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Generation X, the set of Americans who came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is often branded as a rules-rejecting, authority-questioning group. But when it comes to religion, new research has revealed that Gen-Xers are surprisingly loyal to their faith - a finding that also suggests the rising non-religious tide in the United States may be leveling off. In a study published in the latest edition of The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Philip Schwadel showed that Gen-Xers are, in comparison with their Baby Boomer predecessors, far more likely to adhere...

The entertainment industry is in the full throes of the changing of the generations; films and television are beginning to reflect the visions of Generation Xers like Jason Reitman, (Up in the Air), Judd Apatow, (Knocked Up), Brad Byrd (Up, The Incredibles), and other young artists who dare to buck the tired irony-cool cynicism that has shaped and stifled too much of the culture. Suddenly, after decades of being shut out, minimized, or mocked, film characters have room in their lives for optimism, and even something almost like faith. The Church, if it seeks to be relevant in the future,...

Parents don’t believe their kids have sex By Associated Press Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - Added 20h ago RALEIGH, N.C.— Carole Bullard considers herself open-minded when it comes to dealing with the sexuality of her teen son and her almost teenage one. She and her husband, Roger, have age-appropriate talks with their sons, ages 17 and 12. And though she believes the older boy and his girlfriend have not had sex, she’s realistic that they might. "Do I want them having sex? No," said Bullard, 42, of Cary. "I’ve told them I’m not going to be a grandparent until I’m...

Young adults in the United States are being squeezed out of the labor force as older workers either delay retirement or seek jobs to rebuild nest eggs destroyed by the recession, a study showed on Wednesday. The size of the labor force fell 6.3 percent for young workers, but increased 8.5 percent for workers 55 years and older between December 2007 and January 2010, according to the study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

For many months now, many of my posts have been, admittedly, overly lamenting the on “loss” of American culture. As a member of Generation X, perhaps I have often been very overly vitriolic in my opinion that life is just not as it once was in America. I recently watched my first few episodes of the series “Mad Men” on DVD. And the experience has been enlightening on my own view of American culture and cathartic of my own personal history. I must say, I am coming to grips with my own political views. And my watching a TV show...

They branded us "Generation X". They said we had no cause to fight for. They labeled us as lazy, and lost, all the while feeding us their rhetoric of "Equality". They drowned us in a sea of political correctness, while they continued on living contrary to their own words. They tried to use the Earth herself to enslave us. We grew up knowing that we could never trust them, but we never knew where to turn. We remember the values of the founding fathers, and we know that our politicians are not up to par with them. Now is the...

Is Obama a disaster zone? Of course he is. Let’s cut through the crap, shall we? The SOB has never had any experience. And, but for the failed phrase “Compassionate Conservative,” we would never have been where we are today. What the hell does America have to show for its liberal agenda? Can anyone stand up and affirmatively tell us? An educational system occupied by apologist leftists? The ideal of community values now epitomized by a lack of gang bangers saying “trick or treat” on Halloween? The concept that “family” is a couple of homosexual men with a child and...

Is Obama a disaster zone? Of course he is. Let’s cut through the crap, shall we? The SOB has never had any experience. And, but for the failed phrase “Compassionate Conservative,” we would never have been where we are today. What the hell does America have to show for a liberal agenda? Can anyone stand up and tell us? An educational system occupied by apologist leftists? The ideal of community values now epitomized by a lack of gang bangers saying “trick or treat” on Halloween? The concept that “family” is a couple of homosexual men with a child and “nice...

The sad news of the death of former correspondent and newscaster Walter Cronkite gripped the entire nation last week and continues to do so. Many generations are grieving for the man who brought the truth of living history into our homes and into our lives. Each generation has its own vision of the man who became affectionately known as “Uncle” Walter. To the older generations, born during the Great Depression and prior, he first gained national attention by reporting firsthand on the struggle of World War II. His coverage of the war included North Africa and Europe, where he participated...

I have never done a vanity before but today I just needed to let my FREEPER FRiends that I turned 40 today and am stunned. I just can't believe that I remember my parents turning 40. Enjoy life cuz it is short. I tell you my life has been enhanced with my membership to Free Republic. Thank you to all of you and my family Julie (Mrs. NAPS), Nick, Kyle, Alex, and Abby. May 2, 1969 as a lucky day for the world...lol. Just kidding.

