Free Republic

In 1986, Brother Don Fleischhacker of Notre Dame University wrote a letter to Playboy protesting that magazine’s fragmented view of human sexuality. Citing Humanae Vitae, this intrepid Holy Cross religious reasoned that once “the contraceptive mentality is accepted, there can be no coherent objective ground for opposition to homosexual activity.” If the unitive aspect of sex becomes an end in itself, he went on to explain, “There is no essential reason why sex should be restricted to couples of different sexes.” Recent events have proven that Brother Don was as prophetic as was Pope Paul VI when he penned Humane...

In the last few months, I've gotten a flood of emails from readers suggesting stories about Al Franken and his follies. This vein could be a rich one to mine, given Franken's years of motor-mouthing on Saturday Night Live and Air America Radio, and his collisions with taxing authorities across the country. But I've let the Franken stories blow by, overwhelmed by their number. However, things changed last week when Franken's 2000 Playboy article -- "Porn-O-Rama" -- got stuck in my e-mail filter. I know what you're thinking: Kersten's got one of those prudish, Jerry Falwell-style family filters designed to...

Al Franken dodges the questions for 6+ minutes. Video at link.

enate candidate Al Franken's satirical and explicit take on virtual sex and other topics, published in Playboy magazine eight years ago, is drawing concern instead of laughter from some Minnesota Democrats. Rep. Betty McCollum, who supported the comedian's rival Mike Ciresi until he dropped out of the race for the party's nomination for the Senate, complained Thursday that she and other Minnesota Democrats will be on the same November ballot as a candidate "who has pornographic writings that are indefensible." "Do they spend all of their time defending him, or do they spend their time talking about issues that are...

Senate candidate Al Franken's satirical and explicit take on virtual sex and other topics, published in Playboy magazine eight years ago, is drawing concern instead of laughter from some Minnesota Democrats. Rep. Betty McCollum, who supported the comedian's rival Mike Ciresi until he dropped out of the race for the party's nomination for the Senate, complained Thursday that she and other Minnesota Democrats will be on the same November ballot as a candidate "who has pornographic writings that are indefensible." "Do they spend all of their time defending him, or do they spend their time talking about issues that are...

Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum said that a Playboy column written by Senate candidate Al Franken eight years ago was offensive and presents a serious political problem for Democratic candidates this year. McCollum, who had supported Franken rival Mike Ciresi until he dropped out of the race, told The Associated Press on Thursday that she was worried that Minnesota Democratic congressional candidates will be running with a candidate "who has pornographic writings that are indefensible." "Do they spend all of their time defending him, or do they spend their time talking about issues that are important to this election?" she asked....

Minnesota Republicans unleashed one of their harshest piece of opposition research yet on Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken, pointing out a 2000 column, including graphic sexual descriptions, written by Franken for Playboy magazine. The Minnesota Republican Party on Thursday circulated a letter from GOP women calling on Franken to apologize for the piece. The public airing of the column coincided with Republican objections to Playboy CEO Christie Hefner throwing a fundraiser for Franken. In the column, titled “Porn-O-Rama!” and clearly intended to be humorous, Franken describes visiting a fictional sex institute where he participates in sex acts with machines and...

April 25, 2008 Atlanta Journal Constitution Washington - Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced a bill to prohibit the sale of "sexually explicit" material at military installations. "Our troops should not see their honor sullied so that the moguls behind magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can profit," Broun said in a statement. Broun said his bill, titled "The Military Honor and Decency Act," is needed to close a loophole in current law that allows the sale and rental of sexually explicit material on military bases both in the United States and abroad. "Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases...

TAMPA — It was Dec. 23, and a Temple Terrace police officer had just pulled Rebecca Reyes over for broken taillights, and all the Playboy model wanted to do was hide her boyfriend's Christmas present before he spotted it. One problem: She got out of her truck and ignored officers' orders to get back in. Then she mouthed off when one of them took hold of her arm. She ended up bruised and facing a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence.

It’s ok for “transsexual” men to use the ladies’ room? A mother should accept her daughter making a living by running porn sites? America should embrace same-sex “marriage?” Dear Abby, what have you come to? For more than 50 years, Dear Abby has been counseling people on how to live their lives. People usually associate Abby with common sense, but in reality she’s an unsung warrior in the sexual revolution—firmly on the side of Playboy, NARAL, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Dear Abby consistently steers people into the arms of Planned Parenthood, homosexual activist groups, and the...

