Free Republic

  For anyone who strongly identifies with traditional Christianity, the October 6-9 series on Fox News's Hannity, with Sean Hannity interviewing Michael Moore, was rich in irony and vaguely distressing. The occasion was Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story.   Two bright, likable, and deeply sincere married men of middle age passionately argued the positions of the liberal Democrats or progressives (Moore) and the conservative Republicans (Hannity). What generated some irony was that both celebrity worldlings revealed themselves to be regular Sunday mass-goers. They viewed their years in Catholic schools warmly and with pride, and readily associated some...

Boomers Have Their Backs Against The Wall By Bill Bonner 10/14/09 London, England Two important items in the news today: First, Bloomberg reports that retails sales fell 2.1% in September – the biggest decrease this year. Know what that means? It means the “Age of Thrift” is here…and that consumers really are cutting back – just like we said they would. And it means that the consumer economy is not going to return to robust growth anytime soon. And it means, too, that people will find it hard to find jobs for a very long time. Another thing it means...

The early baby boomers may be known as the generation of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But it turns out, they're hitting the bottle pretty hard as they age, as well. And that portends significant alcohol-related health problems ahead as those mid-lifers become seniors. A new study finds that among men and women 50 to 64 years old, almost 1 in 4 men and 1 in 10 women is a "binge" drinker -- meaning that at some point in the last 30 days, he or she has downed four (for women) or five (for men) servings of alcohol in...

Many baby boomers (Americans in the generation born between 1946 and 1964) are continuing to use illicit drugs as they grow older, causing the rate of illicit drug use to go up within the 50 to 59 year old age segment of the population. According to a new analytical publication produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), those aged 50 to 59 reporting use of illicit drugs within the past year has nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are statistically staying the same...

There’s just no other way to look at it. President Obama is fleeing Washington D.C., and with good reason! Now, we could easily list the issues of the day and how he’s screwed up on each and every one, but that ignores the bigger, strategic problem he has: After 3 years of campaigning (of which he continues even after being elected), people are finally discovering Barack Obama’s lack of substance. Whether one describes that as inexperience, amateur, inept, as sizzle without steak, or as something else, the core argument against a President Obama has always been that he was making...

Remember the good old days, when one only had to watch out for the Federal Government’s twisted interpretation of the commerce clause to justify tyranny? Well those days seem to be long gone. The Obama Administration has been employing an old tactic lately – what some might call an imperial threat – and they’re not doing it overseas, either. The state of Oklahoma is now the target of a direct challenge from US Attorney General Eric Holder, who is using the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as justification to violate Oklahoma’s sovereignty as affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the...

Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the government's economic stimulus package to include a healthy increase in spending for what she called “family planning.” (If you didn't already know, “family planning” is generally code for abortion.) Pelosi said that this would save state and federal governments the cost of having to pay for the health care and education of poor children. Of course, it's pretty hard to argue with that sort of logic. After all, dead children are less expensive to care for than live children. In any event, Pelosi's remarks came on the heels of Barak...

Thus far, analysis the financial collapse has been framed almost entirely in terms of money. All the research I’ve seen has delved into lending standards, securitization, inflation, interest rates, housing and the like. Yet underneath this veneer lies one larger, mega-trend that has driven all of these themes to a greater or lesser degree. It created one of the largest stock bull markets we’ve ever seen from 1982-2001. It helped drive the Bubbles in Tech stocks AND Housing. And now it will guide the coming collapse in stocks and consumer spending. That trend is AGE: specifically the Boomer generation and...

OK FReeperettes, I need some help. It’s finally happened, just as I knew it would… my face is starting to show my age. Quickly. I knew it would happen just like this. Every woman ages the same in my mother’s family and apparently, I’m no exception. They get seriously carded, their husbands get flack for being with a teenager, nobody believes their teenagers belong to the - until about 40. Then BOOM! Their faces crater. They go from easily passing for 21 to looking 45 within a few months and it all happens around 40. Doesn’t matter if they smoke...

Baby boomers — which the Census Bureau defines as the group of 78 million or so people born between 1946 and 1964 — are obsessed with grades. They rank everything: best to worst, least to most, zero to 100, A to F. They grade movies, hotels, beef, municipal bonds and restaurants — for the quality of food, for speed of service, for cleanliness. They mark up school essays and driving tests and citizenship exams. After the release of the 1979 movie 10, starring boomer Bo Derek, men and women began appraising each other on a 1-to-10 scale. The first Zagat...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2009 – Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean last week, sailors aboard the Trident strategic missile submarine USS Maryland prepared to start a series of underwater practice maneuvers known as “angles and dangles.” The USS Maryland’s “Gold” crew executive officer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Louis J. Springer, takes a look through the vessel’s periscope, Feb. 17, 2009. DoD photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Maryland’s captain, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey M. Grimes, and his chief of the boat and senior enlisted leader, Master Chief Petty Officer Michael C. McLauchlan, intently observed the actions...

