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I recently read a manuscript about Gen X in the workplace, and as I did so, I was struck by how much of a transitional generation we are. Perhaps because of all the flux that has occurred (and continues to occur) in our time, we have always struggled to have a positive identity; so many of the experiences we share are negatives. In no particular order: -3 Mile Island -AIDS -Tylenol scare -Drinking age went up from 18 to 21 -Existential self-awareness of grunge -Emo bands before them -Cobain’s suicide -Bush’s famous broken promise, “No new taxes” -Clinton’s impeachment Even...

THE BRAVE NEW RIGHT... THE "SILENT MAJORITY" IS TALKING After forty years of leftist neo-socialist propaganda being forced down the American people's collective throats, finally, in a long-overdue renaissance, we are starting to display an understanding of common sense.  My generation, the so-called "Gen-X" has been twice disillusioned.  We wanted the material successes of our parents' generation but without their turmoils.  We were the children who grew up in the wake of "free love," and we discovered that it was neither free nor love.  We have been left to discover for ourselves how empty and shallow and false the promises ...

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...

Newsmax.com Zogby: First Globals Are Redefining America Wednesday, August 13, 2008 8:44 PM By: David A. Patten A demographic earthquake is taking place in America that is transforming our traditional society, argues pollster John Zogby in his newly released book, “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.” And these changes could have seismic implications for the coming 2008 election showdown. This new ascending group of Americans Zogby calls the “First Globals,” and unlike other demographic groups such as “Generation X” or “baby boomers,” this group is making some radical departures from traditional American...

Over the past 35 years we have been waiting longer and playing the field more before settling down. According to the Office for National Statistics, men are getting married for the first time seven years later and women six years later. This means that the average man is aged 32 when he asks “Will you marry me?” and the average woman is 29 when she says “Yes”. But is this trend towards the thirtysomething marriage making us happier and more satisfied? And when it comes to the fortysomething crunch - the most common age for divorce - who is most...

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 —...

Think of some of the movies you really want a chance to see on the big screen. The Wizard of Oz? Lawrence of Arabia? Star Wars? Would you ever, ever put War Games, the 1983 Matthew Broderick thriller, on that list? No, me neither. But, lucky us, we will have the chance to see War Games in theaters this summer—on July 24, the movie will screen for one night only in select theaters across the country, thanks to NCM Fathom, a company that specializes in special theater events. It’s the 25th anniversary of the movie, and the Fathom website boasts...

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 market slump isn't just shredding millions of college funds and retirement accounts. It's also shredding the financial playbook that many American families had come to rely on to protect and grow their savings. Think of all the rules and beliefs that worked reliably for decades, and which have been trashed in the last year.

Hot-on-the-heels of news that Darren Aronofsky may be directing MGM's Robocop reboot, the studio has announced plans to remake another '80s feature in the shape of Red Dawn. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Red Eye scribe Carl Ellsworth will pen the script, which will update the story to modern day. "The tone is going to be very intense, very much keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we're in," explains Ellsworth. "As Red Dawn scared the heck out of people in 1984, we feel that the world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease, so...

Hippies: Where are they now? 1968: Conscription 2008: Constipation 1968: Hell No We Won’t Go 2008: Hell No We Can’t Go 1968: Brown Acid 2008: Brown Fiber 1968: Bring Them Home Now 2008: I’m In A Home Now 1968: Free Love 2008: Free Clinic 1968: Denim 2008: Depends 1968: Rolling Stones 2008: Gall Stones 1968: Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll 2008: Sex, Drugs & Geritol 1968: Bong Water 2008: Bottled Water 1968: Pot 2008: Prius

Washington - Most lawmakers receive little attention when they introduce bills in Congress. That's especially true for House members in the minority party. But Republican Rep. Paul Ryan is generating excitement in conservative circles for a bill he introduced Wednesday that would reform Social Security, Medicare, the health care system and the tax code. It's an ambitious plan that even Ryan admits won't go anywhere during this session of Congress. Still, he and others say the measure is an attempt to influence the debate about some of the country's most pressing problems. "I call it a road map for America's...

