and the week before they paid Bill Bennett 50K to give a talk about the decline of "moral" values in America.  We now know where that money went.

P.S.  and Bennett is still claiming he did have a net loss at the slots.  What happened to truth and virtue?

Actually, that is kinda sad.  I am a woman and I read Maxim mag!  I think alot of the clips are amusing, some of teh articles actually give a womean a peep into a guys mind, and I love to check out the pictures.  The pictures have given me somay any ideas for photoshoots and outfit designs.  Funny thing is I hate Cosmo and mags like that, I think theyre fake and they are designed to make women try to be something that they aren't.  I think its screwy that Walmart let them convince them to pull it, thanks God I have a subscription!

-- Modified on 5/6/2003 8:38:01 PM

about the $8 millions loss figure reported in those articles.  Since casino customer data are confidential, even if the reporters got hold of data from one or two casinos, I doubt that they have all the records from all the casinos to have a detail picture.

It is still very hard for a best selling author and a high fee speaker to sustain $8 million loss after taxes and living expenses.  The revenue to support that kind of loss would be close to $20 million.

Just like the report of numbers of lost items in Baghdad museum dropped from 170,000 to 20,000 to a few hundreds, the great loss figure is probably an exaggeration.

p.s. Curiously, the reporters didn't use "net loss" in their articles.

Has taken such a chickensh!t position on men's magazines. It's getting so you can't find anything other that politically correct diatribe anywhere anymore.

I'm glad I collect banned books!!

HPG

start putting Hunky half-nude MALE models on their covers, then they would be pulled off the shelves too.

Both female and male magazines use female models to attract buyers.  The ONLY difference between the racy female mags and racy male mags is that that the female mags stick to female models on the cover with either full dress or nothing less than a bikini.  Maxim (and most male oriented magazines) creates a soft core porn-like cover every month to grasp the attention of the male subscriber.  Think about this--its not about the content.  Its the COVER!!  And when your cover starts to resemble that of Penthouse and Playboy, then of course there are going to be problems even if the content is good stuff. I'm not saying Maxim is bad--but if they used equally attractive men on the cover, sales would take a dive.  

If it's all that bad, just subscribe to it anyway and save a few dollars.  Its not like you actually set up a trip to Walmart just for the magazines anyway--the store admitted that they barely sell the mag anyway

-- Modified on 5/6/2003 10:15:38 PM

That's why I prefer to shop at Target,   or at least I did until I found out Target is French   ------   thank god K-Mart is coming out of bankrupty!

According to an article yesterday in "Slate", the authors of the Wahsington Monthly/Newsweek piece received over 40 pages of internal casino documents on Bennett.  Moreover, Josh Green, the coauthor of the article, stated "that they received information from multiple sources at multiple casinos in Atlantic City and Vegas".  Seems convincing to me.  The Slate article also has an interesting angle on why the casinos may have ratted out Bennett.

Sam Walton started walmart in the south in the "Bible Belt".

Therefore, although I too patronize Wal Mart, the majority of their customers are Bible thumping Red Necks who will go to their graves trying to force their morality on everyone else.

Consequently, I am not surprised that the magezines were pulled.Either enough customers with the above mentioned values threatened to take their business elsewhere, or the powers that be at Wal Mart felt the same way, or both.

I know this bru ha hah happenned in the south. I live in Los Angeles and the Wal Mart I go to is patronized by a more laid back clientele that for the most part believe in live and let live.

I wonder if they sell guns.  If they do,do you think they would they stop selling them if I complained that their guns could be used to murder people?  Just wondering.....

that the authors carefully pushed out the $8 million figure with the following sentence "Some casino estimates put his total losses over the past decade at more than $8 million".

I am not sure many high stake gamblers would go back to Caesars in Atlantic City and Bellagio in LV for large sum gambling after the release of those loss figures.

Enough said about this matter.  At least I am not some Schadenfreude like Michael Kinsley.  I thought he would have more compassion for others given his illness.  Guess not.

-- Modified on 5/7/2003 3:42:12 PM

I`ts my understanding that those figures are not said to be losses but in fact they are markers Bennett had signed for. No telling how much he really lost. My guess is the figure is quite a bit less.

I sunscribe and I have never seen the "soft core porn" covers that you refer to.  I have however seen plenty of music mags with half nude to full nude chicks on the cover, and I have seen plenty of womens mags with hunky guys on the front.  I don't think that that hunky guys are going to get any of those mags pulled off the shelf but that is just mu humble opinion.

Also it is possible that WalMart made that statement as a way to cover up why they were really pulling the mag, I mean if it wasn't selling then why were they carrying it in the first place?  Wouldnt they have pulled it before the hens came a clucking?

Yes the do sell guns and thats ok cause there are no moral problems with that but GOD FORBID they should sell a magazine where the girls wear more clothes than most of the girls in a music video, I hope the sarcasm can be sensed. lol

PS KMart is still bankrupt here

PSS Walmart usually sells the cds that have been altered to keep out the naughty language.

Hey, I have an idea. Let`s do this. We all complain to Walmart about what magazines we want sold and we get them to do away with the guns they sell. Then, when some creep breaks into our homes we can just swat him with a rolled up Maxim mag while he rapes our women, abducts our children, and robs us blind.

Walmart can sell or not sell any magazine they want as far as I`m concerned. I wont worry until the government trys to outlaw the production of them. You know, kind of like some would like to do with guns. Last time I checked there was no shortage of places selling these mags.

of places to by these mags...but at the rate people are dying from being shot to death there are no shortages of places to buy guns.  And just like you seriously doubt Maxim mag is being hurt by WalMart refusing to sell their mag, I am pretty sure if Wal Mart decided to stop selling guns S&W would not feel the pinch.  Im oretty sure if that home protector wanted to buy a gun to protect the ranch he could get one from one of the 100 million pawn shops accross the nation.  We weren't saying WalMart should stop selling them, we were just saying don't turn it into a morality issue.  Im mean face it if it came down to ballots and the gov wanted my vote on which is worse for the community to have access to I would have to say guns before a magazine.

PS.  I do understand its not guns that kill people its people that kill people.

Yes, the $8 million was credit that Bennett had been extended. It doesn't reflect his losses or earnings at all, everyone is moot on that part.

And I think the definition of an addict, whether it's drugs, booze, gambling, or collecting beanie babies is that the person gains negative consequences from their actions.

Say he did lose $8 million? If he's not having his house foreclosed upon, alienating his loved ones, or somehow failing to meet his obligations as a human in society, then what's the problem (hypocrisy aside)?

If you make $50K a year and gamble $30K of that, I'd guess you have a problem; if you have $200 million in the bank from your books on virture and lose $8 million, you're still doing pretty well. It's all relative.