Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
Lately it seems that more telephone calls are some sort of telephone scam or fraud than people I actually want to talk to.
Just in the past few days I have gotten calls from people you claim to be from the IRS or the social security administration or utility companies, or credit card companies.
Continue reading “Telephone Fraud”
Net neutrality has been much in the news lately. The Trump FCC is ready to roll back the rules to benefit corporations over consumers.
It is an important issue but perhaps a bit difficult to understand. The folks at NPR Marketplace have explained it by offering a series of analogies. The Marketplace article is very non-technical and uses analogies such as ordering a pizza or paying protection money to the mob.
Continue reading “Net neutrality explained by analogy”
Trumpcare may be back and sooner than you think. The first attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare failed before even coming to a vote because of opposition by extremely conservative Republicans.
Although President Trump insisted during the campaign and again after his election that he would repeal and replace Obamacare on day 1 of his presidency.
Continue reading “Trumpcare sooner than you think”
President Trump thinks we should negotiate drug prices for Medicare. At least that was his position a few months ago and I don’t think it has changed.
Continue reading “Negotiate drug prices for Medicare”
They clearly wanted no government interference in Medicare part D. I knew because an ad on a news website led me to http://www.nogovinterference.org/.
But I could not figure out what had them so upset. After all, Medicare part D is a government program so why shouldn’t the government be involved and how were they interfering or proposed to start interfering.
Continue reading “No government interference in Medicare part D”
There is not much privacy at all on the internet but soon there will be even less privacy. The Republicans and the Trump administration are doing their best to make sure of that.
Republicans are giving the little privacy you have to internet service providers. They will be free to sell your information on which websites you visit and what your do there. The bill has been passed by both the Senate and House. President Trump will sign it. (see Republicans Attack Internet Privacy).
More money for the big companies. Less privacy for us.
Continue reading “Less privacy on the internet”
After reading more reviews then I care to remember, we settled on this tea kettle. We had been using the same kettle for years and it finally broke. We could still boiling water but it was not easy to pour the boiling water. So we started looking.
At first I thought it would be easy just to buy the same model that had served us well for many years. But we read the reviews on Amazon and it seems that what was once a fine tea kettle was now a piece of crap. People reported rusting badly as well as leaking. Since neither sounded good, we decided to expand our search.
We were more inclined to trust the reviews on Amazon (supplemented by other sites and blogs) than trust the opinions of sales people in the kitchen stores at the mall. Besides I hate going to the mall. Since I have Amazon Prime with free 2 day delivery, we thought we could use the old one for a few more days. Continue reading “Our new tea kettle”
Cars keep growing. Well cars don’t actually grow but they are getting bigger. We have 1999 Subaru Forester and it has been a wonderful car. I think of it as our Subaru small SUV.
The Subaru Forester has grown. The new ones are wider, taller, and longer. Our 1999 Subaru Forester looks like a miniature car when parked next to the newer models. Continue reading “Subaru Forester Small SUV”
Several months ago I reviewed a book Get What’s Yours that explained in detail how to maximize your Social Security Benefits. This is a good thing to know as we go into retirement. But the government went and changed the rules. Now you need a Social Security update.
At least one strategy laid out in the book, and perhaps a good one for many of us, will no longer be available as of a certain date. You may need to buy the book now if you plan on any Social Security action in the next few months. A revised edition to include the latest rules is in the works.
Check the getwhatsyours.org/ website to get the latest Social Security update from the authors of this book.
A couple years back I wrote here about Truth in food labeling and said:
Ideally labels should have the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That is, they should at a minimum tell you everything added to the food and in addition have other information (organic,, genetically modified, etc) to the extent practical. Obviously, there will not be room enough to tell you everything but let’s aim to have everything a reasonable consumer might look for.
I was more concerned Continue reading “DARK and truth in food labeling”
I’ve been doing this blog called the RetiredGuy and I picked that name because I am a retired guy, I like being retired and I wanted to express my opinions on a variety of issues. But despite calling the blog the RetiredGuy, I usually don’t address retirement issues issues in a big way.
But what started me thinking about was an email discussion of when to start taking Social Security among my high school classmates. Most of us are still working but a few (like me) decided to retire early.
So I looked into Social Security because a big question is Continue reading “When should I take Social Security?”
Having just written about potholes, I was wondering why politicians seem to ignore them.
Fixing potholes would seem to be an issue with considerable popular support. I live in Pennsylvania and potholes are a big problem. They make driving dangerous. You could easy lose control of your car while swerving to avoid a pothole or lose control after hitting a big one. Or someone else could and you could end up in the accident.
Nobody likes a pothole. Continue reading “Politics of potholes”
According to AAA (quoted in a report by WUSA ) damage to cars will cost motorists 6.4 billion dollars this year.
Road departments will be busy filling in potholes now that the winter weather is behind us. But would it not be better if we could prevent potholes from forming on our roads.
Can the roads be made to prevent potholes from forming or at least make it less likely? I suspect the answer is YES.
Continue reading “Prevent Potholes”
I just read Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Philip Moeller, and Paul Solman. It was an enjoyable experience.
Yes, I used the words “social security” and “enjoyable” in the same paragraph.
Imagine my surprise when I read this book that I thought would be important but dull and found it enjoyable. The authors not only convey the basic facts about social security and discuss how to maximize your benefits but do so in an entertaining fashion.
If you are unconvinced, Continue reading “Social Security – Get What’s Yours”
Open Road Integrated Media is a different type of book publisher. They specialize in ebooks and partner with many publishers to produce and market ebooks.
Perhaps in honor of St Patrick Day which is coming up in a few week (or perhaps this is just coincidence), they are having a sale on Irish crime novels.
I have read, enjoyed, and reviewed several mysteries published as ebooks by Open Road Media so I think this is worth a look. While there you might want to look around the website.
The Irish crime novels on sale are on the page http://www.openroadmedia.com/irishcrime?