We enter 2009 and the Presidency of Barack Obama with citizens pessimistic about the future of our country. The public has lost faith in government, financial institutions, and religious institutions. Distrust of politicians, bankers, CEO’s, financial advisors, and moral leadership is well founded. The popular culture of over hyping public figures and then tearing them down has led to everyone and everything being discredited. The personal and public choices that will be required in the next few years will be harsh. Moral courage and leadership is what is needed. As I watch the likes of Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Rush...

Thank you so much for reminding me. A day after a historic inauguration and affirmation that this is the greatest country known to man, one that provides unlimited opportunity for all; your article in the Globe today made sure that our original sin stiil hangs on us. The sin that only the martyrdom of the white male liberal and his resurrection in the halcyon days of the 60's have we been spared from Judgement Day. The sacrifice you made Bob, you and your grey haired aging hipster friends to make sure that we must never forget that black people are...

Too bad Ponce de Leon didn't live in 21st century New York City. He may not have found the Fountain of Youth, but he would have at least gotten a book deal. It seems that every time a Baby Boomer finds a gray hair, another tome is written promising to teach people how to stave off the effects of aging. This year, dozens of self-help titles are set to hit the shelves, all offering tips to extending youth.

In the aftermath of the Madoff implosion, quite a few people have pointed out the parallels between a Ponzi scheme and Social Security. Arnold Kling, whom I respect, has written: I’ve been thinking that Madoff is a perfect analogy for the public sector. The government gives people money, which it expects to obtain by taking the money from people in the future. Even the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, not known as a right-wing organization, sees the U.S. fiscal stance as unsustainable (pointer from Ezra Klein via Tyler Cowen)—in other words, a Ponzi scheme. Other people have gone farther....

If you were born from 1946 through 1964, you are a boomer, a member of the most intriguing population this country has ever known. A new study invites you to look into your future for an in-depth view of how you, and your diverse group of cohorts, are likely to adapt as you grow old. "Boomers: The Next 20 years, Ecologies of Risk" is the title of a report from the Institute for the Future and the MetLife Mature Market Institute. It predicts some wondrous things as well as presenting some cautionary issues. Overall, it is quite a positive picture....

I guess I'm not the only one wishing Boomers would just shuffle off quietly to Hippie Valhalla. The whiniest, most self-absorbed generation is apparently wearing out its welcome among others as well. And with good reason. This is the generation that brought us Viagra commercials on TV during family hours, introducing our youngsters new and interesting phrases. This is the generation that mainstreamed porn, marketed slutwear to our daughters and encouraged our boys to be pimps. I know, boomers are not the authors of our current social dysfunctions, but they were the libertines who stormed Bastille, unleashing the corrosive social...

Carol Fisher thought she did everything right to prepare for retirement--and to live her dream of seeing the country from a recreational vehicle. She and her husband, Larry, worked at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren. They planned to sell their log home in King George County after they retired and live off the interest, along with their pensions. But when Larry Fisher died two years after the couple began traveling, Carol Fisher's dreams ended, too. ------------------------------------------------------ She also had a decade-long spending spree, buying souvenirs from New York to Nova Scotia. When gas and grocery prices soared, she...

Here is how our baby-boom generation solves problems: -- Recently, George Bush went to Saudi Arabia to ask the ruling House of Saud to pump more oil. That request had about as much chance of success as the Democratic-led congressional effort to “sue” the Saudis in American courts for their selfish “price-gouging.” The current debate about energy in the United States has devolved into doing the same old thing—consume, don’t produce and complain—while somehow expecting different results. Congress talks endlessly about the bright future of wind, solar and new fuels, while it stops us from getting through the messy present...

Recently, I reviewed a new American history anthology. I was amused to find included in the book a generous selection of 1960s protest songs. Apparently, lyrics by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Country Joe MacDonald are making their way into the academic canon, and at least some professors seem to think these are “must-read” documents for our students. Well, maybe so. But if one really wants song lyrics that reflect the 1960s, I'd point my students instead to some of the songs from math professor and musical satirist Tom Lehrer. In terms of insight into America, Lehrer's “National...