KISSIMMEE - Gateway High School junior Elizabeth Johnson got an unexpected fashion lesson this week: two days of detention for wearing a pair of sweats with the Playboy name and logo on them. Elizabeth says she was approached by a dean who insisted she change the offending pants, and she eventually did. But the 17-year-old says the school, which required her to stay after school for one hour on two school days, overreacted. "The bunny is just a logo," she said. "There's nothing objectionable about that."

Former The Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight threatened to leave his model wife Adrianne Curry when she posed for sexy lesbian photos - as a birthday gift. The incident, which was caught on camera for upcoming reality show "My Fair Brady... Maybe Baby," left the upset actor suggesting the couple separate. The girl-on-girl photos, which Curry has since repeated with a pal for Playboy magazine, were supposed to end a feud over baby plans - but they started a new one. In the tense episode, which will air in January, Knight says of the photo gift, "It is the physicalization...

Valerie Plame is used to being exposed. She was famously exposed as a CIA agent by columnist Bob Novak and she’s no stranger to media exposure, what with appearances in Vanity Fair magazine, on “The Daily Show,” “Meet the Press” and “Real Time with Bill Maher,” just to name a few. But there’s one place Plame won’t get exposed: Playboy magazine. We found this out Wednesday when Plame stopped by Nathans of Georgetown Thursday to take part in the Q&A Cafe interview series. Host Carol Joynt couldn’t get over the fact that Plame was, well, pretty hot and, since a...

Aging German playboy Rolf Eden has rarely taken no for an answer. And he's not about to start. He has filed charges against a 19-year-old for refusing to sleep with him. The complaint? Ageism.

Obama girl Amber Lee Ettinger got Barack Obama a ton of free press earlier this year by striping down and singing "I got a crush on Obama." But now the Obama girl has switched her allegiance to Obama rival Hillary Clinton. "I have to say I'm very impressed with Hillary Clinton," she tells Steppin' Out magazine's Chaunce Hayden. "I watched the recent debates and I liked a lot of her answers!" Amber will take her actions to Playboy in October.

Much clucking behind television anchor desks follows the airing of popular internet footage of girl fights. After repeated displays of adolescent girls slapping each other, pulling hair, and ripping off clothes, news anchors wonder out loud about the reasons for their popularity among YouTube and other internet viewers. It’s no big secret: This is a genre of pornography. The occasional tough-girl fight on school grounds that one came across with flinching embarrassment is now captured by a video camera for the titillation of millions of sick viewers. The violence factor and the authenticity of the fight are the draws that...

'Playboy' Prison Guard Fights To Get Her Job Back POSTED: 9:40 am EDT July 12, 2007 SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. -- A former Berks County corrections officer who was fired in April after she appeared in Playboy wants her job back, in part so she can earn enough money to keep the family farm. "You follow a dream and take a chance to see what happens. I always wanted to be a model then I lose the best paying job that I could possibly have," said Heather Hull. Hull used to make $41,000 a year working as a guard at the...

Can we talk about naked women? Is that OK? We'll try to keep it mature and intelligent ... but not so mature and intelligent that you forget we are talking about naked women. Three-time U.S. Olympian Amanda Beard will pose nude for Playboy. Or, more likely, she has already posed nude for Playboy. In any event, the pictures will hit newsstands soon. Quite a few people will condemn Beard for setting a bad example. Many will scurry to see pictures of her. And some folks will do both.

CHARLESTON, S.C. A woman who was the December 2006 Playboy Playmate of the Month and a personal trainer have been charged with trafficking cocaine after police say maids discovered a kilo of the drug in their hotel room. Arrest warrants say that 24-year-old Kia Terrell Drayton and 33-year-old Otis Leon Story, both of Atlanta, were arrested as they left their room at the Residence Inn near North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday morning. Both also are charged with possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime. Their bail was set at 2-point-2 (M) million...

Shell Oil Co. has determined "Playboy" and "Penthouse" no longer are pornography, but instead are "adult sophisticates," according to a company statement. The issue arose when the Florida Family Association contacted Shell about the sale of such explicit magazines at convenience stores owned by Circle K in southeastern parts of the United States. David Caton, executive director of the pro-family organization, said his group asked Shell to require Shell-branded Circle K Stores to stop selling the pornography, as it has done in the past with other retailers. (Story continues below) The request, Caton told WND, has been made to more...

