Rambo

PARENTS, WE have a problem. And we can't pretend that we don't just because it's embarrassing to discuss.Somehow we have lost our way and forgotten what is important. The buzz word is "values," but the term has been devalued from reckless and frequent use. We talk about "caring" for our children. What do we mean by "caring"? Hillary Rodham Clinton is right. It does take a village.A Barbie village.We've seen what our children have done to their Barbie dolls. But they are our Barbies, too. We must stop the madness.

About 200 people opposed to casino and riverboat gambling in Maryland attended a "No Casino Rally" last night at a Glen Burnie church."There is already enough and more than enough gambling opportunities in Maryland," the Rev. R. Olin Herndon, pastor of Glen Burnie United Methodist Church, told those at the rally. "We are here to join the chorus sounding across the state saying, 'No Casino.' "The Rev. Tom A. Grey of Galena, Ill., a spokesman for the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling who has been dubbed "Riverboat Rambo" by gambling proponents, was the guest speaker at the rally.

Washington. -- "My friends,'' exulted Ron Brown, then Democratic Party chairman (now secretary of commerce), to an American Bar Association forum in November 1992, ''I'm here to tell you that the lawyers won!'' That was true, given the Democrats' enthusiasm for the regulatory state and their aversion -- rewarded by campaign contributions from trial lawyers -- for reforms such as the ''loser pays'' rule to inhibit litigiousness.So, are lawyers happy? Not exactly. Nearly a quarter of them say they would choose a different profession were they starting over.

A federal judge's ruling that water contamination on two nearby farms cannot be traced to the Keystone landfill is not expected to take the landfill off the Superfund list.But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is studying a request from attorneys for the landfill owners to drop plans for cleanup outside the site's borders, EPA spokesman Harold Yates said yesterday. That request came after the Feb. 10 decision favoring landfill owners Kenneth and Anna Noel.Mr. Yates said EPA staff members have not finished studying technical and legal aspects of the judge's ruling.

Two couples who live near Keystone landfill may appeal a judge's ruling last week that the landfill is not responsible for water contamination on their properties.The privately owned landfill in Adams County, Pa., north of Silver Run, is the target of a lawsuit filed in 1987 by Timothy and Marcia Brown, formerly of Silver Run and now of Littlestown, Pa., and Cloyd and Dorothy Willow of Hanover, Pa. The landfill closed in 1990.Sylvia H. Rambo, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., ruled last week that the two couples had failed to prove that the landfill was the source of pollutants in ground water on their properties.

Just when it looked like the all-around disgrace of the Keystone Kowboy Kop and the drunk hit-and-run driver inDarlington last year had been put to rest, it shamelessly surfaced again at the Harford County Courthouse.Pierre Petetit, whose car was riddled with bullets from Port Deposit's off-duty police chief, Samuel Maranto, in a high-speed chase from Harvey's Jr. roadhouse in November 1992, has filed a civil lawsuit asking $14 million for his unhappiness.He's suing Mr. Maranto, but mainly the town of Port Deposit, for $9 million compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive awards.

POINT OF IMPACT. By Stephen Hunter. Bantam Books. 451 pages. $22.IF Stephen Hunter's fifth novel, "Point of Impact," were found in a time capsule by a future anthropologist, what would the book reveal about popular culture of the 1990s?The first observation might be that the '90s were violent times. This book is first and foremost about Guns with a capital G, and that rhymes with D, and that stands for Dead.Get out your guns & ammo dictionary; you'll need it to decipher the bullet/gun lingo that weaves through every page.

We're nearing the end of the Bush era in movies.In movies? Yes, that's right.Just as presidential administrations set the tone in such areas as education, energy and international diplomacy, they also seem to have a mysterious relationship with the national movie mood.The original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), for example, was a telling emblem of the paranoid Eisenhower period, while the free-spirited "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) seemed to reflect the optimism of the Kennedy years.

He can run only once a month now, and his racing career is nearing the end after 52 starts and 28 finishes in the money.But Rambo Phil, owned by the H & Bee Stable of Haymarket, Va., is among the rarest of horses -- those who continue to compete at the track and are being bred simultaneously.The 7-year-old hasn't won since November at Laurel but is consistently on the board. Saturday, he sired his second foal of the spring."He's the nicest horse to work around," trainer Greg Wilson said yesterday after Rambo Phil started sluggishly, then finished fourth in a $12,000 claiming race.

Donald PomerleauServices ThursdayDonald D. Pomerleau, the retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel who left his mark as Baltimore's forceful but controversial police commissioner from 1966 to 1981, will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at Wicomico Episcopal Church, Wicomico Church, Va.Burial with full military honors will be at 1 p.m. Friday in Arlington National Cemetery.Mr. Pomerleau, who modernized a demoralized Baltimore Police Department during a time of turbulent social and political change, died Sunday at his home at Edwardsville in rural Northern Virginia after a long struggle with kidney cancer.