Is babe-blogging a sin?

John Hawkins is accused of un-Christian behavior because he regularly features bikini pictures at Conservative Grapevine. He makes a pro-bikini argument very similar to my own rationale.

A constant diet of politics gets boring. If a politics junkie like me gets bored with politics from time to time, how must normal Americans get bored by it? Throwing in some occasional humor, celebrity news or eye candy helps to prevent the onset of political MEGO syndrome.

Most blog readers are guys, and guys like eye candy. What's weird is that chicks like celebrity eye candy, too. It's true. Go pick up Us Weekly or People and what do you see? Paparazzi shots of starlets in bikinis. And who reads those magazines? Chicks. Same thing with fashion magazines -- lots of shots of barely-dressed models, especially in the ads. For some reason, completely hetero women like looking at beautiful women.

Blogging is (or ought to be) a capitalist enterprise, the object being to draw more visitors and thereby generate more revenue. If there is one thing that conservatives agree on, it's that capitalism is better than socialism, so if you don't want me running to Congress asking for a blogger bailout, then a bit of eye candy is a small price to pay. And as a greedy capitalist blogger, it makes no difference to me whether you come for the Anne Hathaway cleavage shots and stay for the politics, or vice-versa.

I got a cool quarter-million hits in September mostly due to the (utterly false) promise of Sarah Palin bikini pics. It's not my fault that people wanted to Google for photos of Sarah Palin in a bikini. (Glenn Beck even got in on the action.) But if people are going to Google for Palin bikini pictures, would our pietistic friends rather the Googlers be directed to a conservative site -- which actually supports Sarah Palin -- or to some sleazy liberal site?

So relax, ye bikini pic concern trolls. And enjoy some Anne Hathaway cleavage video:

Ain't America great?

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah does some hunk-blogging.

UPDATE II: Instapundit links. Thanks.

UPDATE III: I told Mrs. Other McCain that I got the Instalanche and she said, "About something funny, right? Some sarcastic @$$hole thing?" Uh . . . well, yeah. And she said, "See? You're funny. You ought to capitalize on that."

The missus is quite a babe herself. And if you can stand it: Blogger in a Speedo. (Actually, that should be "sports editor in a Speedo," since I was a 30-year-old small-town sports editor when that photo was taken in 1990.)