San Francisco’s misguided attempt to ban circumcision

Circumcision, or “bris milah,” has long been the stuff of cheap jokes and comedy. But in recent weeks, what used to be nothing more than harmless fare has taken on a much more serious tone. So-called “inactivates” on the fringe left of American politics have pushed the radical notion that infant circumcision is an act of genital mutilation, so unacceptable, in fact, that it ought to be illegal, with “no account be taken…of any belief on the part of that person … as a matter of custom or ritual.”