Free for all

So, “American Idol” apparently has another scandal on its hands.

This from The Associated Press:

"A close friend of “American Idol” semi-finalist Antonella Barba says that the aspiring singer is not the subject of some graphically sexual pictures purported to be of her that were posted on the Internet last week.

The pictures include one of four women posing topless at the beach, their hands covering their breasts, and others of a woman engaged in a sexual act. The postings were anonymous.
Barba's best friend, Amanda Coluccio of Holmdel, with whom she auditioned and won a trip to Hollywood for the second round before being eliminated, told The Star-Ledger of Newark that the less graphic photos are of Barba, but denied she is pictured in the pornographic ones.

"The really bad ones aren't her. I've studied them," Coluccio told The Star-Ledger for Monday's newspapers. "It's not her nose. She's never had (acrylic nail) tips (like the woman in the photo) in her life. She's the least slutty person I know."

The least "slutty" person she knows. Ahem. You can hear the class and intelligence just oozing out of these two, can't you?

As the hometown of this latest scandal “victim” rallies around her, this is what one local boy had to say:

"It's the way this town is: Everybody knows everything about their friends," said Mark Dillon, 17. "At least half the people in this town have pictures of their friends on the toilet. I've personally seen at least 20. It's only because she's on TV that they're online."

Pictures. Of friends. On the toilet. Moving on...

"Everyone has incriminating photos of one sort or another, and you never know when it's going to turn around and bite you on the you-know-what. It's a shame you can't just live your life and not have to worry about something like this becoming public."

This from Jacqui Reid, whose daughter took violin lessons from Barba and still considers Barba to be a ... role model.

When did any of this become normal? Incriminating photos? Pictures of friends on the toilet? Half naked in the wonderful tradition of Girls Gone Wild, but mind you, not slutty, pictures posted all over the internet?

Okay...

"Everyone has incriminating photos of one sort or another..."

Well, of course they do. Which reminds me, I should really take all those incriminating pictures of myself off of MY SPACE.

The article concluded with the suggestion that this most recent scandal should make kids stop and think about what they're putting on the internet.

What they're putting on the internet?!

That's just the tip of the iceberg, my friend.

The fact that they don't see anything wrong with taking these pictures in the first place is what I find most disturbing.

Is this normal for kids these days? Take naked pictures of yourself, take pictures of your bodily functions, take pictures of yourself acting like the moron that you are...and be famous on You Tube, My Space, what have you! Voila! Instant fame!

We are raising a bunch of stupid, moronic, greedy, fame crazed, morally retarded individuals who wouldn't know how to behave like civilized, normal humans if you paid them. And mind you, they would only attempt such a feat if you paid them.

I am tired of this. Parents have forgotten how to raise children, they allow the internet to do that for them. Why? Because parents trust their children. Trust? Their brains aren't even fully developed yet and you think putting that amount of trust in them is going to prove something? Kids are stupid. That's what they do. Stop trusting them and find out what they're doing in their free-time.

"I trust you to do the right thing." Trust? You can barely trust adults to do the right thing, let alone a hormone driven, moody, out of control fifteen year old who considers Paris Hilton to be a role model, spends her free-time on My Space, wouldn't know proper grammar for all the IM speak she uses and demands that she have the freedom of a cell phone and a car that you pay for on her sixteenth birthday.

There is no such thing as a boundary anymore, especially not a moral one. It's a free for all. If it makes you feel good and makes others laugh, then by all means, do it.

We've become a society of shmucks, and not a single person seems bothered by it.