Grampappy's Thoughts About The Parents Television Council (PTC)

	It came to my attention a long time ago, that the PTC is, to say the least, full of sh*t. 
I'm sure it was started with good intentions, but over time has just gotten out of hand.  Parents
complain about things their kids see on tv, so they decide tv should stick warning labels on the 
screen before each show.  Unfortunately, that kind of works in reverse.  If a kid sees it's for
a mature audience, they're going to want to be "growed up" and see what it is.  Then, the morons
decide their original idea wasn't good enough, so then they want shows cancelled or moved to 3am
or some stupid crap like that.  I wonder how many of the parents in PTC are glued to the tv in
time to watch Love Cruise, or Murder in Small Town X, shows about multiple romance partners, and 
people being murdered, one by one.  But no, this is different, these are "reality" shows, they
can't help what happens there.  No, of course not, it only shows real people really getting hurt
and backstabbing each other, but the parents watch it because it's "interesting" and the kids see
these same parents trying to get Jackass off the tv, approving adultery and murder.  What's the 
kid going to do?  They're either going to realize that adultery and murder are wrong, or go kill
people because the parents are too busy watching reality tv, and going to PTC meetings.  I hear
on the news about a boy who set himself on fire, imitating a stunt on Jackass.  I'm not going to 
make fun of the boy.  I've burned myself a few times, it's not fun, but he used gasoline on his
whole body.  Now who's to blame here.  Tv?  Video Games?  Marilyn Manson?  No no no, parents.
Yes I said parents.   How's that, you say with a blank stare, as if you just saw elvis drive by
and wave to you.  See, as much as I hate to say it, I had very good parents.  They gave me good
common sense, taught me things I'd need to know somewhere down the line, and didn't sell me to
a plantation.  Now, I don't remember how old the kid was who set himself on fire, but as long as
I can remember, I never once felt the need to pour gasoline on myself because I saw it on tv, and
I did see it on tv.  In the old school movie Halloween, there was a guy on fire.  I never felt 
that urge, and even if I did, I'd most likely have thought, "Gee, fire's hot. I don't know how
the guy did it on tv, but I'm sure as hell not doing it."  Did this kid?  No.  Why?  Because the
stupid ass parents who are trying to get shows like Family Guy, Tom Green and South Park off the
air are too busy trying to take away jobs from people to teach their kid that "Hey kid, fire's
kind of hot."  There's even a disclaimer at the beginning of Jackass saying not to do anything
you see on the show.  So hey, maybe the kid is illiterate too.  Who's fault if that would be 
true?  The parents.  What did parents do back in the day to keep their kids from seeing bad things
on tv?  They turned it off.  What do parents do today?  They bitch, whine and moan until someone 
kisses their ass and takes a show off tv.  I'm no expert, I've never gotten a show cancelled,
(although I was quite tempted with Beverly Hills 90210) but I think it would be somewhat 
easier to press a button, thus nullifying any chance the kid has to see a stupid stunt, than 
to call all your stupid neighbors who are too stupid to raise their own kids and bitch at a tv
station.  "Well they can just turn it back on"  Uhhhhh not if you make sure they don't.  The Tv
has gone from entertainment to babysitter.  Turn it on, and you can walk away without worrying
about what your kid's doing.  That may be true in some cases, but the kid is seeing stuff on tv
and as far as they know, it's real.  They see a guy get shot with a gun and is ok (superman) so 
they think you can do that to anyone.  And don't even get me started on PTC on Wrestling.  Yet
another example of bad parenting.  If I were a parent and my kid saw that, I'd tell them it was
fake, or pretend (depending on how old the tyke is) and that you shouldn't do it to anyone, 
because you could hurt them for real.  I would pretty much teach them everything on tv is fake, 
and not to do any of it. Until they get older, then I start going into detail about shows.  
However, PTC is blaming WWF for all these deaths of babies from older kids imitating wrestling
moves on them. One even had a freaking 16 year old. 16!!  How in blazing hell can a 16 year old
not know that some of that stuff will actually hurt and/or kill someone?  I'd love to have met
the parents.  I saw on the news of a woman who was babysitting a girl, and was upstairs while
her son and the girl were downstairs, doing what?  Watching tv.  The boy starts doing wrestling 
moves on the girl; girls screaming in pain; woman yells at boy to make the girl stop screaming;
boy kills girl.  Now how could that have been prevented... Oh I know, go downstairs to see why
the girl is screaming, no better yet, watch the f'en kids instead of plopping them in front of
the tv and going upstairs to sort your socks or playing with your battery-operated-boyfriend. 
To top off this wonderful "editorial" if you want to call it that is a whine I saw on the news
about the movie coming out, BubbleBoy... BubbleBoy?!?!! I calmly said "Oh my sweet jesus mother
f*cking christ" and watched it.  Apparently there's a family in some hick state who has a kid
with some kind of immunity deficiency thing.  They're bitching because the movie is taking
something "serious" like that and making it into a comedy, but the illness is not funny!
I guess the parents wanted to be on tv so bad they found the closest relevant thing and moaned
to the local news station or something about it.  Apparently moaning about American Pie 2 
didn't quite cut it with the immune deficiency people.  Let's see, the movie is about a guy
who's in a bubble because he's easily infected with stuff, the love of his life is getting
married and he wants to stop it, so he goes on a trek somewhere to stop it, it just so 
happens a few things occur along the way.  Hmm, no I can't say I honestly see anything
offensive to the stupid hick parents.  I could have easily gotten on CNN news if i had whined
about the movie The Mexican... nobody in that movie was mexican, jesus christ. I should've
whined to action 10 news, then I'd be seen across the world.  People these days are too 
eager to sue someone, or some crap like that, geez I'm pissed. I need something to keep me
from going off the deep end... beth has a nice butt. Heh, yep that did it. I feel good now.

-GrampappyJoe (sorry beth :-D)