More on GE and its quality control

Friend Lupi enthusiastically supported my conclusion about GE in a previous blog.  Here's what she had to say about her own experiences:

Loved your comments on GE appliances. We will never buy another GE appliance again. We wouldn’t take one as a gift. Here are my 2 favorite stories. A year after we got our (installed in cabinet) GE microwave, the interior light went. We were also having trouble with our GE oven, so I asked the repair person to replace the light (John having been unable to figure out how.) He told me that it would be good if I could do without the light because there was no way to replace it without removing the entire unit from the wall and that would involve a service call with 2 workers. I was so steamed I wrote GE suggesting that the engineer who had designed this model be fired. No response, of course. Next the GE dishwasher. The cup dispenser wouldn’t open. Apparently, there was no fix for this other than getting a new dispenser (at a cost of about $140). No one apparently can repair anything anymore; they can just “replace components.” We replaced it twice. The next time it went, we bought a Kitchen Aid, then decided it was so ugly we installed it at work and got a Bosch. The interior of our model was designed by a moron, but it’s only had one problem, so we will keep it until it dies. It’s blessedly quiet.

Another great Health Reform Timeline online

From Kaiser Family Foundation...this one is a year-by-year breakdown of each provision, some more important than others.  See KFF Timeline.

Best of the Best Citizen Portals

Over the past two years, I've posted links to web addresses to make your voice heard.  Here's a recap of the best:

How to contact the White House
How to contact your Senator or Congressman

Here are the very best sources of citizen information on issues of the day:

Summary of the Health Reform Act (with schedule)
Congressional Staff Salaries and Perks
How will the Coming US Debt Crisis Unfold?

Vitamin D and Leukemia progression

A Mayo Clinic study just reported in the journal Blood that people diagnosed with CLL who had insufficient Vitamin D (less than 25 ng at the time of diagnosis) were more likely to progress and to die than were those with "adequate" levels.  Read the press release. 

GE is the GM of the future!

Back in 1978, I had the misfortune to buy an Olds Cutlass, a classy looking car with the classic GM pre-planned burnout at 50K miles.  After that, I swore I would never buy another GM car (or American car, for that matter).  Hondas became my mainstay and they didn't disappoint with price points and reliability that surpassed my Oldsmobile.  In the mid-90's I relented, bought a Chrysler Grand Jeep Cherokee .. Just 50K miles later,  when the drive train faultered, I was back to Japan, and my Lexus rx300 is now on it's 115K th mile. 

So...now comes GE, the big mother of American major appliances.  Our 22 year old GE ovens are still going strong, but our 2-year old GE Profile microwave blew out (magnetron) and GE would not honor the 5-year warranty, because a lead wire had also blown. (Convenient, huh?).  This morning, our 8-year old GE Profile refrigerator blew out.  We'll pay for repair or replacement, of course, but 8 years is NOT a reasonable length of life for a major appliance!  I have resolved NEVER AGAIN to buy a GE appliance.   This despite the fact that I own some GE stock.  I'm also gradually selling the stock and realizing the substantial loss on the investment.  Nothing made by GE is made in the USA anyway... The microwave comes from Malaysia;  the refrigerator was made in Mexico. 
What's still working in our kitchen?  The VERY OLD GE oven;  the Kitchen-aid dishwasher (5 years old); the kitchen-aid garbage compactor (22 years old);  and the GE profile cooktop (1 year old).  Which one would you predict will fail first?

My prediction for 2012 Republican Presidential Ticket

One of the joys of having this little personal blog is that I can indulge my favorite hobby-- to be able to say "I said that this would happen."  This post is to go on record with my prognostication for the republican ticket in 2012.  That way I can say, "See?.."
or, more likely, "Well, I don't  know diddly about politics, and never said I did."  (That latter statement is true.)
Here goes:
Republican Nominee for President, 2012, Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana
Republican Nominee for Vice-President, 2012, Marc Rubio, newly elected Senator from Florida.
This prediction should in no way be considered an endorsement of the above.  I'm just having fun with my told-you-so hobby.  You, dear reader, may have been a recipient of such statements in the past regarding all manner of things, and you know that I live for the times when you say something to me like,  "Do you remember way back in 2007, Judy when you told me to sell my house now rather than to wait for the price to improve?"  Well, you were right!
Now, if you REALLY want to have fun with me, why don't you counter --in the comments -- with your own predictions.  And then we can compare our prescience in September 2012 (God willing).

Federal Employees Health Plan 2011 Premiums

The US Gov't OPM announced the new rates for 2011 for the FEHB plans. Here is the chart showing 2011 premiums for national plans. For HMOs and other plans available in your area, click on FEHB site page.

For those of you who hate federal workers, you can see what the premium subsidy is for federal employees and retirees. Before you explode and bloviate, however, remember that salary + benefits = total compensation, and in general total federal compensation is not out of line with the private sector. In my view, federal employees are generally more risk averse than private sector workers, or more dedicated to public service, or lucky to have found a safe federal job and aware they couldn't command the same salary in a more competitive system. (Or some combination thereof.) We're no angels, but we aren't total ripoff artists, either.