Free Republic

Here and in Europe, the financial meltdown exposes the hollowness of our elites. We are witnessing a widespread crisis of faith in our progressive guardians of the last 30 years. These are the blue-chip, university-certified elite, employed by universities, government, and big-money private foundations and financial-services companies. The best recent examples are sorts like Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag, Robert Rubin, Steven Chu, and Timothy Geithner. Politicians like John Kerry, John Edwards, and Al Gore all share certain common characteristics of this Western technocracy: proper legal or academic credentials, ample service in elected or appointed government office,...

I suppose there are lots of benefits to turning sixty-two, but from this side of the calendar, I am having a hard time seeing them. There are a few perks for "seniors," like discounts in some restaurants and sometimes on airline tickets or hotels. But most of the consequences of age are negative, and it's hard to accept them without a little cynicism if not outright anger. For one thing, the plant starts to break down around age 55, no matter what you do to keep it humming a precision tune. Here's a test: Sit on the floor. Now, get...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!