Two months shy of its 150th birthday, the Rocky Mountain News breathes its last. Elsewhere, the state of Minnesota shifts tax money from retraining manufacturing workers, to helping newspaper staff connect with an online audience. Before the World Wide Web, I was one of those journalists in training. As fate would have it, the year I graduated in 1993, an invention called the web browser would soon change everything. While starting my career as a journalist for a pauper’s salary, my brother emails me something that blows my mind. It’s called Netscape Navigator and allows people to share “web pages”...

You’ve likely heard the expression, “Mugged by reality.” It usually refers to having a treasured ideal shattered by some stubborn feature of human nature or unbending aspect of science or geopolitics. I’ve been eager to proclaim that the financial meltdown shows our world being mugged by economic reality. But increasingly, it seems humanity is attempting to perform a multitrillion-dollar mugging of reality. This is the first postmodern recession. It combines baby-boomer self-absorption with the ahistorical ignorance of the following generation, plus the acute narcissism common to both. The accompanying histrionics erase perspective and proportion – and the chance for rational...

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...

New online program can replace trip to a field office WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration, envisioning the near-future prospect of 10,000 baby boomers applying for benefits every day, has put together a new online service that will allow people to get their benefits without ever traveling to a Social Security field office. The agency, in introducing the program Tuesday, said most people will be able to apply for their retirement or disability benefits in 15 minutes or less.

Just how popular is Kay Hymowitz’s City Journal essay, “Love in the Time of Darwinism,” which decries the phenomenon of marriage-avoiding man-children? So popular that it was sent to me by no less than three different friends today (all males) and it’s been featured on two different traffic engines this week: Arts & Letters Daily and Real Clear Politics. Her brief is actually a mild apology for a previous essay in which she reprehended the jaded and loveless men of my generation for, as she puts it here, “whiling away their leisure hours with South Park reruns, marathon sessions of...

Even as he fends off Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination contest, Senator Barack Obama is already turning his attention to the general election, and to an ambitious plan to reshape the American electorate in his favor. Bringing new voters to the polls "is going to be a very big part of how we win," said Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, in an interview. "Barack's appeal to independent voters is also going to be key." Hildebrand said the campaign is likely to turn its attention and the energy of its massive volunteer army this fall on registering African-American...

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...

Rocking The Vote by: Louisa Tavlas, January 31, 2008 With primaries in full swing and the November elections drawing near, a seemingly unlikely constituency is being given an increasing amount of attention. Today’s youth has unfortunately been heir to the politically apathetic Generation-X stereotype. According to non-partisan groups such as The Center for American Progress, however, this stereotype is not only unfair, but largely inaccurate. Campus Progress, which is The Center’s comprehensive effort to encourage young voters to make themselves heard, hosted the “Super Tuesday and Youth Vote” event on January 29th. This panel discussion addressed the rise of the...

“The greatest generation had Normandy,” writes David Bellavia. “Generation X will have Fallujah.” He knows well whereof he speaks. A former Army staff sergeant, Bellavia was a part of the Army-Marine operation Phantom Fury that liberated the Jihadist-controlled Iraqi city in nine days of heavy fighting in November 2004. For his actions in Fallujah, Bellavia was awarded the Silver Star and has been nominated for the Medal of Honor. Now out of the Army, Bellavia, is a highly educated, extremely well-read young man. He knows his history, speaks some Arabic and understands the overarching strategic imperatives of the War on...

Summer of love: 40 years later Hippie Hippie Shakedown: But where was love? BY DAWN EDEN, Guest Columnist LA Daily News WHEN it comes to inappropriate names, "Summer of Love" has to be right up there with "Joy Division," the name the Nazis reportedly gave to the sections of concentration camps that housed the guards' sex slaves. For one thing, it was not just a summer event. The countercultural happening that swept through San Francisco and beyond began with an April1967 planning announcement by concert promoter Chet Helms, aka Family Dog, creating the "Council for the Summer of Love." It...