On June 10, 2008 on this blog I wrote about entertainers who may end up being politicians. Well, I turned out the tv today and saw John McCain picked Tina Fey, one of my 10 choices, to be his running mate. Turned out she was not Tina Fey but Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska. I must admit I don't know anything about her. The only thing I know is that she is less experienced and younger than Obama so I don't know how McCain can claim that Obama is not ready to be president and then name a running mate who is even less ready. I saw a Republican on tv tried to turn the question around by saying Obama is inexperienced so Democrats can't challenge Palin's inexperience. That is perverse logic because it was McCain who claimed Obama is not ready first, so he is the one who has to answer to this experience business.
Anyway, I don't think the vp choice is going to make a big difference. Geraldine Ferraro didn't help Mondale at all with women voters. The inexperience bit won't make a difference either. Dan Quayle was as inexperience and incompetent as there was in a vp and he didn't cost George Bush the election. I just don't see how an extreme conservative is going to help McCain with the independent voters.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Well, my man Joe Biden got the vp nomination. I did not think Obama would pick him even though he was the most qualified candidate for president in my opinion. He had not generated much electricity in his presidential campaign. He does have a lot of experience, especially in foreign relations, so will be a help to Obama. It also forces McCain to go with someone of experience so that Pawlenty from Minnesota is less likely to be picked. I think McCain will go with Romney even though they don't like each other. Romney may help McCain win Mich. as it is a close call right now. McCain would win Utah anyway and Mass. will go to Obama even if Romney is selected. Biden may help Obama clinch Pennsylvania. Delaware was Democrat's anyway.
I was in Springfield by chance on Sat. so we went to the Obama announcement. It was not organized well. There was no water sold and no porta-johns. Everyone was getting dehydrated. You would think that since Obama has drawn large crowds everywhere he has gone, they would have at least water available. Most of the crowd was white with less than 20% black and almost no Latinos or Asians. That seemed strange to me unless the demographic of Illinois is a lot different than I expected. I would think that a lot of blacks would have come down from Chicago. But the crowd was very enthusiastic given the energy sapping weather.
I missed the convention today and did not see Biden talk. Yesterday I saw Clinton and thought she was great. She and Bill are the ultimate politicians and they know that to preserve their legacies they had to come out strong for Obama. If Obama loses, Hillary will be the front runner in 2012 again. Even if Obama wins and goes 8 years, Hillary still can run then because Biden will be 73 by then and unlikely be able to run and win. Her great speech Tue. is going help her in the future.
I was in Springfield by chance on Sat. so we went to the Obama announcement. It was not organized well. There was no water sold and no porta-johns. Everyone was getting dehydrated. You would think that since Obama has drawn large crowds everywhere he has gone, they would have at least water available. Most of the crowd was white with less than 20% black and almost no Latinos or Asians. That seemed strange to me unless the demographic of Illinois is a lot different than I expected. I would think that a lot of blacks would have come down from Chicago. But the crowd was very enthusiastic given the energy sapping weather.
I missed the convention today and did not see Biden talk. Yesterday I saw Clinton and thought she was great. She and Bill are the ultimate politicians and they know that to preserve their legacies they had to come out strong for Obama. If Obama loses, Hillary will be the front runner in 2012 again. Even if Obama wins and goes 8 years, Hillary still can run then because Biden will be 73 by then and unlikely be able to run and win. Her great speech Tue. is going help her in the future.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Did China cheated by using underage female gymnasts? I think the answer is a definite "yes". Some of those girls look a lot younger than 16. China has changed the age of athlete frequently in the past. But usually it is to decrease the age of men basketball players so they can play in junior world championships. International governing bodies tend to look the other way so as to not offend China and not spend a lot resources policing something that is difficult to police. Of course nobody cares about the junior world championship of basketball because the U.S. doesn't care about it. But the U.S. cares about Olympic gymnastics and so the IOC is under pressure to investigate. The thing is some of the rules of sports that have been put in is a way for western nations to cheat in the first place. More on that later.
This rule about 16 years old being the minimal was put in supposedly for 2 reasons. The first is that younger bodies tend to get injured more. This is nonsense. If competing at 14 leads to more injury, then why do they still have national and world junior championships? They are doing the same exercise in the juniors as they do at the Olympics. Wouldn't the younger girl get injured at the junior competition the same way as in the seniors? Usually the older you get the greater chance for injury. But they don't have an upper age limit, do they?
The second argument for the rule is that younger girls have an advantage because they are more flexible and have less fear. Again this is a stupid argument. Wouldn't an older girl have more strength to compensate for the difference in flexibility? And in what other sport is it a psychological advantage to have less experience. Sure an older person may not jump off a roof because of fear but if you are a world class gymnast why would you have more fear about your exercises the longer you have practiced it?
