If you don’t know what Kidz Bop is, you don’t have young kids. Or you do, but your child is named Helen and everyone makes jokes about her answering the iron. 

Imagine turning on the radio and hearing the crappiest pop song possible sung by an adult. Now, picture the same crappy song sung by ten year old children! This is Kidz Bop: the brilliant marketing scheme of some music mogul somewhere. I don’t know what it is about the popular entertainment notion that if you make something younger, it makes it better. Case in point: Muppet Babies, Tiny Toons, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and countless men’s second and third wives. The latter, however, I easily agree with. 

I was first made aware of Kidz Pop through a television commercial while my five year old was watching Cartoon Network, or Disney, or some other youth oriented channel where adults can’t really tell the difference between one crappy show and the next, which doesn’t really make any difference so long as said shows keep the child in a quiet hypnotic trance long enough for me to catch up on my shows on Hulu; that is until the Kidz Bop commercial comes on, and your child comes running to you screaming, “Can I get that!? Can I get that!?”

My suspicion is the television commercials for Kidz Bop had little success in marketing this particular musical genre. And I use the root word music, loosely. If most parents were like me, they couldn’t even tolerate hearing sixty seconds of this entertainment equivalent of water boarding, let alone get through an entire full length CD. At some point the marketing executives over at Kidz Bop realized they were having little success. It was however, a boon to remote control companies who were finding scores of households of parents with young children having to constantly replace the mute button on their clickers from over use.

At a Kidz Bop sales meeting someone lamented that they couldn’t even give this crap away. Then someone else promptly chimed up, “But I bet McDonald’s could!”

Fast forward several months. Driving in my car, I hear the usual childhood complaints about who’s looking at who, who’s hitting who, who’s taking who’s this or that away, and a McDonald’s off in the distance brings me a sense of relief and reprieve. A Chicken McNugget in a child’s mouth is worth countless minutes of peace to a parent’s ears. But au contraire, mon frère, once I hand off the Happy Meal to the back seat, like nails against a chalkboard, I hear the words, “Look Daddy! A Kidz Bop CD!”

Now it’s no longer, “Can I get the Kidz Bop CD!?” It’s “Play my Kidz Bop CD!” Somewhere in the afterlife Dave Thomas is having a big laugh at Ray Kroc’s expense. Never before has a fast food restaurant’s marketing campaign driven so many people to the competition! Because there wasn’t just one Kidz Bop CD, at last count, there were five! A new one to look forward to each week! I’m now regretting taking my four year old to preschool where he learned to count so soon. “Oh, sorry son! You already have this Kidz Bop CD!” I say. To which he responds with, “No I don’t! This CD is this many! (Holding up three fingers).    

Thank god for Night at the Museum 2! A new campaign has given way to new toys in the Happy Meal. And on a hot June day, when my son asks if we can listen to Kidz Bop on our way to the mall, I readily agree. Daddy sees the importance of an object lesson here. Call it a lesson in science, or simple responsibility, either way a lesson was taught: When you leave five CDs laying on the seat of the car (accidentally of course) in direct sunlight, they melt…

In early December, John and comedian buddy Mike Jenkins took to the open road of Montana for yet another run of one nighters. Every night they were in a different town but one thing remained the same:  the people were all drunk and the hotels crappy. On the last night of the run John and Mike were in Miles City, Montana. The town is called Miles City because it's miles away from anyone or anything. Including a dentist's office. The local club where the two performed put them up in The Olive Hotel, a historical landmark in town. Historical because it was actually the first building in town that was condemned as a result of the Influenza pandemic of 1918. The gonorrhea outbreak of '86 was also believed to have origins there.
 
Built in 1890 The Olive has been a host to a myriad of scandalous cowboy legends. It's rumored that the movie "Brokeback Mountain" was to be originally called "The Olive Hotel." One such scandal, however, might have been more recent than others. Upon checking into his room, Mike asked John to come see something amiss in his room. John discovered Mike's bathroom to have what clearly looked like blood splatter one the floor, outlined around the toilette bowl. The two comedians had been driving a considerable distance, sitting in the car all day, and John suggested Mike use Preparation H and see a doctor immediately when they got home. Mike insisted the floor looked that way when he got there and marched down to the front desk and informed the clerk about the blood splatter.  The clerk chuckled and assured Mike it was just "rust."

