Free Republic

In the first hour, Ian Punnett welcomes Paul Sperry, co-author of Muslim Mafia. Then, Ian is joined by historian Neil Howe to discuss his latest research on the defining generations of our time, and why those born after 1981 have vastly different relationships with their families and the workplace than those born earlier.

Kids today are a credulous bunch. The 2007 Pew Political Values survey revealed "a generation gap in cynicism." Where 62 percent of Americans overall view the federal government as wasteful and inefficient, just 42 percent of young people agree. No wonder, then, that GenNext responds to President Obama's call for "public service," roughly translated as "a federal paycheck."

The Political Gap That Divides Generations Susan Fikse, Issue Number 24, July 2009 Kim is a 25-year-old Christian, a nurse who graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. She voted for President Bush in 2004 and characterizes herself as pro-life. With just that information, it would be easy to categorize Kim as a conservative Republican. But in November, she cast her vote for Barack Obama. She was not alone.Survey data shows that while fewer than a quarter of white evangelicals between 30 and 64 supported Obama, that number increased to a third for white evangelicals under 30. Kim’s reasons for...

I was asked to write a brief history of the Church of the Incarnation, in Highlands. North Carolina, for a local magazine. The piece was intended to be about the building itself, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built in 1896. But you cannot research the history of a church without also researching the history of the people who brought that church into being. Of the dozen people who formed the congregation for this church, one was Sarah Whiteside Norton. She was the first non-native American child born in the Highlands area, the daughter of...

We’re Not Gen-X, We’re Gen-Reagan This is for everyone who was raised to believe that our young lives would soon end in a nuclear war, of mutually assured destruction, quivering under our school desks with President Reagan to thank for making the pink and gray tile on our classroom floors the last thing we would ever see. This is for those of us raised in the post-graduate, post-doctorate suburbs where Volkswagens and Volvos taught us that we “can’t hug our children with nuclear arms” and that “war is not healthy for children and other living things.” This is for the...

During the Thanksgiving holidays this year, Riley Parker, 7, of Portland, Ore., became the fifth generation Parker family member to kill a deer with the same gun - a .222 caliber Sako. Riley brought down this 8-point whitetail buck while hunting on family land near Camp Verde.

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...

Iowa Caucus Results Show that 'Spin' is Out, Authenticity is In, as Presidential Candidates Must Match the Generational Characteristics of the Youth Vote NEW YORK, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The victories of Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama with a good showing for John McCain in Iowa demonstrate that spin is out and authenticity is in, as Presidential candidates address the most important voting block in the 2008 race: Generations X and Y. "Some have overlooked what Iowans told us with certainty last night - a critical factor in this election is not race, religion, or gender, but speaking the language...

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...

A Conservative Dilemma I’m looking for answers! I had an interesting discussion with a middle-aged woman today. She had immigrated to the USA a couple decades back, is now a US citizen, and thinks herself a conservative. She wants to restore the USA to what it was a couple decades ago. I’ve got my agenda aimed at a much earlier era. The discussion led me to make a presumption. That presumption is that there are generational conservatives, and they are not so much looking to conserve, but to restore a past way of life. I’m wondering if anyone else sees...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon, opening a landmark summit on climate change, warned world leaders Monday they face condemnation by future generations if they fail to tackle greenhouse-gas pollution. "Climate change, and what we do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations," the secretary general said. He demanded a breakthrough at a key conference taking place in Bali, Indonesia, in December. "The time for doubt has passed," said Ban, as he noted the grim 4th assessment on climate change by the United Nations' top scientific panel this...

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del., July 6, 2007 – America’s security has always rested on the backs of men and women willing to sacrifice whatever necessary to defend it. An old Japanese quote states, “A samurai should always be prepared for death – whether his own or someone else’s.” Like the samurai, U.S. servicemembers freely give their lives, faithfully serving as America’s avenger, wielding her mighty sword, in conflicts of the past and present. In every battle the nation has seen, heroes have shone as a beacon for others to follow. Below are the stories of four American heroes....

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Generation Next is more optimistic, more tolerant and more likely a Democratic voter than its predecessor, according to a new study. The group's tilt toward the Democratic Party is far different from the previous younger generation, known as Generation X, who grew up during the Reagan administration of the 1980s and was more inclined to support Republicans. ``This portends a significant political impact as they get more engaged,'' said Scott Keeter, a researcher from the Pew Research Center. ``If they carry their party leanings with them, that will make a big difference.'' Forty-eight percent of young adults...

Have you ever heard of Anna Politkovskaya? She was a Russian journalist who regularly reported on Vladimir Putin's undermining of press and other freedoms in Russia. This past weekend she was murdered. If you are debating whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about humanity's future, here is a point to consider: In every generation, especially in the last century, vast numbers of good people -- often the best people -- have been murdered by the worst people. Think about all the decent (and, of course, some indecent) people Stalin murdered among his 20 million to 30 million victims. Think about...

Dennis and Stephen Henley filling sand bags together. Department of Defense photo. CAMP RAMADI -- It has been nearly four decades since Dennis Henley filled a sand bag in a war zone. In 1967, he was a Marine Corps corporal in Quang Tri, Vietnam. This September while visiting Camp Ramadi, he found himself once again holding a sand bag, but this time the chore proved to be a very special, emotional moment as the individual standing beside him with the shovel was his youngest son, Marine Corps Corporal Stephen Henley. DennisÂ’ 20-year-old son Stephen is in his final days of...

