My God, the liberals are at it again.  I had to cringe yesterday, when I cracked open the online fishwrap and saw a story about how the website Jezebel.com is accusing the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition of "perpetuating racial stereotypes".

Apparently Jezebel has their collective panties in a bunch because in some of the swimsuit models photos, perceived poor local black men are used as props.  The website argues that SI is "perpetuating racial stereotypes by drawing power and class lines between the westernized models and the 'primitive locals', and points to a long history of media using people of various ethnicities as 'extras'".

Really?  This is something that bothers you?  First of all, HOW is that perpetuating racial stereotypes???  What, there can't possibly be a half naked white model in the congo just because its a beautiful place on the earth?  If it was a baboon or a lion being used as a prop instead of a "poor local black man", would these same people be saying it is an affront to the animal kingdom? 

I am a longtime fan of the SI swimsuit edition.  As such, I am sick and tired of people railing against it about some damn thing seemingly every year.  If not racism, it's usually some pro-women group complaining about how showing half naked models in swimsuits in beautiful locales has nothing to do with sports, and doesn't belong in a sports publication.

Sports Illustrated has been at the smart end of the bell curve for decades about this.  Always coming out a week or two after the Super Bowl, the swimsuit edition is the perfect antidote for many mens "mid-winter blues".  It is something many look forward to, and it's perfect timing for SI since mid February is one of the worst times of every year in sports.  Nothing exciting is happening!  NBA and NHL seasons are at the mid point, spring training hasn't started yet, and football is now over.  Nothing beats a bevy of beauties in skimpy swinsuits at this time of the year, and I say, God bless SI for doing it so well for so long!

I know of one curious 13 year old boy who will never forget that classic shot of Cheryl Tiegs in a blatently see thru fishnet swimsuit top gazing into the camera on a beautiful beach.  Or seeing Christie Brinkley looking stunning while frolicking in the water on a beach in the Seychelles a few years later.  Or being amazed by the sight of a gorgeous Elle McPherson bending over a pontoon boat a few years after that in the British Virgin Islands.  Those memories are burned into my young mind in a collage of collective beauty.  There is nothing wrong with that.

Yet every year, SI has to brace for slings and arrows of jealous people who have little better to do with their lives than rip them.  Of course, SI is laughing about the controversies all the way to the bank.  Every year without fail, the swimsuit edition is the magazines best seller, so no one should cry for them.

Hey, I know it's a free country, and I applaud that.  Everyone has the right to say whatever they want to say, but every year it gets more and more idiotic.  This latest thing is just ridiculous.  Those poor local black boys or men who are used as extras?  Being in an SI swimsuit photoshoot probably made their YEAR!  Not to mention that I am sure they were paid more for being in one picture than they probably made the rest of the year combined if they are indeed so poor and destitute.  Yeah, thats so racist isn't it?!  Plus they are THERE!  The pictures are trying to show the local culture and people.  If an average traveler was going to Africa, wouldn't you want to take some pics of some of the locals?  Would that be racist too?

I wish people would just get used to the SI swimsuit edition being here, see the forest for the trees about the good it does for many men everywhere, and go about their lives.  It isn't going anywhere.  It shouldn't.