Keeping Up With the Kardashians Means Keeping Family Together In Black Lingerie

If the new promo is any indication of what is in store for the new season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, you can certain there will be no holding back.

Who says after babies and weddings the fun has to stop? The new promo sure makes living a "Kardashian Life" one for the books!

The sisters in black lingerie and seductive poses screams family values, right? The E! promo poster teases "What a difference a year makes." With Khloe showing off her new wedding sparkler, Kourtney showing off her baby rump and Kim of course showing off her booty, the ad leaves little to the imagination and hopes to bring in big ratings.

What is your take on the Family Photo? Does E! take it too far?

Brazilian Women Having Fewer Babies From Watching Soap Operas: TV Changes Your Views, Watch At Your Own Risk

If TV Soap Operas can influence the minds of millions of Brazilians out of producing so many children, what else do you think that electronic box can make you do?

In a recent study performed by Eliana La Ferrara of Italy's Bocconi University and Alberto Chong and Suzanne Duryea of the Inter-American Development Bank, soap operas may be a factor in the drop in fertility rates in Brazil. Where in 1960 the average Brazilian woman had 6.3 children, results shown in a 2000 census tell this rate is down to 2.3. Puzzled by this drastic reduction in birth rates and without a state policy that reduces your allowance of children, researchers began to analyze this trend.

It seems a commercial network, Rede Globo, could be to blame. For the past few decades most of the Brazilan population has regularly tuned into these Soap Operas or Novelas. These Novelas depict smaller family groups where 72% of the actors have no children and 21% have only one child. Watching these shows for decades and becoming entranced into the lives of these players seems to have had an impact on what family size the Brazilian Nation thinks it should have. Just as seeing your favorite star in a certain pair of jeans or drinking a certain beverage can lead to purchasing the product yourself as a means of relating to this persona a celebrity can evoke from yourself, it seems watching these Novelas are changing the patterns of family life.

Foreign Policy told how in Indian villages where satellite television was being broadcast, women were able to watch a more liberated urban woman an in turn views were changed. These women became less tolerant of spousal abuse and less biased on having a male offspring. They also felt more in their right to spend money without permission from their husband.

The television is a wonderful invention and means of communication but owners of communication own the power of persuasion. With influence and power comes responsibility. With 120 million viewers daily, Rede Globo, is the fourth largest network in the world. The owners of these Novelas may never have thought by producing a simple show could change the population of their world but it has.

Wow! Just thinking about a network changing my views on the amount of children I may or may not want to have is mind boggling. It makes me question who I might be without the tube...

Another Kardashian With Nothing Better To Do Than Pose Nude

When will this family go away? I do not understand the reasoning behind their so called "glamour." If it's not Kim with her ever changing hair wigs or problems with spending too much money on clothes or falling asleep with her sunglasses on while sunbathing, it's Kourtney "forgetting to take the pill," or worrying about some sex tape that was released to the media.

Today it's been made public knowledge that Kourtney may pose nude. When asked if she would pose nude for a magazine like Rolling Stone, Kourtney Kardashian replied, "I think so. I'd have to think about it."

Do these reality stars have nothing better to do than pose nude and star in sex tapes? Just asking?

Kate Picnics With Kids While Jon Vacations in France With Girlfriend: Who's having more fun here?

While Kate Gosselin picnics with her children in rural Pennsylvania, her soon to be ex-husband is spotted holding hands with his 23-year-old girlfriend aboard Ed Hardy designer Christian Audigier's yacht, Saturday in St. Tropez, France.

Kate Gosselin has spoken on how she wants "peace" for her children. Jon Gosselin has stated, "I'm only 32 years old. I don't know what's going to happen." He has also been quoted as "excited" about this next chapter in his life.

My mother and father divorced when I was eight. I watched as the duties of my mother doubled into being both parents. She worked full-time. Then she would rush home to make dinner for me and try and spend as much quality time she could before exhaustion set in. Without my father around during much of the week and only spending every other weekend with me, much of the parenting of me fell heavily on her shoulders. While he was away attending this party and that party and then off on hunting trips with his buddies, the presence he held as my father faded to a man whom saw me when he "could."

Many women involved in relationships with men that end with children in the picture, become the sole provider of the well being of the children. In 2005, the single parent family statistics show that of these, 84 % of the custodial parents are mothers, while fathers make up the remaining 16 % of single custodial parents. More that one in four families is headed by a single parent, with three out of four of these being single mothers.

Looking at Jon and Kate Gosselin, while she stays at home playing and nurturing her children, Jon is off gallivanting in the tropics with a new lady friend.

In relationships where children are involved, when a type of break occurs in the relationship do you feel that most times, the women are the ones that have to deal with the responsibilities of raising children more than the man? Do men come out easier from a divorce with children than the woman?

