The Colonel's Forum

Contrary to popular belief, and by popular belief I mean the GOP Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) campaign that precedes every election talking about how whomever the Democratic candidate is has secret plans to repeal the 2nd amendment, Obama has yet to take away anyone's guns. When he didn't do this during his first term, the NRA need an explanation. After all, they swore this was his plan. Interesting side note, during his first term, Obama actually expanded expanded the list of places you can carry a gun while simultaneously failing to renew the assault weapons ban. The NRA should recognize this as a home run, but of course they can't give a Democrat credit for anything because they've given dump trucks full of money to the RNC. In fact, Obama has repeatedly stated that " No single law — no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, " Sounds pretty logical to me. He proposed no new laws after ...

This article grabbed my attention last week. Among other things, it provides a historical perspective on a major topic in American politics today - rich versus poor, makers versus takers, the notion that all poor people (or a full 47% of the country, according to Romney) are freeloaders. Here's another spin on it from my ideology-shifting Senator, Rand Paul. Rand, never far from a conspiracy theory, wants you to believe that the reason Obama is  pushing for a higher minimum wage is as a diversion, to draw attention away from the fact that the middle class is getting screwed these days. Right. A diversion, which implies that the Dems for some reason are trying to hide... what exactly? They just won two presidential elections by appealing to... the middle class who's getting screwed by... the 1% who fund the PACs that fund the GOP. If you're mad about the number of people getting public assistance, you either have to support raising the minimum wage or admit that you...

Yet another demonstration this week by the GOP that they are: Completely out of touch with popular sentiment Couldn't care less about rebuilding our shrinking middle class Are much more interested in taking symbolic, confrontational stances on issues than actually doing the logical (and moral) thing.  Always going to side with big business over the common man I've blogged before about the staggering collapse of the middle class. It's a fact, not an opinion. It's not about Obama or W; it's been taking place for over 30 years now. The '08 recession definitely hurt the middle class a lot, but they were in pretty bad shape by '07 anyway. If you care to read about the topic, Carville & Greenberg wrote a great book on it. Are they biased? Hell yes they are. But let's be clear - just because they work for the Dems doesn't make them wrong. They're brilliant, and the book is filled with economic data that is not in dispute; any way you loo...

Excellent reflection on the rise of Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Putin: The rebuilding of ‘Soviet’ Russia http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26769481

Obamacare has been in the news so much this week because of the looming deadline, it got me to thinking more about the real people who are impacted by it directly. Living in the mid-west (sorry kids, Kentucky ain't the South), and having grown up in a very nice whitey-McWhitey-pants suburb, it's not surprising that I have a lot of conservative friends. To clarify, when I use conservative I mean it in the true sense, not the Fox News idiot sense (although I have some friends in that category too). I mean people who don't like big government, and people who generally support free and open markets. If you think the government should be involved in banning gay marriage or protecting religious bigotry, you're not a conservative (but there's a good chance you're a jerk). Anyway this means I have a lot of friends who hate Obama, and also hate Obamacare. I have a generally favorable opinion of both, though I fully recognize they're not without their flaws (see my...

It's been a while since my last rant about the stupid model by which Americans get mobile phones and wireless plans. Part of this model is driven by the fact that our wireless carriers here have really strong lobbies in Congress, so they do everything they can to protect their vested interests in NOT having an efficient market. CDMA, LTE, UMTS, HSPA+, EDGE,GSM... I don't even try to keep with all the variations in technologies used in this country, but that's one of the things that locks people into a particular carrier. Technically there are 4 major carriers in the US, but since there are really only two main technologies deployed, what we really have is 2 pairs of carriers, and even within those pairs they've done what they can to make it useless to switch. In Europe and Asia, any phone works on any network. It's wacky. The other big difference of course is this subsidy/contract model. Americans tend to sign two year contracts for their phones, and part of the ...

This weekend marks 4 years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The GOP re-branded it as "Obamacare," in hopes that those who hate Obama would similarly hate "his" healthcare plan. There are at least 3 flaws with that: 1) he didn't write the bill 2) some Obama haters directly benefit from this plan and 3) the GOP has given the Dems a great marketing tool here: there are now over 10,000,000 people who are fans of Obamacare because it has given them the health insurance they wanted and couldn't get previously. Ask P&G about the marketing power of 10,000,000 consumers who are out there saying "I just bought this product and it's really helping me and my family." There's not much point reviewing the law and how it's been rolled out, as that is a well-documented and over-analyzed debacle. I find the IT issues particularly embarrassing as I work in that industry and it reads like a classic case of how NOT to run a large IT pro...

Mitch is a politician I love to hate. Sadly, he's also my Senator. He's spent 30 years in the Senate, a career politician by definition, and in that time has done effectively zero to improve the quality of life in one of the poorest states in the nation, Kentucky. He's really good at sending pork barrel projects home though, and that has proven highly effective at getting him re-elected. This year, he's actually got a legitimate challenger. He's down in the polls. The GOP "brand" has basically got negative equity these days because the only loud voices in the party are the "I think the tea party has got some great ideas here!" types, not the moderates who are actually greater in number. Ten polls that came out in the first week of February all have him trailing her, or have them in a dead heat. It's possible for 1 poll to be off, but not 10. To put this in perspective, he's never, ever been even close to being unseated. From his first...

