Misadventures In Travel

What a hoot. I´m in Spain right now, on my annual visit to my son for his birthday.

So far, every flight has been a mishap. It started with the initial flight from Indianapolis to Newark, which was delayed due to weather. This delay set off a chain reaction whereby I missed my flight from Newark to Madrid, and from Madrid to Jerez de la Frontera. Continental Airlines tried to get me to Madrid via Paris, but that flight was delayed, and in Paris, they failed to put my luggage on the plane.

Fortunately, we caught that before I boarded, so I took the next Paris-Madrid flight, but that delay caused me to miss the last flight out of Madrid for Jerez.

On the upside, I picked up a souvineer for Val Swift- an Air France barf bag. He´ll put the hidden meaning together, I´m sure.

I had no choice but to stay overnight in Madrid. I called everybody, from Alex to the rental car company to let them all know about the changes. I´m definitely not happy about losing a day with my son, but you have to make the best of things and try to keep a sense of humor.

All of this is ironic, for as I type this, there is a young American couple playing the ugly American tourists, swearing at the hotel desk clerk because their reservation got crossed up. The desk clerk was very helpful to me, willing to speak English when I fumbled on the Espanol. It´s amazing how much further you get with a sense of humor and a smile.

Anyway, I´ll pick up the first flight from Madrid to Jerez in the morning, and go from there. alex and I will have a great week together. Look for pictures!

Short Session, Many Bills

It's an election year, so our lawmakers feel the need to look busy, writing bunches of laws.

So far, I have only found two worth supporting- one on curtailing eminent domain abuse, and another on ending the practice of gerrymandering. I'll discuss those in more depth in an upcoming post.

Here and there, I will post the Lousy Bill of the Day entry. My only concern is that I can't address every lousy bill before they become law. There are just too many of them!

Competition Watch

Current Secretary of State, Republican Todd Rokita, will be the guest host on Monday's "Abdul in the Morning" on 1430-am WXNT. The program airs from 5-9am.

It will be interesting to discover the topics he'll tackle in the four-hour stint. I hear he has some heavy-hitters from the federal political scene lined up for a phone visit.

I'd love to hear Mr. Rokita's take on the gerrymandering of districts, forced annexation, the attempt at stealing the NK Hurst property via eminent domain, and the elimination of township government.

Full disclosure: I am a Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State. I hope to win my party's nomination at our state convention in April. If I do, I would be Mr. Rokita's opponent in November's general election, along with a Democratic candidate, and possibly another from the Green Party. Mike Kole for Secretary of State website link.

Go Colts! Hurray NK Hurst!

If you're going downtown for the game, the tailgating, or to cheer the Colts on in a bar, here's a detour for supporters of property rights: Make sure to drive past the NK Hurst Company, hit the horn, and flash the thumbs-up.

Libertarians have made the case all along that the you can be a Colts fan and be a defender of property rights. Fortunately, the legislative Committee passed the eminent domain reform bill out of their hands, and retroactively so as to protect the Hursts, and to help make it so.

Look for these trailers, then hit the horn!