The percentage of fathers who would support military service for their kids dropped from 77 percent in 2003 to 59 percent by last August, according to defense officials.
Now we know that the light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq is just another express train heading our way. When we went in-as liberators, not invaders or occupiers-we thought we would create the conditions for a viable state, even a democratic one. In a troubled region, it would be a state that would not be a threat to us or our friends. What we have instead is a failed state. It cannot protect its people or apply the rule of law. Its lamentable leadership is powerless to govern. We now face the possibility of an even greater danger from Iraq than existed when Saddam Hussein was its ruler. We have removed a terrible dictator but replaced him with the tyranny of the Shiites.
The world wide web began as a platform for information, communication, and entertainment. It's now emerging as a powerful social medium, in which people build communities of newfound friends with whom they form personal and emotional bonds. One has to be concerned about this seemingly innocuous exercise in networking, however, if these bonds with people known only to the imagination-typically anonymous, sometimes misrepresented, and never accountable-interfere with or replace real intimacies, particularly in those who are in a formative stage of social development. Researchers at the Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, which has been tracking Internet behavior for six years, were taken by surprise when their latest survey found that more than 40 percent of users feel that their online friends are every bit as important to them as their real-life ones.
For years, sun-loving travelers to Europe have been stashing Anthelios SX in their bags when they return. Bootlegging the French sunscreen was practically the only way to get some, since the Food and Drug Administration hadn't approved the highly effective blocker of ultraviolet A rays. Now, you can pick up a tube at your local CVS drugstore. Not to be outdone, a number of U.S. manufacturers have introduced new sunscreens that boost UVA protection, too. Being sun smart has never been easier.
AP - An al-Qaida front group announced Sunday it had captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.
AP - Authorities briefly reopened two highways crossing north Florida into Georgia on Sunday before dense wildfire smoke forced them to again halt traffic, while hundreds of Florida residents waited to return to their threatened homes.
AP - Gunmen of the rival Hamas and Fatah movements traded fire Monday, killing two Fatah fighters and wounding at least 10 people despite an Egyptian-brokered agreement to end the violence that is jeopardizing a power-sharing deal between the two sides.
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