Just some thoughts from this news junkie:

PRESIDENT ROMNEY ALREADY? With all due respect to anyone in the Presidential campaign catbird seat, it, to me, was amusing to learn presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, is already offering his post-inuaguration gifts to anyone who contributes at least $50,000 to his campaign. In next week's STAR TRIBUNE webcast, I'll opine about Romney possibly not paying attention to over-confidence in previous presidential campaigns. The most classic, in my opinion, was New York Goevernor Thomas E. Dewey's 1948 bid for the White House against incumbent President Harry Truman. I remember Mr. Dewey's over-confidence boiling over during the last few days of the campaign. I also remember The Chicago Tribune's infamous front page headline the morning after the election, in its earliest editions: DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN. Regardless of politics, it was fun to see the newly-elected President Truman holding up that newspaper with it's erroneous and presumptuous headline, smiling as broadly as anyone could, and justifiably so. Mr. Romney, although certain to be the Republican nominee, hands down, might still want to be a bit more humble regarding his presumptive win.

WILD WEATHER: Still snowing in Washington state's mountains and the Rockies; temperatures in the 80s for this year's Boston Marathon; and 11 inches of snow in northern Minnesota the past few days. Wild weather? You bet, but I recall attending an American Meteorological Society conference in Kansas City in the late 1960s, during my two-year tenure as President of our Southern Nevada Chapter of that body. That conference was profound, in my opinion, because the major message was the weather in the first half of the 20th century was actually ABNORMAL, i.e., mostlly placid. It was predicted the latter years of the 20th century and the first half of the 21st century would see giant meteorological mood swings. Their crystal balls were obviously crystal clear. Should Mother Nature take a Valium? It probably wouldn't help.

SCANDALS - The current allegations, if true, about some Secret Service and military personnel involved in hiring prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to President Obama's arrival there last week for a Latin American meeting, have been viewed by some as "boys will be boys". Indeed, boys WILL be boys, but in this instance, the possible compromise of top-secrets being discussed or disclosed during any illicit liaisons would make the "boys" analogy not add up. President Obama has reaffirmed his faith in the Secret Service and what they do, i.e., put their lives on the line every day they go to work, whether domestically or internationally. They're paid to take a bullet, if necessary. With the pressures they face on the job every day, they're certainly entitled to not bring the work home, but if some allegations or hypotheses about their alleged unprofessional judgement in Cartagena are true, they could have a very disturbing ripple effect for U.S. security.

Until next time, that's it from me in Geezer-land today! :) As always, I hope you'll take a look at my changed-weekly webcasts on www.startribune.com/video, and entitled A SENIOR MOMENT, whenever you have a chance or desrire to do so.