After Ole Miss. got clobbered by Arkansas yesterday, I am thinking that if Alabama, which is in first place in the playoff poll, deserves to be there since they lost to Ole Miss.  Alabama can claim first because they beat Miss. State which was first before last week.  But Miss. State's claim to first place was mostly based on beating Auburn which has proven to be not so tough lately.  Is FSU the best team then since it is undefeated?  I don't know.   They have been doing the great escape every week.  But until someone can beat them, they deserve to be in the playoff for sure.  I am thinking they should just make it an 8 team playoff.  The champion of each of the big 5 conferences are in and then 3 wild cards are given, with no more than 3 teams from any conference.  The top 6 bowls would host the quarterfinals and semifinals.  There will still be controversies but if you win one of the big 5 conferences, you deserve to be in.  Otherwise there is no basis for complaint.

DWTS is very close.  So I won't make my final judgment until after seeing their last dances tomorrow.

I am amazed by the power of this blog.  Last week I commented that Lee Nguyen is an MVP candidate for the New England Revolution of MLS.  I also wondered why he has not been selected to the U.S. national team.  Immediately, Jurgen Klinnsmann called up Nguyen and played him toward the end of the game against Colombia.  Nguyen came close to scoring, only a great save by the Colombia goalie stopped him from putting the U.S. ahead.  I think Nguyen and his teammate Jermaine Jones will be a great midfield duo for the U.S.  Hopefully he will get a chance to prove that in the future.

In DWTS Tommy Chong has to go tomorrow.  Despite my sympathy for his advanced age, he is by far the worse dancer left and it would be a travesty if he makes the finals.

Ben Carson apparently is throwing his hat into the ring for president.  So we will have another black Republican candidate in 2016!  Carson is obviously a lot smarter than Herman Cain who ran in 2012.  For one thing he is a retired pediatric neurosurgeon.  But more importantly he is a  U. of Michigan alumnus.  Cain cannot match those credentials.  But like Cain, Carson's candidacy is bound to fail.  For one thing he considered himself an independent until recently even though he worked for Fox News.  He has not held any political office.  In the past he has come out against assault weapons and admitted that affirmative action had helped him.  Those things will be attacked by factions within the party.  It is easy for Republicans to embrace him to make them look more diverse.  It is another thing to embrace him to be their leader.  Carson is capable of doing a lot better than Herman Cain but he will not be the Republican nominee.

Whenever someone mentions about black neurosurgeons, only one other name is mentioned along with Ben Carson.  That is Keith Black.  Interestingly, Black is also a graduate of U. of Michigan Medical School.  He is head of the dept. at UCLA.   While Carson is a perfect example of affirmative action doing good, Keith Black is someone who shoots down the idea that minorities always need affirmative action.  Black made it into Michigan's prestigious 6 year undergraduate/medical school program.  This means he only took 6 years to get his BS and MD which most people take at least 8 years.  You cannot get in if your scores and maturity are not way up there coming out of high school.  So who knows?  Maybe if Carson makes a decent run, he can open the way for another neurosurgeon in politics in the future.

I have a complaint about Steve Nash.  Some people are mad that Nash, having declare himself out for the season, is shown on Instagram hitting a golf ball.  I know that hitting a golf ball is not anywhere the same as playing in an NBA game.  So I don't have problem with that.  But I am disappointed that while he has time to play golf, he has not been showing up at practice and games to support his teammates.  He is still being paid while not playing so at least he can do is contribute SOMETHING to the team.  Young guards like Jeremy Lin and Jordan Clarkson sure can use his teaching.  So how about trying to be the highest paid coach in the NBA for this season, Steve?

So as expected the Democrats got beat badly yesterday and the Republicans are going to take over the senate.  Given the mood of the country and the fact that the Democrats had to defend in so many red states in a midterm election, this result is probably inevitable.  But in a lot of close races, the Democratic candidate shied away from Obama completely.  I understand that Obama has low approval ratings.  But if the Republicans are making the election about Obama and you are running away from Obama, aren't you agreeing with the Republicans?  I believe that the best defense is offense.  I would have asked:  "Are you better or worse today than 2008 under the Bush administration?  Do you want to elect someone who will go back to the Bush policies that got us into recession and unpopular wars?''  Obama would have some impact to get out the minority vote.  All this may not have worked but by pushing Obama away, it only fed into the Republican message and made the Democratic candidates look weak.

So now what?  Nothing changes.  The Republicans are not going to agree among themselves what agendas to push forward.  They can waste their time trying to repeal Obamacare.   But Obama still has the veto.  Things like immigration reform, which Obama would sign if presented with a bill near what he wants, will not pass Congress even now because the Republicans won't be able to agree among themselves.  So we will continue to have a do nothing Congress and a lame duck president.  The only thing that this election may make a difference is if there is a Supreme Court opening in the next two years.  The Republican majority will make it more difficult for whomever Obama will nominate.

Praying for a speedy recovery for Mr. Hockey!

Last week I saw a video of Mark Zuckerberg conducting an interview at Tsinghua University of China entirely in Chinese.  That was quite impressive and unexpected.  The audience was surprised and delighted.  I give Zuckerberg a lot of credit and I think more businessmen going to China should learn the language.  It certainly create good will and by learning the language, one can better understand the culture and thinking of the people.  This would help immensely when negotiating and may help when the other side is speaking in Chinese to each other in say, the bathroom!

Having given Zuckerberg kudos for learning Chinese, I must say that  there is a double standard.  When my brother in law who is white goes to a Chinese store in LA and starts to speak in Cantonese with the clerks, immediately he is surrounded by Chinese women googoo and gaagaa over him.  They are surprised that he speaks fluent Cantonese.  Now I walk into a GAP store and speak fluent English and no woman ever comes up to me, all delighted.  Isn't this a double standard? 

The World Series was a good one this year.  But I must say the Giants and Royals are the two worst teams among the ones who were in the playoffs.  I understand the teams that are hot at the right time deserve to win.  But when every series in this playoffs was won by, I think, the inferior team, then there is something wrong with the game.  I means the Tigers killed the Royals during the season and the Dodgers killed the Giants.  OK, enough sour grapes.  I will salute the Giants who won for the third time in five years.  That is hard to do in this era.  And they did it without an extraordinary payroll.  Plus Madison Bumgarner won games 1, 5 and saved game 7 on two days rest.  That reminded me of Mickey Lolich winning games 2,5 and 7 in the 1968 Series.  So maybe we can go back to depend on a great starter more in the future instead of endless change of relief pitchers.