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The U.S. government, which is the nation’s largest employer, has put out the help wanted sign: By 2009, it will need to hire tens of thousands of new workers. In its survey of projected hiring needs titled “Where the Jobs Are: Mission Critical Opportunities for America,” it states the U.S. government will need to fill 193,000 mission critical jobs by 2009, including police officers, investigators, food inspectors, security and prison guards, airport screeners, customs and border patrol, immigration agents and intelligence analysts. In some cases, federal agencies offer recruitment bonuses, retention incentives, relocation incentives and graduate school scholarships. And, they...

My cohort, the sainted Boomer generation, now rules this country and its institutions. The elite of this generation, graduates of the finest schools, cosmopolitan in taste and sensibility, and left-liberal in political and cultural allegiance -- have always been counted the smartest people in the room (just ask them). Now these new Masters of the Universe have made a shambles of the US and world financial system. This is, to be sure, not the construction put upon things by the main stream media, but it is plainly the case. The current market turmoil is a product of every bad trait...

While the Right blogosphere is hailing and the Left blogosphere is snarking at Senator McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Palin (See the round up at Instapundit), every observer I have seen so far has missed a real point. The Republicans have no Baby Boomers on their Presidential ticket. This also remarkable because neither major American political party picked Presidential front runners who are Baby Boom Southern White Males after 15 years of such men being President.(snip)Gov. Palin is the first of the Generation X demographic cohort to be selected for Federal Executive Office. She will not be the last. What...

At Wichita State recently, a college debate coach dropped his trousers after a foul-mouthed argument with the opposing coach in a debating tournament. YouTube shows it for the world to see.  Coach William Shanahan, who sports a caveman beard reaching below his belt, said later that, yes, his reasoning might seem "convoluted," but his trouser-dropping act was intended a sign of respect for the opposing coach.  ""Obviously it got out of control, but to be honest I thought I was in a safe house," Shanahan said. "I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally and...

'Taking Woodstock' set to start Emile Hirsch, Demetri Martin to star in Ang Lee pic By MICHAEL FLEMING Focus Features will begin production late this month on "Taking Woodstock," scripted by James Schamus and to be directed by Ang Lee. Lee's ensemble cast includes Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton and Liev Schreiber. Pic is an adaptation of the memoir of Elliot Tiber, who played a role in helping the historic 1969 music fest unfold on his neighbor's farm (Daily Variety, April 22). Less than a month ago, Focus had been thinking about postponing the start of production over concerns that a...

The Sixties Won’t Go Away What more can anyone say about the 1960s and all its legacies? By Victor Davis Hanson Those who protested some 40 years ago often still congratulate themselves that their loud zeal alone brought needed “change” to America in civil rights, the environment, women’s liberation, and world peace. Maybe. But critics counter that the larger culture that followed was the most self-absorbed in memory. Everyone can at least agree that the spirit of the “Me Generation” is not going quietly into the night — especially since that generation ushered in a certain coarseness and self-righteousness that...

Fountain Of Youth Gushes For Baby Boomers By ANNE McGRAW REEVESIf you're having a hot flash right now, you're hot. Hair thinning? Memory fading? Skin wrinkling? Don't give it another thought, oh, aging baby boomer. Getting older is now chic. The Middle Ages haven't been this thrilling since the exploits of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Just when those of us born before the swinging '70s are beginning to wonder if the best years are behind us, along comes a set of midlife Midases who prove that age is, indeed, just a number. Everywhere you look —...

...The Schwab study describes this thinking in detail: A Distress Call from Retirement Limbo: Respondents are thinking about their retirement futures and say they will need to have saved at least $500,000 to live comfortably in retirement – which is twice the median net worth of today’s Boomer pre-retirees. Additionally, only a quarter of Americans say they clearly understand Social Security and how it works. Just 11 percent of Americans say they understand Medicare very clearly. A Coming Era of Financial Self-Reliance: Looking forward, survey participants identify a need for self-reliance in retirement. Low Grades for Likely Resources: Survey participants...

Even baby boomers who prune spending when they retire risk outliving their assets as they likely will live longer and experience volatile rates of both inflation and investments, a new study said on Monday. Almost three out of five new middle-class retirees will outlast their savings unless they live more modestly after they quit the work force, said the study commissioned by Americans for Secure Retirement, a lobbying coalition for policies to help Americans retire. The oldest among the 77 million baby boomers are the best-prepared, according to the study, done for the coalition by accountants Ernst & Young. Middle-class...

