Word: conundrum
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Mindless, sadistic violence juxtaposed with rote sentimentality: this is how Hollywood has finally solved the family-values conundrum, the question of how to entertain the blood- and sex-starved masses and be morally proactive at the same time. Well, dig this: Explosions are cool, and so are intact families! That's the message promulgated by Lethal Weapon 4, in which the above-mentioned scene takes place. As Mel Gibson's character comes to terms with impending fatherhood and Danny Glover's with impending grandfatherhood, the film wends its curious way, alternating crashes and neck breakings with scenes of limp domestic...
...successor to Ryutaro Hashimoto as the next Japanese prime minister. Whoever he is -- and there is a short list of front-runners, none of whom have Hashimoto's dynamic reputation -- he'll come from the ranks of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. And that's part of Japan's conundrum. Traditionally, there has been no serious alternative to the LDP. The Japanese public has been willing to elect members of rival parties into the weak Upper House as a form of protest, as they did on Sunday, but they're still reluctant to put opposition candidates behind the wheel...
Alas, that is not so different from the conundrum facing the government's newly announced bank-rescue agency. The announcement prompted a rare surge in the stock market last week because it indicated a willingness to let insolvent banks fail. The problem is that bureaucrats are already arguing over which banks should be allowed to go and which should be propped up. That sort of dispute speaks volumes about why the country seems to be dithering while the world screams for action. As last week's measures demonstrate, outside pressure still gets results when Japan senses it needs...
...K.L.A. "morale officer" Lum Haxhiu, 40, fondles a European assault rifle as he tells Holbrooke he was formerly a poet in Denmark. Outside, a bearded guerrilla puffing a Marlboro stands watch decked out in a black Ninja suit, cellular phone and holstered pistol. The unprepossessing leaders illustrate yet another conundrum facing Holbrooke: the K.L.A. has no effective political arm; fighters are already splitting into factions; and power is so diffuse that even if they succeed in liberating Kosovo, the lawless conditions that prevail today may continue. As a prominent Kosovar tells TIME, "It could be like Afghanistan...
...incomes leaving parents little time for talks with their children. Recent studies indicate that many teens think parents are the most accurate source of information and would like to talk to them more about sex and sexual ethics but can't get their attention long enough. Shana sees the conundrum this way: "Parents haven't set boundaries, but they are expecting them...