Well, one day I was listening to the Dr. Dean Edell show on KGO in San Francisco and he was going on and on about the evils of male genital mutilation as practiced wholesale on baby boys in our society. It was especially interesting coming from good ol' Dr. Dean because he's Jewish and ritual circumcision is a big part of Jewish culture. Not only that, but like most Americans he allowed his first three sons to be circumcised. Fortunately, Marilyn Milos (Saint Marilyn for all in the anti-circ movement!) got to the good doctor and helped him see the light. His last two sons were spared the gruesome cut. Since then he has become adamantly outspoken in his condemnation of this primitive practice of tribal amputation and has spent good portions of his hour long programs on the subject during his daily radio talk show.

As he was expounding on this subject, he mentioned that one of the results of circumcision was a decreased sensitivity and difficulty in achieving orgasm, especially as men get older. This got my attention. He went on to explain that the male glans and inner foreskin, just like the clitoris and inner labia of women, are actually internal structures covered by mucous membrane that, when exposed to the air and harsh environment through circumcision, develop a tough, dry covering to protect the delicate, sensitive tissue. It's sort of like if you went around with your eyelids pulled back or your tongue sticking out all the time or if a woman were to walk around with her labia pulled back exposing the clitoris and internal lining to the air. The moist, warm membranes of eye, tongue, clitoris or labia would react to the dry air and defend against it. The nerve endings would become dulled because layers of cells build-up in a process called keratinization. This keratin, a tough, insoluble protein substance, is the chief structural constituent of hair, nails, horns, and hoofs. Over time, these once exquisitely sensual organs acquire all the sensitivity of a rawhide rope.

God-fearing, Puritan, Judeo-Christian, anal-retentive America, something on the order of 60% of all males are circumcised. Still. Even as we speak. The practice grew from its introduction back in the early part of this century when that tight-assed Victorian bunghole John Harvey Kellogg-the All Bran laxative king- and other constipated hairballs of his ilk began proselytizing for mass circumcision as a deterrent to masturbation. Their purpose was to keep the male youth of America from jerking off and going blind and insane with hair growing on the palms of their hands. The mass severance reached a peak in the 1980s when over 85% of newborn boys were circumcised. It is dropping back now but it's still a national scandal.

Contrast this with Europe, non-Muslim Asia, and Latin America where newborn males are not subjected to the ghastly deed. The truth is, throughout the whole world, about 85 percent of males are NOT circumcised. In fact, the only people who routinely cut off the most erogenous part of their boys' penis are Jews, Muslims, certain tribal groups in far-flung parts of the world and... the United States. Everybody else leaves their sons intact as nature made them. Leaving aside the dopey religious reasons for circumcision, the incontrovertible evidence shows there is absolutely no rational, no scientific, no therapeutic reason for the general, mass circumcisions practiced in this country. None! Zip, zero, nada, niente, zilch. Every major pediatrics society in the world, including our own, says so. Inertia, more money in the pocket of the attending physician and flat-out abject ignorance seem to be the main reasons it is still done. That, and our uptight, puritanical, neurotic attitudes towards masturbation and our goofy notions of cleanliness. It's enough to make you insane. No wonder the Americans and the Semites and other primitives create such havoc in the world. Their males start out life getting their little weenie all skinned and filleted and they go through the rest of their existence taking revenge on everything in sight.

Good ol' Dr. Dean went on to explain that some men had gotten pissed about the whole thing and were going about the process of restoring their severed foreskins to help reverse the damage caused by their butchering at birth. He mentioned a book, The Joy of Uncircumcising by Jim Bigelow as well as several sites on the web dedicated to foreskin restoration along with many other sites exposing the moronic practice of infant circumcision and what it does to the once-intact-as-nature-intended dick, the negative effects on women during intercourse, the continued psychological and physiological effects of circumcision, the pain, suffering and trauma to the baby during circumcision, the violation of human rights and on and on in an almost endless litany of grim and grisly consequences of this barbaric stupidity.