Reality TV: Helping kill off another family

It seems that Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member, Danielle Staub, may have more explaining to do with her children about her past than she previously wanted to.

On Tuesday, The Smoking Gun website published a 26 page federal document that detailed her sordid past.

When arrested in a plot that involved kidnapping a man's son for $25,000 in a cocaine deal gone bad, she went by the name of Beverly Ann Merrill. She also had an alias she went by known as Angela Minelli. Working this plot along with Daniel Aguilar, whom she met while working for an escort service, "threatened injury or death" to the son whom they had kidnapped, "was blamed by Merrill and Aguilar for the botched drug deal, which cost them a kilo of cocaine worth about $24,000," according to the papers.

When they were arrested, "agents discovered six kilos of cocaine and about $16,000 in cash."

Staub "was charged with eight felonies, including extortion, cocaine possession and narcotics conspiracy."

My mother was married before she married my father. I was never told about this but being the snoopy child I was, I sniffed out the truth. It has been said that curiosity killed the cat but I have always been able to tell when something seems a little "off." Ask my husband.

Should Danielle Staub not have thought more intently about her involvement joinging a show were the media could seek out her past and exploit her and her family?

Should all who decide to join a reality show be more cautious in their decisions to do this?

Reality TV: A Hoax and Sometimes a Killer

A couple of years ago I tried out for American Idol. I grew up singing in church, school and took lessons for many years. I not great but I not terrible either. I waited for almost eight hours to tryout in front of one judge who looked five years younger than I. Many times I almost walked out but at the time I had just been an extra in a movie that what filming in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee-- Black Snake Moan. I understood that filming and TV take time. As an extra, I arrived at five in the afternoon and did not make it back home until six the next morning. In a way, I was prepared for the wait. The thought that I may get the chance to sing in front of millions was enough to keep me going. This was a big dream for me so I waited. After the grueling hours of waiting, I was turned away. After seeing many people who had dressed in costumes and skimpy dresses get through to the next round, I was disgusted at what Reality TV was really all about-- ratings and of course sex appeal. Many of my high school chorus buddies had participated too and no one was let through to the next round. I licked my wounds and decided then and there, Reality TV was a hoax and as a viewer I would no longer buy into what they were selling. To this day, I haven't watched a single episode of American Idol.

What tempts individuals into the reality show industry? Is it the promise of money, fame, or glory? Just think about being a reality star for a moment. Every word, every movement, every look is on tape. Things you say can be taken out of context and used by the producers in ways you may have never thought of. Most times, reasons behind these actions are to boost ratings. Jon and Kate Plus 8 have had a surge in ratings with the recent media attention placed on the couple's troubled marriage. Kate Gosselin has said, life in the tabloids is "Hell." Kim Kardasian has risen to stardom from Keeping Up with the Kardasians but has also dealt with media backlash about her appearance and having the family store, Dash, broken into and vandalized. Susan Boyle, the favorite for Britain's Got Talent, lost the coveted winner's spot and has checked into a London clinic suffering from emotional exhaustion.

When do reality shows go to far? Suicide rates for reality show contestants who lose occur.

As I watched Campbell Brown last night on CNN, she was talking with a panel of commentators about the rise of suicide related deaths with concern to reality shows. Najai Turpin was the first American reality TV star to commit suicide. As a contestant on The Contender he was pitted against a contestant 7 inches taller than himself. On February 14th, 2005 while he sat in a car with his girlfriend and 2 year old daughter he committed suicide. Paula Goodspeed, a ridiculed ex-Idol contestant, overdosed outside of judge Paula Abdul's Los Angeles's home. Nathan Clutter, a contestant on Paradise Hotel 2, jumped to his death off a cell phone tower. Another contest on the show Pirate Master, Cheryl Kosewicz, took her own life after an elimination from the show. Former Partridge Family cast member, Danny Bonaduce was filmed slashing his wrists to persuade his wife not to leave him on his reality show, Breaking Bonaduce.

As the media becomes more present in many people's lives, through choice or not, making the decision to become a reality star or famous for that matter, should be thought about in depth before jumping in. Rejection happens. Sometimes people don't like what you say. Other people just don't like you. Some people are just down right mean.

Reality Shows are made for money and as you know, money doesn't have feeling like you do.

Would You Consider Putting Your Family on a Reality TV Show?

Anna Nicole did it. John and Kate Plus 8 have done it. Denise Richardson, The Osbournes, The Hogans and The Lohans have all had their time on screen. Octo-mom wants to do it.

How about yourself? Would you put your most intimate moments on screen for others to watch, laugh at and critique?I have actually had people tell me my family should be on a reality show.. um... NO! You think I want someone with cameras in my house watching me wake up in the morning, get the kids off to school and watch the attitude of a preteen and her sisters. I think I'll keep some of my life private. Isn't that your private life?

How about you? Why or why not?