I read an article in LA Times recently about a fight in the Chinese community in Southern California over the use of traditional vs simplied scripts in Chinese language schools and in public schools in the area that offer Chinese courses. Traditional script is how Chinese have been written over thousands of years. It is distinguished by a series of complex strokes that makes for beautiful calligraphy. It is still the official writing in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The simplified version was introduced by the communists in China about 50 years ago to make it easier for the rural mass to become literate quicker. It is supposed to be easier for a child to learn than the complex traditional version.

In the past the Chinese America community was dominated by immigrants from Hong Kong and southern China. Then the Taiwanese came. Since all of these groups use the traditional version there was no controversy. Now there is a big influx of mainlanders who grew up using the simplified version. Obviously they want their children to learn the simplified version. So now school officials are caught in the middle. It is really too bad because it tears the Chinese American community apart over something as beautiful as Chinese writing.

My own feeling is that I want the traditional writings to survive. I am biased because I learned the traditional version. I also feel that the tradition is more beautiful. It has more, pardon the pun, character. I doubt that the simplified version is that much easier to learn. If you want easy, use alphabet! But I am also realistic, with the overwhelming population of China and its increasing influence in the world of commerce, the simplified version will eventually prevail. Just like Cantonese will give away to Mandarin in Chinatowns here and eventually even in Hong Kong, traditional scripts will lose out. It is too bad but it is reality.

Everybody had been waiting breathlessly to see which way Snowe would fall. Would Snowe have ice in her veins? Can she weather the storm of attack from her Republican party? Would she flake out from the middle ground? In other words will the Baucus bill have a Snowe ball's chance in hell of getting a Republican vote? Well after watering the bill extensively, particularly getting rid of the public option in order to woo Republicans, the Baucus bill passed out of committee 14-9. Of course without all that compromise, it would have only passed 13-10. It is nice to claim bipartisan support but it is hardly a great victory for the Democrats.

On a different note, the insurance industry is now against healthcare reform saying it will increase premiums $4000 on average over the next ten years. I think any intelligent person would consider the source of this "research". I can tell you my insurance has gone up over 60% in the last 3 years without reform and in 10 years at this pace my premium will increase way more than $4000. If a proposal is too confusing to me I usually just look at who is endorsing or against it. For example if the tobacco companies are for something, it is probably not going to be good for your health. The insurance industry is looking out for my premium? Come on! People should now root for reform more than ever.

I don't lik Rush Limbaugh. But all the reaction out there against him trying to buy part of the Rams? I think this just plays into his hand. He was not serious about buying in. He knew that the NFL would not let him in. But by trying to buy in it caused an uproar from the players, owners and people like Sharpton. Now he can go on his show and claim that he was discriminated against and get his base rile up again. The NFL owners are not exactly a group of good people. I mean why do they still allow a franchise in our capital to be called the Redskins? They all looked the other way as steroids and other drugs were used all over the league. Criminal records of some of the players are astounding. It is like the kettle calling the pot black when it comes to their complaint about Limbaugh. My question is: Who are the morons who invited Limbaugh into the partnership? Are they trying to sabotage their own candidacy to help Limbaugh get publicity?

The scientists who won the Nobel prize did their breakthrough works about 30 years ago. They are finally being rewarded now. Obama has been president for 9 months and he wins his prize already? He is greater symbol for peace than Gandhi, who had never won the Nobel? Well, I suppose he is able to bring enemies together. Both the Taliban and Rush Limbaugh believe that Obama is worse than Hitler. Both Israelis and Palestinians think that with the award, he will be tougher on them. Both the extreme right and the extreme left don't think he has not done enough. But other than bringing these mortal enemies together against him winning the award, I don't see how he should have even been nominated. At this pace if the world comes out of recession next year, he will win the Nobel prize--for economics.

The question I have now is will this affect his decision about Afghanistan? He is taking a lot of time to make the decision. In the past he has said that Afghanistan is different than Iraq and that we need to win there. I agree with that and hold him to that. As I have said before, I agree with the generals who recommend that we add troops to Afghanistan. The fact that we got side-tracked by Bush in Iraq and that the job is much more difficult today does not change my believe that we have to defeat al qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Maybe Obama does not need to authorize all 40,000 troops McCrystal asked for, but he should not hesitate to increase the manpower as soon as possible. I hope winning the peace prize does not affect his judgment in this.

One more thing about the Nobel. The winners in each catergory split 1.4 millon. Since there is usually 3 winners, each get less than 500,000. Not bad but not exactly anywhere near the bonuses the Wall Street types get. Without scientific innovations, businesses have nothing new to sell. In the long run we must increase funding to the scientific fields so that the brightest people continue to go into sciences and we get scientists from other countries who want to come here to do research. Inventing the next computer chip or medicine is much more important than creating the next hedge fund.