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Parents can often be at a loss trying to hold back the tide when it comes to helping their children navigate difficult topics like abortion, euthanasia, and other social issues. They may struggle to formulate cogent responses to the culture’s perspective on these topics and to present them in age-appropriate ways. Throw into the mix teaching their children to engage in dialogue with peers and eventually even teachers or professors, and what’s a parent to do? Enter: the Culture of Life Studies Program. In 2014, American Life League launched the Culture of Life Studies Program curriculum for use in grades...

Before dog licenses and leash laws; before doggie mohawks, colored hair and painted toenails; before $100 teeth cleaning, $800 vet bills, and humiliating Halloween costumes, there existed – in almost every sleepy town with a red brick school and a white church steeple – an extinct breed of canine I like to call the American dog. He (or she) went by names like Old Shep, Old Dog Tray, or Spot. This is the story of an American dog. UNCLE ROY AND HIS PUPPY: SPOT'S ADVENTURE BEGINS My mother's uncle Roy was a WWI veteran. He had been gassed in the...

If the pursuit of happiness was once an ideal in American life, the entitlement to happiness may now have replaced it. Since the late 1980s, when psychotropic drugs first came on the market, grateful Americans have been lining up at the counter. Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Wellbutrin and a host of other antidepressants have been embraced as practical solutions to everyday unhappiness. More than 15% of Americans now use one of the above. Needless to say, they are not all clinically depressed. Whereas Sigmund Freud once described the goal of psychotherapy as "transforming hysterical misery into ordinary unhappiness," many doctors now...

You can't flip through a newspaper or wander around the Internet these days without stumbling across a debate over whether bloggers are journalists. This isn't trivial. Journalists often get access to places and information that others don't. Because they're surrogates for the public, they can get close to the action when emergencies break out. They benefit from the California Shield Law, which allows them, in most instances, to keep secret sources secret.... The Federal Elections Commission soon will explore whether campaign-finance laws apply to partisan bloggers whose work may, in effect, be akin to donating their services to campaigns.... It's...

Photo : AFP LONDON (AFP) - US pop star Madonna made a rare foray into politics, calling for her home country to withdraw its troops from Iraq during an interview with British radio."I just don't want American troops to be in Iraq, period," she said on BBC Radio."My feelings are 'can we just all get out?'," said the 46-year-old star, who lives mainly in London with British film director husband Guy Ritchie, who said she believes the US-led war will not help in the fight against terrorism.

Egypt has issued an order barring pop star Madonna from entering the country because she visited Israel. Members of Egypt's parliament have demanded Madonna, who has not requested entry into Egypt or announced any plans to visit the country, be barred from entering Egyptian soil. The parliament directed Egyptian embassies abroad to deny any visa requests from Madonna. The demand comes after Madonna, aka Esther, visited the Jewish state last week making daily headline news with midnight trips to a Jewish cemetery, a quick drive by past the Wailing Wall, and even the arrest of her security detail. The Material...

Pop superstar Madonna's Re-Invention tour has been slammed by American critics - for overloading the show with "naive" political statements. The "American Life" singer, 45, kicked off the US leg of her tour in California on Monday but failed to impress critics with her attempts to "wipe the slate clean" by ditching her trademark raunchy routines. The Los Angeles Times sniped, "This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge." Many critics were unimpressed by the images of the Iraq...

Former vice president Al Gore (news - web sites) may be supporting Howard Dean (news - web sites), but retired army general Wesley Clark (news - web sites) has support in his quest for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination from ... Madonna (news - web sites). The Material Girl on Tuesday publicly threw her support behind the retired four-star general, one of nine Democrats seeking to replace George W. Bush in the November 2004 election. "I endorse him because I think he's a great guy," the pop superstar said on CNN Tuesday. "I think he's a natural born leader." Madonna...

