Free Republic

The rise in “deaths of despair” among middle-aged white Americans may be linked to the decline in religious practice, according to new research. Such an increase in deaths has also been highlighted by the opioid crisis, but new research argues skyrocketing suicide and deaths from alcohol abuse might be rooted in the loss of religion. The paper, circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that the increase of “deaths of despair” among middle-aged white Americans starting in the early 1990s was the aftermath of a declining religiosity in the United States by the same group.

Ben Wattenberg died this week at the age of 81. He gave me my first job in Washington, as his research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. (I returned to AEI as a fellow a few years ago, my office just a few doors down from where Ben used to work.) Ben was one of the last star pundits of what might be called the Old Order, before cable news and the Internet transformed the landscape. When everyone was rushing to CNN to shout at each other on "Crossfire," he launched a PBS show called "Think...

If life begins at 40, you’d better hurry up and enjoy it, ladies. For in another ten years you are likely to think all men are ignoring you. A survey has found that eight out of ten women over the age of 50 think members of the opposite sex no longer notice them. So while The Beatles famously lamented becoming over the hill ‘When I’m 64’, women in 2011 will instead be wondering: ‘Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m... 50?’ As if that’s not bad enough, seven out of ten women also feel overlooked...

the times Suicide striking elderly, middle aged By Bob Kasarda bob.kasarda@nwi.com, (219) 548-4345 | Posted: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 12:00 am VALPARAISO | Karen Lawrence said while she did not recognize it at the time, her older brother, Ken Stratton, displayed many of the classic signs of an impending suicide. He had stopped taking his antidepressant medication and twice attempted to take his life before following through by hanging himself Oct. 6, 2006. Just months away from his 45th birthday, Stratton was about to join an emerging group of 45- to 54-year-olds who are at particularly high risk for suicide...