Is there anyone who would argue that Shawn Johnson was a better gymnast when she was 14 than she is now? If you answer yes, then why don't we just crown the junior national champion the national champion. Same with the junior world champion. It is a nonsense arguement that the younger girls won because they are younger. Shawn Johnson today would beat Shawn Johnson at 14. Same with Nastia Liukin.
The real reason this rule and the rule for women figure skating is that the western countries know that Asians tend to reach full maturity at a younger age. That is why Asians dominate the Little League World Series but not in the major leagues. The figure skating rule was put in place after the Asian girls started arriving on the scene. It prevented the Japanese champion from competing in the last winter Olympics.
As mentioned above there are more rules that are aimed at decreasing the success of Asians. Table tennis still awards 4 gold medals but instead of men and women doubles as in the past, there are instead men and women teams competition. China can possibly sweep the doubles but in team competiton it can only send one male and one female team. In weight lifting each country is now only allowed 4 competitors for each sex. In the women competition all four Chinese women won gold. But at home they have world champions who can win in the other weight class but can't come due to the 4 competitors rule. The men won 3 gold and 1 silver and certainly could have won couple more medals. This rule was never considered when the Europeans dominated the sport. Would they ever tell the U.S. that it can only enter in say 6 swimming events?
When India and Pakistan dominated field hockey, the Europeans and Australia got together and changed the playing surface to artificial turf, knowing full well that India and Pakistan did not have artificial turf. The rules for citizenships are liberal because they know that few people would go from Europe and North America to compete for an African or Asian country. That's why Chris Kaman can play for Germany, Bernad Lagat can run for the U.S. even though he had run for Kenya in the past. And how about the former athletes from Jamaica and the Bahamas participating under the British flag. One of the nice story from gymnastic was this 33 year old woman representing Germany who won a silver in the vault. She had represented the USSR a couple of times before. Shouldn't we have a maximum age limit or a change of country rule that would have prevented her from winning that silver? I bet if Kobe Bryant gets a Chinese passport and plays for China, the rule for changing countries would be changed immediately.
So yes, China cheats. But the western nations cheat by changing the rules to their advantage. They can do it because of money and they run most of the different sports organizations.
This rule about 16 years old being the minimal was put in supposedly for 2 reasons. The first is that younger bodies tend to get injured more. This is nonsense. If competing at 14 leads to more injury, then why do they still have national and world junior championships? They are doing the same exercise in the juniors as they do at the Olympics. Wouldn't the younger girl get injured at the junior competition the same way as in the seniors? Usually the older you get the greater chance for injury. But they don't have an upper age limit, do they?
The second argument for the rule is that younger girls have an advantage because they are more flexible and have less fear. Again this is a stupid argument. Wouldn't an older girl have more strength to compensate for the difference in flexibility? And in what other sport is it a psychological advantage to have less experience. Sure an older person may not jump off a roof because of fear but if you are a world class gymnast why would you have more fear about your exercises the longer you have practiced it?
Is there anyone who would argue that Shawn Johnson was a better gymnast when she was 14 than she is now? If you answer yes, then why don't we just crown the junior national champion the national champion. Same with the junior world champion. It is a nonsense arguement that the younger girls won because they are younger. Shawn Johnson today would beat Shawn Johnson at 14. Same with Nastia Liukin.
The real reason this rule and the rule for women figure skating is that the western countries know that Asians tend to reach full maturity at a younger age. That is why Asians dominate the Little League World Series but not in the major leagues. The figure skating rule was put in place after the Asian girls started arriving on the scene. It prevented the Japanese champion from competing in the last winter Olympics.
As mentioned above there are more rules that are aimed at decreasing the success of Asians. Table tennis still awards 4 gold medals but instead of men and women doubles as in the past, there are instead men and women teams competition. China can possibly sweep the doubles but in team competiton it can only send one male and one female team. In weight lifting each country is now only allowed 4 competitors for each sex. In the women competition all four Chinese women won gold. But at home they have world champions who can win in the other weight class but can't come due to the 4 competitors rule. The men won 3 gold and 1 silver and certainly could have won couple more medals. This rule was never considered when the Europeans dominated the sport. Would they ever tell the U.S. that it can only enter in say 6 swimming events?
When India and Pakistan dominated field hockey, the Europeans and Australia got together and changed the playing surface to artificial turf, knowing full well that India and Pakistan did not have artificial turf. The rules for citizenships are liberal because they know that few people would go from Europe and North America to compete for an African or Asian country. That's why Chris Kaman can play for Germany, Bernad Lagat can run for the U.S. even though he had run for Kenya in the past. And how about the former athletes from Jamaica and the Bahamas participating under the British flag. One of the nice story from gymnastic was this 33 year old woman representing Germany who won a silver in the vault. She had represented the USSR a couple of times before. Shouldn't we have a maximum age limit or a change of country rule that would have prevented her from winning that silver? I bet if Kobe Bryant gets a Chinese passport and plays for China, the rule for changing countries would be changed immediately.