Mike said he would not stay in that room. However, no other rooms were currently available. Apparently the homeless shelter uses the Olive Hotel as overflow on cold nights. John assured Mike everything would be fine as long as he didn't use the bathroom; Mike could hold it till after they left town the next day. Mike mentioned he would be drinking heavily at the show and didn't feel he'd be able to hold it.  John, knowing how much Mike can and would drink, pointed out that after all the drinking Mike woul'd do, whatever was in the bathroom, wouldn't make any difference to him in a few hours.

John was right. Mike passed out and wound up peeing the bed in his sleep. He never had to set foot in the bathroom.

Thirty years ago college students on campuses across the U.S would laugh to the likes of Robert Klein or George Carlin riffing about politics, religion, and current events. Today college students laugh at Dane Cook doing bits called “Itchy Asshole.” American youth are dumbing down and let’s not make any bones about it. The IQ of the average college age kid over the last thirty years has gone down faster than membership to the Mel Gibson fan club in Miami. 

The decline of grey matter in today’s young skulls can be clearly traced to the birth of the MTV Generation. Video not only killed the radio star, it’s also taken out countless numbers of brain cells. Only now, the MTV Generation is made up of old timers. We sit around and tell our kids how when we were young, back in the olden days known as the eighties, MTV actually played music videos. My nieces and nephews have a hard time understanding how that could possibly be entertaining when huddling around a computer screen to watch some 14 year old kid swallow a cell phone and fart out ring tones can provide hours of non-stop amusement on YouTube.

In the desperation for the information super highway to bring us information, we over looked one small aspect: the information. Sure in the millisecond it takes to click a mouse a college student doing a research paper can not only read, but actually see Martin Luther King Jr give his “I have a dream” speech. And they can also see Jenna Jameson giving – well, you get the point. The internet has become less of an information super highway and more like the Vegas Strip; and there are barkers on every corner handing out flyers trying to attract every little piece of our attention. But the big problem is that on the net what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas. We’ve got to take into consideration those prefixical three initials, www: the World Wide Web.

The ability to connect to people and transmit information is a powerful tool. We’re now a global community. But if some alien world is out there tapping into our media transmissions to study our global community, I’m sure they can’t help but think there’s an awful lot of inbreeding going on. Welcome back to “Itchy Asshole.”

There used to be a time when comics would complain about other comics who only had seven minutes and got on the Tonight Show. Now comics with seven minutes get hour long TV specials because the programmers know the comics have fifty million friends on MySpace that will tune in.

Now look, I don’t hate Dane Cook. But I don’t fawn over him either. I think he’s a mediocre comic who put the cart before the horse and learned to promote his act before he actually had an act. He takes so long to set up a joke I can go to the bathroom, nuke my popcorn, get a drink, eat the popcorn, drink the drink, digest it all, then go back to the bathroom, and still come back in front of the TV in time before he gets to the actual punch line.

But he has success. And I give him credit and kudos for that. He’s brilliantly channeled the power of the global community to reach the masses. Recently Details Magazine ranked Dane Cook in the top Fifty Most Influential People Under The Age of 42. Please note that Variety, TV Guide, or Entertainment did not rank him in the top Fifty Most Funniest Comedians Under The Age of 42.

It’s no argument Dane Cook’s impact has been far reaching and shaped the way stand up comedy is promoted, viewed, and received. However, is that a good thing? That’s like asking if having nuclear weapons is a good thing. And let’s face it; if it weren’t for nuclear technology we might have the phrase government sushi instead of government cheese. Although as one who is not a fan of sushi myself, I can see how if that’s what we were doling out to the poor, it might encourage people to get off welfare. But the flip side of that question is us knowing that the likes of Kim Jong Mentally Ill could have their tiny little communist sausage finger on the trigger.

The same goes for stand up comedy. Is what Dane Cook did a good thing? Though I don’t think we can blame and or assign great credit to Dane Cook. He just happened to be the first one out of the gate. If it wasn’t Dane Cook, it would have been somebody else. The natural evolution of “information” through technology can’t be suppressed; whether it’s good or bad. The first thing printed after the Bible on Gutenberg’s press was nothing other than porn. It just goes to show that at some point, somebody will eventually get a light bulb on in their head, no matter how dim it may be.