Extra! Extra! The big news of the past decade in America has been largely overlooked, and you'll find it shocking. Young people have become aggressively normal. Violence, drug use and teen sex have declined. Kids are becoming more conservative politically and socially. They want to get married and have large families. And, get this, they adore their parents. The Mood of American Youth Survey found that more than 80 percent of teenagers report no family problems -- up from about 40 percent a quarter-century ago. In another poll, two-thirds of daughters said they would "give Mom an 'A.' "In the...

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...

The collective age of the U.S. Congress is one of the oldest in history because voters want seniority, but is setting the stage for a youth coup, experts say. The average age in the U.S. Senate is 60.4 years old, the oldest ever, and the average age of 55 in the House sets records dating back to at least the first half of the 20th century, USA Today reports. With an average age nationwide of 36.2, voters appear to enjoy seniority. Nancy Thompson of the AARP said people want to stay in the workforce longer, although that could be more...

Next month Rebecca Scheible will say goodbye to her mom, husband and five kids and embark on a journey it seems she’s been destined for since she became a nurse and joined the Army. Tending to the sick and wounded during wartime is what her family does. “It’s always felt like something I was born to do. I feel very prepared to go and do it. I really don’t know any other job,” said Scheible, who comes from three generations of Army nurses. “I feel ready and very proud and humbled, like I have great shoes to fill.”

BROOKE ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, Texas, Jan. 23, 2006 – "Hey doc, when am I going upstairs? Hey doc, this bed is uncomfortable, when am I going to be admitted?" A feisty elderly gentleman we'll call Morris (name changed for confidentiality) was in Bed 3 of Brooke Army Medical Center here, one of the busiest emergency departments in the military. He kept a constant barrage of running commentary on how long he had been waiting to go upstairs to complete his chest pain work up. Morris was an 80-year-old retired World War II veteran. After I had spent a grueling afternoon...

ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Photographers here are proving that a picture is truly worth a thousand words in fighting the war on terrorism. “Our images tell the military story to the American public, our children and their children, and beyond,” said Master Sgt. Maurice Hessel, base multimedia center manager and still photographer. “Military photographers have had a tremendous impact on history and document the horrors of war,” said Sergeant Hessel, who is deployed from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. “The men and women of the U.S. military are considered heroes in the eyes of most Americans, and I believe...

No one knows another's life. Certainly no child really knows all there is of a father's. But in broad strokes I will try to tell the things which I knew were meaningful to my father. He was born in a small village in Poland. I've seen the name spelled in a variety of ways, but phonetically spelled it was Ravitz. Once in an Isaac Bashevis Singer short story he related stopping there briefly in a train trip from Lublin to Russia. My father said it didn't even have wooden sidewalks or outdoor toilets. His father, Morris, was a master tailor....

Mind the Generation Gap by Colin Graham 26 May 2005 We wanted it all but had to compromise to stay alive, say the first generation of post-communist Poles. We wanted it all too, but we got nothing, rejoin their younger siblings. WARSAW, Poland | Age has determined the social fault lines of Poland and the rest of the post-communist world; more so than in the West, it would appear. In recent history, the generation which emerged from a communist-era university education to join a capitalist job market in the 1990s found they had the pick of the crop when it...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryMarch 12, 2005 President's Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Over the last few weeks, I have traveled across our nation and met with tens of thousands of you to discuss my plans for strengthening Social Security. I share a great responsibility with your representatives in Congress. We must fix the system permanently, so it will be there for our children and grandchildren. I have been to 15 states, and I'm just getting started. On every visit, I am assuring those of you born before 1950 that Social Security will remain the...

I would like to take this moment to thank ALL the members of The Greatest Generation (born 1901 - 1927) for their service to us. This thank you isn't just for them but for ALL who served this Great Nation!!!

The Silent Generation has never had a president & now it looks like they never will. I have nothing against the Generation born 1928 - 1945 but John Kerry woulda been the 1st Silent Generation President so I'm kinda happy they don't have a president.

Ever wanted 2 know what the "Generations" were? I wanted 2 & I found THOUSANDS of different definations & it took me a year to find the truth!!! I created a site so ANYONE can find out what Generation they are from a trustworthy fellow Conservative!!! The website is www.geocities.com/chrysler813/Generations.html Thank you & God bless America!!!

<p>The Pilgrims were brave Christians who risked everything to gain religious freedom in the New World. Or they were fanatical European interlopers, guilty of "genocide" against American Indians. Multiculturalism has taken its toll on the reputation of the small band of Protestant separatists who landed at Plymouth Rock in November 1620.</p>

Despite having lived through difficult war years and the Depression, older Australians feel sorry for today's children, a survey has found. The results of the McNair Ingenuity survey contradict the stereotypical grandparent lecturing the grandchildren about how hard things were "in the old days". Most of the 1065 people involved, aged from 18 years up, said they thought children today were doing it tougher than when they grew up. McNair Ingenuity managing director Matt Balogh said the results were surprising: "Particularly because they were very consistent across age groups. "We thought some people might say it was more difficult now...

Blair warns future generations could be 'haunted' by IraqPrime Minister stands firm in face of party opposition to conflict By Andrew Grice Political Editor 16 January 2003 Tony Blair made his most impassioned plea for tough action against Iraq yesterday, warning that future generations would be "haunted" by a failure to disarm Saddam Hussein. Mr Blair came out fighting against his Labour critics during Prime Minister's Questions and a private meeting of Labour MPs. But he received a rough reception from anti-war MPs and there was little sign he is winning over the large number of normally loyal MPs who...