This doesn't look like it's about the corn flake, but I'll get to it.

Aside from the odd abdominal machine or "miracle" weight-loss device, the greatest money-making scam in the history of modern marketing is anything designed to improve ones golf game.

There are too many devices to list here, and all of them claim to remove your slice, fix your putting stoke or lengthen your drives. Anything you can sell to men that lengthens anything is a sure-fire money maker.

Mostly, what they do is improve the bank account of the people selling them. It says here that you can either play golf or you can't, and those who invest money on those devices are ignoring the fact that they should either take up another game or come to grips with the fact that they aren't very good at golf.

Which brings to mind something else ... that quote I used on Thursday from "Broadcast News" ...

Paul Moore: It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room.
Jane Craig: No. It's awful.

The reason it's awful is that Jane was a purist and a woman who believed that once we begin to lower our standards the ensuing effect is that the lower standards will become the standard. When we care too much about the degradation of society it eats at us to the point that it makes us angry - angry enough to put up a blog and rant about things to which people don't give a second thought, like using to which in the middle of a sentence.

The degradation of the language is but one thing with which we get annoyed. Others are slipping standards of the television programs, the cost of everyday items and the slow, steady ruination of the general quality of life. The older one gets the more it shows, which is generally why younger people are the ones encouraging the lower standards.

Such things as the Internet, cell phones and cable TV have spawned a rash of such behavior. Those are things that we grew up without - and one could say we grew up quite nicely without - and although in most cases they are conveniences, their ease of use and placement in society allows us to both use and abuse them to the point that new laws have to be made restricting their use.

This issue is deeper than can be addressed in this forum, but it isn't much different than the troubles that our parents and grandparents addressed with those fancy horseless carriages and that "Idiot Box" in the living room.

Visit an adult-oriented Internet site and there's an opening page that is supposed to verify that the user is over the age of 18. Click "enter" to verify that you wish to view this material. That's some security measure. Make a law prohibiting the use of your cell phone while you're driving and we sneak around with the phone in our hand and our eyes on the median because "It was good enough 5 years ago, so I'm not stopping now." We have 400 cable channels and pay 75 dollars a month for the privilege because - well, I don't know why, but we do. Four of them are shopping channels, three of them don't speak English and some of them play music - on the TV. Some of them show repeats of programs that we paid for ten years ago. We're paying for them twice now.

Those of us who care about the degradation of society have issues with the ease at which society allows odd behavior. That's what makes it "awful". It's awful because we care too much. We care, and the people participating in the behavior do not, which makes it doubly irritating.

Drivers are slow to merge onto highways and make us brake at 65mph. Then, they flip a cigarette butt out the window because they can't put it out, drive and talk on the cell phone at the same time. Manners are a thing of the past, to the extent that a polite server at a restaurant gets a bigger tip because they had the courtesy to do their job. The same politicians who make the laws that tell us how to live cannot control their own actions. CEOs of companies who fire and lay-off workers because there is a lack of demand for their product give themselves huge bonuses and extravagant salaries. Athletes making millions of dollars complain because they aren't appreciated, while the fans (making thousands of dollars) cannot afford the tickets to the games in which they play.

When we complain, we're told to "lighten up" or "go with the flow". The trouble is that "the flow" is the problem. They tell us that things change and we need to adapt. Adapt to what? Decrease the quality of things just enough so that it's barely noticeable and before long you're being charged more for either the same product or a product that isn't of as high a quality as the one your parents bought - for inflation-adjusted less money.

Gasoline prices increase and (slowly) decrease based on seasons and perceived shortages, and the people in charge of making the vehicles that use the gasoline cannot seem to develop one that doesn't use this most volatile and precious commodity. We're such an odd society that the chief method of meeting people is on the Internet. The same Internet that barely existed 15 years ago but is now the primary conduit for personal contact and finding "that special someone".

It's the same Internet that allows people to post for sale a corn flake (supposedly) shaped like the state of Illinois. When the post is taken down because the web site does not allow the sale of consumables, the sellers protest and put their collective brainpower together and post another ad for a "coupon good for an Illinois-shaped corn flake (not intended for consumption)". They can skirt the rules because they have found a loophole. Those of us who believe we know better are angry because, while we may not be the smartest person in the room, we are quickly becoming so because the room is shrinking.

It's awful to care so much.