I have been dying to get on my soap-box about reality TV and this morning CNN was kind enough to offer me a platform!  No, I don’t have a column on CNN, they posted this link about MTV’s upcoming season of Teen Mom.  I want to be up front about this, I have never watched this show.

In fact, I am pretty against reality TV in general, I do admit to watching The Biggest Loser because I think this show is inspiring and beneficial to helping people who are struggling with weight loss, in fact I would love to see Biggest Loser do a show with teenagers, perhaps the trainers wouldn’t be quite so harsh with them, but a program that would teach them about exercise, healthy eating and taking care of your mental health; but I digress here.

I have also watched American Idol, but when a friend’s daughter tried out for it and I found out how the show actually chooses their contestants, I swore off that.  Ok, you got me, I watch Dancing With The Stars too, but I swear that is the last one!

Here’s why I don’t like reality TV, I think it is exploitive.  I think people who shove their children in front of TV cameras inside their homes should be arrested for exploiting their children.  They are making money off their kids and it’s not right.  Those children should be entitled to have as normal a home life as possible.  Instead every single thing they do is documented by a camera, they cannot go out in public without someone shoving a camera in their face.  It is bad enough this country is celebrity obsessed but to deliberately thrust your child into that type of lifestyle is wrong.  “Kate Plus Eight,” Kate Gosselin has stated that she needs to provide for her children so in order to do that, she thrusts them into the spotlight basically making them earn their own living, something us common folks call child labor which I believe is against the law. 

Now this MTV “Teen Mom” is just as exploitive; I have read the updates on the moms from the first season is US Magazine.  The kids (I will refer to them as kids because really at 16 that’s what they are) are nicely dressed, their children are nicely dressed, they have their own apartments.  How are they managing all of this?  Well they are getting paid to tell “their” story.  Their “success” is a promotion for teen pregnancy!  Look at me, I got knocked up and got my own TV show, now I have money so I can have a nice apartment and nice clothes.  Well guess what?  That doesn’t happen for everyone, not every woman who gets pregnant young gets their own TV show.  The reality of teen pregnancy is that it is a hard life, trying to put this little person first before your own needs, making sure they have everything that they need.  You sacrifice; a LOT.  You go without; a LOT!  You no longer come first at a time in your life when you should be out exploring your options and finding your own place in the world. 

Some staggering facts,  teenage pregnancy costs the United States 7 BILLION dollars per year!  Two out of three teenagers who have babies will not graduate high school.  A good portion of teenage parents will live with their children in poverty and this cycle will be repeated.

What a sad situation to glorify and reward with a TV show.

While my husband and I were cleaning up after dinner tonight, we heard this on the news, ” Michael Vick wants a dog.”  Say what?  WTF is that about?  Seems Michael Vick gave an interview and indicated he thinks a dog would help his rehabilitation.  Some of you may not know this but part of Mr. Vick’s sentence forbids him to own a dog while he is on probation.  Naturally my husband and I had to discuss this.

Now I am a pretty forgiving person, (ask my family, it is sometimes cause for discord among them.)  But somehow I can’t seem to forgive Michael Vick.  When the whole dog-fighting scandal broke I was totally outraged and so glad that he went to prison because I think Americans tend to allow athletes in this country to be “above the law.”  They get away with things that you or I would never get away with. 

I heard that there were Michael Vick chew toys for dogs and I ordered two of them off the internet.  Honestly these things sold so fast that mine were on back order for close to a year.  As soon as they arrived, I gave a Michael Vick to Delilah to chew on.  She took off his feet, put a few goods chunks in his head, but then I started to worry that she would eat the pieces and not knowing what was in the toy, I took it away.  I tied a black ribbon around his neck and hung the toy from my window, where it still hangs today.

So now I hear that Michael Vick wants a dog and I said to my husband, “why can’t I forgive this?”  He says he doesn’t know.  I said I think it’s like a Rookie in NASCAR, you want them to pay their dues.  My husband said, how much dues do you want him to pay?  I don’t know that he has actually paid his dues.  I mean, yes he went to jail but he came out and signed almost immediately with the Eagles, where he is one of (if not the) most successful quarterbacks this season and it pisses me off.

Yes he was exposed to dog-fighting at an early age and it was acceptable where he came from, but he left there and educated himself and should have known better! How can he even look at a dog without thinking of those horrible things he did?  I look at my sweet little babies and I couldn’t imagine hurting them, even when Delilah is taxing me to the max, I couldn’t imagine doing anything to hurt her.

I recorded the program “Dogtown, Saving the Michael Vick Dogs” but I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it.  I wonder if Michael Vick has watched it, I wonder if he’s given one damn thought to how any of those dogs are doing?

There was an interesting article today about how most Americans want an easier way to fire teachers, but since I already had this rant going in my head, I wanted to run with it.

I went to one of the local warehouse clubs (not giving them a shout out here, since gas is three cents cheaper today then it was yesterday when I actually bought it.)  I find when I am out in public, that most people wander around with their heads at least part way up their asses, and today was no exception.   Ok, I should have known better than to wander down the toy aisle when there was actually a child in it, my bad!

I went through one of those self checkouts, which I usually find to be quicker than a traditional cashier and most people avoid it like H1N1 was all over it, so that helps as well.  As I exited the register an older woman (hard to tell the age since the 60 of today looks a lot better than say the 60 of my grandmother, honestly I would have said my mother but if she ever finds out about this blog I’d be in a bunch of shit) exits from a register ahead of me.  She walks a little bit, but then stops next to a gentleman on one of those electric shopping seats and they chat for a minute effectively blocking me from exiting the store.  Then the man starts ‘driving’ and she follows with me behind her. He parks his cart and gets up and she moves forward, and then he follows her and somehow I am still behind them!  Now honestly I am not trying to bash or badmouth older people or people with handicaps, but do you think these two practiced this skit at home?  He walks ever so slowly in front of me and they do the same routine in the foyer, so I don’t get to actually past him until we are outside the club.  After I loaded my car and started to leave I noticed that Laurel was actually parked in front of the doors and was helping Hardy load the groceries. 

I started driving back to work and as I approached the main road, this “older” lady pulls out in front of me and slows down!  Now, I don’t care if you pull out in front of me, but MOVE!  I’m a woman on a mission; Sammy Hagar wrote a song about me, “I CAN’T Drive 55!” As I pass her I scream out, God lady I don’t care if you pull out in front of me, but move your FREAKING car!!  

The road I was traveling on is two lanes one each side, I have car 1 (I’ll refer to as “slow”) in the right hand lane and car two (“slower”) in the left hand lane, except somehow slow is slower and so I have to resort to the bobandweave theory of driving, speed up pass, speed up pass just so I can’t get in the correct lane and move along at a good clip.

Then I got behind a car with a bumper sticker that said, “Autism Awareness.”  A thought came to mind, but some things are better left unsaid.