“Is 40 really the New 20?” asks Fox News, reviewing the Sex And The City hoopla that seemed to overwhelm everyone this weekend. “Pop culture expert and Party Girl author Anna David joins us to weigh in on the phenomenon…” And the burning question is, what do you make of this revolutionary idea that a woman can be single in her 30s, 40s, even 50s, and it’s not shameful, it’s fantastic? Interesting. Let’s explore this revolutionary idea. How did Sex And The City make it okay to be single? After Anna David addresses how threatening this idea is to men—it...

Children of older fathers have greater risk of early death Men, listen up. No longer can you comfort yourselves with the notion that you can father a child at any time...Children of older fathers more 'likely to die early': LONDON: When it comes to fertility and the prospect of having babies, it has always been assumed that men have no biological clock — unlike women, they can father a child late in their life. But a study has dispelled this myth. Researchers in Europe have found that children are almost twice as likely to die before adulthood if they have...

If you are 30 years of age or younger, pay close attention. If the federal government maintains the status quo in spending, it will virtually assure that just when you are in your peak earning years, around 2030, your taxes will be at least 33 percent higher than they are now. That 's just to maintain existing programs, without any new initiatives. So much for your peak earnings. So much for the lifestyle you expect. And it gets worse for your children. A lot worse. This is not a speculation. This is not about partisan politics. This is math. Just...

1. A black eye. Unless the rim hits your face mid-dunk, your peepers should remain unblemished. You're smart enough to talk your way out of any fight you're going to lose.2. A witty e-mail signature. Quotes and song lyrics should be heard during toasts and karaoke performances, respectively. Don't let your electronic correspondence become the digital version of a motivational poster.3. An empty refrigerator. Your larder should be amply stocked, your pantry provisioned. Always aim to be ready to create an on-the-fly, three-course dinner for her...along with breakfast in bed.4. PlayStation thumb. When they're relaxing, grown men can behave like...

Entitlements: In trying to tie John McCain to the third rail of American politics by pandering to seniors, Barack Obama shows the only thing he's consistent on is his desire to raise our taxes.We suspected that the No. 1 liberal in the U.S. Senate would get around to playing the granny card as he shook Hillary off and focused on John McCain. That moment came in Gresham, Ore., on Sunday when he promised to protect "the promise that FDR made" and "preserve the Social Security Trust Fund." He warned that McCain would raise the retirement age and privatize Social Security...

The Social Security program was established in 1935 to provide retirement income to certain workers. The program was later expanded to cover most of the workforce. Prior to the program's development, individuals were completely responsible for funding their personal needs both during their working years and during retirement. If an individual failed to save and invest, that individual could not retire from the workforce. Like any large, complex government program, there are many components to Social Security. Ten common questions about the program are addressed below. More at Yahoo Finance..Investopedia.com

Parks filled with children playing idly. Homework within limits and prohibited on holidays so as not to be overbearing. Mothers less inclined to shuttle their children to an endless roster of programs. Could this be the end of hyper-parenting? There is evidence -- in the parks, the play-dates, the homework schedules and even Hollywood magazines -- that the end is at least near for the pattern of modern parenting that has in recent years dictated highly scheduled lives for children and spawned the species described as helicopter parents. It can be found in the stories of mothers at playgrounds and...

House passes bill that will let the RIAA take away your home for downloading music Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 9, 2008 3:15 AM | permalink Glenn sez, I was just alerted that the House of Reps has passed HR 4279, with the lovely name, PRO-IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008). Like the doublespeak PATRIOT Act and Peacekeeper missiles, PRO-IP puts local law enforcement in a position to demand the forfeiture in criminal proceedings of stuff used to violate copyright. Which means that instead of the RIAA simply trying to collect fines, they can also...

The phrase “generation gap” came into vogue in the 1960s as a way of describing the wide gulf in values, beliefs and lifestyles that emerged between baby boomers and their parents and grandparents. Indeed, this difference between younger and older people played out sometimes turbulently in the ’60s in virtually all aspects of life, including the ballot box. Unlike in previous elections, from 1968 to 1980 young voters gave much stronger support to Democratic presidential candidates than did their elders. But by 1984 those baby boomers were not so young and their ideas were not so different. And until very...

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....

