Aug 17
Leave Cheney Out Of It
Bill Clinton called for the world to prepare to tackle the cultural taboos surrounding circumcision yesterday if, as many expect, trials show that it protects men and the women they sleep with from Aids.
In a speech to the International Aids conference in Toronto, Canada, Mr Clinton said that if the trials had good results, there would be a major job of persuasion ahead. “Should this be shown to be effective, we will have another means to prevent the spread of the disease and to save lives, and we will have a big job to do,” he said. “It is important that as we leave here we all be prepared for a green light that could have a staggering impact on the male population but that will be frankly a lot of trouble to get done.”
Uh, yeah, good luck with that one.
When I ran across the story at Dust My Broom I was immediately reminded of a very funny scene in a novel by Joseph (Catch-22) Heller, God Knows, an “autobiography” of the biblical King David. I only dimly recalled the punchline (it’s been years since I read it), so I googled around and found this précis of it:
Take the story of Michal’s dowry, for example. Saul sets Michal’s dowry at 100 Philistine foreskins. Heller spends pages (pages!) discussing David’s deliberations with Abner on how to go about this. First they figure on six men per Philistine; four to hold him, one to prop up the phallus, and one to perform the circumcism. Eventually they figure they can just kill each Philistine, and “bring back the whole dick.”