So yes, China cheats. But the western nations cheat by changing the rules to their advantage. They can do it because of money and they run most of the different sports organizations.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Russia and Georgia are now at war. It is a sticky situation for the U.S. because Georgia has 2,ooo troops in Iraq and the U.S. has troops in Georgia training its army. The U.S. certainly do not want to get into a fight with the Russians. So we can only call for peace. But who will listen?
The problem is that the the Russians are supporting the South Ossetians, a minority group that wants to break away from Georgia. The Russians are upset at Georgia, a republic that broke away from the USSR, because of its leanings to the west. Georgia has applied to join NATO. The Russians don't want the U.S. have more influence in the region. The U.S. argues for the integrity of the Georgian territory. But the problem is that the U.S. supported the breakaway of Kosovo from Russian-backed Serbia last year. The Russians said at that time that we will see other minority groups breakaway from countries and cause all sort of chaos. I would not be surprised if the Russians encouraged the South Ossetians to prove their point. They do have a point, however. The majority of Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. I had said that to allow them to breakaway from Serbia would be like allowing California to breakaway from the U.S. someday when ethnic Mexicans are the majority of our state. Well, how do the U.S. argue not allowing the South Ossetians breakaway from Georgia? Georgia, afterall, left the USSR.
The only hope is that the Russians won't get involve too deeply. I don't think they want an Afghanistan or a Chechynia in Georgia. It would be a quagmire like Iraq is for the U.S. I hope they learned that to conquer and hold a mountainous country with people who hate you is a difficult task.
The problem is that the the Russians are supporting the South Ossetians, a minority group that wants to break away from Georgia. The Russians are upset at Georgia, a republic that broke away from the USSR, because of its leanings to the west. Georgia has applied to join NATO. The Russians don't want the U.S. have more influence in the region. The U.S. argues for the integrity of the Georgian territory. But the problem is that the U.S. supported the breakaway of Kosovo from Russian-backed Serbia last year. The Russians said at that time that we will see other minority groups breakaway from countries and cause all sort of chaos. I would not be surprised if the Russians encouraged the South Ossetians to prove their point. They do have a point, however. The majority of Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. I had said that to allow them to breakaway from Serbia would be like allowing California to breakaway from the U.S. someday when ethnic Mexicans are the majority of our state. Well, how do the U.S. argue not allowing the South Ossetians breakaway from Georgia? Georgia, afterall, left the USSR.
The only hope is that the Russians won't get involve too deeply. I don't think they want an Afghanistan or a Chechynia in Georgia. It would be a quagmire like Iraq is for the U.S. I hope they learned that to conquer and hold a mountainous country with people who hate you is a difficult task.
Monday, August 04, 2008
The FBI is claiming that they have solved the anthrax case from 2001 with the apparent suicide of Bruce Ivins. Somehow I don't think this is the whole truth of the story. I am waiting to see the evidence that the FBI promise will be coming. Given the history of various foul-up investigation such as the Atlanta Olympic bombing and the payment to the first suspect of this case, Stephen Hatfill, unless the evidence is overwhelming, it would be difficult for most people to believe that Ivins is the only criminal here.
The events leading to Ivin's suicide produce more questions than answers. Today in the LA Times Jean Carol Dulcey, a psychotherapist, claimed that during a group session Ivins said that he bought a bulletproof vest and gun and was set to kill many people. Dulcey contacted the police and Ivins was admitted to a mental hospital. A few days later he was released. How does someone who said that he bought a gun to kill people and is under investigation by the FBI for multiple murders be released from a mental hospital? Not only that, the FBI then told Ivins that soon he will be indicted for the antrax case. I think if I know someone who is threatening to kill people and I have evidence that he had killed people with biological weapons, I would not tell him ahead of time that I am going to arrest him, giving him time to kill himself and/or others. It almost seems like that the FBI want Ivins to have a chance to commit suicide. Afterall, it is much more difficult for a dead man to defend himself.
The events leading to Ivin's suicide produce more questions than answers. Today in the LA Times Jean Carol Dulcey, a psychotherapist, claimed that during a group session Ivins said that he bought a bulletproof vest and gun and was set to kill many people. Dulcey contacted the police and Ivins was admitted to a mental hospital. A few days later he was released. How does someone who said that he bought a gun to kill people and is under investigation by the FBI for multiple murders be released from a mental hospital? Not only that, the FBI then told Ivins that soon he will be indicted for the antrax case. I think if I know someone who is threatening to kill people and I have evidence that he had killed people with biological weapons, I would not tell him ahead of time that I am going to arrest him, giving him time to kill himself and/or others. It almost seems like that the FBI want Ivins to have a chance to commit suicide. Afterall, it is much more difficult for a dead man to defend himself.