I have to. I swore I wouldn’t, but I just can’t help myself. Here I am contributing to the thousands of worthless, waste of space articles about such train wrecks as Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and my personal favorite, Britney Spears.

They are famous for how terribly they behave in public. They are well known for making repeated social and sometimes illegal mishaps. What I don’t understand is why we can’t look away. Where is the fascination? If anything, there should be public outcry and disgust at their blatant disregard for any code of public conduct.

I hate tuning in to one of the major networks to hear legitimate news of the day, only to find myself swimming in tabloid fodder. Can’t we talk about something important? I think there is still a war going on in Iraq and, if I’m not mistaken, in a few months we’ve got our first state primaries. Seems to me that there should be plenty of other serious news to report on, so real reporters could leave the drama of celebrity gossip to the check-out line rags.

With all cameras pointed at Spears and the like, I am disgusted that we are glorifying bad behavior. Not just bad, but downright dangerous and reprehensible in some cases. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or had the great fortune to be spending recent time in space, you no doubt know there is a custody battle raging between pop star Spears and her ex, Kevin Federline, over their two boys.

Mom is an unstable druggie and Dad isn’t much better. The court actually felt it necessary to include a stipulation in the custody order forbidding the pair from drinking or consuming narcotic substances when they need to be taking care of the boys. Isn’t that common sense? Spears and Federline brought two lives into the world and now they are too stupid and selfishly indulgent to realize what a privilege it is to be responsible for their children’s care. No kid deserves that.

Think of the day when Sean and Jayden are old enough to use Google. “Hey mom, so we weren’t enough to keep you sober and make you take a little responsibility for yourself?” How can Spears answer that question? “Sorry guys, I was too busy having fun. It is all about me after all.”

I might be a little overly sensitive to this subject since I’ve got a little nephew. Sam is precious to me and to the rest of his family. Sam’s mom is a single parent working really hard to keep it together for herself and Sam. It isn’t a perfect situation, but because she loves Sam she does everything she can to make it better. Being a parent is a hard job, but isn’t it worth it? Isn’t the sacrifice of giving up a crazy nightlife and putting on big girl panties worth being mom to two little boys? When I hear all that Jayden and Sean have been through I want to take them home with me and show them what a loving family can be like.

Federline should not be spared in this either, but lucky for him he has straightened up lately. I hope he continues to follow the straight and narrow, for his sake and for his boys’. I think Spears’ behavior is criminal and, if it wouldn’t be detrimental to the development of her boys, I think she should lose the privilege of parenthood. Hopefully this temporary arrangement that limits her time with her babies will be enough to straighten her priorities out. So far I haven’t seen that happen, but for the sake of those little boys, I’ll hold out hope. In the meantime, you’ll not hear me reporting about this cheap trash anymore. It is out of my system, and frankly, anymore would be a waste of ink.