A hundred years ago people were arguing over the wisdom and duration of the automobile. They called it a fad that would never last. Of course the “they” being blacksmiths. However, the smart ones quit their bitching and adapted. They traded in their hammers and anvils for Craftman socket wrenches and started charging people seventy-five bucks and hour. Now those of us with cars in the shop bitch.

But adaptation is exactly what stand up comics have to do. And quit their bitching. Well, for some of us our bitching is our act, we just need to channel what we bitch about. But yes, on many fronts, it’s frustrating. Recently I participated in an online competition on a comedy website. I uploaded a video clip of my stand up act and then visitors to the site would rate my performance. My video was a professional clip from a television show I did. The material was solid and received exactly the way it should be.

You would think that might be the standard for someone uploading a video of their comedy act for a competition. Not so. I perused many of the other video clips of my so called competitors. And I use the word competitors loosely as many of these “comics” were nothing more than the club janitor deciding to try out toilette jokes on open mic night. The video quality was so bad it could have been shot by Abraham Zapruder on the grassy knoll. And the sound was so poor it made Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer sound like THX. Yet consistently these “stand up comedy” video clips were receiving some of the highest ratings available. Why? Because each of the “comics” were blasting out emails and posting bulletins on MySpace.com telling all their “friends” to vote them to the top.

OK… well, so was I… But I’m a professional stand up comedian and entertainer who makes a good living doing what I do. I’m funny. On this website after watching all these clips of my “competition” I felt like that 1988 skit from Saturday Night Live that parodied a presidential debate between then majority front runner George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. Dana Carvey played Bush 41 and was spouting off these incoherent dumb as a rock ramblings at which point Jon Lovitz as Michael Dukakis turns to the camera and quips, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy.”

And that’s what comedy has become. It’s not about who’s funnier. It’s about who has the most “friends.” And if those friends will support you, then you make it to the top. And the only way to get those “friends” is to market yourself.

Since the advent of radio, movies, and television if you were a comic who wanted to succeed, you had material, you were funny, and you traveled to clubs across the country and audiences laughed. Executives in the industry, always wanting to make a buck, recognized that, they took you, found a way to package you, marketed you to the masses and a star was born. Today comedians have taken those steps and shuffled them around a bit - and even eliminated a few. The comedians now market themselves to the masses through the internet; give birth to their own star if you will, and the industry recognizes that – and not necessarily the talent.

Now for a comic who is funny this new age process can be great. For those who aren’t funny it’s great too.  And for those that are funny - that’s bad. For what has a generation become that’s being inundated with mediocre and even bad stand up comedy and being told it’s good and even believe it’s good because some open mic’er has a camcorder, high speed internet, and fifty million “friends” on MySpace?

So I say to the newbies, the guys just starting out, please above all else, hone your act. Pace yourself. Know it takes time. Yes, we all need support in the form of friends and family coming out to laugh; but don’t allow support to become bigger than the reason why you are on stage: to communicate a well thought out premise, deliver a joke, and create true laughter. And hopefully impress and pick up hot chicks after the show.

To the old timers, the stand up comics who started before, say the year 1995, I say hang in there. Like the blacksmiths of old, learn to adapt. There was a time when a comic could just show up to the club and our responsibility was to the club owner to do our best on stage. (If you’ve done a gig for David Tribble in the Pacific Northwest that responsibility also includes not drinking before or during the show. No drug use on the hotel premises. No partying with the wait staff in your rooms. No breaking the audio equipment. And no fighting with the audience members.)

But in today’s world we also have an added responsibility; and it’s to ourselves: to not only show up, but to do our damnedest to make sure an audience shows up too. That’s a cold hard fact, like it or not. Because if we don’t, the crappy open mic’er with fifty million friends on MySpace will get the audience to show up. Think of the old philosophical riddle that asks if a tree falls in the woods and if no one is there to hear it fall, does it still make a noise? Well, if a comedian shows up to a club, and no one is there to laugh, is he still funny? He very well may be, but in the world wide global community we live today, funny has taken a back seat to actual butts in the seats.

We can’t fight change, but we can help shape it. The proverbial cream will rise to the top. If the truly funny comedians can connect with everyone out there with a computer, the World Wide Web will see what’s funny and figure out what’s not. And perhaps, hopefully, we can not only be funny stand up comedians, but also decent human beings and a true friend to the people staring back at us over their keyboards.   

