The Colonel's Forum

George is in the jungle knockin’ on the door come to get your children wants to have a war Brownie's in the outhouse Katrina on the line government's a disaster but George, he says it’s fine Come on, lord you’d better run, be a long dark night before this thing is done The above lyrics are the opening to John Fogerty's "Long Dark Night," one of many great songs on his "Revival" album. I highly recommend it. I also just picked up: 1) Porter Wagoner - Wagonmaster 2) Gloria Estefan - 90 Milas 3) Willie Nelson - Moment of Forever 4) Bruce Springsteen - Magic 5) Blind Boys of Alabama - Down in New Orleans 6) Mark Knopfler - Kill to get Crimson I also broke down and got a big screen TV - should get it home this week. It's a plasma, so you can't lay it on its side. Who knew? Mostly I'm looking forward to watching Dirty Jobs in high definition. I love that show. Oh, the TV is a 50" model from Samsung. In the coming days, we will h...

This is my last day out here in San Francisco, and on my walk to work this morning I found myself reflecting on what a great town this is. This is a city that works. If functions well, especially for a city of this size. With such a diverse population, it's hard to think of San Francisco as a true "American" city, since we're really not all that diverse. San Francisco feels more like the hybrid of a major financial center and a mid-size European city. The tip of the SF peninsula is a collection of micro-neighborhoods that often overlap. There's Chinatown, hippietown, yuppietown, old money on Nob Hill, the Castro and the Mission... a place for everyone. You can walk around town or take public transit - no real need for a car. Sure, the homeless people smell awful and they annoy you, but that's a small price to pay. The locals eat well here and live healthy lifestyles. Real estate prices and salaries are ridiculously high. The city council just passed a...

Mr. Obama’s triumphs [2/12/08] capped a week in which he went undefeated in states across the country, in many cases by big margins, over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. And his strength on Tuesday sliced across nearly every major demographic line, with one element standing out: in Virginia and Maryland, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls, he beat Mrs. Clinton among women. (emphasis added)

I bought a new pair of shoes this weekend. That's not particularly noteworthy, except that I noticed an interesting characteristic about them this morning. What I realized is that my choice of shoes was actually influenced by al Quaeda. Seriously. I bought a pair of slip on dress shoes because I have to take my shoes off twice a week for the TSA, because some Muslim extremists hijacked some planes back in 2001. Upon further investigation though, there's a bit more to it than that. When you travel as much as I do, you notice the small things. For example, the PA system at Lexington airport (formerly and more appropriately known as Bluegrass Field) tells me every Monday and Thursday that "The Homeland Security threat level has been raised to orange, please be aware of the increased threat." In contrast, at ATL, CVG, and SFO, the PA says "The Homeland Security threat level is orange." There are a couple small differences there, but enough to get me curi...