Cruel to be kind?

OhmyGOD I'm a cruel whore! 

The latest slew of reality shows have been tickling my fancy. Such programs as "The $25 Million Hoax" and "My Big, Fat Obnoxious Boss" aren't exactly Emmy winners and they have even less "reality" than most reality shows. But they are fun nonetheless because they test just how cruel apparently decent people can be to their own loved ones, how greedy and how gullible they can be.

On "Boss," the contestants are all so stupid they actually believe the fake billionaire they are scrambling for is in possession of Excalibur ... the sword of King Arthur. They scramble and backstab, lie and cheat to make money on the streets of Chicago for a job with a billionaire they've never heard of but whose ass they kiss nevertheless .... and they think Excalibur is real AND that some dickhead in Chicago owns it?

Meanwhile, a small town girl who really loves her parents and siblings is torturing them as she spends $5 million dollars all on herself right in front of them, taunting them. Occasionally, she cries, but the producers remind her that they will all win $500,000 for real.

Now my family has an understanding that should we ever be placed in the morally perilous position of hurting each other for money, we are to do it with complete malice of forethought knowing that money heals all later so long as we get a cut.