I'm a star! I'm a star! No, really, I am...'cause my mom told me so!

This article sums up exactly the feeling I get when watching American Idol during its audition process. (The feeling I get during the competition itself generally amounts to "come on, come on already, let's get to it and stop with all this filler!") This is, in my mind, also why we have a generation of kids with absolutely no boundaries -- their parents are loathe to use the word "no" or the phrase "you can't do that" lest they inhibit the genius of the next great [fill in the blank here] they have bestowed upon the world. See, who says TV is a wasteland? You can learn all sorts of great things from it.