Plan for long life, without pandemic NANCY STANCILL Should doctors let people older than 85 die in a flu pandemic? A Monday news story saying a U.S. task force recommends denying lifesaving care in a pandemic or other disaster to some folks -- including healthy people above 85 -- was unsettling. They're talking about my mother, soon to be 86. My friend Karen's father, who is 92. Another friend's grandmother, 102. These people live life joyfully, with their minds and hearts intact. My mother relishes foreign travel. Karen's father loves bird watching. The 102-year-old grandmother plays a mean hand of...

Spam turning 30 this month; no gifts, please Thu May 1, 2008 12:33PM EDT See Comments (131) Buzz up!on Yahoo! The date: May 3, 1978. The culprit: Gary Thuerk, a marketer for the old Digital Equipment Corporation. His crime: Sending a sales e-mail to 393 users on Arpanet (then a U.S. government computer network and the predecessor of today's Internet). Little did Thuerk know that he'd just become the world's first spammer. That first piece of junk e-mail (which wasn't called "spam" until about 15 years later) has been memorialized over at Brad Templeton's Web site (Templeton is a Net...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medicare is lurching toward disaster and it is too late for the Bush Administration and Congress to do anything about it, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Tuesday. He said the next administration will have to act to stop rising costs and get control of the $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, which now covers 44 million people. "Higher and higher costs are being borne by fewer and fewer people. Sooner or later, this formula implodes," Leavitt said in a speech to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute...

There was a day - in a different world, granted - where becoming a grandmother for the first time meant a trip to the shops for some knitting needles and pretty pastel wool. How traditions change. Tracey Smith did come over all creative as soon as she qualified to use the title 'Granny' - but she sought out a very different type of needle-craft to mark the momentous event. Pulling down her skinny jeans, she bared all for her local tattooist, who etched her new granddaughter's name, Aliya, right across her hip, where it now vies for attention against some...

CBS Election Night 1984 http://youtube.com/watch?v=1e4t1qKGFao&feature=related A great night. Sure to lift your spirits.

Have you started preparing for your retirement? If not, you should -- now. The 401(k) is Americans' chief retirement plan, and the money you contribute at the beginning of your career has the most power to grow over time. A bill sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), likely to be voted on next month, would make it easier to make good decisions about your 401(k) by requiring clearer disclosures about fees and commissions, and requiring plans to offer a low-cost index fund option. That's great, because if you're like most young people -- heck, most people -- you feel you...

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 granny glasses, the bongs, the infantile anti-establishment content that...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Baby boomers say they are worried about achieving a comfortable retirement, but a new study suggests Generation X is even more pessimistic.

...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...

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).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Vinny Appice, Anita Baker, Jello Biafra, Andrea Bocelli, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shaun Cassidy, Darby Crash, Randy DeBarge, Bruce Dickinson, Thomas Dolby, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Siobhan Fahey, Neil Finn, Bela Fleck, Martin Fry, Lisa Germano, Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Tony James, Joan Jett, Al Jourgensen, Nik Kershaw, Sammy Kershaw, Limahl, Madonna, Bird McIntyre, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Alannah Miles, Gary Numan, Michael Penn, Vicki Peterson, Prince, Stacey Q, Will Sergeant, Nikki Sixx, David Sylvian, Toyah, Tanya Tucker, Paul Weller, Jane Wiedlin, Jah Wobble.

What 1980's event helped re-shape your life, thoughts, person and/or change your focus and outlook on life? You can answer as many times as you desire.

And The Winners Are....

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...

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,...

It was 25 years ago, on March 8, 1983, that President Ronald Reagan addressed the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Fla., where he characterized the Soviet Union as the "focus of evil in the modern world"—an "evil empire." The president's pronouncement was a shot heard round the world, as were his motivations: "There is sin and evil in the world," said Reagan to his Christian brothers, "and we're enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might." Those who wished to accommodate rather than oppose the USSR, and who were not as troubled by...

Long hailed by free market economists as the model for how to create a pension system, news out of Chile that it plans on making payouts to low income seniors, has government interventionists jumping for joy. The AP writes: The new $2 billion-a-year program will expand public pensions to groups left out by private pensions - the poor and self-employed, housewives, street vendors and farmers who saved little for retirement - granting about a quarter of the nation's work force public pensions by 2012. The fact is that this move is the way that governments should generally function. Stay out...