Summer time is finally here with all the fun and excitement of vacations, warm weather and that quality out door time.

And more often then not, that out door time includes traveling carnivals: those proverbial fly by night amusement parks. Disneyland these carnivals ain’t, because you could never come up with a Goofy costume that looks goofier than the people that actually work at these places. I’m not sure what kind of half way house or mental institution or work release program they hire these people from, but it’s a little disconcerting to me that we are putting our lives in the hands of the guy operating the tilt a whirl who’s drunk driving lost him his license to operate a vehicle.

I might also feel a little more comfortable if these carnival employees had a dress code. Shirt and shoes required apparently only applies to the customers. I know these people don’t make a lot of money, and it’s clear they don’t have any medical benefits, especially dental, so the least management could do is throw in a uniform. Based on the prison tattoos half these people have, they’re clearly used to wearing identical clothing.

And the rides at these carnivals have scary names like the Hell Hole, The Colossus of Fury, and The Spinning Spider. None of which are actually as scary as their maintenance record. You should be so lucky they’re maintained by Manny Moe and Jack. Instead they look like they’re serviced by Larry, Darryl and Darryl. If you’re a maintenance guy at a carnival, apparently duct tape and wire hangers are your only tools of the trade.

The kind of rides they have is suspect. I was dragged to a traveling carnival last year by my family and this particular carnival had a large inflatable slide. But it wasn’t just any slide. It had a theme. The slide was an inflatable replica of the deck of the Titanic as it was sinking. The kiddies would climb to the top of the stem, then slide right down the deck to the stern below.

I’m sure it would have really gone over well that if on that fateful night of April 15, 1912 you told some poor third class passenger clinging to their loved one as they both plummeted down the deck of the Titanic into the icy waters - that in 94 years kids of all ages would be screaming with glee as their little asses reenacted the same slippery trip of demise; only this time instead of dying a watery death at the bottom, they’d just be throwing up from eating too many corn dogs.

The fact that somebody actually thought a slide reenacting the sinking of the Titanic was a good idea disturbs me. Because if that’s the idea that got the green light, I’m really curious to see the other human tragedies the carnival company passed on. Was bungee jumping out of a burning replica of the Hindenburg too much? How about a wave pool that reenacts last year's tsunami?

PT Barnum, the master of traveling entertainment is rumored to have once said that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. And the traveling carnival is the intellectual equivalent of Paris Hilton at a Mensa Convention. Now granted traveling carnivals are a staple of summer time activities; but so is poison ivy. And I do my best to avoid both.

If anything good has come out of taking my child to a traveling carnival, he now understands the value of a college education… Or at the very least getting a GED.

Next Monday is Memorial Day; or as I prefer to call it here in Utah: Let’s have a picnic on our dead relative’s graves!

People in Utah, those that are alive anyway, will, in loving tribute of remembrance, break out the hibachi, thrown down some blankets and enjoy hamburgers and fried chicken just six feet above the rotting corpses of their loved ones. I saw a Tongan Family visiting some of their dead relatives last year and they were resourceful enough to use an empty grave for a pig roast.

For those of you that don’t bring your own picnic supplies, my wife’s relatives are resting eternally in a very considerate cemetery that has it’s own concession stand and provides visitors with free hot dogs and drinks. Which is great because I can get my fill of free hot dogs and drinks at the cemetery in the morning, then in the afternoon hit the sale at RC Willey for even more.

But I have to tell you, that’s a real selling point for me when it comes to my eternal resting place. I picture my great grand nephews deciding whose grave to visit on Memorial Day: Uncle John’s or Uncle David’s? Then one of them chimes in, “Uncle John’s! They’ve got free foot longs!”

Now competition for your final resting place must be getting fierce. Several years ago on Memorial Day a local Utah cemetery also put on an antique car show. Now there’s a hook! Come see the cars your relatives were driving when they were still alive!

Communist Premiere Vladimir Lenin had the right idea. He is the gimmick at his final resting place. His dead body has been on display at Lenin Mausoleum for the last eighty years for millions of people to stroll passed and gawk at. It should be noted that many of those people mistakenly thought they were actually going to see the remains of John Lennon, so an actual total of how many people were interested in seeing Vladimir is unknown.