I have a lot of friends who identify themselves as conservatives. I used to call myself a conservative, but that's no longer the case. My views haven't changed, but the definition of conservative has. I stand for smaller government and personal liberty. That means you can marry whomever you want, you can carry whatever kind of gun you want, you can smoke whatever you want to, and we shouldn't be giving handouts to oil companies, farmers, or solar panel hippies. That's not what conservative means today though. In 2014, "conservative" means "I believe in Jesus, and I believe Fox News tells the truth, handouts to farmers are ok but handouts to poor people are shameful, and legalizing pot and gay marriage would ruin the moral fiber of our country. I believe that my religious views should be applied universally, to everyone, regardless of what the constitution says about the separation of church and state." Today we have the tea party and a rising libe...

The US response to the situation in Syria is amusing to me. To be clear, I think that what happened is a very serious situation, and not something that should be taken lightly. What I'm saying is that the manner in which the US is responding (or, at the moment, not responding) is laughable. The same goes for the Brits. I mean seriously, when was the last time the FRENCH were calling for action and it was the limeys and the yankees who couldn't get our act together? The Syrian government bombed its own people with chemical weapons. This is not in dispute, except in the mind of Vladimir Putin and the Chinese. Really, I don't think even they are questioning what happened privately, they're only questioning it publicly to put on a show. If you think they're more credible than France, then UN, and the US, oh, and the 1429 Syrians who died in the attack , I can't help you. The UN security council can't even agree on the day of the week, so anyone who suggests ...

Here's what you need to know about Delhi: skip it. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's true for most major cities in India. After spending 3 days there, I can't see any reason to visit unless you're there on business (like I was) or you're a diplomat (which I guess means you'd be there on business anyway). Delhi is bigger and "nicer" than Bangalore. By that I mean less trash in the streets, fewer stray dogs and cows, better roads, a metro/subway system, a spectacular airport. These things are all nice, but they don't make for anything particularly impressive in the sight-seeing department. I was able to go see "India Gate" which is apparently a major tourist attraction. It celebrates India's independence. It looks like the Arc du Triomphe in Paris, but it's smaller, less ornate, and surrounded by beggars and a SWAT team who expects a terrorist attack at any moment. They spend so much time posing for photos with tou...

After spending 3 days there, I decided it's time for some reflection. Bangalore is a city of contrasts. I'm told that's quite common in India, but it's new to me. The airport is 40km from the city center, so it's a haul just to get into town. There's one road, and it's awful, even by Indian standards. I say that as a former resident of New Orleans, mind you. This road had so many "diversions" (detours) around pockets of construction that our route was probably twice as long due to all the zig zagging. I suppose the construction is a positive sign, but let's talk about that for a moment. Construction is everywhere in Bangalore. Every block, every street, downtown, the suburbs. There seems to be 6,394 buildings going up, all of this are 20% complete. I'm no structural engineer, but it appears to me that none of them are being worked on. At all. It's like they lay a foundation and stack some cinder blocks for walls, then leave. Same is ...

Vincent Vega told us in pulp fiction that "they have the same stuff in Europe that they have in the US, it's just the little differences." There are a few things about European airports that I love. #1, they're quiet. No CNN blasting at you from every gate. No PA announcements on the shuttle bus. They're literally quiet. It's lovely. #2) Proper toilets. For whatever reason, in America we've come to accept bathroom stalls that offer slightly less privacy than standing in the middle of Grand Central Station. Partitions neither reach the floor or the ceiling; doors and corners have gaps wide enough to pass someone a roll of toilet paper. It is in this environment that Americans answer nature's call. Even the worst airports in Europe have stalls with 4 real walls and a proper door. After 8 hours on a plane, one appreciates this difference. Also, the Air France club lounge was spectacular. It was huge, modern, calm, and the food and drink were amazing. Bo...

Trying this one again. First post failed when I tried to attach the champagne pic.

At the Air France lounge. 8 wines on draft, fresh croissants, and mushroom and onion omelettes. These guys don't mess around.

This is my favorite feature at the Detroit airport; a water feature that resembles a 3d airline flight map. Behind it is a 747. The picture doesn't do justice to its scale. I'm flying a KLM 747 home from Delhi to Amsterdam.

As in, 1 of 9.

On my way to India!

We continue to deal with the topic of gun "control" here in the US, and I think it's a national embarrassment. It's certainly a complicated issue, but at the same time there is a real lack of logic in the arguments offered up on both sides of the issue. The key driver behind the lack of reasoned debate on the topic is an anachronistic interpretation of the 2nd amendment. This amendment was part of our bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the constitution, in September of 1789. At the time, the weapon of choice was a smooth-bore flint-lock musket, with a rate of fire of 3 rounds per minute (if you were a skilled shooter). Its effective range is 75-100 meters, again, only if you're a good shot. Just 6 years earlier (1783) we defeated a tyrannical British government to claim our own independence. So there were legitimate concerns about a need for the people to be able to defend themselves from a tyrannical government. In the 224 years that have passed, ...

An Instagram Account Chillingly Documents The Sites Of U.S. Drone Strikes http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671238/an-instagram-account-chillingly-documents-the-sites-of-us-drone-strikes