We've received a request from a journalist who's working on a story for a major women's magazine about seasoned professionals working for younger bosses.

"I'm looking for women who are in a position where they can speak openly about the emotional experience---about being a manager-type who finds herself working for a boss maybe half her age--and hope to hear back by next Wednesday -- to workplacewriter@yahoo.com."

Speak up Boomer women!

Point Your Browser My Way, Mr. Gonzales
by Frank Mullen III

I've come to the conclusion that the Bush administration's plans to keep records on American citizens is worth the slight effect it will have on our so-called "right to privacy." I am particularly impressed by new technologies that can monitor the internet use of private citizens.

[Frank Mullen votes Republican]

"Data-mining," as it is called, is a powerful tool for enhancing homeland security. For instance, it allows the government to keep track of the URLs of websites visited by internet users.

[Frank Mullen supports prayer in schools]

It also keeps records of website content and identifies authors.

[Frank Mullen is a Christian Fundamentalist]

The mechanism not only reads sites with up-to-date content, such as this one, but has archive-exploring subroutines that can dig up older postings. Government is particularly interested in communications that were created before Americans began toning down their opinions for the sake of national security.

[Frank Mullen did not do drugs to excess at Franconia College]
[Franconia College is an Assemblies of God seminary]
[Frank Mullen was kidding when he said that appointing Alberto Gonzales to head the Justice department is like putting Jesse Helms in charge of the NAACP]

The data-mining software operates much like internet search engines that look at documents and identify keywords according to their proximity to each other.

[Frank Mullen big Bush donor]
[Frank Mullen glad sacrifice freedom speech]
[Frank Mullen Bush daughters intelligent mature]

The Bush people are so sure of the efficiency and constitutionality of this procedure that they promise not to bother us by informing us when they have accessed information by us or about us; fortunately, these are people that we can trust to be discreet.

[Frank Mullen women barefoot pregnant]
[Frank Mullen no abortion not even rape incest]
[Frank Mullen support school prayer AND execute children AND low taxes rich
people]
After all, just imagine what an untrustworthy government could do with information about its citizens.
[Frank Mullen accept Jesus Christ personal Savior]

Remember Nixon siccing the IRS on his enemies?

[Frank Mullen donate large sums Pat Robertson]

How about J. Edgar Hoover forwarding names of suspected radicals to the Selective Service?
[Frank Mullen Young Republican]

And they didn't even have digital databases back then!

[Frank Mullen Campus Christian Crusade]
It's a good thing those days are over, [Frank Mullen small potatoes] and power is now in the hands of Godly leaders of probity,
[Frank Mullen minor-league nobody] character
[Frank Mullen third-rate non-entity] and integrity.

Not that I personally have anything to worry about.
[Frank Mullen oppose affirmative action AND oppose mollycoddling criminals
AND oppose homosexual marriage]

Copyright 2004, Frank Mullen IIII.
Originally published by Suite101.com.
Frank Mullen III is Suite101's
Baby Boomer Humor Contributing Editor.

The Sheriff of Knucklehead and his evil henchman Karl Rove have once again proven that this Sherwood Forest we call America is being systematically plundered - literally and figuratively. While Baby Boomers are occupied wringing their hands over whether or not Social Security even needs to be fixed much less overhauled, Bush has slipped in a budget which quite literally robs from the poor and gives to the rich.

"...the budget proposal really does take food from the mouths of babes. One of the proposed spending cuts would make it harder for working families with children to receive food stamps, terminating aid for about 300,000 people. Another would deny child care assistance to about 300,000 children, again in low-income working families."

"And the budget really does shower largesse on millionaires even as it punishes the needy. For example, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities informs us that even as the administration demands spending cuts, it will proceed with the phaseout of two little-known tax provisions - originally put in place under the first President George Bush - that limit deductions and exemptions for high-income households."

"More than half of the benefits from this backdoor tax cut would go to people with incomes of more than a million dollars; 97 percent would go to people with incomes exceeding $200,000." Paul Krugman - The New York Times (registration required)

As Rober B. Reich recently wrote, "It's morally wrong to give huge tax cuts to the rich while cutting social programs for the poor and working class -- especially when the gap between the rich and everyone else is wider than it's been in more than a century. As to "family values," the nation has a moral obligation to give every child a good education and decent health care. And it's morally wrong that millions of Americans who work full time don't earn enough to lift their families out of poverty."

It doesn't balance. Cuts in programs that quite literally are difference makers for the most helpless of the Forest's creatures, against more money in the pockets of greedy princes who need it the least. And just in case a real Robin Hood comes along and dares to point out the truth, the Sheriff has purchased policy insurance in the form of press corp shills and hired mouthpieces.

It's against the law to hunt the Royal Deer, yet more and more of the Sheriff's chosen few are lining up to bag a few bucks for themselves - leaving fewer and fewer to actually feed the starving forest inhabitants. And then we're told that the empty feeling in our stomachs isn't really hunger - we're just traitors who simply can't hold down a $200,000 a year job.

The site, Encore Rock 'n Roll Nostalgia, is poorly designed, but get past that to find some great merchandise from the days of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Where else will you find a Frank Zappa poster from a performance in 1972 or Nag Champa incense?

If you are a woman of a certain age, you might think you're becoming more invisible with each passing year. Check out the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, a razzle-dazzle and enormously popular vaudeville review, where the youngest of these hot babes is 58. The youngest. The men ain't bad either. This is no novelty act---these women (and men) are lifelong professional dancers/actors/entertainers with the gorgeousity and hard bodies to prove it. It's never too late--auditions are held every year for those over 55.

If your dance skills aren't up to snuff but you look fab in an evening gown, consider the Ms. Golden America contest, 'focusing on the beauty and accomplishments of women baby boomers', according to its press release. OK--maybe it's vapid,insipid, superficial, commercial--but it might be nice to be exploited for one's looks over 50.

Read this and then let me tell you a story about a certain Baby Boomer I know.

While Hollywood makes light of the torch passing from one generation to another, the hard reality is that there is some serious age discrimination going on out there an it's seething just under the surface.

This guy I know was laid off from a fairly lucrative job nearly three years ago. At the time he didn't think much of it. Business was down and in a small company, sales declines mean people lose jobs. But what he wasn't prepared for was the almost simultaneous start of open season on Baby Boomers.

He had an impeccable resume, worked on some high-profile projects and considered himself quite marketable. What he found was an endless string of black holes into which his resume had fallen.

Part of his strategy was to use the Internet job sites to track down and land the next job, but after sending hundreds of resumes without even a nibble, he decided to revamp his resume and see what happened.

He suspected that age might be a problem so he started by removing all the dates from his resume. He left it in chronological order, but didn't publicize the fact that he graduated college in 1977. Within a week he had an enquiry from the human resources manager of a California firm.

In the following week they spoke on the phone a couple of times, each time "passing" to the next step and finally to an online personality profile. Everything seemed ok and it sounded to him like he had a real rapport with the recruiter.

Then came the interview. They flew him out, put him up in a nice hotel and the next day he reported to the office for an interview. According to him, the look on her face said it all. As if she had never considered the applicant might be over 40.

That was the last time he heard from them. Phone calls weren't returned, e-mails were left unanswered and needless to say, he didn't get the job. He's still looking.