Now I understand the Lenin Mausoleum also offered all visitors free kielbasa and vodka, but given the financial struggles of the former Soviet Union they’ve done away with that. In order to generate enough income to keep Lenin on display, his remains have had to make a few appearances at supermarket openings, grandchildren of the revolution’s birthday parties, and most recently guest stared on an episode of CSI: Chernobyl.

The fact that millions of people have strolled by to take a look at the preserved remains of Lenin goes to show that mankind has a morbid fascination with death. So maybe we should forget graves. We could just sell our bodies to those Haunted Houses that pop up every year at Halloween. Then instead of just Memorial Day, our relatives can come and see us for the entire month of October.

For the environmentalists at Halloween, they can just have their bodies cremated and there ashes sprinkled over a corn maze as fertilizer.

Cremation is becoming more increasingly popular. You’d have to acknowledge the positive aspects of having your dead relative’s ashes right there at your house. Now instead of going to your dead relative’s grave for a picnic on Memorial Day, you can barbeque with your dead relative anytime in the comfort of your own back yard.

So as you visit a grave or two next Monday, remember that some day hopefully somebody will be visiting you. So plan ahead folks. I told my wife I want my tombstone to be designed in the shape of a barbeque. I’m also going to buy up all the plots around me and then burry a couple of those huge underground tanks they store gas in, only I’m going to fill those with beer and install above ground tap. You can rest assured my relatives won’t be just visiting me on Memorial Day. At the very least I’ll also be guaranteed Super Sunday.

Have a great memorial day weekend!

TUNE IN MONDAY MAY 8, 2006 TO SALT LAKE’S KBER 101.1 WITH MICK AND ALLEN AT 5:10 PM TO HEAR JOHN READ THIS BLOG FOR HIS COMMENTARY SEGMENT, “MOYER ON THIS…”

Several weeks ago a Brigham University Study concluded that on average, Mormons in Utah are 4.6 pounds fatter than non-Mormons… Yeah… And I need a university study to figure that out?  I went to BYU fifteen years ago and one of the oldest jokes there was did you hear about the car that swerved to miss the BYU Coed? It ran out of gas.

Now apparently it’s not just BYU coeds that are fat anymore. Take a look at the average menu at a Mormon pot luck supper. I think the reason why they call them funeral potatoes is because all that fat and cholesterol from the five pounds of melted cheese leads straight to a heart attack. It’s enough to scare Richard Simmons straight.

And let’s not overlook Sunday meetings at a Mormon Church; all that sitting around for three hours. Take a lesson from the Catholics. At least in their mass they’re getting in a solid cardio vascular workout. And if you’re an altar boy you get an additional workout just by running from the Priests.

Try moving into any neighborhood in Utah and the first thing that happens is the Mormon families show up on your door step saying “Welcome to the neighborhood! You’re one of us! Here are some fresh baked brownies, and cookies, and other treats!” Apparently their way of getting you to fit in is by getting you to be as fat as everybody else. The problem is you fit into your neighborhood, now you can’t fit into your pants.

Mormons have come a long way from the pioneers that pulled handcarts carrying their every possession two thousand miles across the country. Now that was a work out. The closest thing a Mormon gets to doing that today is pushing a shopping cart at the Super Walmart.

They say sex burns calories. And Mormons are having so many kids you’d think they’d be as skinny as an extra from the movie Schindler’s List. Of course once you’re done having children, I can imagine how difficult it would be for a married couple to find some quiet alone time with nine kids running around the house. At least if you’re a polygamist you can tag team each other. One wife baby-sits the kids while the other wife is with the husband making more kids. Polygamists are a group of people you would think would be in great shape what with between making babies, taking care of them -- and running from the cops.

I don’t know if polygamist fundamentalist are skinnier than regular Mormons. I just know the reason why they call it Polygamy Beer is because you have to drink for or five of those things before the polygamous wives start to look good.  Four quarters equals a dollar but four ugly women does not one good looking chick make.

The obesity issue among Mormons has gotten so bad, the Mormon Church, and I kid you not, has now called some of its members to be “Wellness Missionaries.” These are missionaries that teach people how to loose weight and get into shape.  I think Gold’s Gym already has people like that: they’re called personal trainers.

