Why do all my dynamic links begin with HTTPS?

I have been attempting to tweak my WP site to only generate HTTPS for certain pages by uploading a special .htaccess file into my root directory.

Having no complete success so far I decided to back out my .htaccess file for the time being (which I did, so now I am running with NO .htaccess file at all).

My problem is that – even though I have no .htaccess file and no SSL-oriented plugins installed – my site continues to generate HTTPS for all of my navigation links.

What is causing my WP to continue to generate HTTPS nav links even though I have no .htaccess file?