My son asked for a yo-yo for Christmas.

It was kind of funny because it is really a pretty low-tech toy request for him. He also asked for a Sony Playstation¨. So while the yo-yo was really a pretty inexpensive gift to acquire, it was a bit difficult to find. Apparently they are pretty hot items because lots of places were sold out.

I ended up ordering some from an Internet site. Remembering the days of my youth when I used to fool around with yo-yos, I ordered a couple for the kid and one for myself.

When they arrived I found yo-yoing to be quite entertaining. I could still "rock the cradle" and "walk the dog" just like when I was a kid.

Of course, the yo-yos of today are vastly superior to the ones around when I was a kid. They have ball-bearings instead of fixed axles. They have special weights placed around the outside to make them spin faster and "sleep" longer. But they're still yo-yos.

I read a news story that stated one yo-yo maker, Duncan, expects to do $80 million in yo-yos this year. That's just one company. There are probably a half dozen other companies making yo-yos, too.

There's money in yo-yos.

I think it's kind of funny how the world works sometimes. It's funny how trends repeat. Things like yo-yos, bell bottoms, platform shoes. Those were all things that were popular when I was a kid.

If I told my kids five years ago that they'd be wearing bell bottoms today, they would have laughed at me and then looked at me as if I were a madman.

But today they are wearing bell bottoms. That stovepipe look they so dearly loved just a few short years ago is totally out of style.

Even swing music is big with kids these days. Swing was popular well before I was in school and now it is making a comeback.

Nostalgia is popular. We, as a culture, like to look back to the "good old days."

But the fact of the matter is, the "good old days" are gone forever.

We've undergone a certain loss of innocence. I am afraid there is no turning back.

Bell bottoms and yo-yos might come back, but the morality of the past is gone.

I suppose everybody is hit with this realization sooner or later, but it recently dawned on me that I am out of step with society. I used to think that there was this vast silent majority that pretty much felt the way I do about issues of traditional values and morality. I don't think that anymore.

I think the "if it feels good, do it" morality has become the norm.

Self-restraint and personal responsibility are becoming passe.

There's lots of evidence of just how far society has evolved. How "enlightened" we have become. Take the Internet for example. What a wonderful resource. I can research any topic imaginable, right from the comfort of my own home. It's an amazingly powerful informational tool.

But what do you suppose is the number one topic on the Internet? Sex.

There are more pornography sites than anything else. This technological wonder of the world is glutted by folks who want to swap and sell dirty pictures.

That, I suppose is the way of the world these days. And certainly, if you don't want to look at that stuff, you don't have to. But look what happens when the well-intentioned efforts of government and local public officials collide with the Internet.

In Loudoun County Virginia, for example, library officials installed blocking software on their Internet terminals that kept users from surfing up pornography sites.

See, this is where I start feeling out of step because that sounds perfectly legitimate to me. Sounds like the right thing to do.

I guess not.

A federal district judge ruled in late November that the software "offends the guarantee of free speech" and permanently blocked library officials from "unconstitutionally restricting online access."

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the suit against the library on behalf of "a diverse group of Internet speakers seeking to reach library patrons." The plaintiffs included creators of the Safe Sex Page, Books for Gay and Lesbian Teens Youth Page, Renaissance Transgender Association, the Ethical Spectacle, Banned Books Online, and San Francisco Examiner columnist Rob Morse.

The ACLU hailed the ruling, which marked the first time in American legal history that a court applied First Amendment principles to Internet access at public libraries.

So if the library can get sued for censoring what comes into it's building via the Internet, can it get sued for censoring what comes in its building via a delivery truck. I mean, can I sue the library for not offering Hustler magazine in its periodicals rack? Or for not having "Debbie Does Dallas" or "Deep Throat" in its video collection?

The ACLU says rulings like this also should serve as a strong deterrent to any attempt by Congress to require the use of blocking software in public schools and libraries.

OK, now I'm fully out of step. Schools can't block out porn on the Internet either.

Last year the Senate passed the Internet School Filtering Act, a bill that requires all public libraries and schools that receive federal funds for Internet access to use blocking software. Of course the ACLU's position is that "the government may not condition federal funding on unconstitutional requirements."

And I am fairly certain that a court will at some point uphold - or may have already upheld - that position. So if the Internet is hooked up at your kid's school, the school won't be allowed to block out the porn. Schools will have to block porn the old-fashioned way. They will have to look over the shoulders of the kids surfing the Internet.

I wonder what the ACLU would do if, during a school day, a whole bunch of kids were surfing up Bible stories on the Internet. Would they demand some sort of Bible blocking software to be sure there is no mingling of church and state?

Another issue that shows how completely out of step I am is the whole Bill Clinton thing. I really think the guy has some serious emotional problems or something. I don't trust him. I think he's devoid of character and he seems incapable of telling the truth. But a staggering majority of Americans think just the opposite. They think he's a great guy doing a wonderful job.

A bunch of actors and actresses like Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman and Barbra Streisand have been making waves about this whole impeachment thing. They really like Bill Clinton and have been holding political rallies to condemn Republicans for picking on Bill.

I thought maybe they were speaking for the masses. I decided I should listen to them.

Politically active actor Alec Baldwin was on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" a while back. Here's what he had to say:

"I'm thinking to myself, if we were other countries, we would all, right now . . . all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We'd stone him to death! Then we'd go to their homes and we'd kill their wives and their children. We'd kill their families!"

Ah, yes, just another compassionate liberal.

It's tough being such a social miscreant, so out of step with the masses. But after listening to Baldwin, I think I'll stick with it a while longer. [[In-content Ad]]