Politics and the street fight between Hillary and Barack Obama aren't the only games in town. A bachelor acquaintance of mine, a prosperous man in his 40s, was new in town and wanted to meet the love of his life, to marry, and become a father and citizen (and voter). So, I organized a small cocktail party and invited several attractive women in their late 30s who are still looking for Mr. Right (and might be willing to settle for Mr. Good Enough). They're women with professional careers but want marriage and family, too. They feel a mild panic that...

At lunch recently, a father of four who works in publishing told me he occasionally gives his children "a clip around the ear". The threat of minor violence, he said, was the fastest way to get his brood into the people carrier if they were all to get out of the house on time. It wasn't so much the fact that this otherwise modern thirtysomething father would slap his children that shocked me, but the fact that he spoke about it so openly. A decade ago, he might have been worried that I'd call social services - or at least...

President Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address West Front of the U.S. Capitol January 20, 1981

One day when I was but a young boy, I was walking down the street with my dad to the hardware store. He suddenly stopped, crossed the street and punched a man. When he returned, I ask, "Father, why did you punch that man?" He turned to me and said, "That's a stupid question." Then he punched me. "After punching a hippie, do you take the time to explain to those around you why you punched the hippie?" It was a stupid question, because who my dad punched was a hippie. Back then, everyone knew that you punched hippies, but...

Older People Are Happy: Life Begins At 40 And 50 And 60 ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2008) — Growing old is a happier experience than many of us imagine - that’s according to the findings of a study conducted at Queen’s University, Belfast, on behalf of the Changing Ageing Partnership (CAP). The study, which was conducted by Dr John Garry from Queen’s University, looked at young people’s attitudes to happiness in old age and how these attitudes affect their current health-related behaviour. Dr Garry said: “We have all heard the saying ‘life begins at forty’. But it seems that many people,...

About six months after my son was born, he and I were sitting on a blanket at the park with a close friend and her daughter. It was a sunny summer weekend, and other parents and their kids picnicked nearby—mothers munching berries and lounging on the grass, fathers tossing balls with their giddy toddlers. My friend and I, who, in fits of self-empowerment, had conceived our babies with donor sperm because we hadn’t met Mr. Right yet, surveyed the idyllic scene. “Ah, this is the dream,” I said, and we nodded in silence for a minute, then burst out laughing....

USA Today reports that spending on senior entitlements has risen 24% after adjusting for inflation since 2000. Despite no increase in the population percentage receiving benefits, the actual dollars spent on senior benefits in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security rose from $600 billion to $952 billion. Senior care has now become Job 1 of the federal government: The cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis. That's a 24% increase above the inflation rate since 2000. Medical costs are the biggest reason. Last year, for the first...

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...

Initiatives to encourage people to live healthier, longer lives are just creating a different set of problems. A medical friend once told me that if everybody in the UK were to stop smoking, the NHS would collapse. I thought she was offering that old chestnut about smokers and drinkers handing over billions to the state in tax, but it was more subtle argument than that. Her point was that it's much cheaper to treat a 50-year-old who's taking 18 months to die of lung cancer than it is to treat a 90-year-old who's spent the last 20 years slowly fading...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Television writer and producer Ron Leavitt has died. He was 60. His publicist says Leavitt died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles. Leavitt co-created "Married With Children," a sitcom about the luckless shoe salesman Al Bundy and his dysfunctional family. "Married With Children" ran on the Fox network from 1987 to 1997 and became the network's second-longest running sitcom behind "The Simpsons." A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Leavitt broke into television in the 1970s writing episodes of "Busting Loose," "Happy Days," "Laverne & Shirley" and "The Bad News Bears." Leavitt is survived by...

A generational struggle is underway. What's so unusual is it's taking place within a single generation [Obama] represents a new generation of leadership, even though technically he's part of the same generation as Hillary, the baby boomers. Here's where it gets a bit complicated. This tussle pits an Early Boomer vs. a Late Boomer, and the two cohorts have little in common... In the case of boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—the whole frame is wrong. It's based on birthrates, not common cultural and political affinities... Worse, the Early Boomer sensibility gets all the attention. Five decades of newsmagazine boomer...