I mean how exciting is that missionary call?  You got friends going to the Tokyo Japan Mission, The Rio de Janeiro Brazil Mission, and you get a called to the Kentucky Fried Chicken Mission.

Now we Mormons are faithful people, give us credit for that. Last year we were challenged by our church leaders to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year and most of us followed through. How about this year they challenge all the fat Mormons loose thirty pounds? (Sixty if you're polynesian.)

I think a weight loss challenge like that would solve the obesity issues, but it might create a few more problems.

There will be those that are struggling with it. Sneaking food they shouldn’t. I can imagine some poor Mormon wife flipping on the light in the basement to catch her husband hiding in the corner secretly scarfing down Ho Ho’s. Suddenly chocolate is the new porn.

Judgmental Mormons would no doubt be eyeballing their fellow ward members each Sunday trying to determine whether or not they are losing weight. Those chatty Kathy Relief Society sisters would be gossiping at the fact that someone saw sister so and so at the Costco and she was buying case lot of Snickerdoodles.

I would of coure use my creative resourcefullness to cash in. I plan to take some Mormons hymns and redo them 70’s disco style for work out music. The CD is called: “Sweatin’ To The Spirit.”

The menu at the Mormon Pot Luck supper would be better. Though somebody might have to explain that just because you put shredded carrots in green Jell-O salad, that doesn’t make it health food.

The one thing Mormons understand when it comes to dieting is Diet Coke. They’re usually drinking it to wash down that bacon triple cheeseburger and cheddar fries. Mormons are commanded not to drink coffee or tea. Yet many Mormons guzzle down more Diet Coke in less time it takes the BYU Cougars to fumble a ball. So coffee bad, Coke good. Sometimes I think the only difference between a Mormon and a non-Mormon is the temperature of their caffeine.

So here’s to hoping all those fat Mormons can slim down. And if they can’t, Utah has the highest rate of anti-depressant use in the country; at least we can still manage a way to feel good about ourselves.

Well it's been about three weeks since I have officially been on MySpace.com.

I have to say, that when I was in junior high, I never had so many people who wanted to be my friend as I do now -- who are in junior high.

My wife was going off on me. She said, "I can not believe you are on My Space talking to eighteen year old girls!" To which I said, "First off, I am not talking to eighteen year old girls. They are sixteen... Secondly, if i am going to talk to members of the opposite sex, the smartest thing I could do is talk to members of the opposite sex who are under age. Cause nothing is going to happen. Why? Because yeah, I am afraid of getting divorced, but even more than that, I am afraid of going to prison! -- And in prison you have very little space. And the guys there want to be more than friends! And you have no option of approving whether they are your friend or not!"

I jest of course... about talking to underage girls. Not about prison. The only underage girls I have on my friends list and have chatted with on MySpace are my two nieces; and even then we don't chat anymore on MySpace. I posted a few comments on their profile page and they got upset because they said having an old guy make comments there was not cool and I was cramping their style.

There's been some stuff in the news about older, perverted guys, hooking up with underage girls on MySpace. Then of course people run around screaming about how MySpace is so evil. Here's what I don't get. If my nieces think it's not cool and embarrassing to be talking to me on MySpace, because I am so old, who are these kids that apparently are into talking to old men? And what is it about the old men they are so interested in? Maybe if the old guy had a profile name like, "Buys beer for minors" --but that would be about it.

And how do the old guys find these young girls? Have you seen the average teenage girl's profile page on MySpace? It looks like a scrap booking store threw up. I went to my niece's page and my eyes hurt from trying to read through all the sparkling animated Macromedia flash glitter floating all over the place. The colors were too bright and bled over the words. And I had to scroll left and right and up and down like three feet to see these huge ass pictures. Basically all I could make out was the large image of someone's tongue up someone else's nose. I might have been the same person's tongue and nose, but I couldn't tell. I didn't have time to scroll back the other three feet.

The whole thing just made me nauseous. The blinking, spinning images, and the loud music. It was like riding the loop d' whorl at a carnival. That's fun as a kid, but you just can't do it when you get older. So you'd think that alone would deter these MySpace old farts from cruising for young girls. 