Study: Baby Boomers Are Gloomiest Generation POSTED: 9:01 am EDT July 12, 2008 UPDATED: 9:42 am EDT July 12, 2008 NEW YORK -- A new study by the Pew Research Center found 66 percent of baby boomers find it harder to get ahead now than in 1998. It also found that 86 percent say it's harder to maintain their standard of living than just five years ago. We talked to boomers in Brooklyn. "There just seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel." As they approach their golden years, baby boomers like Ros Aaron are worried --...

The "Musicians Who Turn 50", "Musicians Who Turn 60", "Favorite Drummer" and "Favorite Guitarist" were such hit threads on FR, I've decided to do this one. Who is your favorite SONGWRITING DUO? We all know that Lennon-McCartney were amazing together and possibly the best songwriting duo ever. They might be mentioned several times on this thread. If you choose John & Paul, be specific about which song and lyric(s).

For More Americans, Retirement Can Wait By TED ROELOFS   Julie Johnson, 68, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has been helping a nonprofit to organize and fill new residential space for the homeless. (Photo by Emily Zoladz)     [Grand Rapids, MI] -- At age 68, Julie Johnson is something of a fixer for the Heartside neighborhood nonprofit housing agency in Grand Rapids, Mich. Give her a tough job, and she will find a way. "I like to get things done,'' said Johnson, a former community college administrator.As the American work force continues to gray, millions of workers are rewriting the...

The Federal Aviation Administration. The Social Security Administration. The National Science Foundation. The Treasury Department. All could lose as much as a quarter of their employees by 2012, mostly because of retirements. They are not alone. Across the government, about a third of full-time employees will retire in the next five years, according to estimates prepared by the Office of Personnel Management. The turnover could be even higher in the ranks of federal executives and supervisors. From the start of the Bush administration, agencies have been preparing for the churning that will be caused by the baby boom retirement wave....

SAN FRANCISCO — When David Bunnell, a magazine publisher who lives in Berkeley, Calif., went to a FedEx store to send a package a few years ago, he suddenly drew a blank as he was filling out the forms. “I couldn’t remember my address,” said Mr. Bunnell, 60, with a measure of horror in his voice. “I knew where I lived, and I knew how to get there, but I didn’t know what the address was.” Mr. Bunnell is among tens of millions of baby boomers who are encountering the signs, by turns amusing and disconcerting, that accompany the decline...

California may be loosening its grip on two groups that helped define the Golden State during the 20th century: predominantly white baby boomers, who are now approaching retirement age, and Hispanics. New U.S. Census Bureau data being released today shows the state's white population is shrinking - particularly in the Bay Area. From 2000 to 2006, the San Jose and San Francisco metropolitan areas saw their white population decline by more than 200,000 people, trailing only the New York City metropolitan area. Meanwhile, Texas has replaced California as the leader in the nation's Hispanic growth surge. California is still adding...

Viewing The 1960s From My 60s By Burt Prelutsky Even though I'm embarrassed to have been a Democrat for so many years, I'm proud that even in my 20's, I thought the 60's was the worst decade in America's history. Because I was born in 1940, I was at UCLA for some of those years and had a bird's eye view of my fellow college students. It was not a pretty sight. What makes that time the source of so much nostalgia for so many people of my age -- the incessant folk songs, the tie-dyed shirts and blouses, the...

America's aging citizens are facing a health care workforce too small and unprepared to meet their needs, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) titled "Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce." The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's largest organization devoted to aging research, fully supports the publication's call for a labor pool of adequate size and competency to care for a rapidly increasing over-65 population. "This pivotal report lays out a much-needed strategy for developing a network of health professionals and frontline workers to avert a crisis in quality care...

The handsome young waiter's eyes followed Sarah as she walked across the restaurant, and she felt her heart beating faster as he leaned over to place a napkin in her lap. "At 54, I was unused to the attention of young men, especially a handsome one in his 20s," she says. "Our eyes connected as I told myself not to be silly - he couldn't possibly be interested in me. But I was wrong." Sarah Jarvis is 59 and has four grown-up children and four grandchildren. Attractive, slim and smartly dressed, she has been divorced from her lawyer husband for...