Jakarta, 5 April (AKI) - A court in the Indonesian capital Jakarta has cleared the editor of the Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine of any wrong doing, on Thursday. The decision angered local hard-core Muslim organizations, who have accused the magazine of potentially "destroying the morals of Indonesian children." In justifying his decision, judge Efran Basuning, said that pictures of scantily dressed women could not "be categorised as pornography," under Indonesian criminal laws. The editor in chief of the magazine, Erwin Arnada, 42, had been accused of indecency for allowing the publication of scantily dressed women in the local version...

Movie goddess gets Playboy vote as sexiest celeb and puts Pamela, J.Lo and Angelina on Hef's B list There's Scarlett - and then there's the rest of them. Mariah Carey may be Playboy's March covergirl, but "It" actress Scarlett Johansson is the skin mag's choice for Sexiest Celebrity. The 22-year-old, already a veteran of 33 films and a staple of the gossip pages, has been linked with several of entertainment's hottest hunks, including Justin Timberlake and Josh Hartnett. "Scarlett Johansson is the apex of beauty and sensuality - from her porcelain skin to her fully feminine figure to her mysterious...

Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of the cult classic "The Illuminatus! Trilogy," a science-fiction series about a secret global society, has died. He was 74. Wilson died peacefully of natural causes at his home Thursday in Capitola in Santa Cruz County, his daughter Christina Pearson said Saturday. Post-polio syndrome had severely weakened Wilson's legs, leading to a fall seven months ago that left him bedridden until his death, Pearson said. Wilson wrote 35 books on subjects such as extrasensory perception, mental telepathy, metaphysics, paranormal experiences, conspiracy theory, sex, drugs and what he called quantum psychology. He wrote the "Illuminatus" trilogy with...

A US Air Force sergeant who appears nude in the latest edition of Playboy magazine has been stood down from duties as an investigation begins. Michelle Manhart, 30, is pictured in a range of poses, some while wearing uniform and striking a military pose, others while stripped naked. The air force said in a statement her actions "does not meet the high standards we expect of our airmen". Ms Manhart said she did not expect to be disciplined and defended the photos. Ms Manhart, who is married with two children, appears in the February issue of Playboy's US edition....

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Michelle Manhart poses with the February issue of Playboy magazine in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007. Manhart, who is featured in the February issue of Playboy magazine, has been relieved of her duties pending an investigation.

- JAKARTA, Indonesia-The trial of Playboy Indonesia's editor-in-chief was closed to the public Thursday, angering dozens of Islamic hard-liners who threatened to break down the courtroom doors if they are not granted access to the proceedings. Erwin Arnada went on trial three weeks ago on indecency charges and could face 32 months in prison if convicted. Under Indonesian law, indecency trials are closed when witness testimony is being heard to avoid obscene material or discussions being made public. Earlier hearings in Arnada's trial were open. When the toned-down version of Playboy Indonesia launched in April - containing no nudity -...

MEMPHIS - While running for the U.S. Senate, Democrat Harold Ford Jr. became a national political celebrity and got on the cover of Newsweek magazine. But he couldn't get into the U.S. Senate, losing to the lower-key Republican Bob Corker. Now people in Tennessee are wondering what's next for the charismatic, handsome and soon-to-be former congressman from Memphis. "Whatever it is, it's going to be big and it's going to be soon," Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke said. Ford, trying to become the first Southern black candidate elected to the Senate since the 1870s, lost by less than 3...

The rocky marriage of religion and politics was tested again last weekend when Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. criticized the GOP's approach to faith. During a stop Saturday in Paris, Tenn., Ford said one of the hallmarks of the Democratic Party is that members don't "use the Bible to judge people." He then quoted from the Bible about "the spirit of fear," and living in the spirit of love, and he paraphrased U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn. "My friend Lincoln Davis, who chairs this campaign, says there is one big difference between us and ... Republicans when it comes...

HAROLD FORD, JR.: My friend Lincoln Davis who chairs our campaign says there are, there’s one big difference between us and misfortunate Republicans when it comes to our faith: he said that Republicans fear the Lord; he said Democrats fear AND love the Lord Wow! What a statement! I don't doubt that many Democrats fear And love the lord, but what would make this man come to the conclusion that Republicans only fear the lord? That is what he said. He noted there was a difference between Republican and Democrat faith in God and that the difference was the lack...

