United States Republican Representative Paul Broun of Georgia is set to introduce legislation that will force the Department of Defense to ban the sale of “nudie” magazines on US military bases worldwide.

The loss of revenue these publications will incur if the new law comes into place will be fairly significant — sales of magazines such as Penthouse, Playboy, and Playgirl on US bases brought in $231,000 in Europe alone in 2007. This proposed ban isn’t that surprising, given the increasing prudishness and religious conservatism that the US Christian Right is imposing on the civil populace, thinly disguised as political correctness. More and more restrictions are placed on US military personnel, particularly those serving overseas, with sexual fraternization being frowned on, even amongst troops of similar rank. Things have deteriorated to the point that female soldiers serving in the Middle East were threatened with court martial just for some harmless mud-wrestling. What is shocking, however, is that people still read Playboy in this day and age. I guess it’s just Americans reading it, and if that’s true, then the mag is pretty much going down now that it’s about to lose this significant readership group. At first, I explained away the stats about Playboy sales as a result of US soldiers serving in the arse-end of the world not having access to quality porn, but almost a quarter of a million dollars of sales in Europe? Haven’t these dumb Yanks seen the porn available in Germany and Holland? You can buy hardcore stuff in the supermarket, for God’s sake. But apparently it’s not all about the pictures.

“Playboy is good entertainment while you are on the can,” said US Army Pfc Greg Smith, 21, based at Grafenwohr in Germany. “They have jokes and good stories.” Right.

“We all read ’em,” said Pfc. Paul Rubio, 31, “There are times we just read ’em for the technological parts like the new gadgets that come out. They have good stories sometimes too.” OK, gadgets. Continue reading “US Nanny Corps Bans Porn”