When I was writing Maradaine Constabulary, one of the hardest parts was finding that balance where I was showing Satrine being an unusual case in a culture that still had a long road ahead of them in terms of gender parity, but not making "A lady cop, what's the world coming to?" as a front-and-center theme of the book. I hope I managed something with a degree of verisimilitude.

True. I decided to go a route where she wasn't breaking barriers, but she was clearly walking into a place where the shards of glass on the ground were still pretty fresh.

that was a great article, although I disagree about Obama being too senior -- he's right at the beginning.

But then Generation X is used to having people screw up its age.

Eeeh, I'm not sure I buy the "Generation X had it worse than anyone EVAR" thesis. The recession they weathered just out of school wasn't nearly as deep or as long as this one. It's not even close, really.

When I hear Gen Xers going on about how hard they had it and by extension how easy I must have it since I was born in 86, all I can think of is the year I spent being homeless and suicidal because the job market was dry. I'll be sure to tell my high school friends who were forced by economic hardship to join the military and go to war that it's okay, because Gen X is "bearing the brunt" of 9/11 for them. I'll let my friend from college, who has a disability and needs Social Security to have any kind of fiscal stability, know that the cuts in entitlement programs aren't going to hurt her because she was born in 86 too and so she should stop worrying about it.

There seems to be a sense of resentment in this article towards younger people who, I guess, don't deserve to be upset about the horrific bait-and-switch our lives have been, or something. It is unfair that Gen X got such a raw deal; our deal hasn't been much better, despite what our soccer participation trophies would have you believe. I'd be nice if that frustration was directed up towards the Boomers, you know, the people who actually caused this shit.

it's okay. you feel what you feel. i hear you.

however, as gen x, i read the resentment as being directed at the babyboomers not at gen y. i can't tell you how much everything revolved (and still revolves) around them. it's frustrating. we were told we were short attention span losers from the start. [shrug] as for the more recent economic downturn? that one effected everyone--not just your gen or mine. me? i've got nothing against gen y.