From CNN...

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.

"I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," said Lute, who is sometimes referred to as the "Iraq war czar." It was his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.

"The president's position is that the all-volunteer military meets the needs of the country and there is no discussion of a draft. Gen. Lute made that point as well," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Smoking will be a bigger factor in determining film ratings, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday, but critics said the move does not go far enough to discourage teens from taking up the habit. MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said his group's ratings board, which previously had considered underage smoking in assigning film ratings, now will take into account smoking by adults, as well.

That adds smoking to a list of such factors as sex, violence and language in determining the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 ratings. Film raters will consider the pervasiveness of tobacco use, whether it glamorizes smoking and the context in which smoking appears, as in movies set in the past when smoking was more common.
--Yahoo! News

Soon we won't have to be responsible for any of our own actions! We can just blame it on the movies!

I don't know why I'm writing about this, especially since I never wrote about them actually getting married, but... Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have filed for divorce. How awesome it would have been had they been able to stay together for like 50 years despite all the negative public attention, the bitterness of the media, and the cruelty of even her fans.

To be fair, I'm not a fan of Kevin Federline... I think he looks like a ferret in a doo-rag. But that's not the point. They were a couple to root for, because, well, no one else was. I really would have liked to have thought that despite everything, they would have been in love and spited the whole world.

Meanwhile, Ryan Phillipe and Reese Witherspoon have also announced their separation. Bizarro!

To even things out, Neil Patrick Harris is in a stable, comfortable relationship--with a man! No, it's not terribly interesting or shocking, but that's ok; why should it have to be? He's in a boring, gay relationship! Good enough!

However, make no mistake: Kevin Federline is already a legend. And he didn't even have to do a damn thing to do it. It would be too much to ask for, for he and Paris Hilton to discover multi-decade bliss. But it would be so worth it for the rest of us.

I don't know if people expect to have a planet discovered within their lifetime. I'm pretty sure most don't expect to have a planet retracted during theirs, either.

Students are already learning things that I never did, in school. Things have changed. This may be similar to how my sisters felt when I was in school and the USSR wasn't called as such anymore. Eventually there will be a high school generation for whom the World Trade Center fades into past events like the Berlin Wall or the Cold War or any number of things that were generally pretty recent in my schooling, but very much past-tense so it seemed like it was as old as the Renaissance.

Pluto is no longer a planet, as declared by scientists. I remember at some point, maybe in 8th grade, that there was speculation that it would eventually not be considered one, because of certain factors. But, well, it was one of the planets as far as I knew it, growing up.

The gap just keeps getting wider.

Today in world events--

...The bill, passed by the State Assembly on Tuesday, would have made California the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. Schwarzenegger said he believed the bill conflicted with the intent of voters who approved Proposition 22 five years ago, a ballot measure that barred the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries, according to a report by The Associated Press.

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."

According to the language in Proposition 22, "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," while the new bill would have more broadly defined marriage as a civil contract between "two persons."

Schwarzenegger has previously said that he believes that voters or the courts should have the last word on same-sex marriage, not the legislature.

--mtv.com

The Catholics have a new Pope. I very nearly said "we" meaning the world. It's not my Pope. But then again, that's not usually common knowledge.

He's not much of a looker.

I don't know really what to expect from him... Never really knew what was up with the previous Pope 'cept maybe once a year (even when I was in Catholic high school).

Hm. Well, good for him. The black pickled egg has spoken.