A recent search of the ages of the senate and house confirms what I had suspected, that at least one third are past retirement age, and if personal experience is any indication of the situation, almost HALF of them know little if anything about computers, the internet, or modern technology.<p>While some of them may have intimate knowledge, generally, anyone that's over 55 usually finds the internet and computer troubling, reads a real newspaper, and finds filesharing a problem, in spite of the fact that they freely shared cd's, dvd's, tapes etc. before the advent of the computer.<p>Since term limits seem to be a sticking point (how can you get someone to vote for firing themselves?) I think that we should have a mandatory retirement age, 65, just like the rest of working class america. After that they would be ineligable to run, and younger, more informed and connected members of society could take their places.<p>Of course they could remain on as advisors, lobbyists, and general pains in the ass, but decisions that will affect future generations would be made by those people that will be affected by them.<p>Maybe it would cut down paranoic rhetoric, maybe it would re-focus them on the living instead of the dying, maybe they could finally come up with a bill that didn't limit or revoke rights that they enjoyed, but now have come to fear due to old age. Maybe they'd stop sleeping on the job.<p>While I respect my elders, and I am 52, and not young myself, the reality that these people are familiar with no longer exists, and living in the past is for fools.