A lot of the responsibility about teaching and monitoring the kids about this stuff falls on the parents. I know parents in my neighborhood are doing a good job. I took my son to the park today and there were six other kids of various ages there. I was the only grown up and these kids looked at me just like we all look at a middle eastern dude riding with us on an airplane. They never took their beading, suspicious eyes off me. I've never committed any kind of a crime in my life, but at that moment just being an adult male made me feel guilty.

I think we could use MySpace in a good way to help kids; we can post on My Space the pictures of kids we normally see on the back of milk cartons. My son asked me about that other day. He wanted to know who the picture of the little boy was on the back of the milk carton. I said he was a boy who was missing. My son wanted to know if the boy was missing, why was he smiling? I told him that they took the picture of the boy before he went missing. Now they are using it to find him. My son then asked how did they know the boy was going to go missing.

But it made me think of another idea. When a sex offender registers as a sex offender, we should put their pictures on the back of milk cartons. It's right there for the kids to see. Some kid comes running into the house, "Mommy! Daddy! I was at the park and I saw the bad man on the back of the 2 percent!"

And, I think as part of their sentence, they should have to work at a diary. That way they'd have to face themselves everyday.

It's inevitable though there'd be people upset and speaking out against it. I am sure once a black sex offender showed up on the back of a chocolate milk carton, the ACLU would be screaming racism.

I thought of putting their pictures on cereal boxes too, but that might get confusing. I don't want some old guy who looks like the Quaker Oats man getting falsely accused. Or some innocent midget who looks like the Lucky Charms dude.

But we wouldn't have to worry about any of this if we could just protect the kids. Personally, when it comes to the net, I think there should be legislation passed to connect MySpace with the DMV. Everybody's default picture would have to be their driver's license photo. People would be a lot less inclined to try to hook up with someone on MySpace if all they had to go on was a person's driver's license photo.

Today the Deseret Morning News featured a story about the HBO miniseries Big Love. If you are not LDS - that is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - or a member of one of it's many whacko polygamous practicing off shoots, you really have nothing to fear. I use the word whacko in reference to the whacko polygamous practicing off shoots, but I am most certain there are many who would easily apply that word to the LDS church as well. No surprise there. Recently Bill Maher commented that the Mormon Church was grateful for the creation of Scientology "because now there would be a religion more weird than Mormons."

But I digress.

The article in today's Deseret Morning News quoted LDS Church spokesperson Mike Otterson as saying, "Obviously, we don't like the program. There's nothing about the program to like if you're an active Latter-day Saint."

I would like to thank Brother Otterson for setting the record straight for me. Apparently tonight I learned I am not an active Latter-Day Saint.

I liked the program.

But it begs one to question why would an active Latter-Day Saint not like this program.  Yes, there is some sexual content and mature themes. But come on! It's not rated R! So that makes it OK to watch.

One would counter that with, what is there for an active Latter-Day Saint to like about the program? I could respond; but more than likely the person asking that question would be a Latter-Day Saint who doesn't like it, so no matter what I say, it's falling on deaf ears.  And I am not here to focus on that. I want to discuss why an active Latter-Days Saint would take issue with that show more so then they would with, say The Sopranos.  

The bigger picture in Big Love as to why an active Latter-Day Saint would not like to watch it is probably because in reality, the truth hurts. Which is why so many members of the LDS Church, including the LDS Church, are so worried about it. The very existence of that show is in direct result of practiced doctrine introduced by the LDS Church some 175 years ago.  Now granted the LDS Church denounced polygamy in 1890. And of course it took a few years for the members to catch on that the church's denouncement of it was for real and not done with a sly wink, wink, nod, nod. That's how they did it from 1831 to 1852.

The LDS Church stopped practicing polygamy for one reason and one reason only: the law of the land. The United States Government put the LDS Church and its leaders under intense pressure and it threatened to destroy all that the members of the LDS Church had worked so hard to build up since their settlement in the Great Salt Lake. Had the rest of the of the world not been so upset and wild eyed about the Mormon's polygamous practices, well, Big Love just might be about your typical Mormon family living in Utah today and not one of the many off shoot groups.

