No one should be surprised by the news that presidential candidates are necessarily millionaires. But last Friday New York Times columnist David Brooks -- in his thinly veiled support of Mitt Romney -- anointed another class of those Americans we should expect to occupy the White House. Call...

Democratic leaders and the White House are congratulating themselves as they depart for the holiday weekend about their tax-holiday victory -- but only until the Feb. 29 leap-of-faith day -- over GOP hardliners. But the payroll tax holiday, like most vacations, will have its bill to pay.

The national...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Last week the Water Works -- in the ironically named community of Allgood, Ala. -- informed local residents that they must now present a valid driver's license or ID. Otherwise, the notice threatened, "You may lose water service."

The warning stems from part of...

Want to save your country from its aging decline -- cut your entitlements for seniors and have more babies. Really. I've been hearing that refrain from international financial and investment think tanks for 20 years. And Monday's Morning Edition gave unquestioned voice to the latter half of this message in...

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- President Obama is getting the same limp praise this week for his budget plan from liberal commentators he received last week for his listless jobs program, but ignore the chat-ocrats for a moment, and turn past the dominant page-one stories about what it all means for...

"Where were you when... ?" Those of us old enough to remember that question becoming forever hinged on the terrible news of Nov. 22, 1963, know that tragic moments of history can fix an instant of our lives and everything surrounding us.

Occasionally, of course, an entire year can...

I saw a surprisingly good Hollywood movie last week, unexpected because black working women are rarely at the center of a mainstream film.

There were some well known aging actors as well, and that alone is unusual for Hollywood and its youth obsession.

The Help, based on the...

The American vision grew dimmer this past week. In Berkeley, California, Theodore "Ted" Roszak, the author of 20 books and a play, including that rare combination of bestsellers in both fiction and nonfiction -- succumbed to a long and enervating illness at age 77.

And Monday's press conference with...

According to the front-page New York Times article last Monday, “Nursing Homes Seek Exemptions From Health Law,” the nation's major nursing home and home care associations are crying poor on behalf of their small-business owners who will be run out of business if they have to...

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- While advocates for elders are decrying political proposals that would cut budgets "on the backs of seniors and the poor," said Howard Bedlin, of the National Council on Aging (NCOA), "that's already happening."

Bedlin, NCOA's policy and advocacy chief, said in an interview...

Last week on Charlie Rose, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared among a half dozen metropolitan mayors and eloquently defended the need for greater investment in education, enhanced immigration and more spending on infrastructure (now, while costs are low). At the end of the show, though, Bloomberg said we must...

What happened to "We the people?" One would think, from the red-state rotundas of Wisconsin and Indiana to the blue governorships of New York and California, that Lincoln had declared at Gettysburg the binding principle of government of the budget, for the budget and by the budget.

Don't get...

While the Middle East is fighting for its democratic life, Martin Fackler of the New York Times would like you to think that Japan is in a slow battle between its young and old citizens.

Writing at length about Japan's economic woes, Fackler fell into the recurring Groundhog Day syndrome...

Okay, I admit it: I do tend to pick on the Gray Lady of New York. Such an easy target. But that's because I love her -- and pay lots for her to grace my doorstep every morning in California.

Well, call it tough love.

Last Saturday the...

As President Obama weighs whether to paint a bull's eye on Social Security benefits in his State of the Union message Tuesday in the name of long-term debt reduction -- despite opposition by a wide majority of Americans shown in poll after poll -- mainstream media continue presenting a distorted...

This week in journalism is bringing the inevitable tsunami. No, I'm not referring to the boomer generations taking its first plunge past age 65, but to the onslaught of media articles predicting doom and gloom. One article after another has sympathetically shown the boomers struggling against the recession's winter freeze...