While standing in the grocery

checkout line recently, a headline on one of the tabloids caught my attention.

"TEMPTATION ISLAND SHOW

ROCKED BY SEX SCANDAL."

Horrors! What upstanding institution

will be scandalized next ... the Playboy Mansion?

I started to buy it and send

it to Jay Leno for his popular "headlines" feature, but that

would have required sending my hard-earned money to a scandal rag. Couldn't

do it.

I watched a few minutes of

the latest "real TV" entry, just to see what the hype was all

about. In case you haven't bothered, don't bother.

If you're watching so you can

get your blood boiling about the low standards of TV shows these days,

I guess it might be worth a few minutes, but otherwise it's just boring.

I couldn't get too excited

one way or the other about watching a bunch of tanned, blow-dried and

buffed young couples sitting in chairs several different times in a half

hour and voting on which of the hunks and hunkettes standing before them

they would ban their significant others from "dating" while

they're on Temptation Island.

If you're scandalized by the

whole concept of a show dedicated to home-wrecking, I'm with you, just

as I agree with some who abhor the new show in which thrill seekers do

really stupid things, after airing the disclaimer, of course: "Do

not try this at home."

Some kids tried it at home

anyway recently. Put on a suit covered with steaks, just like the idiots

on the TV, and hopped on a burning barbecue. Got burned pretty badly.

I suppose if I were king, I

would probably make such TV shows illegal, since it's a king's job to

look after his subjects, keep them from acting stupidly and keep them

from coming to harm.

But we in this modern country

have this notion we like to call individual freedom and individual responsibility.

We don't think we need a Big Brother to govern what we can read, listen

to on the radio or watch on TV.

We do get worried about the

kids, though. We want the entertainment industry to act responsibly and

not shove harmful stuff in our children's faces.

Perhaps there's a limit to

freedom of expression. Maybe we need to find a way to write that into

our Constitution. But somehow I don't think it's going to create the kind

of world in which we're going to be able to shield our children from the

influence of evil.

Go ahead and boycott and write

letters to your congressmen if you want. You're still going to have to

work just as hard as a parent to impart your values to your children.

Notice I said "impart,"

not "imprint."

You're not going to be able

to open their souls up and pour in the values you want them to acquire.

The best you're going to be able to do is to talk the talk and then walk

the walk yourselves, and let them get exposure to what's "out there"

in the world only as they reach the appropriate age.

That means you have to control

the horizontal and the vertical, not to mention the power button, on your

own remote control, and get to know the parents of your kids' friends

to be sure they're doing the same thing.

And it means working like a

slave to get them and keep them involved in wholesome activities, filling

up their time so they don't have idle hands.

It's a tough job, raising a

new person, and there are no coffee breaks. It's 24/7/365 for 18 years,

after which you can semi-retire to part time status.

And there are those, frankly,

who should probably think about not taking it on.

Meanwhile, don't expect the

entertainment industry to give you a hand. It's only getting worse.