David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel David Himmel

Boners! Boners! Boners!: America’s Unexpected Historical Hard-ons

With each revelation that another powerful and popular, often beloved, man has been accused of sexual harassment, we collectively exclaim, “No way! Come on!” and ask ourselves “Who’s next?” Eventually the shock wears off giving way to accusations that aren’t just gross and likely criminal, but also strangely pathetic.

And so, allow me to present to you, recent discoveries of sexual misconduct committed by some of our most treasured figures.

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Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall Don Hall

Kindly Persuasion Works Better Than Outrage

When Abraham Lincoln was 33 years old, he gave a speech inside a Presbyterian church to a temperance society. His message: The assembled ought to be nicer to drinkers and sellers of alcohol, rather than shunning them, or denouncing them as moral pestilences. Indeed, they ought to use “kindly persuasion,” even if a man’s drunkenness had caused misery to his wife, or left his children hungry and naked with want.

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