RUST COMMENTARY: COMMON SENSE IN THE MILITARY

Common Sense Comeback? A recent report by an independent commission on women in the military may represent the first signs of common sense replacing political correctness. Over the last decade, feminist pressure and cowardly politicians unwilling to resist have tried a bizarre experiment that has undermined military morale and readiness. Placing thousands of young men and women into mixed basic training sessions under intense physical and mental pressure has contributed to sex scandals, out of wedlock pregnancies and sexual harassment. The panel said "enough is enough" and recommended separate barracks at the platoon level during ten weeks of basic training. The Clinton administration has already made it clear it doesn't like the recommendations. The GOP Congress should embrace it immediately and generate a national debate on the politization of the U.S. armed forces.

Freeh Fried? Clinton was asked to give a "vote of confidence" to FBI Director Louis Freeh at a recent press conference and he pointedly refused. Clinton said there had been "too much back and forth" on the "confidence business" and that he did not want to "get into it." The message was clear. Freeh has actually conducted himself as a real FBI director in recent months -- resisting White House pressure to politicize the agency. Everyone in Washington knows that he believes that Janet Reno was wrong when she refused to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton-Gore fund raising. In short, don't bet on Freeh having a long future as a Clinton FBI director. -- Gary Bauer

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World population is now 5.9 billion, twice what it was in 1957.

In 2010, it'll be about 6.8 billion, double what it was in '66.

In 2020, probably around 7.6 billion, nearly 30 percent more than now.

But the RATE of growth will keep slowing. In 1970, it was 2 percent per year. Now, it's 1.3 percent a year. In 20 years, it will be less than 1 percent.

Countries that will add the most people from now until 2020 ... in order ... India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, U.S., Bangladesh.

Others are expected to LOSE population during the same 22 years. Russia, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Japan, Spain, Bulgaria and Portugal. Among reasons for this ... older populations and very little immigration.

Online access to your Social Security records will be available in early '98. For privacy reasons, you'll receive your own access code. Earnings and tax history won't be listed, but projected benefits will be. In fact, you'll be able to enter current earnings and an educated guess of future earnings to check your benefits at different retirement ages.

To find out about your projected benefits now, call 800-772-1213. -- Kiplinger Washington Letter

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The road to riches: Texas is big. Hats big, cows big and a river that is rather grand. Everything is writ so large that even little problems become big ones. In 1985 Texas discovered that cleaning highway litter was becoming too costly. So an engineer named Bobby Evans and his assistant Billy Black came up with a Texas-type idea. Why not recruit volunteers to pick up after messy motorists and reward them with congratulatory road signs? The Adopt-A-Highway program was born.

Today 48 states run similar road adoption programs -- billboard-phobic Maine and Vermont are the lone holdouts. The way it generally works, a group of citizens adopt a two-mile stretch of road and clean it four times a year for two years. It's American volunteerism par excellence. The programs are so popular that some states have run out of road. "We have a lot of celebrities in Southern California who want to participate, but we just can't find spots for them," says Keith Robinson of the California Department of Transportation.

Suppose you would like to help but don't much fancy handling moldy peanut butter sandwiches and dead possums? Good old American capitalism to the rescue. There have sprung up companies that subcontract the actual cleaning chores so you can now adopt a highway and get your merit-badge road sign but never have to get your hands greasy. In the past few years, three major private contractors have sprung up in California, and they are expanding fast. For $500 a month per two miles of highway, they will do your paperwork, design your road sign and pick up the litter. Their customers are mainly other businesses out to display public spiritedness but which hate the mess. "You wouldn't want to put the Boy Scout troop on I-95 with trucks barreling through at 75 miles an hour," argues Patricia Nelson of Adopt-A-Highway Maintenance Corp., the country's largest private contractor in this field.

No wonder so many Americans are obese. -- Ben Pappas, Forbes

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Blowing Hot and Cold in Kyoto: The Global Climate Treaty crafted at the recent U.N. conference in Kyoto, Japan, will likely be one of the biggest issues of 1998. President Clinton weakened the treaty, pooh-poohing business and conservative objections that it would cost jobs and hurt the economy. He boasted of current growth and low unemployment figures. But there's much more in this treaty than the public has been led to believe. Is the Clinton administration prepared to defy the U.S. Senate, which has the constitutional duty to ratify or reject this treaty? Earlier this year, the Senate voted 95-0 for a resolution which urged the president to reject any treaty which does not require developing nations to meet the same standards for greenhouse gas emissions that the U.S. must meet. The Kyoto treaty exempts developing nations like China, India and Mexico. Perhaps sensing the explosive nature of the treaty -- and possibly, too, the political risk to treaty backers -- Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have urged Clinton to sign the treaty but delay sending it to the Senate for ratification. A "cake and eat it, too" solution.

Families have a great stake in this debate. Of course, we will see pressure on U.S. automakers to downsize vehicles, pushing families into smaller, less safe cars. Minivans, station wagons and the popular sport utility vehicle may be forced off the road. U.S. companies which are pressured to meet unrealistic pollution standards will have a government incentive to build new plants "offshore" in countries that are exempt from the treaty's harsh regulations. U.S. companies might actually have to get permission in the form of emission licenses from Russia -- Russia! -- in order to open new plants. And the U.S. military -- long "loathed" by administration insiders -- will find vital training missions and maneuvers limited unless approved by the U.N. -- Washington Update

Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.