This should be a red flag to the american people and our system of the welfare government. It's hard to believe that even our youth have become debt ridden beyond acceptance and physically unfit.

Perhaps its time to make all those freeloaders getting welfare education be inducted in to service and repay the country for their education.

Qualifying for the military service was never a problem but apparently this society has become too tolerant to bad lifestyles, food, and eating habits.

At one time the only thing that kept young people out of service were physical deformities, flat feet, and felony criminal records. And this was in peace time.

Then failing entrance exams was limited to those with less than a 9th grade education or low IQ. A nation of young that can't even qualify to serve their country is alarming.

What will america do in a real war? Surrender? The youth should be forced in to service out of high school before all these negatives happen in their lives. And perhaps make their future lives and america even better as it always happens after serving their country. Developing character, honor, and respect is what they learn.

1. "Obesity" is hard to measure. There are high school athletes considered "obese" because they weigh too much, even though they are muscular and fit. It's hard to measure how much of this is a problem without looking at raw data.

2. It should be a bigger red flag the number of parents and families who actively discourage their children from military service. (I'm not condemning the practice, by the way. But the military should be alarmed at how many eligible candidates would never consider serving.)

I don't really see what is alarming about 75% of potential applicants not being qualified to serve in the military. That means that 25% ARE qualified. That is a very large number in absolute terms. Provide sufficent incentives/money for people in that 25% cohort to choose to serve, and sufficient numbers will choose to serve.

The greatest generation had publicly funded schools. Americans never had the conservative distaste for excellence or education. Even, in conservative Utah, people once valued education and becoming the best. There was no concept in Utah, in the sixties, of "intellectual elitism." It took ignorance and the growth of conservatism to create suck a stupid idea.

All those nations whose kids out perform our kids have public educations. These cultures and parents value education.

It's Food Inc. and the free market that has changed the way we eat. The government doesn't make Big Macs. The government doesn't spend millions each year to convince people that cooking is awful. The government doesn't mandate adding corn sweeteners to food.

The government does tell you not to buy your kids ATV's, let them walk. How many of you conservatives like Alarming, never take you kids hiking or back country skiing?

You don't accept any personal countability in you decision. You can cleanse yourself as a conservative by saying you're a victim of government. What's a poor victim like you to do?

As a fairly young male in reasonably good physical condition and as anhonors student, I would probably qualify for military service. Nonetheless, I and many of the guys I know of the same "type" don't have any desire to join. Why? Thank President Bush for that one. I agree wholeheartedly with defending ur country from true threats to our safety and freedom, but I have absolutely no desire to be a human sandbag for political ideological battles like Vietnam and the current "War against Terror." Any rational guy with some sense knows that prevention is the best cure when it comes to terrorist attacks on American soil, and the battle is best fought at home utilizing public support and assistance. Going into the relatively uncontrolled environment of Afghanistan and trying to stamp out the blazing brushfire of political and cultural discontent that exists there is just futility; waiting for a chance to take a bullet in a conflict that has been flaring up every now and agian throughout the course of recorded history. Not for me, thanks. Life is too precious to squander it for politicians' whims and big business's "economic interests."

If I remember right, it was the Reagan administration that decided ketchup counts as a vegetable.

It was the Bush administration that started No Child Left Behind which focuses on testing instead of physical activity.

It is conservatives who denigrate education as elitist and unnecessary.

Yep, it is definitely the liberals fault - not!

Equal blame - yes. All one party - not quite.