Reason Writers Around Town

At the New York Post, Nick Gillespie takes a long, hard look at the history of impotence.

Comments

ron | April 25, 2007, 3:47pm | #

lol boners

Postmodern Sleaze | April 25, 2007, 4:05pm | #

This just proves that Nick Gillespie is a schill for big erection.

db | April 25, 2007, 4:34pm | #

Whenever Life gets you down
Keeps you wearing a frown
And the gravy train has left you behind

When you're all out of hope
Down at the end of your rope
and nobody's there to throw you a line

If you ever get so low that
you don't know which way to go
come on and take a walk in my shoes

Never worry 'bout a thing
got the world on a string
'cause I've got the cure for all of my blues...

I take a look at my enormous penis
and the troubles start meltin' away
I take a look at my enormous penis,
and the happy times are comin' to stay...

Lamar | April 25, 2007, 4:35pm | #

Don't see how this story could have been published anywhere but The Post.

lunchstealer | April 25, 2007, 4:38pm | #

Oi with the puns.

Anal Guy | April 25, 2007, 5:00pm | #

Oi = Skinhead exclamation or skinhead variety of punk rock

Oy = Shortened from "Oy vey," Yiddish exclamation of dismay or exasperation

You mean "Oy," bubalah?

Brian Sorgatz | April 25, 2007, 5:07pm | #

The new normal defines real men as ready for action at all times, at all ages, effectively limiting the range of acceptable male identities....

"Acceptable" to whom? How does the existence of Viagra limit my options as an American male in any tangible way?

Son of a! | April 25, 2007, 5:09pm | #

How does the existence of Viagra limit my options as an American male in any tangible way?

By increasing competition?

Jennifer | April 25, 2007, 5:36pm | #

The new normal defines real men as ready for action at all times, at all ages, effectively limiting the range of acceptable male identities

So before Viagra, "guy who can't get it up" was considered an acceptable male identity?

Huh.

edna | April 25, 2007, 6:14pm | #

flaccid piece. just when i thought it was going somewhere, nothing.

at least it wasn't up this morning- nothing ruins breakfast around here faster than a discussion of bob dole's withered penis.

uncle sam | April 25, 2007, 6:47pm | #

at least it wasn't up this morning- nothing ruins breakfast around here faster than a discussion of bob dole's withered penis.

Except maybe a discussion of BD's erect penis.

HalfBrit | April 25, 2007, 7:04pm | #

Oi! Anal guy!

"Oi" predates the skinhead movement by...I dunno how long -- probably over a century. It's Cockney, reflecting the working class roots of the Oi bands.

From www.urbandictionary.com:

1. oi

Cockney slang for "hey". Also a british style of music, named so after the band Cockney Rejects who first used it in their lyrics, although Sham 69 was the first Oi! band. (not correct without an exclamation mark!)

Mad Max | April 25, 2007, 7:16pm | #

"the Middle Ages (when Church officials would order suspect husbands to perform in front of clergy)"

That just goes to show that the Catholic Church is a bunch of prudes.

Impotence was (and is) grounds for annulment in the Church.

And they're trying to repress female sexuality. I mean, what if a woman wants to have a purely Platonic relationship with her impotent husband?

van | April 25, 2007, 7:21pm | #

Mad Max,

Huh?

Anal Guy | April 25, 2007, 7:24pm | #

HalfBrit,
(Which half?)

You are, of course, correct about the exclamation "oi." I simplified it for the riff-raff.
Sample (American) Oi! lyric:

Walking down the street
A couple of kids laughed at me
Turned around and bopped 'em in the head
Shoulda seen them faggots when they bled

Never, never, never stop the violence!
Never, never, Oi! Oi! Oi!

lunchstealer | April 25, 2007, 7:31pm | #

I meant the Yiddish, but for reasons best known to myself tend spell it with an 'i'. I think it just seems more aesthetically pleasing that way, maybe.

Anal Guy | April 25, 2007, 7:33pm | #

You are forgiven. We will not call in the skinheads to apply a beating.

jgray | April 25, 2007, 7:38pm | #

the large picture of a naked man
with hairy nether regions covering his pubes
is creeping me out

Mad Max | April 25, 2007, 7:40pm | #

van,

Let me rephrase it this way:

Whatever else you may think about "order[ing] suspect husbands to perform in front of clergy," it doesn't fit the image of Catholic prudery.

Nor does the fact that the Church annuls marriages based on (male) impotence fit with the idea of the Church repressing female sexuality.

Eric the .5b | April 25, 2007, 7:41pm | #

Except maybe a discussion of BD's erect penis.

