Free Republic

Its list of offerings reads like a who's who of entertainment icons: musical superstars, award-winning actors and professional athletes among them. Armed Forces Entertainment has been presenting first-class entertainment to U.S. troops and their families overseas for more than 50 years. Last year alone, it sponsored more than 1,200 shows at 225 sites worldwide —85 of them in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of Southwest Asia, according to Air Force Col. Janice Long, chief of Armed Forces Entertainment. During the past six months, the program sponsored visits by headliners such as World Wrestling Entertainment, Bruce Willis, Blink-182, Collective Soul, Drew...

Is World Wrestling Entertainment down for the count? Long viewed as the best (if not most tasteful) way to reach teenage boys, the league has begun to suffer serious ratings erosion of its marquee shows. Vince McMahon and company have attempted to stem the slide by rolling out a new trio of cable shows whose appeal is limited mainly to wrestling's hardcore faithful. But such measures, or even better conceived ones, may not do much more than slow the WWE's descent, with wrestling's popularity entering one of its cyclical downturns in the view of some analysts. The slip in ratings...