Finally we have it, a kinder, gentler Army:
Hollywood may have to tone down its portrayal of the military's screaming, in-your-face boot camp drill sergeant. In today's Army, shouting is out and a calmer approach to molding young minds is in, says the head of Pentagon personnel. The Army says it has reduced by nearly 7 percent the number of recruits who wash out in the first six to 12 months of military life.
[. . .]
I am overwhelmed with frustration on being confronted, at the same time, with two situations I have absolutely no idea how to solve. (So what's new about that? as my brother might say.)
I hope none of our copy editors see this story. They're so fussy about grammar and language, they might actually think this is a good idea:
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia will levy fines on those incorrectly using the national language, and will set up a specialized division to weed out offenders who mix Malay with English, news reports said Thursday.
A little more than three years ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote something called "Mexifornia," and he caught a lot of grief from the open-borders crowd for his insensitivy, though he observed that some solution for the illegals already here had to be found other than mass deportation. These days, he says, the grief he gets over the book is from the middle and right. What happened?
Before we leave the Foley fiasco behind -- please, let's -- I though you might find this libertarian take interesting, from Reason magazine's reasononline:
Does it ever seem to you that the press, in reporting economic news, just throws out the numbers and gets a few quotes and that nobody ever thinks about the implications of what they're writing?
The Associated Press, last Friday, reporting on the ominous implications of weak consumer spending:
Consumers battered by weak income growth and rising inflation trimmed their spending sharply in August. But analysts said a consumer confidence rebound in September should limit damage to the economy.
Anytime there is a violent incident, the calls for more gun control come. The only difference is that this time, they're coming from former Mayor Paul Helmke:
This week's professional study concluding the obvious:
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. youths who watch television on weekdays tend to do worse in school than those who don't watch during the week, but weekend viewing appears to have no negative effects on schoolwork, researchers said on Monday.
Here's one for your irony file. "Fahrenheit 451" is about how our individuality contributes to our collective wisdom and how the resulting repository of human knowledge then allows individuals to find their way. That theme is apparently not universally understood:
This kind of story is appearing with depressing frequency:
NICKEL MINES, Pa. - A milk-truck driver carrying three guns and a childhood grudge stormed a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, sent the boys and adults outside, barricaded the doors with two-by-fours, and then opened fire on a dozen girls, killing three people before committing suicide.
I do wish these people would start getting it right: It's suicide first, then the murders, OK?
