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Close to three-quarters of American youth are ineligible to serve in the Army and patriotism among the country’s recruitable population has been sliding since 2002.

That was the assessment of a series of recent surveys conducted in fiscal 2006 and early fiscal 2007 by the Army’s Center for Accessions Research and presented Thursday by Gen. William S. Wallace, commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command.

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According to Wallace, only 27 percent of youth between the ages of 17 and 24 are eligible for recruiting.

The remaining 73 percent, he said, “are morally, intellectually or physically” unfit for service. “It’s the lowest it’s been in more than 10 years.”

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Anybody who objects to their personal details going on the new “Big Brother” ID cards database will be banned from having a passport.

James Hall, the official in charge of the supposedly-voluntary scheme, said the Government would allow people to opt out – but in return they must “forgo the ability” to have a travel document.

With one in every eight people saying they will refuse to sign-up, up to five million adults could effectively be refused permission to leave the country.

Campaigners reacted to Mr Hall’s remarks with fury, saying they were yet more evidence of the lurch towards “Big Brother” Britain.

Phil Booth, of the NO2ID group, said: “The idea that ID cards scheme is voluntary, and people can opt-out, is a joke.

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Deputy prime minister Maud Olofsson has added a new twist to Sweden’s divisive surveillance debate. The Centre Party leader claims that defence minister Mikael Odenberg’s proposed legislation would merely codify practices that have already been in operation for decades.

Previously, at a time when all telecommunications were state-operated, Sweden’s National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets Radioanstalt – FRA) regularly tapped telephone lines in and out of the country, says Olofsson.

It was only when Telia became a registered company that the need for legislation arose, she says.

“Sweden has always listened in as a means of ensuring that we have had the information necessary to protect national security. I don’t think that is a secret,” said Olofsson at a press conference on Friday.

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Popular Internet social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook would have to verify users’ ages and get parental permission before minors could post profiles under a proposed law pending in the General Assembly.

Connecticut would become a national leader in protecting minors on the Internet if it adopts the tighter age restrictions, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

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Under the bill, networking sites that failed to verify ages and failed to obtain parental permission before posting profiles of users under age 18 would face civil penalties of up to $5,000 a day for every day of noncompliance.

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“If we can put a man on the moon, we can verify age on the Internet,” Blumenthal said. “There is no fool-proof method, there is no silver bullet. But something, a reliable system, is better than nothing.”

The funny thing is that we cannot put a man on the moon right now. However, on the day that we could a few decades ago, we were also able to verify the age of every person on the Internet…

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De raadkamer van de Amsterdamse rechtbank heeft vorige maand een jonge inbreker uit gevangenschap gehaald, zodat hij meekon met een door de overheid betaalde jongerenreis naar Marokko.

De jongen behoort tot de groep ernstig overlastgevende jongeren in het Amsterdamse stadsdeel Slotervaart. Hij was enkele dagen eerder op heterdaad betrapt bij een inbraak.

De negendaagse reis was voor zestien Marokkaanse jongeren georganiseerd om hen kennis te laten maken met ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Onder hen waren vier jongens die de politie op een lijst van meest overlastgevende jongeren heeft staan.

Twee andere deelnemers zeiden in Het Parool dat ze op het ROC zaten en dat ze stage liepen in jongerencentrum Oportuna, mede-organisator van de reis. Bij de grote ROC’s in Amsterdam zijn ze echter niet bekend.

De trip naar Marokko kostte 65 duizend euro, waarvan het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken 50 duizend euro betaalde en het stadsdeel Slotervaart 15 duizend euro. In de subsidieaanvraag stond dat de deelnemers leergierig en gemotiveerd zijn en dat ze openstaan voor andere meningen.

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Jyrki Kasvi is a member of the Finnish parliament from the Uusimaa constituency. He represents the Green League and his campaign website can be viewed in English, Swedish, or Klingon.

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Joseph Neumeyer’s Dynamic Dioramas
has tons of cool photos of dioramas with miniature soldiers and ships from many different historical eras.

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Sen. Raymond Finney proposes to use the legislative process to get an answer to the question of whether the universe was created by a “Supreme Being.”

Under Senate Resolution 17, introduced by the Maryville Republican, the answer would come from state Education Commissioner Lana Seivers “in report form” no later than Jan. 15, 2008.

Finney, a retired physician, said Monday that his objective is to formally prod the Department of Education into a dialogue about the teaching of evolution in school science classes without also teaching the alternative of “creationism,” or “intelligent design.”