One Day More...: August 2016

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Light Beer Is Not An Option

I’ve recently had my annual physical. Once again weight and healthy eating are concerns. I’ve given up on soda pop and seldom eat fast food anymore. It all comes down to food choices and portion control. One choice I have a hard time compromising on is beer.

I like dark beers and consider light beers an insult to the art of brewing. Not to sound artsy, but for me beers must have flavor, aroma and texture. Light beers have none of that. My favorite beers in order are:

Edmund Fitzgerald by Great Lakes Brewing of Cleveland, Ohio

A dark brown full bodied porter.

Schmaltz’s Alt by Schell Brewing of New Ulm, Minnesota

A German style altbier brown ale .

1554 by New Belgium Brewing of Ft. Collins, Colorado

A Belgian dark almost black ale.

Creamy Dark by Leinenkugal’s Brewing of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

A Euro style dark lager almost ale style.

Edmund Fitzgerald and Schmaltz’s Alt are available in select areas only. I can find both when we make a trip to visit our daughter’s family in Minnesota. The other two are readily available. The drawback to these beers is price. In most cases common beers can be purchased for much less, delivering just that - much less.

So, as I go about another year of struggling to make healthy choices I have to take into account beer. One thing is for sure… light beer is not an option.

Just one day more…

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Old Geezers Gets It Right

I could give two hoots about football, yet was going to comment about 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the absurd response that has resulted from his decision to sit out the national anthem.

I couldn't say it any better than this post on the Old Geezers Blog.

Just one day more...

Monday, August 29, 2016

Caveat Emptor.

The other day my wife was having a friend out to the farm for coffee. Looked like a good time for me to drive into town.

While in town I decided to stop by the local Verizon store to find out about their new plans and see if it would save us money. The new plans are their attempt to be competitive - attempt being the operative word. Our biggest expense is the GB’s required for our mifi. The new Verizon plans are still based on GB’s and would be no cost savings.

I also commented about the poor signal we get at the farm on our mifi. We are only about 6 miles from a tower and get only one or two bars. That was the cue for the sales guy to tell me the new mifi has a better antenna and my signal should be stronger. And… guess what… there is a $50 rebate! Pay $100 for a just released mifi and get a $50 rebate. Such a deal. Well, maybe not. It wasn’t until I got home and looked over the 5 pages of paperwork I noticed the associated fees. What was suppose to be a simple upgrade wasn’t.

I was automatically signed up for the maintenance plan - $9./month. Now why would I need that when I have a perfectly good one that I was replacing with the new one? If the new one craps out I’d just go back to the other one.

I was charged $20 for “set up and go.” All the guy did was put in the battery to make sure it worked.

I was charged $40 for “upgrade fee.” Seriously? I’m a current long time customer and you are whacking me to simply change the mifi with a computer keystroke?

To top it off, the signal is no better. There is a return policy, however there is a “restocking” fee. No doubt $100.

Caveat Emptor.

Just one day more…

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Time For Single Payer

The decision by health insurance company Aetna to pull out of 11 of the 15 states where it sells plans under the Affordable Care Act is evidence why we need single payer. Aetna followed the lead of UnitedHealth Group and Humana, all claiming that there aren’t enough healthy people to offset the sick people in those states and that impacts their bottom line profits.

This is all reminiscent of the practices of health insurance companies before the ACA. Using pre-existing condition exclusions and other exemptions health insurance companies made record profits by making sure people who might cost them money were not covered.

Since the ACA eliminated these practices, big health insurance companies have decided to screw them and pull out of the states where they don’t have enough healthy young people to offset the older people with health issues. This comes at a time when mergers are creating mega health insurance companies.

A medicare style single payer health insurance system would take out the profit motive and create a majority of healthy insured needed to offset costs of those needing medical care. This is clearly the lesson of other advanced countries that the U.S. needs to adopt. It is time for single payer.

Just one day more…

Thursday, August 25, 2016

The List Of Weasels Is Growing

Add another weasel to the pharmaceutical thieves.