Federal authorities issued a flurry of subpoenas across the city yesterday as they launched a grand jury investigation of disability abuse in the Boston Fire Department, including whether dozens of firefighters faked on-the-job injuries to significantly enhance their pensions, according to several officials briefed on the probe.

Last Hope in a Weak Economy? Mom and Dad By EMILY FREDRIX,AP Business Writer AP - Sunday, March 23 MILWAUKEE - After being laid off from her job as an events planner at an upscale resort, Jo Ann Bauer struggled financially. She worked at several lower-paying jobs, relocated to a new city and even declared bankruptcy. Then in December, she finally accepted her parents' invitation to move into their home _ at age 52. "I'm back living in the bedroom that I grew up in," she said. Taking shelter with parents isn't uncommon for young people in their 20s, especially...

Some 50 delegates were reportedly poised to unite behind Barack Obama if he had won by even 1 point in Texas. He lost the popular vote by 100,000 ballots, and now we learn that 100,000 Republicans voted for Hillary Clinton, probably not because of some change in party allegiance but because they thought she would be the easier candidate to beat. This kind of strategic voting often backfires (think Ralph Nader). The Texas crossovers are winners. By helping to prolong the Democratic race, they can claim credit for weakening the eventual nominee, whoever it turns out to be. Obama has...

Adults Forced Back Into Parents' Homes Middle-Aged Children Starting Over With Mom, Dad UPDATED: 2:45 pm EDT March 21, 2008 MILWAUKEE -- After being laid off from her job as an events planner at an upscale resort, Jo Ann Bauer struggled financially. She worked at several lower-paying jobs, relocated to a new city and even declared bankruptcy. Then in December, she finally accepted her parents' invitation to move into their home -- at age 52. "I'm back living in the bedroom that I grew up in," she said. Taking shelter with parents isn't uncommon for young people in their 20s,...

The common perception among economists is that the current housing bubble will be a relatively short-term affair that should see a return to normal within the next few years. But according to a study by two University of Southern California researchers, a bubble of even more monumental proportions lies just ahead. They call it the "generational housing bubble," and maintain that it will be fueled by the same Baby Boomers who have been bidding up prices since 1970 as they moved higher and higher on the housing ladder. Now, though, the 78 million Boomers are about to enter the years...

A financial bubble is a market aberration manufactured by government, finance, and industry, a shared speculative hallucination and then a crash, followed by depression. Bubbles were once very rare—one every hundred years or so was enough to motivate politicians, bearing the post-bubble ire of their newly destitute citizenry, to enact legislation that would prevent subsequent occurrences... Nowadays we barely pause between such bouts of insanity. The dot-com crash of the early 2000s should have been followed by decades of soul-searching; instead, even before the old bubble had fully deflated, a new mania began to take hold on the foundation of...

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...

Direct Deposit Expected To Be More Common VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The nation's first baby boomer received her first Social Security retirement benefit Tuesday in Vero Beach, Fla., local station station WPBF is reporting. Kathleen Casey-Kirschling was born one second after midnight on Jan. 1, 1946. The 62-year-old retired teacher who lives in Earleville, Md., and Vero Beach applied for her benefits online, and received her payment by direct deposit. "Like many of her fellow boomers, Kathy leads a full and busy life," said Jim Courtney, Social Security deputy commissioner for communications. "By choosing direct deposit, Kathy's benefit is safely...

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...

Think the current housing downturn and the subprime mortgage mess is the worst of the housing market’s problems? Not so, according to a report published this month in the Journal of the American Planning Association. About to wreak havoc on the housing market are the 78 million American baby boomers who will “retire, relocate, and eventually withdraw from the housing market,” according to report authors Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California, and SungHo Ryu, an associate planner with the Southern California Association of...

Downsized and depressed, Leigh Hoes was approaching 50 and wondering what to do with the rest of her work life. Then one day, as she leafed through a course catalog that had arrived in the mail from Richland College in Dallas, the idea came to her. Why not work in a pharmacy, dispensing prescriptions? After all, she thought, a health care career had always appealed to her, the job was fairly recession-proof, and she could train for it in just one year. Like many other baby boomers, the food technology specialist turned to a community college for help in changing...

John Kerr wasn't dreaming of palm trees and balmy winters when he retired from WGBH, the Boston public TV station known for producing such hits as "Antiques Roadshow." His thoughts had gone West. The 69-year-old put on a green uniform and Smokey Bear hat and became a seasonal ranger in Yellowstone National Park, where snow can fall every month of the year, including July. "That's why they have wood stoves and furnaces," Kerr said. "Warm weather isn't the issue for me. It's keeping vital and interested and involved." Demographers say thousands of people like Kerr are heading to the Rocky...

