Impotence

Jesus' General, the great J.C. Christian himself, explains the true meaning of the word to us.

Re: Josh Marshall's post at Talking Points Memo.

. . . I guess Josh doesn't understand the history of the word impotence, because if he did, he'd know that it's a word with which any man would be proud to be associated.

I can't blame him. I didn't know about it until recently when Mrs. Christian and her sister explained it to me. It was a Saturday morning last spring. I had just walked into the kitchen where my wife and my sister-in-law were sitting at the table smoking cigarettes and drinking that Dr. Pepper with milk thing they like so much. Upon seeing me, Mrs Christian said, "Here's His Impotence, now." Needless to say, it made me embarrassed and angry, so I snapped back at her. It was then that she taught me the true meaning of impotence.

It's an Old American word from the Middle Ages--Old American is the language we spoke before it became fashionable for everyone to sound like they came from Kansas. It's a form of the word impotent, which in Old American was a contraction of the phrase, "I am potent"--the exact opposite of what people think it means today. At least that's how Mrs. Christian explained it to me--ladies know these things because they write in diaries and read books and stuff.

And the General also asks us to link the word to the website that defines it, in Old American, that is. Glad to do my part for the cause, sir.

Impotence.