Live and let love

Anybody who didn't think Adam Lambert would go over the top as soon as he could was kidding themselves. All the signs were there from the beginning. Unlike a lot of the people who try out for American Idol, Adam was already on the way to his destination. American Idol was just a connecting flight.

I confess I didn't watch Adam on the American Music Awards -- I had known he was going to be on -- and I try to catch him when I can -- but I didn't realize that the AMAs were on that particular night so I've only seen clips and photos of Adam's performance.

As a rock and roll lover from way back, I know some performers set out to awe us with bad behavior rather than with a performance showcasing actual talent. I think, in the recent past, it has happened at every music awards show save, perhaps, the Grammy's. It's sort of expected that somebody is going to push the envelope and get some people hot under the collar. For a beginner, Adam did it quite well, don't you think? I mean, why wait to let everybody know exactly who you are? And, yeah, I think he knew what he was going to do before he did it.

Though I'm quite -- okay, very -- conservative in most of my political views, there is one area that doesn't trouble me -- and that's homosexuality. There are far worse threats to civilization than what two consenting adults -- gay or straight -- are doing in private. I say live and let love.

But, do I think Adam went too far? Yeah, he probably did. He said, in a later interview, that he was not a "babysitter" but, even so, there is still a little thing called personal responsibility. There is a proper place and time for everything (within reason) and the AMAs were not the time and place to pull out all the stops - and this is true for any performer -- gay, straight or wherever they are on the spectrum. It may be true that young children shouldn't have been up that late -- or that their parents should have watched the show before letting their kids watch -- but, as a parent, I can tell you sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Not having young kids now, I may be somewhat removed from outrage but, knowing me, this probably wouldn't have caused much. I would have probably just said, "my word" and let it go.

Then, after they were out of the room, I would've gone back and watched it again.