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa with just two weeks to go before the first presidential battles begin, pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton largely avoided a question of how abortion is hurting social security. A woman in the audience said abortion is going to make it harder to keep the system afloat. Joanne Duncalf, a 61-year-old from Clarion, Iowa, asked the kind of question that normally doesn't come up at a Clinton campaign stop. Duncalf asked Clinton her thoughts on how to fix Social Security so the program for seniors will be around when her children are...

The term Generation X may soon come to be known as "generation with no sex", with a research revealing that people who are currently aged between 20 and 40 are less prone to adultery and multiple sexual partners than generations before and after them. The new research shows that adultery is less common among people born between 1965 and 1985. They are also likely to have fewer sexual partners than the generation either directly before or after them. The research was conducted by Edward Laumann, the professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. According to the scientists, these people...

If you're over 50, you've probably had this experience: You're standing at a checkout counter, ready to pay, and the twentysomething behind the register is talking on her cell phone. So you wait, and wait, and wait, and when the clerk finally finishes her conversation, she offers not an apology, but a grimace that suggests you've interrupted. Sound familiar? It has a name: the Service Gap. That's not a hip clothing store for soldiers. Or a new motto for the London subway system. It's business-speak to describe a phenomenon fueling plenty of holiday-shopping frustration: the difference in how 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...

NEW YORK -- For many baby boomers, the purr of a vintage hot rod’s engine is music to the ears. And for those who are auto restorers and investors, it also sounds like money in the bank. Today, the collector-car industry is worth an estimated $20 billion per year, according to Kelley Blue Book (KBB). With aging baby boomers fueling the market for beloved convertibles and muscle cars, the industry has grown at a rate of 20% over the past five years -- a rate that KBB expects to continue for the next 10. The finite supply of cars in...

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.� — the Dalai Lama, May 15, 2001.Thank God Jean Assam, directly or indirectly, took this advice when she stopped the malevolent attack at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The former police officer and volunteer security guard who made the suggestion to beef up security at the church without question saved the lives of perhaps dozens of people.What a terrific conundrum for the anti-gun left. Normally, a gun-waving psychopath is a poster child for their counterintuitive argument...

(Generation born between 1946, 1964 gets even more influential...) For America, there really is no getting past the Boomers. They're getting older, but they're also growing more powerful and - unlike the president who influenced their youth - not about to pass on the torch to a new generation of Americans. America is on its second boomer president, George W. Bush, and the bulk of those presidential candidates eager to succeed him are also boomers. Even Barack Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois who campaigns on a theme of getting beyond the old political fights, is himself a boomer, born...

The toughest questions. The best calculators. The coolest strategies. And a lot more. Starting in January, the first of an estimated 78 million baby boomers turn 62 years old and become eligible for Social Security. Time to reach for the aspirin. Now in its eighth decade, Social Security is arguably more important -- and certainly more complicated -- than ever before. Boomers, for the most part, are on their own when it comes to planning for later life; pensions and related safety nets are disappearing from the workplace. Thus, Social Security checks -- the closest thing to a sure bet...

As baby boomers retire, aerospace and engineering companies in the Antelope Valley need an influx of new workers - homegrown, if possible. Like creosote, mesquite and other native plant species, Antelope Valley residents have an easier time putting down roots in the dusty Mojave Desert, home to Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base. "From an employer's perspective, we see much higher rates of turnover when we recruit young engineers from anywhere east of California," said Michael Huggins, chief of the Air Force Research Lab at Edwards. "They're not used to the desert environment and they're away from home." Using...

It's one of the toughest and most divisive issues facing the American people. And how we respond will have a profound impact on future generations. Yet many elected officials refuse to even talk about it. President Bush proposed a plan to deal with the issue but couldn't even get members of his own party to go along. Congress blew its shot at reform in a flurry of distortions, sound bites and fear-mongering. And most of the presidential candidates won't go anywhere near the subject, perhaps sensing that it could cost them votes. The issue, of course, is Social Security reform....

