Washington Babylon — May 21, 2010, 10:41 am

Senator Nelson: Do not ask this man to download music to your iPod

From the Washington Post:

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has long pushed an amendment to limit those pesky and expensive transaction fees at automated teller machines, but his fellow senators didn’t go along with the idea this week. One possible explanation: Quite a few of Harkin’s aging colleagues appear to have little or no contact with the decades-old technology of cash machines.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D), for example, told the Omaha World-Herald this week that he has never once used an ATM, relying on bank tellers instead…But Nelson added: “I could learn how to do it. . . . I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”

The remarks also appear to provide further evidence of a generation gap in the halls of an aging Congress. The average age of members is among the highest of any Congress in the past century, according to a February report from the Congressional Research Service. The CRS found that the average age of senators at the start of the session was 63.1 years, which is three years higher than it was four years ago; the average for the House was 57.2 years, which is up by two years.

Share
Single Page

More from Ken Silverstein:

From the June 2012 issue

The government’s man

How to read the r??©sum??© of a terrorist expert

Washington Babylon September 29, 2010, 11:37 am

Signing Out

Get access to 163 years of
Harper’s for only $19.97

United States Canada

CATEGORIES

THE CURRENT ISSUE

June 2013

How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

Long Division

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

The Separating Sickness

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

view Table Content

FEATURED ON HARPERS.ORG

[Editor's Note]
Why the AR-15 rifle is here to stay,
the conspiracy theories of Room 237,
and more
[Perspective]
The firearm as emblem of personal sovereignty
“Let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we?”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Report]
How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“Even if federal gun-control advocates got everything they wanted, they couldn’t prevent America’s most popular rifle from being made, sold, and used. Understanding why this is true requires an examination of how the firearm is made.”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Harper's Finest]
Wherein the author enrolls in a clinical drug trial
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science.”
Illustration by Ernst Kreidolf
[Report]
Broken Heartland

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“During the early 1990s, farmers throughout the Great Plains began to notice a decline in their wells. Irrigation systems from the Dakotas to Texas dipped, and, in some places, have been abandoned entirely.”
Illustration (detail) by Jeffery Smith

Ratio of military recruiters to college counselors at East Los Angeles’s Roosevelt High School:

5:1

The majority of young Swedish women are attracted to both men and women.

“My body was quite happy,” said ISS mission commander Chris Hadfield. “I learned to talk with a weightless tongue.”

Subscribe to the Weekly Review newsletter. Don’t worry, we won’t sell your email address!

HARPER’S FINEST

Article — From the May 2007 issue

Manufacturing Depression

By

“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”

Subscribe Today