NEW YORK - The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AARP. In the telephone survey of 1,002 adults 45 and older, nearly four in 10 said they had helped a child pay bills or expenses. Among retirees, one-third said they’d helped their children pay bills. Eight percent said they’d helped a parent pay bills or expenses. The survey’s margin of sampling error was plus or minus...

AS Bill Clinton was the first baby boomer president, Barack Obama could be the first Generation X president. Or, depending on how you figure it, Mr. Obama, born in 1961, could be the third boomer in chief, following Presidents Clinton and Bush. In theory, the candidate Obama belongs in the boom, defined by the Census Bureau as births during the years 1946 to 1964… The generation-spotter Jonathan Pontell, on the other hand, argues the boom began in 1942 and ended in 1953. He places Mr. Obama in “Generation Jones,” a term Mr. Pontell coined to characterize those born during the...

Back in 1963, when I was a junior in high school, summer jobs were not so easy to come by -- the negative aspect of Baby Boomer demographics. Finally, a friend managed to line me up with a job busing tables at a local Catholic retreat house. I served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, washed dishes, and did my best to keep a low profile. It wasn't much, but the start of my career of gainful employment. A strict rule of silence was enforced then on Catholic retreats. The participants, entirely male, did not speak to each other, and particularly at...

O ne of the most fascinating notions raised by the current presidential campaign is the idea that the United States can and must finally overcome the divisions of the 1960s. It's most often associated with the ascendancy of Sen. Barack Obama, who has been known to entertain it himself. Its most gauzy champion is pundit Andrew Sullivan, who argued in a cover article in the December Atlantic Monthly that, "If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today's actual problems, Obama may be your man." No offense to...

The Baby Boomers’ retirement will change the texture of society in ways we’ve scarcely begun to contemplate. A dispatch from America’s coming silver age It is cliché to speak of sleepy little country towns, but my mother’s hometown goes beyond sleepy into Rip van Winkle territory. Newark, New York, has more churches than bars. Neat clapboards and stately Victorians line quiet streets wrapped tight around the Erie Canal. Drive through Newark quickly, and it looks like America’s past. Stay a little longer, and you begin to recognize it as our future. Walk into one of those churches on a typical...

In 2008, the first wave of a generation 78 million strong will hit the Social Security system Greg Witt was born in January 1946, raised on Elvis, served two years in the U.S. Army and retired after 38 years of working for Allen-Bradley in Milwaukee. Now, he is on the cusp of turning 62 and reaching another milestone - receiving Social Security. "It's kind of like another step in your life," he says. "It feels kind of good, all these years of working and contributing and I get something back." Witt is among the first of 78 million baby boomers...

Baby Boomers Owe Young People an Apology   By Dennis PragerFrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, December 04, 2007 http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1E5D04AE-14DA-4920-8F6A-1DCE01801277   We live in the age of group apologies. I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins. Here is a partial list: First and perhaps foremost, we apologize for robbing many of you of a childhood. We baby boomers were allowed perhaps the most innocent childhoods known to history. We grew up without material want, in one of the most decent places in world history, with media that...

Pols target tax on home heatingSavings to hard-pressed New Yorkers would amount to $300M Saturday, December 01, 2007 By TOM WROBLESKI STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The unseasonably warm weather Staten Island has seen lately doesn't mean that homeowners aren't feeling the pinch of rising energy costs. Before the cold weather settles in for good and really drives up the price of heating oil and gas, three Republican lawmakers are calling on the City Council to eliminate the 4 percent tax on home heating fuel. "Talk is cheap," said state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore). "To reduce the skyrocketing cost of...

WASHINGTON — The nation's first baby boomer applied for Social Security benefits today, signaling the start of an expected avalanche of applications from the post World War II war generation. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, a former teacher from New Jersey, applied for benefits over the Internet at an event attended by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. Casey-Kirschling, who now lives in Maryland, was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946, making her the first baby boomer — a generation of nearly 80 million born from 1946 to 1964, Astrue said. Casey-Kirschling will be eligible for benefits after she turns 62...

Earlier this year at a campaign rally, Bill Clinton said that when he was at Yale, he told Hillary: “I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you’re the best.” Now, it’s always nice to hear a husband say he thinks his wife is tops. But I can’t get past the idea that while Bill Clinton was still in law school he believed he already knew every baby boomer worth knowing. ...Obviously, Clinton wasn’t including Barack Obama, who was only about 12 at the time. Now, Obama’s campaign is the revenge of Gen XYZ — an...

ack in the 1950s, a southern journalist named Harry Golden became famous by turning out a series of best-selling books, the first of which he called “Only in America.� The title was a reference to a popular expression that reflected the feeling of most of his countrymen that America was special, a unique place that offered millions of people unlimited freedom to express themselves and to achieve dreams that were unimaginable anywhere else on earth. In the half century since Mr. Golden wrote his book, things have undergone a sea change in this country. Partly the change has come about...

