When I told my four children that today is declared Family Day in California, they thought it meant a day off from school. Not so, I told them. Family Day is about the "we" in our family. What do I mean by that? Studies show that when we families eat together three or more times a week, teens are half as likely to try cigarettes or marijuana, one-third less likely to try alcohol — and it lowers risk for substance abuse by 70 percent.
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It is best not to dwell too long on New York Times editorials, for then a great fog can enter the mind, causing you to bump intowalls or trip over large objects, falling and banging your head. Great pain can ensue.But for insight into the peculiar workings of the leftist intellect, the occasional contemplation of a line or two or three of "Gray Lady" musings can be useful, as in a recent piece headlined, "As the Economy Turns Down."
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Things are getting better in Iraq but worse in Washington, where war opponents will ignore any fact, evade any reality, call any honorable person a liar and risk any genocidal, terrorist-aiding consequence to further their defeatist agenda.Gen. David Petraeus, the straightforward, utterly brilliant, tough but scholarly commander of U.S. troops in the war, did not dismiss the difficulties as he outlined progress in the struggle during his congressional testimony.
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In 2001, the president of the University of California, Richard Atkinson, recommended that the UC system drop the SAT I as a requirement for admissions. That seemingly innocuous suggestion prompted widespread panic at the College Board, developers of the SAT I, the largest college admissions test.
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Robert Dynes, who just resigned as president of the University of California, has excellent credentials as a physicist and he is a very decent human being. But he should have quit the day he was named to head the UC system. It was a mistake from the outset to select him. Some of the fault is mine. I was on the board of regents at the time.
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Political tensions are skyrocketing in anticipation of Gen. David Petraeus’ reporton the progress in Iraq. The war on terror and the Iraq war should not be partisan issues. But there are those who are determined to make them so. If there were ever any doubts about how the Iraq war and the war on terror were being used as a wedge to grab political power, the recent actions of the Democratic leadership put them to rest.
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is a dingbat, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore him any more than you should ignore a madman at your door with a lit stick of dynamite in his hand.When he says the United Nations isn’t about to slow Iran’s nuclear program with another silly resolution, and adds that the program of developing thousands of centrifuges is proceeding far more quickly than anyone suspects, you should listen up.
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Among the most irrational causes of recent months is that of the 32-year-old mother arguing as if headed for the gas chamber about what a horror it would be to have her son live with her in Mexico.Elvira Arellano, a recently deported illegal alien, would have you believe the issue is something else — her forced separation from 8-year-old Saul — but that’s blatant humbug.
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Suppose you show up for a track meet at your local high school to watch your daughter perform. She’s in the high jump competition and she clears the bar, which is set at 6 feet. None of the other competitors can clear the height, but the competition’s organizers decide to allow individuals to submit testimonials from their coaches that they had cleared the height sometime during practice. Not the best method of judging performance, eh?
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Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has gone on the offensive on the issue of his inexperience, and I’ll happily walk with him at least halfway down that path. It’s not inexperience that’s his problem so much as naïveté and seeming immaturity.
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