First there is Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He is the weasel who jacked up the price overnight of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. Daraprim is used to treat parasitic infections that can be life-threatening for babies, the elderly and AIDS patients.

Now comes Mylan Pharmaceutical CEO Heather Bresch, who struggled Thursday to justify the repeated big price hikes of the company's lifesaving EpiPen devices as criticism continued that Mylan is gouging consumers with a retail cost of more than $600.

The EpiPen is a medical device for injecting a measured dose or doses of epinephrine (adrenaline) for the treatment of anaphylaxis. They are carried by those who are allergic to certain foods, like peanuts and eggs, or to some stinging insects and used in emergency situations.

Data shows that from 2007 to 2015, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch's total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase. During the same period, the company raised EpiPen prices, with the average wholesale price going from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase. Now Mylan has jacked the price to more than $600.

The list of weasels is growing.

WEASEL #1 AND WEASEL #2 (The ones on the left)

There has to be a special corner in hell for these greedy bastards.

Just one day more...

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

I Want My Money Back

On Sunday we rode our ATV's about 8 miles from the farm to the local hole-in-the-wall tavern where a friend of mine was performing with his polka band. The guy is a wizard with the accordion.

It's been a while since we've had the ATV's out and the Yamaha was hard to start and idled rough.

Turns out it was a fouled spark plug. It was a simple fix with a new plug. The Yamaha now fires up right away and runs good.

You would have thought that the guy who serviced these ATV's back in May would have checked the spark plugs. Inexcusable oversight. I want my money back.

Oh wait... that was me. Good thing it was an easy fix. Guess I'll overlook the incompetence of the mechanic this time.

Just one day more...

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Sign Of The Times

Our peaches are ready to pick.

At the same time we are harvesting the peaches the grocery stores are selling them on sale.

Granted, there isn't a lot that goes into growing peaches. However, they do take watering and pruning. This reminded me of why we stopped raising chickens here on the farm.

By the time we purchased baby chicks, adding in the cost of the food and the butchering, we were well over the cost of store bought chickens.

Years ago the family that lived on our farm raised a lot of chickens in the huge chicken coop that is still here.

Nowadays we can buy food less expensive than the cost to raise. I guess that is a sign of the times.

Just one day more...

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Sunday Mornings Will Change

Last weekend, John McLaughlin missed an episode of his show on PBS, The McLaughlin Group, for the first time in 34 years.

The show is a weekly Sunday morning ritual for me and I could tell from recent shows that McLaughlin was ailing. McLaughlin died today at age 89.

The show was a rousing weekly roundtable debate program which McLaughlin moderated and included both liberal and conservative political pundits.

I’m not sure what will come next for the McLaughlin Group, but it will certainly be a change in my Sunday mornings.

Just one day more…

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Trumpees Interfering

Donald Trump is preparing everyone for an “it’s not my fault” election loss, claiming that the system is rigged and there will be “cheating” at the ballot box. He is calling on his minions to go to the polling places and watch for cheaters.

What Donald isn’t disclosing is that in over a billion votes cast from 2000 - 2014 there have been only 31 credible incidents (Washington Post, 8-6-14).

I don’t know what fraction of ratio that translates to, but clearly it isn’t likely that “cheating” will cause Trump to lose.

If anything, all what will result is a bunch of Trumpees interfering with the voting process (cue the right wing militia).

Just one day more…

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Hillary's Damn Emails

Bernie got it right during the debates. America is tired of hearing about Hillary's damn emails.

Back in October a Monmouth University poll showed that 63% of voters were sick and tired of hearing about Hillary’s emails, while 34% said it should still be an issue. Little has changed since then.

Now they are scouring the Clinton Foundation emails for any dirt they can find.

When is someone going to scour Trump's tax return?

I'm with the 63%, sick and tired of hearing about Hillary's damn emails.

Just one day more...

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Not So Bad After All

Okay... I've been silent long enough.

The RNC is exploring the possibility of dumping Trump and putting someone else in his place. They claim they have the authority and mechanism to do that.

Rats... just when this clown was running his bus off the cliff, making more people think the Dems aren't so bad after all.

Just one day more...