Used

Deliver me,  not only from this fool but from all the writers and producers of Two and a Half Men, that insinuating show where a child is put in the middle while a world of salacious talk sails over his head. I can't tell you how mad I get seeing the purported grownups on this show making their sly references to various expressions of sexuality. The kids watching don’t need to hear all that and you know some of them are just First and Second Graders. It damages children when adults don't act like adults, and then go on to engage in all this wink-wink behind-the-hand innuendo.For signs of the damage think of Katie Couric's 2005 special on teen sex. I give her credit for doing that show, Oprah too when she shone a light on 'rainbow parties.'  And don’t try telling tell me 'Oh the reporting was off on all that stuff and young girls really don’t know about such things.'In this tainted culture? They know all right. A girl n my Sunday school class once confided to me that she thought she might actually be done getting drunk and hooking up on weekends. She was 13 years old. Then two years later, a girl 15 told me she figured it didn’t matter who she slept with anymore because she had lost her ‘purity.' I wanted to weep hearing that.I tell you who I pity: I pity that poor skinny girl on Charlie Sheen’s knee, one of his many 'goddesses' as he calls these young women. Would he help any one of them if her car broke down and she needed a ride? Would he listen if she wept or hold her hair back if she got sick? I don't think so.I watch these interviews the media are doing with him. The people conducting them have these looks of faint distaste on their faces, looks of contempt almost, unless.... What’s that you say? They love doing these interviews which push ratings up through the roof and bring the big bucks to all the key players? But if that's the case then who might be  the REAL targets of their contempt?Who but you and me, babe. Who but you and me.Now here's Katie getting the scoop from a roomful of teens in that 2005 special. Click here and see what you think. Sex is no big deal? Now in what universe is that?

You Do WHAT While Driving?

The Today Show was all set to focus on Oprah's No Phone Zone Day this morning with a live phone interview with the great lady herself who assured wise Meredith and super-poised Ann and the perennially dressed-for-cocktails Hoda that of course she wasn’t calling while driving. She was going on and on in her folksy tell-it-like-it-is way when suddenly – bip! – the line went dead and she disappeared completely - which seemed pretty funny to me because it suggested that maybe even though she SAID she was Calling While Standing Still maybe even she was just then rounding a corner to pick up the dry cleaning.The worst thing of course is Texting While Driving. This is what's killing people, mostly teenagers. And if you haven't yet seen the horrific dramatization of a texting death and you think  you have the stomach for it you can watch it here. (Be careful though; it's pretty sickening.)But what I'm wondering is will Oprah’s efforts have an effect? We can only hope, because driving while texting really is insane and much, much harder to pull off than, say, driving while inserting a tampon, which believe you me many a female has done when she’s had to and her clothing allows it.The Today Show also spotlighted a parent showing her dead daughter’s student ID.  “How can this tiny thing remain when SHE is gone?" she basically asked the camera. But ah, that’s an easy one: Plastic will outlast us all; but a human? A human is as fragile as a ripe tomato – and that’s something we’d all do well to remember every single time we get behind the wheel.