The Colonel's Forum

"No sex in the champagne room "

I read this morning that Mitt Romney is polling well in Iowa and I couldn't be happier. I saw an interview with him last week and he continues to impress. I'll be the first to admit that I had written him off as un-electable, but I'd really like to be proven wrong on that point. I still don't know who is my favorite these days, but if the republicans don't at least pony up a decent candidate, I fear that Hillary may walk away with this thing, which means I'll need to move to Canada. So what makes a decent candidate for the republicans? Let's start with the basics - competence and eloquence. He'll need to be a family values candidate to pull in the 20% of our country that falls into the wack-job bible beater category. I can't stand 'em pushing their agenda on the rest of us, but one thing that's for certain is that they show up at the polls on election day. I also think the republican candidate needs to run on a reform platform, moving...

So, I got around to reading Delta's contract of carriage today. In case you were not aware, the airlines have a ridiculous amount of control over their passengers. If you read through the fine print and make it to page 48, there is some interesting information in here. Commercial flights are extra full these days. The past two weeks, I've been on 8 flights that were 100% booked. This holiday season will probably be the worst since 2000. So it's in your best interest to read through this junk for whatever airline you're flying to see all the rights you don't have. There is one key right you do have, that most people don't even know about. When a flight is overbooked, don't be so fast to "volunteer" to give up your seat for an "airline voucher" good for future travel. These vouchers are full of fine print and often difficult to redeem. If the airline doesn't get any volunteers though, and they have to "involuntarily deny b...

The Senate today looked at the American Dream Act. Sure it's a dumb title, but the concept is one I think most people can get behind. There are a lot of illegal immigrants here in the US. In Kentucky, we call them the backbone of our horse and agriculture economy, or at least we should, because that's what they are. I don't care how they got here, I don't think they're a national security threat, and based on my understanding of the Dream Act, I'm considering the idea that we ought to look at "illegal" immigrants in a different light. The Dream Act offers the children of illegal immigrants a fast track to citizenship if they a) go to college OR b) serve in our military They'd still have to pass a background check, but that's about it. Can someone tell me why this is not a good idea? We're talking about children age 15 or younger when their parents brought them here "illegally" - why punish them for their parents coming he...

Here is one of the coolest interactive graphics I've seen in a long time Places the candidates have visited over time It shows where the Presidential candidates are making visits. You can slide the bar across the top to show different time periods, or just click the "play" button to view the visits over time (in a moving one month window. Isn't it just nuts that Iowa is getting all this attention? I know it's not a new concept or anything, but seriously people - Iowa?! I'm a big fan of corn too, but why do we have an election process where a state like Iowa gets all this attention and some other states have had no visits at all. Is Iowa really any more or less important than the Dakotas?

(from USA Today) One down, 79,999,999 to go. The "first Boomer" applied for Social Security benefits today. The honor goes to retired Maryland teacher Kathleen Casey-Kirschling, born at 12:00:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1946. This afternoon she filed to receive early retirement benefits when she turns 62 in January. The Baltimore Sun was there. USA TODAY's Richard Wolf wrote about her last week, and Bloomberg noted the milestone today. Many people are worried that if the publicly-financed retirement system isn't modified, rising health care costs and federal budget deficits will drain the Treasury long before each of the roughly 80 million people born between 1946 and 1964 gets his/her slice of the Social Security pie. "It's the beginning of an era. It's symbolic, but it reminds us that we're not doing anything to prepare for this,'' Bob Bixby, head of the bipartisan Concord Coalition , which advocates for a balanced budget, told Bloomberg....

I heard somewhere that our sense of smell is the sense most closely linked to our long term memories. I don't disagree with that, but for me I also tend to associate sounds with events. I took a week off last week to enjoy some down time at home, and it was well worth it. Here is a list of the sounds I heard, and the circumstances that surrounded each one. 1) "The Call to Post" This is the short little tune the bugler plays at Keeneland before each race. I was at the track 4 days over the past week with family and friends, so I got to hear this sound about 40 times. Trust me, it never gets old. 2) "Go baby, go!" This is the battle cry of the horse track gambler cheering for the horse he/she just bet the farm on. The Commonwealth of Kentucky makes a distinction between "wagering" which is what you do at a horse track and "gambling" which you only do at casinos. I think this distinction is ridiculous. 3) "My Old Kentucky Home" This St...