Lately, Democrats have taken to showcasing the hallmark courage overflowing their party’s ranks. For instance, Senator Clinton has boldly unveiled her plan to fix the looming train wreck that is Social Security—namely, to dodge unveiling a plan to fix Social Security. Who knew? One-upping this bawdy exhibition of true grit, Senator Obama, presented his own daring strategy. His plan? “Tax the rich!” Brilliant! Of course, by “rich” he means you, through raising the payroll tax cap to get at even more of your income. How “innovative.” An added bonus: deepening the eventual crisis by reducing tax receipts, but that’s a...

The phrase has long since entered the political lexicon, but it was former House Speaker and Massachusetts Representative Tip O'Neill who first christened Social Security the "third rail of American politics." The reasoning behind his snide dubbing is twofold: the high political mortality rate of those who suggest change to the program, and avoidance of the issue by even Washington's most forthcoming public officials. During the Oct. 9 GOP debate, presidential candidate Fred Thompson threw conventional wisdom to the wind and grabbed the rail. Hard. Thompson called Social Security's current trajectory "unsustainable" and proposed reducing the benefits of recipients to...

The best specific Social Security reform proposal by a 2008 presidential candidate comes from Republican Fred Thompson — by default. That's because the plan the former Tennessee senator released last week is the only specific Social Security proposal from any of the White House hopefuls. While the other candidates apparently are wary about going beyond generalities — and some not even that far — on this thorny issue, the next Oval Office occupant won't be able to responsibly duck the tough choices required to save Social Security. President Bush repeatedly tried — and failed — to implement such reform through...

One of the aspects of Fred Thompson's campaign for President that has appealed to me is that I've always had the sense that he was willing to take on tough issues. Early on he said that he'd be talking about things that might cause him to lose the race, but he was prepared for that. Last week, he took on the toughest of issues, Social Security, the so called third rail of politics, that will kill anyone who dares suggest any changes to the system. Unlike Barack Obama, who is not touching the third rail himself, but rather throwing taxpayers...

Washington (AHN) - Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson proposed Friday to reduce promised retirement benefits and to create a system of voluntary personal retirement accounts that can also help to finance the Social Security program. Under the proposal, retirement benefits for workers who are now 58 and older will not be affected. Employees who are now younger will get smaller monthly Social Security pensions because their benefits will be calculated based on the yearly increase in prices. Meanwhile, the personal retirement accounts will be funded with workers' contributions to be matched by funds from the Social Security trust fund. Workers...

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson waded into the politically potent issue of Social Security on Friday and proposed overhauling the retirement system by creating 401(k)-style personal accounts. Tampering with Social Security is fraught with political peril and President George W. Bush's attempts to change it during his second term fizzled as lawmakers balked at his drive to create private investment accounts subject to the whims of the stock market. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, is seeking to show he is willing to take on tough issues if elected in November 2008, telling a news conference in Washington he is...

O rend thy garments, America! Heap ashes upon thy head. We, the generation of generations--triumphant in our multitudes, invincible, indomitable, insufferable--have come into our inheritance. Hereby we claim our birthright. Give us all your money. The pittance that is a current Social Security payment was intended to maintain the doddering retirees of yore in their accustomed condition of thin gruel and single-car garages. Such chump change will hardly suffice for today's vigorous sexagenarians intent on (among other things) vigorous sex, in places like Paris, St. Bart's, and Phuket. How can present Social Security allotments be expected to fund our sky-diving,...

Summary: At a Democratic debate in Philadelphia, Sen. Hillary Clinton ducked some questions and gave misleading answers to others. She falsely implied that the reason White House documents about her communications with her husband haven't been released is due to bureaucratic delays, and she avoided saying whether she would ask Bill Clinton to clear their release from the National Archives. She avoided a yes-or-no answer to whether she supports giving New York driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and at one point denied saying the idea made sense, when in fact she said less than two weeks earlier that it "makes...

Boomers Driving Motorcycling Trend With High Fatality Rates By EDWARD WALSH[Portland, OR] -- Geff Hinds remembers seeing the movie "Easy Rider" as a teenager in the 1970s and thinking, "Oh my, that's what I want to do." Eventually, Hinds' dream of cruising the open roads faded, replaced by other preoccupations. But, he said, "I told myself I'd take up motorcycling when I'm old." His time arrived last March. Hinds, a 53-year-old Web designer from Tacoma, Wash., now feels "old enough" to resume his boyhood fascination with motorcycling. So he's the proud new owner of a black Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic....