Replies

Thanks for the compliment. I am a staunch conservative and lifelong Republican, as well as a practicing Roman Catholic, to give you some background culturally.

That being said, I am not perfect and don't expect people to be. In no way am I an advocate for pornography and I think, on balance, it contributes much more of a negative than a positive to our culture.

But I admit I bought some Playboys in my time when I shouldn't have (underage).

I benefitted from great parents, a good reference group, a good education, and my basic conservative approach to life - restrained, good humored, self assured but self depricating. In some ways, I am hopelessly square - never been drunk, never smokes a cigarette, etc. Porn is no vice of mine - I have bought a handful of Playboys in my day, nothing worse. I have seen maybe a total of 60 or 90 minutes of video porn in my life (playing at a friends dorm room or house, etc). It never really appealed to me.

That's not to say that pretty young women don't appeal to me. I've been known to be quite a disarming and charming fella. I like ladies, I like their company. Enjoying a nice time with a real attractive woman beats the pants off watching some freak of nature try to 'tilt' a platinum blonde with oversized implants as if she were a 1974 Williams 'King Pin' pinball machine (anyone remember?).

Then again, I am an occasional cigar smoker, and I have been known to hustle people on pool and golf. I like wines, and I live in Las Vegas and gamble a bit for fun. Haha! So a saint I ain't!!! ;-)

So that's my way of saying I agree with you generally that something like Playboy isn't a positive - I am just saying in itself it isn't necessarily a negative. Any average male who didn't recognize that the lifestyle preached in Playboy was a fantasy (for most men) probably wound up hurting themselves and those in their lives. What can I say, by my late teens, that much was clear to me. So I benefitted from a good upbringing. I realize everyone doesn't have that.

I do think that with an impressionable person, Playboy can lead to more hardcore magazines. Those magazines can lead to ordering Playboy at Night on cable. when that gets boring, it leads to videos and DVDs, which grow increasingly obscene. Clearly, for the reasons I said in my first post, that harms males, harms females, and impairs healthy relationships.

I don't know what to do about it except lead by example though.

Thanks for the thoughts and stay in touch!

PS - I am the Hitman...of love! ;-)