Free Republic

Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or see if Bauerlein answered your question directly in a chat from Wednesday, May 14. 1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targetsBauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to...

"HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD" always seemed to be the retirement-planning credo of Baby Boomers. It seems like ages ago, but just back in October 2007, Kiplinger's was featuring a cover story shouting, "Retire Rich," a theme favored by finance-magazine editors nearly as often then as "New Sex Secrets" or the like got plastered on the front of the likes of Cosmopolitan. Both are probably equally fictional, though I have not researched the latter. Most likely, it's doubtful there are any revelations on either score. Retiring rich requires the discipline to save along with discipline, diversified asset allocation...

Report on Social Security and Medicare could be bleakerStory By: Associated Press Updated Tue May 12, 2009, 06:44 AM MDT Analysts say today's release of a report card on Social Security and Medicare won't be anything to celebrate. Analysts think this year's trustees' report will project the two trust funds will run out of money sooner than projected a year ago, thanks in part to the worst recession in decades and resulting high unemployment. The economic downturn has resulted in a loss of 5.7 million payroll jobs since it began in December 2007 and an unemployment rate that hit a...

Remember the looming Social Security crisis? If you don’t, you’re not alone. The credit crisis and economic downturn have monopolized public attention to such an extent that the Social Security crisis that was at the center of the policy debate during President George W. Bush’s second term now seems forgotten. This is unfortunate, for not only has Social Security not been fixed, but reform, if done right by tapping into the power of the market, can help provide new capital, which American businesses now desperately need. To see how this could be done, it’s worth looking at the experience of...

Here's the good news: future costs of Social Security and Medicare won't require higher taxes. Now here's the bad news: the reason these programs won't require higher taxes is that they'll be so expensive that there's no possible way to pay for them through taxes. Everything in the US (not counting people) is worth about $50 trillion and those two programs will cost $80 trillion, unless they are reformed. Wharton insurance and risk management professor Kent Smetters, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary and economist for the Congressional Budget Office, explains that the only way for these problems to survive...

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ has topped a new poll of ‘The Greatest Albums of all Time’. The 1982 hit notched up almost one in three of all votes cast by more than 40,000 fans, and 20 percent more than its nearest rival. Paying tribute to the king of pop, DJ Trevor Nelson said there would probably never be another album like it. “Thriller was innovative, groundbreaking and is timeless. I don’t think there will be another album like it - ever,” the Daily Star quoted him, as saying. In the poll, conducted by music channel MTV, Craig David’s ‘Born To Do...

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better. Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better. Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not...

Don't ask why I do it. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. I love to patrol the liberal blogs to get a glimpse at their thought process, or lack of which. I drop a comment from time to time, which normally kicks off a flurry of name calling, hair pulling, and all sorts of other forms of serious debate. Today's waste of time was spent on FireDogLake, where they seem to have a problem with Paul Ryan's comments regarding the future of Social Security. Keep in mind one thing: liberals love them some social security.

It's official! New Line is developing a feature film based on "MacGyver." The daughter of Dino De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is producing the film through her Raffaella Prods. And Mister Laurentiis is taking the role of executive producer. According to a recent poll, "MacGyver" beat "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "24" as America's favorite TV action hero! So can "MacGyver" be a global franchise? New Line's Richard Brener says, "We think we're a stick of chewing gum, a paper clip and an A-list writer away from a global franchise."

Compact discs weren't always impromptu drink coasters. Once, in the not-so-distant past, they played music, contained pictures, and let people play video games with tacked-on FMV sequences. And today, the venerable CD turned 30. Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it's been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.Of course, the CD didn't immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized. The standard they named...

As a successful playwright this woman should have the world at her feet. So why, at 36, does she feel bitterly unfulfilled?Though I never thought I would be saying this, being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is that the rustle of taffeta I hear as the suffragettes turn in their grave? Very possibly. My mother - a film-maker - was a hippy who kept a pile of dusty books by Germaine Greer and Erica Jong by her bedside. (Like every good feminist, she didn't see why she should do all the cleaning.) She imbued me...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was set up to combat fraudulent practices. The SEC's website explains that "Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents into investing in a postage stamp speculation scheme back in the 1920s." It goes on to say, "Decades later, the Ponzi scheme continues to work on the 'rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul' principle, as money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors until the whole scheme collapses." That is how the SEC described the recent Bernard Madoff $50 billion Ponzi scheme, "a...

During the past couple of weeks, the Washington media and political establishment have focused on such matters of crucial and lasting importance as President Barack Obama’s possible “overexposure,” whether he showed suitable affect by chuckling during a TV interview in a time of severe economic difficulty, and just when he became angry about the bonuses received by American International Group executives. To be fair, the focus on trivialities is bipartisan. We have also been treated to several days of discussion about whether conservatives Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter or moderate Meghan McCain have the appropriate body shapes for Republican women....

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”...

The new Jason Voorhees is coming this Friday in Friday the 13th, and a new Freddy Krueger is not far behind. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, A Nightmare on Elm Street is being remade by first-time director Samuel Baye, who has given us music videos like "No Rain" from Blind Melon and the classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana. The script reportedly draws heavily from the original film and not the sequels. Casting for the clawed Freddy, who invades the dreams of his victims, is underway. Though there may be a guest spot for Robert Englund, he will...

There is a natural flow regarding the work force. New workers enter the workforce as old workers retire or simply die. This is most keenly seen in such industries as aviation. The FAA, in its never-ending work to ensure the industry stays in its glory days of the 1940s, refuses to acknowledge any advances in medicine since 1945 and forces airline pilots to retire at age 65 (until recently it was 60). This forcible removal from the aviation industry of its best and most accomplished pilots has, on the other hand, the salutatory effect of allowing a steady stream of...

With his soft voice and unassuming manner, Mark Bauerlein seems an unlikely prospect for penning an ostentatious book like The Dumbest Generation. The title immediately brings to mind the Greatest Generation, the idol of 20th century American history that weathered the Great Depression, beat the Nazis at Normandy, and brought us swing music. But the generation that Bauerlein writes of is very different. Ignorant of politics and government, art and music, prose and poetry, the Dumbest Generation is content to turn up its iPods and tune out the realities of the adult world. It is brash, pampered, young, and dumb...

They say life improves with every decade, so good news for the thirtysomethings amongst us, after a new survey reveals women feel at their most beautiful aged 32. After leaving behind acne in our teens, insecurities and heartbreak in our twenties, once we hit our early thirties, we feel the most comfortable in our own skin. Nearly 40% of women quizzed on how they feel about their looks said they felt most attractive at 32 – and they’re in good company with celebs including Liv Tyler, Sophie Dahl and Sarah Michelle Gellar all entering their 32nd year in 2009. Women...

Robert MorleyColumnist The United Ponzi States of America January 20, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com If you thought Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was bad, don’t look now, but you’re in one. Robert Morley Anyone can work a simple swindle. But you need to be a special kind of con man to bilk billions from otherwise intelligent people. Bernard L. Madoff was one such man. Charles Ponzi was another. But the biggest fraud and scam master of all goes by the name of Uncle Sam. Just what does a person have to do to make his name synonymous with fraud? Charles Ponzi, the...

Back in 1984 everybody cut "Footloose. Just admit it. We all did the dance. We all knew every move. And we all had a crush on Kevin Bacon. Now, 25 years later, with the news that Zac Efron is slated to star in the 2010 remake (and Bacon considering a cameo), we look back at the original cast members and the blockbuster hits, surprising career twists, as well as tragedy that have followed in their post-'Footloose' careers.