National Parents Center

‘Legend of the Guardians’: Owls of Ga’Hoole movie a drag, and parents beware

Soren soars in “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.” Share

If you’re planning on taking your kids to see “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole,” you should know that it’s not a kids’ movie. Or at least it’s not a kids’ movie in terms of what you might expect from an animated 3-D production about owls that’s rated PG.

The film is actually quite dark. It’s about war and revenge, kidnapping, enslaved creatures and the inevitability of violence.

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Tags: Owls, Owls Gahoole

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Child Nutrition Food Fight Bumps Up Against Political Reality

If Congress wants to put healthier food into school lunches, it may have to go with the bill the Senate passed last month, or risk rehashing the whole thing later and getting nothing.

That’s become the political reality. Even Ag Chief Tom Vilsack knows it.”What we don’t want to do is compromise what we can get today for what may or may not be available in 2013,” he told reporters this week on a conference call.

But it’s not very popular with people who say the bill cuts food stamp benefits, as NPR’s Pam Fessler points out in her story on Morning Edition Friday.

“It is wrong to take money from food stamps to finance child nutrition programs,” Edward M.

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Tags: Food, Food Fight

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Child death rate down a third since 1990

LONDON — The number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthday has fallen by a third since 1990, the United Nations said on Friday, but the decline is still way off a globally agreed target to be met by 2015.

Data from the United Nation’s children’s fund UNICEF showed the total number of under-five deaths decreased to 8.1 million per year in 2009 from 12.4 million per year in 1990.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) calls for a two-thirds reduction in the mortality rate among children under five between 1990 and 2015.

According to UNICEF’s figures, which were published in a special edition of The Lancet medical journal, the global under-five mortality rate has dropped by a third since 1990, from 89 deaths per 1,000 births to 60 in 2009.

“The good news is that these estimates suggest 12,000 fewer children are dying each day around the world compared to 1990,” UNICEF said in a statement.

“However the tragedy of preventable child deaths continues. So

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Tags: 1990

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Keep Your Goal In Sight

Disappointed, But Determined

I am working toward achieving my fitness goals. Having once weighed nearly 600 pounds, the path and process has included many peaks and valleys. The road to success is not always pretty, perfect or pain-free. There are times of great triumph and other times that truly test you.

Throughout the previous week I had been both diligent and disciplined on my plan. I carefully watched my portion sizes and pushed myself during workouts. I was expecting a banner weight loss this week.
When I went to bed Sunday night I was as excited as a child waiting for the dawn of Christmas day.

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Tags: Goal, Goal Sight

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