...WALLACE: Congressman, there is something in political science known as the 15 percent lie, and that is the fact, the established fact, that blacks, especially blacks running in Southern states, tend to do better, about 10 or 15 points better, in public opinion polls than they do when people go behind the voting curtain and actually vote on Election Day. Now, it happened to Harvey Gantt, when he was running for the Senate in North Carolina. It happened to Doug Wilder when he was running for governor in Virginia. Why won't it happen to Harold Ford in Tennessee? FORD: Well,...

It's not just Chris Matthews who sees racial bogeymen behind the RNC's now-famous ad [view here] with a Playboy bunny inviting Harold Ford, Jr. to "call me."On last evening's "Beltway Boys," good old moderate Mort Kondracke claimed the Republicans designed the ad to "stir up rednecks."Mort's fellow "Boy," Fred Barnes, was having none of it:"You have to be living in the 50's or 60's to think it is racist. . . There is absolutely nothing wrong. It amounts to the way Democrats play the race card and you fall for it."I'd say "bada-bing," but wouldn't want to be accused of...

Yeah Junior, we knew that you were at that Playboy party.

Referring to an RNC ad as the "Mehlman cesspool," Chris Matthews was being non-partisan. Really - he told us so! On this afternoon's Hardball, Matthews interviewed Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., Dem candidate for senator from Tennessee. The first topic up was an ad the RNC is currently running using actors to tweak Ford on his positions on a variety of issues, from taxes to gun control to North Korea. The ad also alludes to the fact that Ford attended a Playboy party at the Super Bowl in Jacksonville in 2005.At the ad's end, an alluring woman saying she met Harold...

SCIENTISTS are poised to press ahead with controversial plans to create hybrid human and rabbit embryos. It emerged yesterday that three British teams - including one led by Professor Ian Wilmut at Edinburgh University - are due this month to seek licences from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority allowing them to create embryos that are 99.9 per cent human and 0.1 per cent rabbit. The scientists are also looking at the possibility of creating similar "chimera" embryos by mixing human and cow genes. The aim is to find a ready source of "human" embryonic stem cells without the ethical...

SAN FRANCISCO - Playboy Enterprises Inc. said it would reduce its annual programming and editorial budgets by about $4.5 million and eliminate about 30 jobs as part of a cost-cutting plan.......started by Hugh Hefner from a Chicago apartment in 1953.......steep losses due to depressed advertising and lower newsstand revenue.

Zirkle suggestions stir attention pot Candidate to shred Playboy magazine; discusses Korea. JAMES WENSITS Tribune Political Writer SOUTH BEND -- Give Tony Zirkle props for knowing how to get attention. Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the 2nd District congressional race, already has proposed putting deadbeat dads on U.S. border patrol duty and said he would be willing to debate the notion of bringing back the guillotine to punish "porn-pimps" who prey on children. Now, Zirkle says, he will shred a copy of the "original Marilyn Monroe Playboy magazine" at a Monday news conference in his South Bend...

Kara Monaco, 23, an aspiring actress from Lakeland, Florida, received a cheque for $US100,000, a car and a sports motorbike from Playboy Enterprises Inc., company founder Hugh Hefner announced at the Playboy Mansion.

A recent survey found that women fret about the shape of their bodies every 15 minutes, even more frequently than men think about sex, if that's possible. This insecurity does not seem to bedevil 19 female students at UW-Madison who get bucky naked or nearly so in the May issue of Playboy and its glossy tribute to America's top 10 party schools. Madison came in at No. 1, the magazine says, for throwing huge bashes like the Mifflin Street Block Party, which is Saturday, and the annual Halloween riot. All across Wisconsin and beyond right now, male high

NASHVILLE -- Sorry, ladies, there are no more bachelors in Rascal Flatts. Guitarist Joe Don Rooney tied the knot with Playboy's 2005 Playmate of the Year Tiffany Fallon on Sunday, in Mexico. All three members of Rascal Flatts -- Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox -- performed songs during the post-wedding evening celebrations. Rascal Flatts goes back to touring on May 26, when their "Me And My Gang" tour relaunches in Holmdel, N.J.

