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Ah yes, the gradual moral decline is still progressing into an ever deeper pit. Whose to blame? The networks? The actors? The writers? I think the people to blame are the people who give these shows their ratings. The viewers. More and more people these days like to watch trash on TV, and I'm not talking "Junkyard Wars" on TLC. I'm talking about visualized vomit such as "Love Cruise".

What should be done about it? Here's my idea. I would like to see Cable and Satellite providers give everybody the option of what channels they want. They could simply charge on a per channel basis, rather than a charge for a bunch of channels you don't watch, along with the few you do watch. This would be great because people could specifically target the networks they don't like by not paying for those networks. That way, each network would have very specific feedback of what people think about their programming - in terms of dollars, which is all that most networks seem to understand.

I'm not going to say, however, that the networks should be shut down. They can put on the air whatever they want. But nobody can force me to watch. Besides, I'm not going to post on the "bang_list" and uphold the 2nd amendment, and then turn around and try to abridge somebody's right to free speech. I just want to be able to have a way, monetarily, to let the networks know that I don't like what they're boradcasting.

As a closing thought, there seems to be a cycle of events that all great nations go through in their lifetime. I dont' remember exactly how it goes, but it's something like this...

Founding on religious morals...
leads to freedom (God helped us)...
leads to prosperity (thank God)...
leads to complacency (this is nice)...
leads to apathy (God? So what)...
leads to bondage (WTF?)...
leads to revolt... (God help us)
cycle repeats.

Where is the United States in that cycle? I think somewhere between apathy and bondage. Hopefully the 2nd amendment will allow us to skip the 'bondage' portion of the cycle.

many lower income people can't afford cable tv. Therefore, they get the networks and the networks specialize in garbage nowadays, so these people have much inferior tv choices than what free tv was available 30+ years ago.

Also, we have a lot of commercials on network tv now, I believe 16 minutes per hour. This is high compared to other nations, it is regulated in other nations at a lower level. But here in America the limitations were modified to allow this 16 minutes per hour of commercials. Why did the networks need and lobby for and get this change? Because in the 1980's big corporations paid huge sums of money to acquire the networks. Then in order to pay for their huge investment they needed more commercials per hour, then the government changed the rules to allow it.

I watch Fox News channel and 'Jeopardy'. Sometimes on Friday evenings we watch 'DINNER & A MOVIE'. We watch Rick Steves on Sunday afternoon 'Travels in Europe'. That is all, no sitcoms anymore. We listen to talk radio. I didn't realize how out of touch I was until I started doing Pace Bike Spin class at the gym and I don't know any of the music from the 1980s or 1990s!!!! I didn't listen to FM radio at all then, and I still don't. It is good to be "out of touch" with popular culture! I recommend it!