...or it displayed in HD video projected on the side of a tractor trailer rolling down the freeway.

Fred | April 25, 2007, 8:25pm | #

I haven't yet taken a long hard look at the article.

van | April 25, 2007, 8:36pm | #

Thank you, Mad Max.

I got the first one, no problem. The bit about women having Platonic relationships with impotent husbands sort of leads the reader astray in interpreting your second comment.

Not every reader | April 25, 2007, 8:46pm | #

No it doesn't.

van | April 25, 2007, 9:03pm | #

Nor:

OK. But I will still argue that the statement is not germane to his point, and therefore is distracting and decreases the impact of his sarcasm.

van | April 25, 2007, 9:13pm | #

make that Ner:

Stevo Darkly | April 25, 2007, 9:23pm | #

at least it [meaning: the article!] wasn't up this morning- nothing ruins breakfast around here faster than a discussion of bob dole's withered penis.

"Except maybe a discussion of BD's erect penis."

* Abrubtly stops chewing, pauses, stands up, carries breakfast plate over to waste can, dumps rest of sausage links in trash *

Condolences ; ) | April 25, 2007, 11:16pm | #

I will still argue

Mad Max | April 25, 2007, 11:55pm | #

van,

Thank you for pointing out my lack of clarity. I'm still working on my sarcasm, and it still doesn't come naturally. Uh, maybe I should rephrase that last bit, but you get the point.

Never apologize, never explain, and | April 26, 2007, 12:07am | #

Stop already!

van | April 26, 2007, 12:23am | #

Condolences:

Your post is mysterious. Are you suggesting that I am vincibly ignorant for not accepting the Catholic faith, though I am aware of it and have access to its teachings? If so, are you therefore offering me condolences because I'm going to hell?

van | April 26, 2007, 12:36am | #

Mad Max,

Well, now that you're being so nice I feel bad and am compelled to admit that my initial response to your post was more about you absurdly (in my opinion) claiming "presumptive validity" for your views on non-marital sex on that thread the other week.

I have read somewhere that the Puritans would grant a divorce if one spouse was unwilling or unable to meet his conjugal obligations. Seems like there would need to be a complaint from a dissatisfied spouse to start the process though...unless the church would intervene in a childless marriage on its own accord.

Never apologize:

If you will permit me to explain myself...

brotherben | April 26, 2007, 12:41am | #

A history show the other night about sex said the puritans had 6 men for every 1 woman. The men lowered their standards of morality for a potential bride. In fact 60% of the women were pregnant when they married.

All of the above | April 26, 2007, 12:55am | #

van, you make things too complicated.

van | April 26, 2007, 1:18am | #

Sounds like the men first lowered their standards of morality when they impregnated those unmarried women.

| April 26, 2007, 1:21am | #

Or just one did.

Frank Zappa, R.I.P. | April 26, 2007, 2:08am | #

Penis dimension
Penis dimension
Penis dimension is worrying me
I can't hardly sleep at night
'Cause of penis dimension

Man returning from the doctor's office, in a tuxedo | April 26, 2007, 3:52am | #

What?

daniel k | April 26, 2007, 7:45am | #

Nick Gillespie takes a long, hard look at the history of impotence.
Shouldn't that be a long, thick, uncut, hard look?

ron | April 26, 2007, 9:01am | #

lol boners

Seamus | April 26, 2007, 10:07am | #

This just might explain why Dole's wife, now a U.S. senator from North Carolina, was always curiously absent from his Viagra (and Pepsi) ads. She mattered far less in the situation than we might have thought before reading this excellent book.

She may have been absent from the ads, but shortly after Viagra first hit the market, she was quoted in the news pages as saying that it was "a very nice drug" (or words to that effect), which had exactly the effect on me that was cited by edna and uncle sam above in connection with the ads.

| April 26, 2007, 1:58pm | #

Whatever it takes to get off the Dole.

Quiet_Desperation | April 27, 2007, 3:09am | #

Am I the only guy left who views sex as a normal, pleasant and healthy activity, and feels no need to explore longwinded and overanalyzed historical and mythological perspectives from some blowhard?

So the Little Desperation doesn't want to come out and play now and then. Big deal. Welcome to aging, folks. The emotionally immature might want to kill themselves before it happens, because there's far worse in store for you as time passes.

It's just fucking, people. Sheeh. Human cultural evolution pretty much stopped when we developed languange, didn't it? No wonder the Neandethals died off. They couldn't take the endless prattling and self absorption of the Homo sapiens.

Heh heh heh... blowhard...