Baylor University in Waco, Texas, which bills itself as the world's largest Baptist college, has threatened to discipline female students if they pose for Playboy magazine, which is trying to recruit models from the college. Playboy photographers came to Baylor's hometown seeking models for a photo spread on women of the Big 12 college athletic conference, of which the college is a member. Baylor Vice President for Student Life Samuel W. Oliver sent an e-mail to women students this week warning that any who "associate" with Playboy would be subject to the university's disciplinary processes. "Playboy is clearly antithetical to...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - About 300 hardline Indonesian Muslims vandalized a building housing the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Clad in white shirts and skull caps the protesters threw rocks at the front lobby, breaking the windows of the building in the south of Jakarta several days after the magazine hit news-stands for the first time. Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), the protesters also ripped apart several copies of the Indonesian Playboy, which unlike the U.S. original does not show any nudity. Despite being a much...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - About 300 hardline Indonesian Muslims vandalised a building housing the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Clad in white shirts and skull caps the protesters threw rocks at the front lobby, breaking the windows of the building in the south of Jakarta several days after the magazine hit news-stands for the first time. Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), the protesters also ripped apart several copies of the Indonesian Playboy, which unlike the U.S. original does not show any nudity. Despite being a much...

Islamic extremists in Jakarta gave the publishers of Playboy a seven-day ultimatum to withdraw a new Indonesian edition of the magazine when it was launched today in the world's most populous Muslim nation. But the threat of violence was just part of the cacophany, as radio call-in shows, newspapers and websites in the Indonesian capital hummed with the excitement and moral opprobrium that have accompanied the publication of the magazine's 18th international edition.

PLAYBOY, the US-based adult publisher and broadcaster, is considering using Britain as a testing ground for moving into the gay market for the first time, it was reported today. Playboy wants to launch a new gay brand to boost revenues, the Times said. Chief-executive Christine Hefner said: "We've extended the Playboy brand to women, and where there is a meaningful gay market, launching under a different brand is something we are very comfortable doing. "In the UK, our television people are very interested, and I wouldn't be surprised if we launched something this year, given the importance of the market...

As his 80th birthday approaches, Hugh Hefner is proud of his achievements. He shouldn't be. Hugh Hefner turns 80 next Sunday, and The Mansion is once again the place to be. "A major pajama party" is planned, as he told Maclean's, along with other observances equal to the dignity of the occasion. But this milestone also has "Hef" in a reflective mood, wondering how he will be remembered and trying to sum up "the major message in my life." The founder of Playboy, says a Reuters profile, has become "utterly obsessed with his own legacy" and lately has "filled some...

It may have been spelled L-O-V-E, but Ellen Greene thinks the drawing her 10-year-old son brought home from school was really all about S-E-X. The drawing, done by a school counselor, Greene said, depicted a classmate’s earring that substituted the Playboy "bunny" logo for the letter O. Greene said her son Josiah, a fourth-grader at the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, showed her the drawing because he didn’t understand what the bunny logo represented. "I sat them down and gave (my children) as much information as I could," she said. "I’m very open...but this is a sexual thing, and I don’t...

Polish Playboy to help teenage model expelled from school Thu Mar 2, 11:40 AM ET WARSAW (AFP) - The Polish edition of Playboy offered to come to the aid of a 19-year-old Polish girl who has been expelled from her high school after she posed nude for the men's magazine. Sylwia Preiss "appeared on the cover of our March edition, which went on sale last Friday. Soon afterwards, she sent me a text message to say she'd been kicked out of school", three months before she was due to sit her exams, the publisher of Playboy Poland, Marcin Meller, told...

Former Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith took her 11-year-old family feud to the Supreme Court yesterday. But another case about sex and deception that the Court decided yesterday will surely matter more to most Americans. We're talking about the 8-0 decision (new Justice Samuel Alito didn't participate) barring the use of federal extortion and racketeering laws, or RICO statutes, to prevent public antiabortion protests. The case of Scheidler v. NOW goes back nearly 20 years, to a suit by the National Organization for Women to harass abortion opponents who demonstrate in front of abortion clinics. RICO was designed to go...

New laws would make it an offence to show 'sensual body parts'(Did porn turn this guy cross eyed?)   The issue is where to draw the line on decency   Indonesian Muslims are angered by plans for a local edition of Playboy Playboy sparks Indonesia porn row By Rachel Harvey BBC News, Jakarta Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, is caught up in a growing debate about pornography.News that the raunchy Playboy magazine has signed a deal to produce a local edition has fuelled the controversy. Parliament is expected to pass a new anti-pornography bill by the...

January 22, 2006 -- Brazen baseball wife Anna Benson blasted the Mets last night for tossing her pitcher hubby a curve via a trade to Baltimore. The buxom Benson feels she was "misled" by management — which insists she's not why Kris was shipped south. "If he was traded because of any potential talks with . . . Playboy or anything like this, that's a dirty, nasty, rotten trick — and I think that's really freedom-of-speech infringement," she charged.