Last Updated: Wednesday, 24 September, 2003, 11:09 GMT 12:09 UKMadonna book sells 8,000 copies This was Madonna's first attempt at children's fiction Madonna's children's book The English Roses has sold just over 8,000 copies in its first week in the UK. The book, launched amid a blaze of publicity, made it to number 17 in the national book chart, according to data company Nielsen Bookscan. It was the second bestselling children's book of the week, behind JK Rowling's fifth Harry Potter book. This week the top-selling book in the UK, David Beckham's autobiography My Side, sold 103,508 copies. Madonna's book,...

<p>The middle-aged serial slurper came to Midtown yesterday clad in an early Halloween costume - dowdy tweed suit and bushy hair - to role-play the part of an actual mom.</p> <p>We've seen this gal tied up, beaten down, with cones protruding from her bosom, and naked so frequently, it is to yawn. But Madonna's new, prissy act, unveiled on Fifth Avenue, was downright weird.</p>

Poor Madonna (news - web sites). In her new career as a writer of children's books, lightning has not struck twice. Her first effort, The English Roses, had skeptical critics baying with praise at how effectively she examines the subtle but cruel ways girls exclude those they envy or pity. The book has been translated into 37 languages, and it has been on the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list since Sept. 22. Its highest rank was No. 7. In the second of Madonna's expected five books, Mr. Peabody's Apples, illustrated by Loren Long, the pop star and mother turns her...

LONDON: "Material Girl" Madonna is said to be gearing up for a fistfight with Warner Bros Records over differences about where her Maverick Records is heading. According to PeopleNews , a reason for the impending parting of the ways may be attributed to a rumour that Time Warner is lining up to sell off the Warner Music Group. Tension seems to be brewing, as renegotiations between the two warring parties is virtually non-existent, sources close to the disgruntled Warner executives, say. Others are even predicting "a nuclear lawsuit," with the big guns of parent company Time Warner lining up for...

Madonna's bestseller November 26, 2003 MADONNA'S second children's book Mr Peabody's Apples is on top of the New York Times best sellers list for children this week. The queen of pop has topped the book chart just eight weeks after her last number one with The English Roses. Children are loving Madonna's tales. As funny as it may sound, Madonna has kept The Cat In The Hat from going number one in the book world. The Cat In The Hat is being propelled by the movie starring Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin and Kelly Preston. Madonna's career as an author couldn't...

Nobody ever says, "Madonna who?" She's part of our culture, an American success story who's maintained a media presence for 20 years now, re-inventing herself with every prevailing wind, while never, ever giving the impression she's doing anything other than what she wants to do. We are by turns impressed, embarrassed, shocked and amazed by Madonna's antics, but we're rarely surprised anymore. Madonna, the dancer from Detroit, set out to become famous and succeeded beyond anybody's but her own wildest dreams. She's 45, and shows no signs of slowing down or relinquishing her place in the spotlight; in fact, she's...

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) --The Material Girl has stepped onto the political stage and endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark. "I think he has a good handle on foreign policy, I think he's good with people, and I think he has a heart and a consciousness," pop singer Madonna said. "He's interested in spirituality -- I mean, those things mean a lot to me." The singer and children's book author met Clark a few weeks ago for over an hour. In an interview recorded last week with CNN's Denise Quan, Madonna said they discussed his becoming president. The singer told...

One of my favorite times of the year is the issue of the new College Football issue of Street and Smith's magazine. Just saw the new one on the stands. Looks like the Big game of the year will be between Oklahoma (projected #1) and Texas (#3). SS picks the Sooners to be National Champs with Miami #2. My beloved Razorbacks not rated. Is Oklahoma's defense really that good? Can Miami reload so quickly?

These are the lyrics to the supposedly controversial song American Life.. where is the anti-war stuff? Do I have to change my name? Will it get me far? Should I lose some weight? Am I gonna be a star? I tried to be a boy, I tried to be a girl I tried to be a mess, I tried to be the best I guess I did it wrong, That's why I wrote this song This type of modern life - Is it for me? This type of modern life - Is it for free? So, I went into a...

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