And now everybody will go back to ‘reading Playboy for the articles.’

Because apparently people weren’t, or at least weren’t willing to do so if there weren’t any pictures of naked women involved.  Personally, I think that what Playboy should do here is just start buying a metric ton of genre fiction-type short stories. Like they used to, in fact, but buy even more of ’em, this go-round.  I have no idea whether this would have saved a softcore skin magazine in the era of the Internet, but then I don’t know what CAN save a softcore skin mag in the era of the Internet. At least in this scenario they’d be tossing a few more checks an author’s way, which is an incredibly smart thing to do with your money…

This pretty much says everything that I’d say about Playboy.

Aside from the fact that most of the SF writers I grew up reading dreamed about getting articles sold to Playboy (they apparently paid top dollar, and on time):

Via @AsheSchow.

Moe Lane

PS: As I once noted: I used to read Playboy, but mostly just for the pictures of naked women.

#rsrh So. ‘Rogues of K Street.’

If you’re wondering about this Playboy article about the crazy BAMFs plotting and doing black-bag operations under the concealing shadow of the Tea Party movement: well.  I would say, based on what I know already, and who I’ve talked to in the past, it’s:

  • 20% BS;
  • 40% pure gold;
  • and the rest I can’t swear to.

And that’s in terms of claims, not factual details; the article gets the facts pretty much right (again, at least the stuff that I know myself*).  For example, everything that Aaron Gardner quoted (H/T) is perfectly accurate.

Moe Lane

*I’m not really a go-to guy for the black-bag stuff.  I hear things, but mostly I just do my candidate interviews and the odd piece on zombies and so forth.  Hell, I probably don’t even know the person who wrote the article in the first place…

Newsbusters: AOL is lying about the Playboy Rape List firing.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Hot Air readers.  Also: nice job scoring the interview, Ed.

Full disclosure: Mark Impomeni, who had been previously fired from AOL, is a RedState colleague.  Caleb Howe, who no longer writes for AOL, is a RedState colleague.  I have previously banned Tommy Christopher from RedState – and now follow him on Twitter and have linked to him when appropriate, because that banning was strictly business, nothing personal.  I used to buy Playboy when I was much younger, but only for the pictures of naked women.  I used to use AOL, back when you got charged for the amount of time that you spent online.

I think that covers it.

So, to review: a misogynistic writer for Playboy’s website wrote a column (screenshot here) listing the top ten conservative women who he’d like to rape*. The conservative blogosphere, not expecting this sort of story to start appearing before, say, October of 2011, reacted with a snarl; joined in by several liberal members of the blogosphere. Then one of the liberal critics (Tommy Christopher) got fired by AOL. Meanwhile, Playboy pulled the article…

Yes, a liberal blogger for AOL got fired, right after he published a swiftly-removed criticism of the Playboy piece. Continue reading Newsbusters: AOL is lying about the Playboy Rape List firing.

Bonnie Erbe stands up for conservative women, except for the one who isn’t white.

Shocking coincidence, that.

She had it coming, you see. (Also via Hot Air Headlines)

You know, Michelle Malkin and I have some serious policy disagreements in a couple of areas, particularly on immigration issues – I am confident that she’d call me a pro-amnesty squish, mostly because by her definition I am – so keep that in mind when I suggest to Ms. Erbe that she did Smart Girl Politics or conservatism no favor at all with her ‘support.’

The address for SGP, by the way, is http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/Not http://smartgirlpolitics.org/: I hesitate to suggest that this was deliberate, mostly because I’m profoundly tempted to make it a formal accusation.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Red Eye goes off on the Playboy Rape List.

Which is frankly what I’m just going to call it from now on, because that’s what it was. Anyway, they brought in Mary Katharine Ham in the first part:

…and she had some rather pointed and cognent comments on why this was merely a difference in degree, not in kind, for conservative not-white-males. Which is only to be expected: it’s MKH, and she’s one of our best. The rest of the video… well, I think that Greg Gutfeld should have pushed back a little on the stuff that Gregg Jarrett was saying. Two wrongs don’t make a right, even when the one wrong is very large and the other one is very small. Nonetheless, watch the whole thing: it’s rude to Playboy, in precisely the way that the company deserves.

Crossposted to RedState.

On BlogTalk Radio with Fausta again today.

After the fold; it’ll autoload. See also here. I’m going to blame any stammering and verbal tics on my knee.

Fair warning: I got a little angry at the end (around 32:30) when I was talking about what Little Miss Attila noted was only not a ‘rape’ list if you could honestly expect that a woman would knowingly and voluntarily have sex under those particular circumstances. My commenters here don’t need to defend themselves on that; I regulate comments here specifically to keep people who do that kind of trash behavior off of this site. But it’s an ugly problem with ugly wider consequences, and there’s no two ways about it.

Continue reading On BlogTalk Radio with Fausta again today.

Politico attempts to whitewash Playboy hate-[expletive deleted] list.

You know something?  I actually expected better of Anne Schroeder Mullins than this transparent attempt to protect the reputation of both Playboy and Guy Cimbalo by laughing it off as just another top-ten list.  If you didn’t get a chance to see what Playboy actually had on the site before they pulled it, RedState’s own Caleb Howe kept a screenshot (NOT. SAFE. FOR. WORK.).

We’re not done with this story yet, by the way.  No, sir, we are not.

Crossposted to RedState.

When did garbage like this become acceptable? [UPDATED]

Via Amander Carpenter’s Twitter, “this” being a list of ten conservative women that a Playboy Forum author would like to “hate-“… I’m not going to finish that term. Amanda’s on the list, which makes this a rather personal insult for her; but it’s plenty ugly on its own.

You know, when I was a Democrat – and reading Playboy, might I add – the magazine would have rather gnawed off a leg than offer this level of misogyny to women, in any medium that sported their corporate logo. What the hell happened?

Moe Lane

PS: There’s a rather obvious omission, by the way. Probably because this Guy Cimbalo person is too scared of her husband stopping by and kicking his ass.

[UPDATE] PPS: See also here, in the ‘credit where credit is due’ folder.

Crossposted to RedState.