risk and in your very NEXT commentary you state that nothing of value was revealed.

you literally negated your first position by YOUR OWN COMMENTARY.

you postulated the our opinion of our government is irrelevant.
i totally agree.
our opinion of our government is irrelevant in these matters.

the fourth estate was put in place to be the watchdog of the powerful.
it is VITAL to this estate that they be able to glean information on the inner workings of governmental processes.for this to work whistleblowers who uncover government malfeasance be allowed to reveal the glitches in the system.

a government by the people for the people should be informed on the goings on of a government enacting policies in THEIR name.

manning saw a glitch in the system and revealed some of the working of our government and by YOUR OWN COMMENTARY,did not reveal anything of significant value.

manning stood up to the most powerful institution on the planet and has suffered three years in prison (wheres the speedy trial?).has been sleep deprived,forced nudity and been subjected to loud music for hours on end (all forms of torture).

he has suffered all this because he felt the american people had the right to know.

manning has shown a courage and a set of balls that has become painfully obvious you do not own.

manning is not only a hero but has a brass set.

I met a girl who has ridiculously large natural breasts that need heavy duty bras. She also was thin, as in rail like thin, even thinner than this girl Emily. Also quite an attractive face. She tried modeling but for some reason hasn't gotten much traction. I have to wonder if it's something to do with no nudity or politics.

I loved 300 (was a fairly faithful adaption of the graphic novel, sans the nudity) for what it was, but this seems like unnecessary exploitation of the title.. =\

It is a culture that doesn't make a huge fuss about nudity compared to the US.

*nsfw for nudity

*dead
removed as a violation of YouTube's policy on nudity or sexual content.
...was those Megan Foxs' nipples we missed??

Can't be a James Bond theme-candidate - no nudity.

I do agree that banning online gambling while allowing for local gambling (in some states) is stupid, as well as banning drugs but not cigarettes or alcohol. As for public nudity, I personally wouldn't want to see most people nude as most people don't have attractive bodies. There's also the hygienic issue of naked people preparing and serving food, sitting on public benches and seats, etc. While there certainly is a naturist movement, it's comprised of a tiny portion of the population and is in no way indicative of the general views towards public nudity. Public nudity is banned because the vast majority of the population finds it offensive. Private nudity, however, is not banned, unlike Falun Gong which is banned outright and cannot legally be practiced anywhere in China, in private or public.

That's all besides the point, however. There is still no case where the U.S. government will imprison people (without even a trial) simply for practicing a spiritual belief. That's exactly what China is doing to Falun Gong practitioners. Despite what you said earlier, it really does seem like you're trying to condemn the U.S. above all else. I'm not patriotic by any means but we're talking about blatant religious persecution here and it simply isn't comparable to bans on drugs, gambling or public nudity.

What you seem to be saying is that you generally agree with the choices the U.S. has made, and that you disagree with the choice China has made in this case.

I personally find many forms of gambling offensive, so struggle to argue for it... I only brought it up because it is a case where U.S. law is out of step with other countries. That said though, what is the real difference between a room full of poker machines (legal) and an on-line version which could conceivably even be running the same software (illegal in the U.S., but subject to a WTO complaint)? The difference, in my opinion, is one of control. In the case of gambling, the U.S. government has made a choice to outlaw what they can't control, just like the Chinese government has done for religion and/or spiritual movements.

The acceptability of public nudity varies from place to place, but I find it hard to think of a way it harms anybody. In fact the naturist movement is quite pro public nudity. You are used to it being unlawful, but this is far from universal. Should it be outlawed in places it's currently legal just because you are offended? Even if they are far from your home and you are unlikely to actually go there to be offended?

Speaking of drugs, why have we chosen to allow alcohol and tobacco, both of which cause huge amounts of harm, and yet outlaw marijuana and LSD? Who made that choice?

Falun Gong is a meditative practice. It involves no nudity, no harassment, no physical contact and literally nothing that could offend anyone in public. It doesn't cause harm to the people who practice it and poses no threat to anyone who observes it. There is absolutely no logical reason to ban it.

Gambling, drugs, public nudity, etc, are not valid comparisons because they are either potentially harmful (financially or physically) or generally offensive (most people are against public nudity because the average body is not appealing to look at). A meditative practice that you perform in the privacy of your own home or with others who share your beliefs isn't analogous to any of those things.

Again, if you want a valid comparison, you should compare Falun Gong to a religion. In the U.S., there is no ban against any religion. Actually, gay marriage is an example that could work in your favor. There are no victims as a result of gay marriage (though the long-term effects of having gay parents hasn't been well-researched) so the ban isn't really justified. And while it is indeed banned in many states, the government isn't sending gay couples to prison camps and you won't be arrested for trying to get married if you're gay. The state just won't allow it.

So when you consider the crime and the punishment, there is no U.S. equivalent of how China is dealing with Falun Gong.

It comes back to the question of who gets to choose? In your opinion Falun Gong is harmless but that is clearly not the opinion of the Chinese Government. So should it be you who chooses whether an organisation should be outlawed? How about me?

As a thought experiment, suppose we say that the U.S. government should request their diplomats to tell China to lay off the Falun Gong dudes because they're OK really... what do you think they will be told when they say this?

I completely agree that comparing Falun Gong to rape or theft is ridiculous, but comparing it to, say, running an on-line poker operation, some drug offenses, public nudity, or similar activities is a fair comparison. In each case the activity has no violence, no victim, and is against the law... but who chose which activities were legislated against and which were permitted?

*dead -- "This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube's policy on nudity or sexual content..."