Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
I’ve been writing lately about an unjust increase in Medicare Part B premiums for a subset of those over 65.
I was glad to see that this was addressed in the 2 year budget deal recently worked out by Congress and the administration.
This is not what I considered the ideal solution but it is a reasonable compromise. Continue reading “Reasonable compromise on budget deal”
Cooperation in Congress, I hope. Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was recently elected the Speaker of the House. I hope this brings in a new era of cooperation between the 2 parties and among various groups in the House of Representatives. And perhaps when the Senate sees it, they will be inspired to do likewise.
This is a hope. I am not placing any bets on it.
I hope for cooperation because among the things Rep. Ryan had to say on assuming office was this: Continue reading “Cooperation in Congress”
“Thirteen Ways of Looking” is the latest from Colum McCann. I have prevously written about his novel “TransAtlantic” which made me a fan of McCann’s writing. Continue reading “Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann”
Genealogy facts seems to come in unexpected bunches. For years you try to break a brick wall in your research and suddenly the wall breaks and a flood of new information comes your way.
One brick wall involved Ruth Allingham Greer, my great great grandmother. The first record we have is her marriage to Matthew Greer in 1854 in Glencar, Co Leitrim, Ireland.
From that marriage record, we thought she was probably born around 1835, give or take a few years. We also found records of several births to this couple in Sligo. Continue reading “Ruth Allingham Greer (about 1835-1887)”
I have been writing here about the unfairness of the Medicare part B premium increase for 2016.
H.R. 3696: Medicare Premium Fairness Act of 2015 has been introduced in the House but is still in committee as of today and S. 2148: Protecting Medicare Beneficiaries Act of 2015 has been introduced in the Senate but is still in committee as of today. Continue reading “Medicare Premium Fairness Act of 2015”
What to do about Social Security? Many of us depend on it. I suppose I should write about it as I call this blog “RetiredGuy”. What are some Social Security plans?
A recent article Retirees’ Futures Hinge on Candidates’ Plans for Social Security discusses the Social Security plans of various presidential candidates of both parties.
Interesting reading especially if you are now retired or think you might be retired some day and depend on Social Security.
Anyone who has been near a TV or radio or read a newspaper or magazine lately has probably heard quite a bit about Hillary Clinton’s email problems due to a decision to use a personal email server rather than the official one. The Clinton emails controversy prompted the best line of the Democratic debate when Bernie Sanders said:
“The American people are tired of hearing about your damn emails”
But the fact is that the FBI is investigating the Clinton email situation to see if national security was endangered and criminal charges should result. Continue reading “Clinton emails”
I have written twice about this unfair increase in Medicare premiums for some of us (Fix unfair Medicare increase and Medicare heartburn- the uneven increase).
Now AARP has written about this too. Some Medicare Premiums Could Spike explains this in much more detail than I did and also brings up a point that I never considered.
But here is how it starts: Continue reading “Medicare premiums spike for some”
I wrote about the unfair medicare increase toward the end of last month. I didn’t think much would come of it.
But 2 bills to correct this injustice have been introduced in Congress. These bills would keep Part B premiums at their current rate for all Medicare beneficiaries in 2016.
Of course congress is kind of busy these days with the debt ceiling rapidly approaching and the need to fund the government for the year that began 10 days ago. But that is just because they chose not to do these things in a timely manner. But they don’t seem to be in too much of a rush to act on either.
So maybe they will find the time to fix this unfair medicare mess.
The story of how VW lied about diesel emissions has been much in the news lately so rather than rehash that story I will begin with my personal connection. For a review of the many aspects of this corporate malfeasance, the Wikipedia article on the Volkswagen emissions scandal seems good.
Last year I was thinking about buying a new car. So I spend some time visiting a number of car dealers. One of the cars that impressed me most was the Volkswagen (VW). I test drove the Jetta diesel sports wagon. I was impressed with it but then I didn’t need all that space so maybe a Golf with one of those clean diesel engines might be good.
The salesman was a diesel enthusiast. Continue reading “VW lied and people died”
The words grabbed my attention. I can just see someone shouting “Knucklehead for President”. The “stuff happens” part also appealed to me but it was the knucklehead business that really got my attention.
The article was “Stuff Happens to the Environment, Like Climate Change” by Thomas L. Friedman (@tomfriedman) and here is how it begins: Continue reading “Knucklehead for President”
First my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to download an advanced reader copy of “Crimson Shore” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I have enjoyed some of Agent Pendergast books previously.
Most of the ones I’ve read have been very good. I see this is number 15 in the series and as I only have read a few earlier ones, I was eager to get re-acquainted. Continue reading “Crimson Shore by Preston & Child”
I had read two previous books by Joseph J. Ellis about the founding of the United States several years ago . I had liked these books and when I saw he had written a new book with emphasis on the transformation into a nation or the Second American Revolution, I was eager to read it.
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution , 1783-1789 actually begins in 1781 when the final state ratifies the Articles of Confederation. This loose confederation of the states had many problems due to the supremacy of states and lack of power in the weakly united confederation that pretended to be the United States.
For example, under the Articles the confederation called the United States had no way to force the states to honor the terms of the peace treaty which ended the American Revolution. They could ask the states but some chose to ignore the request. There was no way to raise money to pay our national debt. The United States was deeply in debt from the war but could only ask the states to give it money. The requests were frequently ignored. Continue reading “The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution”
I’ve written several times this month about Congress forgetting that we owe a huge debt to the responders to the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001. Some people responded as part of the job; others were volunteers who just showed up to help.
Politicians like to say they will never forget but a bit of help to go with those sentiments would be nice. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act is one way to giving that bit of help.
I imagine congress is pretty busy today thinking about the national budget. But it seems they like last minute deals. While stalling on this, they could take up the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act.
I’m sure they will just kick the can down the road on the budget and just pass some sort of continuing resolution. But parts of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act expire at midnight tonight.
How about doing something positive today?
This is an enjoyable book. I had requested an Advance Reading Copy (ARC) of Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library by Wayne A. Wiegand because I like libraries. I got the ARC from NetGalley and thank them for the chance to read this book on my Kindle before publication.
I claim neither special knowledge of nor interest in librarianship, just an interest as a library user and occasional supporter. I think I may be part of the target audience since the subtitle suggests this is a “people’s history” rather than one aimed primarily at professionals. Continue reading “History of the American Public Library”