Baby boomers pay for six pack in a syringe By Philip Sherwell, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:00am BST 19/08/2007 With his six-pack stomach, bulging chest and bull-like shoulders, the muscleman in the newspaper advertisement displays the sort of rippling torso that adorns the cover of men's fitness journals. But there is one difference. From the neck up, Dr Jeffry S Life is a balding 67-year-old physician. His physique is the product not of a computer touch-up but a controversial American "ageing management" technique, that often includes a cocktail of human growth hormones and testosterone. Some 13,000 clients have so far...

MENLO PARK, Calif. —Today's New York Times has an article about people who are worth millions and are still complaining:Silicon Valley is thick with those who might be called working-class millionaires — nose-to-the-grindstone people like Mr. Steger who, much to their surprise, are still working as hard as ever even as they find themselves among the fortunate few. Their lives are rich with opportunity; they generally enjoy their jobs. They are amply cushioned against the anxieties and jolts that worry most people living paycheck to paycheck.But many such accomplished and ambitious members of the digital elite still do not think...

Ted Nugent Blames Hippies for Divorce, Abortion, Drugs and Crime 7/3/07, 2:22 pm EST It was only a matter of time before Ted Nugent decided to rain on the Summer of Love’s anniversary parade. In an article from today’s Wall Street Journal titled “The * Summer of Drugs,” the notoriously opinionated guitar god took some time off his busy hunting schedule to blame “stoned, dirty, stinky hippies” for “rising rates of divorce, high school drop-outs, drug use, abortion, sexual diseases and crime, not to mention the exponential expansion of government and taxes.” * Highlights (including some choice words for Jimi...

In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone. Confronted with a generation-defining conflict, the cold war, the Boomers--those, at any rate, who came to be emblematic of their generation--took the opposite path from their parents during World War II. Sadly, the excesses of Woodstock became the face of the Boomers' response to their moment of challenge. War protests where agitated youths derided American soldiers as baby-killers added no luster to their image.  Few of the leading lights of that generation joined the military. Most calculated how they could avoid military service, and their attitude rippled...

As the children of the Greatest Generation age, they are embracing religion in greater numbers. Jerry Holland has been a religious skeptic, an atheist and a spiritual seeker. Now he has become something he never would have envisioned when he was a restless teenager who read Charles Darwin in secret because he didn't want his Southern Baptist parents to know he was learning about evolution. Holland is now a Bible-study leader. Holland, a 62-year-old structural engineer, has helped start a Seekers and Skeptics Bible study group at Community Christian Church in Fayetteville, Ga., to answer the kinds of questions he...

Bill Would Help Retirees Get a 'Paycheck for Life' (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) has re-introduced a bill intended to help middle-class Americans make their retirement income last for their rest of their lives. The Retirement Security for Life Act of 2007 (S. 1010) amends the tax code to encourage the purchase of annuities - investment vehicles that provide guaranteed lifetime income. Under the proposal, individuals would get a federal tax break on up to $20,000 of the annual income generated by annuities that promise lifetime payments. An average taxpayer in the 25 percent tax bracket would get a...

Cassandra Devine knows how to solve the coming "entitlements" crisis, preordained when the 77 million baby boomers begin hitting 65 in 2011: Pay retirees to kill themselves, a program she calls "transitioning." Volunteers could receive a lavish vacation beforehand ("a farewell honeymoon"), courtesy of the government, and their heirs would be spared the estate tax. If only 20% of boomers select suicide before the age of 70, she says, "Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid will be solvent. End of crisis." OK, Devine is a 29-year-old fictional blogger in Christopher Buckley's satirical novel "Boomsday." Infuriated at the injustices awaiting her generation, she...

As America's baby boomers approach senior status, a troubling number are dying from causes that have marked the generation since the 1960s - drug abuse, suicide and accidents. A new analysis by Scripps Howard News Service of death records for more than 304,000 boomers who died in 2003 shows the legacies of early and lingering drug use, a tendency toward depression at all stages of life and a stubborn determination not to "act their age." All of those problems contribute to more deaths from drugs, suicides and accidents than seen in previous aging generations. Most of the nearly 78 million...

