By Susan Yoshihara

Russia is making headlines with Vladimir Putin’s plan to grab the presidency in the March 4th elections. The concern is that Putin seems intent on restoring Russia’s great power status. But that hinges on a grand scheme Moscow watchers have largely missed. Let’s call it Putin’s conception mandate. 

Published at: http://articles.philly.com/2012-02-26/news/31101478_1_population-decline-fertility-obesity/2

Susan Yoshihara is senior vice president at Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) and a coeditor of “Population Decline and the Remaking of Great Power Politics”

In the latest step in her campaign for fitness, Michelle Obama told U.S. soldiers that obesity is a national-security issue. The Pentagon reports that about a quarter of the American youths seeking to don the uniform are too fat to fight, and that a billion dollars a year is spent on medical care related to overweight and obese troops.