Net Neutrality. Are you asleep yet?
You’re not alone if the mere mention of the words makes you drowsy. A lot of people don’t even understand what it is, including a conservative blogger I ran across …

It  sounds frivolous to compare the New York Times to a children’s Web site and instant movie access, but those are the economic facts at my house.
Club Penguin: $12 a month – $6 per kid. …

I pay $65 a month for satellite TV service, and that’s way too much considering that we regularly watch only  Nickelodeon, ESPN and the local FOX affiliate. The package includes 200 channels, many of which …

What could possibly be more annoying than a 6-year-old who fritters away every dime on candy or a bright shiny object that’s going to hold his interest only for as long as it takes to …

Pity the poor ginormous telecom that’s forced to scrape for every nickel and dime it can find in order to stay afloat. Eventually, those costs have to be passed along to the consumer, you know.
I’m …

I thought nothing could ever top the warning the eyeglass cleaner at work used to carry: Do not use on contact lenses.
That was before last weekend, when I bought a box of lip balm that …

Here’s a great example of how we’ve improved products over the years to the point of making them heaping piles of junk.
The crib I slept in as babe decades ago now lives in my parents’ …

Why would someone who barely drives not jump at the chance to buy “pay per mile” auto insurance, which the Brookings Institute estimates will cut most people’s yearly insurance costs $270 per car?
Well, for one, …

The newest marketing pitch from Disney on its “Baby Einstein” line, since the old one has gone down in legal flames: The DVDs are about “fostering parent-child interaction.”
Of course they always have been, a Disney …

Ten years ago or so, I was a hopeless coupon geek.
I’d religiously clip the Sunday paper, sort the coupons into envelopes and then put them in order of expiration date. I’d write my grocery list …

So apparently I’m not the only one to have an inattentive lapse that amounted to a couple of dollars come back to bite me to the tune of triple-digits.
I’ll take full responsibility for one overdraft …

Remember the big toy recall of two summers ago,when everything from Thomas trains to Dora campers disappeared from retailers’ shelves as plaything after plaything was recalled for violating lead standards?
Remember Congress’ uncharacteristic haste in the …

Want in on a little secret about how your credit card company is going to guarantee that you won’t be responsible for any fraudulent purchases?
They’re going to do it by stopping anyone – including you …

It’s the most obvious promotion on Earth for business in a capital city, so of course Sacramento businesses quickly decided to offer state workers discounts on their “furlough Fridays” – their mandatory unpaid time off …

If you hold your breath every time a letter arrives from your bank and pray it’s not telling you your credit-card interest rate is about to skyrocket, don’t exhale just because Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd’s …

Sometimes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reminds me of Big Guy looking for his shoes in the morning.
“Where are they?” he’ll say.
“They’re right beside you.”
“But I don’t see them.”
Dude, just look.
Which is not …

The state of California couldn’t do it, and the feds won’t. Looks like it’s up to consumers to get rid of toxic plastic.

I suppose 14 months isn’t an excessive gestation period for a law, especially when you consider that except for bills that bail out big businesses, it can take dog years for Congress to act.

Still, it seems like centuries ago that parents were aghast and children were distraught as the Grinch Who Stole Summer snatched 45 million toys off shelves due to lead contamination.

Everything from backpacks to trains to Little People were recalled, leaving folks befuddled that this was happening in the 21st Century. I thought experts had established long ago that lead exposure is bad for children.

A few far right wing nuts, though, saw conspiracy:

“”Are you falling for this BS about children’s toys and the dangers of?”" the lunatic fringe asked at a site where I used to blog. “”This is nothing but an all out attempt by the unions

I’m from the government and I’m here to help you?

That actually happened today when the National Transportation Safety Administration unveiled a new way for parents to evaluate car seats – ease of use.

All the old standards remain – quality of instructions and labels and, the most important one, how well it secures the child.

Now they’ve added ease of use to the five-star system, in an attempt to tell parents how hard the seat is to install.

You’ll have to pardon my pessimism – I refuse to say “how easy the seat is to install,” because none is. Not unless you’re Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci. They’ve probably choreographed a floor exercise based on car-seat installation.

I am a smallish, fairly limber person, but my cute