I'm not going to call you a homophobe nor did I imply that in my post. Also, just an FYI, I'm not gay. I'm a 38 year member of the Democratic Party who believes in equal rights for all Americans regardless of status. No, gays do not have equal rights and never have. If the state provides a civil benefit to two citizens, then it must provide that same benefit to any other two citizens. We are talking exclusively about a civil contract here. Relgion and other hocus pocus should be completely irrelevant to the law - it doesn't actually work that way, but that is what the constitution promises.

BTW, I am forced to offshore the jobs of my staff on a regular basis. I could be on the list soon.

I don't know, Andrew, but I think 'agitprop narration' just might be an oxymoron.

Liberals and lefties do NOT consider Milton Friedman an 'enlightened adversary'. Where did you pick up this little piece of fascist drivel. Milton Friedman was one of the most morally bankrupt humans on the planet, and that pretty much goes for any Chicago school scumbag. These people blame the poor for being poor, wouldn't care one bit if 99% of the population lived in abject poverty, mostly wouldn't know a free market if it kicked them in the face and couldn't even describe the indicators that demonstrate whether or not the market is working. It is the philosophy of this filth that is the cause of 45 million Americans not having health insurance - not only doesn't the market work, it doesn't want to work. Income inequality is directly attributable to these bozos. Milton Friedman was an execrable excuse for a human being. He was the anti-enlightenment.

I am an early boomer - I will be 60 in two weeks. The hostility displayed here is a bit surprising, but it is what it is. OTOH, there are some real misconceptions about hippies that need correcting.

No one in their late 40s was or is a hippie. The hippies were a specific subset of the 60s culture with their own values and worldview which were quite distinct from other parts of that culture. By 1969, the real hippies had disappeared completely into the hinterlands - Vermont, upstate NY, Montana, the California redwoods, etc. Anyone claiming to be a hippie after that is just a poseur jerkoff trying to revise the history of their youth.

Boomers were not and are not some monolithic group. Then and now, political views span the spectrum from far left to far right and everything in between. People accuse boomers of selling out, but many, if not most, boomers never bought in in the first place. Many, if not most, boomers supported the war, were very wary of the concept of equal rights for blacks and women and voted for Nixon in 1968 and 1972. Many of us are the same mixed-bag lefties that we were then except that some of us are fighting a losing battle against affluence.

Population groups like boomers and Gen Xers are just too large and too diverse to discuss on the generic context of this article and most of the letters.

As I said in an earlier post, the generational hostility is a bit surprising. Moreover, it's so visceral and raw that there isn't even a way to have any rational discussion. So, I will offer one small anecdote of intergenerational harmony.

I am a senior manager in IT for a giant bank. I have 38 employees and all but two are over 30 and under 40. They live in 26 different cities. We have blacks, latinos, whites and asians. We have women and men. We have people on the poitical right, on the left and in the center. We have some atheists, an agnostic, an ordained Christian minister, various other flavors of Christians, one Jew, and one Buddhist. We have an effective and highly successful team. I like them, and, based on the evidence that I see, they like me. They also like each other.

I don't understand some of this stuff. I really like music - not just 60s music - and my wife and I go to concerts where we are part of a very small number over 50. We don't do this to be cool, we just like the music. Are we boomers self-indulgent? Yes, we are (my wife loves Christian Louboutin shoes, I like Isaia Gianlucca suits), but so are you - we just indulge in different things. We need a Rodney King moment here.

is the correct spelling.

I've tried twice to post something other then vitriol, but that's the watchword of the day. So, OK, Gen Xers hate boomers - I hear that loud and clear. I don't where I've been but I certainly didn't understand the depth of the hostility.

I'm a rich, white, straight male so I must be the problem. OK to that too. I will maintain my 38 year membership in the Democratic Party, but I will stop worrying about generational discord and enjoy the rest of my life - unfortunately for you Gen Xers, I probably have another 20 years or so to go. Instead of looking for constructive ways to reform Social Security while maintaining its social insurance nature, I will now oppose lifting the caps on Social Security taxes. That would cost me $41,000 per year in extra taxes. You are on your own.

Well, now that I'm just about 60, I also have beginning glaucoma. Got myself a pot card. So, I'm aging but in comfort.