Ideas, Opinions, Genealogy, and Book Reviews
There have been several articles in the new this morning about our border patrol protecting us from Canadians including several women (2 were French!) and I wonder if there were French-Canadian somehow involved. One was even a dual U.S and Canadian citizen.
Some got through after extensive questioning but some were sent back. Many admitted to coming for the Women’s March.
Continue reading “Protecting us from Canadians”
Can we afford to let the Republicans do this? It is expensive to repeal ObamaCare and for our money we get less. Why, Republicans?
The repeal of ObamaCare would cost about 353 billion dollars over the next 10 years and about 20 million people would lose their health insurance. Continue reading “TrumpCare, the expensive repeal of ObamaCare”
Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, is so scared of the dangerous women who disagree with his stance on defunding Planned Parenthood he refused let them deliver petitions and called out the security guards to protect him (or perhaps to prevent having to listen to people who disagree with him).
Why is Paul Ryan so scared? Continue reading “Dangerous Women and Paul Ryan”
I just read an interesting post by Blaine Bettinger. If you are interested in the use of DNA evidence in genealogy, it is well worth a read.
The article is The DNA Era of Genealogy. Blaine Bettinger also has 2 books which will probably be of interest if you are looking at DNA results or considering adding DNA to you genealogy toolbox.
I have both in paperback. I find it easier to go back and re-read sections as needed as well as looking at some of the figures. I am reading both for an overview but like having the book to read in detail as needed.
Continue reading “DNA evidence in genealogy”
I am finding family but not in the same way. And I use some of the same techniques. But this book is about a very different quest than mine.
This was a bit of an unusual experience for me. I was browsing Amazon looking for something else. I forget what but that is unimportant. My hobby is genealogy and last Christmas I was given an autosomal DNA test kit. The results confirmed several known relationships and one suspected relationship. It also opened several unexpected avenues of research.
So I am acquainted with the uses and power of DNA for genealogy but still feel very much like a beginner in genetic genealogy.
Continue reading “Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA”
Rescuing Retirement is an interesting and important book. Millions of older Americans are living in poverty or close to it. Our retirement system is broken. And we should and can fix it. This book is about how we do that.
The full title is Rescuing Retirement: A Plan to Guarantee Retirement Security for All Americans by Tony James and Teresa Ghilarducci.
Continue reading “Rescuing Retirement: Guarantee Retirement Security”
Last week I wrote that I hoped President-elect Trump would try to bring us together and be a president for all Americans. So far I do not see anything that suggests this will happen.
I had hoped that he would try to be a better President than his campaign suggested. It is early in his transition but I haven’t seen anything that indicates this will happen. President-elect Trump has disappointed but not surprised me.
The election is over. We have a clear winner, Donald J Trump. I think that no matter how we voted, or did not vote, we should come together to support President-elect Trump
In my opinion Donald Trump ran a disgusting campaign but now he is President-elect Trump and will soon be President Trump. This county is divided and we need to come together to find common ground and at least move ahead where we agree and try to compromise where there is disagreement.
Continue reading “President-elect Trump”
This is an update of the story how my McKenzie brick wall was broken by DNA. Genealogists trace a family and then get to a point where is seems very difficult or maybe even impossible to get beyond. These involuntary stopping points in genealogy are often called “Brick Walls”. I have several and I suppose a good many people doing genealogy have brick walls.
I had been able to go back as far as my great grandfather Malcolm McKenzie and his wife Emma Cash McKenzie. My earlier post on this McKenzie brick wall will give some details about how a comment on this blog guided me towards Malcolm’s family in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada and much more.
Continue reading “McKenzie brick wall update”
This campaign season has been a bad one for Republicans and conservatives in general and Republican or conservative women in particular.
I usually try to read a variety of views on issues I care about. Quite often what is written or on television has a point of view that may favor on side or the other. So the key is to read widely. The reason I say read is that when you are reading you can think about things and maybe do a bit of fact checking. When things are on television or radio you often don’t have time to do that.
Continue reading “Republican or conservative women betrayed”
I decided how I will vote for Senate this year. I will vote for a working government.
Several days ago I wrote about my Senate choices and was still undecided. I didn’t particularly like my choices.
Senator Toomey (R-PA) was a known. He has a record in the Senate and mostly I disagree with him but I agree on at least one issue.
Katie McGinty was a unknown. She has not previously held office, at least not one that I was familiar with. But I watched her debate the Senator and read a few things and decided to vote for her. I think she will make the better Senator. A major factor in my decision that Katie McGinty is not a Republican.
Continue reading “Vote for a working government”
Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger is a good collection of short stories.
The short stories in Echoes of Sherlock Holmes are not necessarily about Holmes. The authors were just asked to write a story inspired by Holmes.
I’m over half way through now and I’ll take a little break in reading this book now since I have other things to do but that is the good thing about short stores. You can read one or 2 at a sitting and put the book down for days or even weeks without a thought to losing the flow of the story.
I found some stories to be better than others but this is to be expected in anthology such as this.
About every 10 years in Pennsylvania the majority party in the state legislature comes up with a plan to prevent a fair vote by making as many votes of the opposition party as ineffective as possible. This is called redistricting. The same happens in other states too.
The legislature figures out how to slice and dice the population in a way that protects incumbents of their party by making a challenge by the opposition unlikely to succeed. In other words, if you are unlucky enough to be a a district gerrymandered in favor of one party but prefer the candidate of the other party, your vote is unlikely to help bring about change.
The process is also called gerrymander. It is a way for politicians to prevent a fair vote. This political process is almost as old as the United States. But old and fair are not the same. Can this unfairness be prevented?
Continue reading “Fair vote”
Will Donald Trump sue ?
He has been treated unfairly by the media. The New York Times in particular. But just generally by all those bad media people who report what he says.
He brags on tape about his sexual prowess and sexual assaults. Then dismisses it as mere locker room talk. When women come forth to claim that he has actually done some of these things to them, he threatens to sue. But not now. He’ll file those lawsuits after the election.
Continue reading “Why doesn’t Trump sue ?”
This is a repeat of my review of Doors by Daniel Brako.
I sometimes review books here. Sometimes it is library books, sometimes a book I bought, sometimes it is a book I borrowed from a friend but most of time it is an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) from Netgalley.
I reviewed this here over 3 years ago and I’m preety sure I told NetGalley about it but this morning they are asking for my review. So here is a repeat –
First, I requested this advanced reading copy for review since the write-up on Netgalley sounded like it might be interesting but I wasn’t sure about that.
Continue reading “Doors by Daniel Brako, again”