Anyone who thinks that organized religion in Canada is dying “would be wise to think again,” says sociologist Reginald Bibby. Mainline Protestants (Anglican, United, Lutheran and Presbyterians) in Canada have collectively experienced an increase in monthly-plus attendance in church services since a decade ago, from 26 per cent in 1995 to 31 per cent in 2005, according to Mr. Bibby of Alberta’s University of Lethbridge. In his latest book, The Boomer Factor: What Canada’s Most Famous Generation is Leaving Behind, Mr. Bibby – who has been monitoring social trends in Canada for 30 years – said that while most observers...

All those baby boomers with aging parents should pay close attention to a recent court decision in California. An appeals court ruling in a nasty divorce in Placer County highlights the little known but significant legal obligation of adult children who, to the extent they are able, should support their indigent parents. In the case before the appeals court, a divorcing wife disputed her husband's right to deduct from the proceeds of her share of community property the $12,000 he had spent to support his elderly, infirm mother. The wife called the support payments "an unauthorized gift of community funds."...

Is TV's youth obsession backfiring? By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 40 minutes ago NEW YORK - Americans born between 1946 and 1964 are accustomed to being catered to, but that's not the case with much of television today. Now there's some new evidence that they're finding this mighty irritating. A study conducted by Harris Interactive suggests that the television industry's obsession with youth is backfiring. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they believe that most TV programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the survey said. More than 80 percent of adults over 40 say they have a...

"...He’s not alone. According to a 2005 study by the Boston College Center on Aging and Work, traditional retirement where employees totally stop working may never happen for most baby boomers. Instead, the study suggests that 50%-66% of retirees will be vying for bridge jobs, parttime or short duration work for at least five years after retirement...

Unless Social Security and Medicare are revamped, the massive burden from retiring baby boomers will place major strains on the nation's budget and the economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday. "Reform of our unsustainable entitlement programs" should be a priority, he said in prepared remarks to the Economics Club of Washington. "The imperative to undertake reform earlier rather than later is great," Bernanke added. It marked the Fed chief's most extensive comments to date on the challenges facing the United States with the looming retirement of 78 million baby boomers. In his remarks, Bernanke did not offer Congress...

Bathroom humor is always great fun to a fourth-grader and there’s a little bit of that in the above that seems to have been passed down from generation to generation since…since…well ever since kids started standing in lines and needed to say something cool to maintain their place in them. I must confess that there have been lots of times when I have cut in line: at the movie theater with that “front two rows only” desperation; approaching the crowded freeway exit with that “I’m already 10 minutes late” rationale. Still, my biggest cut in line occurred on April 13th...

Drug use up for boomers, down for teens By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no. The government reported Thursday that 4.4 percent of baby boomers ages 50 to 59 indicated that they had used illicit drugs in the past month. It marks the third consecutive yearly increase recorded for that age group by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Meanwhile, illicit drug use among young teens went down for the third consecutive year — from 11.6 percent in 2002 to 9.9...

Baby boomers like to trumpet their generation's achievements. But their fondness for conspicuous consumption and foreign travel has led to many a modern-day ill, from rising debt to environmental woes. This week, former US President Bill Clinton - perhaps the archetypal baby boomer - turns 60. With his penchant for playing sax, feeling everyone's pain, and his admission that he flirted with marijuana (without inhaling), Clinton has come to symbolise the generation born between 1946 and 1964 who shook up Western society. Now, as the boomers become "ageing hipsters", we're constantly being reminded of their achievements. They gave us rock...

Desperate Grandmas Kay S. HymowitzNow sexagenarians, narcissistic feminists are still seeking the Best Sex Ever.Time passes, and we get old. Our faces wrinkle, our hair goes gray and MIA, our teeth yellow, our knees ache, we forget the names of people we said hello to just yesterday on the way to pick up the Geritol, and there are days when a nap sounds real nice.At least that’s the way it’s been for most of humanity. But rumors that boomers will be joining the great biological stream turn out to have been greatly exaggerated. Boomers—especially feminist-influenced women of a certain...

GAO: Boomer effect on stocks negligible Fri Jul 28, 7:47 PM ET WASHINGTON - A congressional investigation has discounted any danger that a wave of retiring baby boomers will cause a precipitous decline in the stock market by suddenly selling off their financial assets. The Government Accountability Office concluded most boomers have few assets to sell, retirees tend to spend their assets slowly, longer life expectancies may stretch that out even more and many will probably continue working past their normal retirement ages. Boomers are the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The oldest of that generation are...