From a doctrinal stand point, Mormon dogma still asserts that the concept of polygamy is an eternal principle, practiced by the prophets of old; both Old Testament era and Doctrine and Covenants era.  It is believed that it will be practiced in the here after. In fact, this very author, being divorced from my first wife is still "sealed" to her in the eternities in addition to my current wife. Though I highly doubt my first wife would make it anywhere near heaven given the fact that she did such a good job of creating hell on earth for me. However, it has been speculated that since I have been sealed to two women, that if one of them doesn't make the cut, that slot could open up for another who might have had a husband that didn't make the cut either.  All I know is dealing with one wife is enough for me now. And that's in a 24 hour day. I can't imagine eternity.

One of the biggest issues concerning those individuals who practice polygamy today is the age factor. Often times girls as young as 14 and 15 are married off into polygamous marriages. That is appalling.  Not too mention expensive. I have a 14 year old niece who bugs her father everyday for new jeans, new shoes, money for the mall, money for the movies, money for jewelry, more money for clothes. I can't imagine having multiple 14 year olds do that. And then in another 14 years, you have to go through it again with your kids.

Regarding the age factor, a family member commented to me that the difference was in the early days of the Mormon Church they weren't marrying girls that young. Not true. They were marrying those young girls back then as well. The only difference was they didn't have malls and designer jeans, so it wasn't as costly. But the fact that my family member was not aware of similar details in early Mormon Church history is troubling. Unfortunately that is the case with many current Latter-Day Saints. They are misinformed, or simply naive. And often times when presented with the true facts refuse to believe. I can understand as such; it's not like the doctrine of Blood Atonement, being killed for committing certain sins to receive forgiveness, as taught by Brigham Young is going to show up in the Sunday school manuals anytime soon.  Though I think it should. And I think it should be a principle taught in connection with home teaching, the Mormon practice of making a monthly visit to assigned church families to stay apprised of their needs and daily welfare. The church's new motto could be "100 percent or you die!"

But I think we should be aware of our past, blemishes and all. Many wonder to what purpose. Good question. I imagine presenting anything unflattering to the current status of the LDS Church would make it hard to win converts and maintain the status quo among the current members. Ergo the numerous questions that will no doubt be raised as a result of Big Love.  

So what's the flip side of that coin? Is it to suppress the past? One can make a serious argument that has been the standard for some time now. See previous paragraph concerning the lack of lessons on Blood Atonement being taught in Young Men and Young Women. And that's where it should be taught the most. I mean how many parents already threaten their teen age child with bodily harm for any number of mischievous acts. So it's not like it hasn't come up already.

But if we suppress the past, where does that lead us into the future? Gay marriage is a hot bed topic of debate in this country. It's legal in many places around the world and many are pushing hard and fast to get it to be the case in the United States. And it stands to reason that if the law is going to permit gay marriage -- which to me sounds like an oxymoron -- but I digress.  If the law is going to permit gay marriage, then it stands to reason that polygamy will only follow suit. And many are pushing for exactly that to happen.  It's not far fetched to think that gay marriage could become legal in this country and polygamy as well.

Now let it be said I am not here to take a stand on gay marriage one way or another in this blog. That is not the focus here. I am simply saying that if gay marriage becomes legal, polygamy will most likely not be far behind.

If that indeed does happen, where does that leave the LDS Church? It was the law of the land that put a stop to Mormon polygamy, but if that law no longer stands in the way, will the Mormon Church resume the practice of marrying multiple wives? Now the steadfast Mormon will announce that only can be determined by God through revelation so it's pointless to speculate. However, I think the speculating has already been done because I have always been told that all things shall be restored, including polygamy.  And why not speculate? It's simply being prepared and perhaps knowing what one might do in any given set of circumstances. The LDS Church teaches its members to be prepared with a year's supply of food in case of an emergency. Why not be mentally prepared for something as well?

So in the course of speculation it's stands to reason that like gay marriage, polygamy would fall under intense protest and disdain by numerous groups of people. Practicing of such a principle would of course be a huge obstacle for anyone considering joining the LDS Church and even its very own steadfast members themselves.  Where does that leave the missionary work? And since it's hard enough to get 100 percent home teaching done now when it's one husband and one wife with one family, imagine how much harder it will be when you have to go see some guys multiple families.

There's many questions with many answers and I don't pretend to know what those answers are. Until then, I guess will continue to watch Big Love and see how the writers of that show handle things. At least now I know in LDS Church spokesperson Mike Otterson's eyes, watching that show and liking it makes me an inactive Latter-Day Saint. I guess I now get to stay home Sunday mornings.