Interesting election results over the weekend. First, France elected a new president and Greece defeated the top two parties in power. Both of these results mean the rejection of austerity measures enacted since the economic downturn in Europe. The austerity measures demanded by Germany has been hugely unpopular in Europe. It has not help the budget deficits and the economy of Europe is doing worse than that of the U.S. In England, which is not part of the euro, a 20% across the board cut has made things worse so far. In this country, Obama may well lose the election because a lot of people think that his government spending is socialistic and is holding the country's economic recovery back. Well, I am no economist and people can believe what they want but the success of the bailout of GM, Chrysler and AIG, among others, make me glad that I am here and not in Europe!
The ouster of Richard Lugar by the Tea Party is another big loss in bipartianship. Lugar was one of those people who reached across the aisle to get things done. He was also a great foreign policy expert. With his departure and that of Olympia Snowe, extremism will be worse than ever in Congress.
The Knicks are eliminated today. Jeremy Lin did not play in the series as expected. Stephen A. Smith asked the other day: "Can't he give the team 15-20 minutes? Not that I am saying that he does not want to play?'' Of course the last statement means he is questioning whether Lin is not playing because he is afraid that a poor performance will hurt his value in free agency this summer. This is absurd. If Lin could have played, he would have. A bad performance will not hurt him. Everybody can play poorly against Miami, not to mention someone coming off knee surgery and has not played in 5 weeks. The truth is the Knicks should not want him to play even if he could. They were not going to win anyway. He will be the point guard next season now that Baron Davis is out for a whole year. Why rush him back and potentially ruin his career and the Knicks chances in the future? Brandon Roy came back too early and his career eventually ended and so was Portland's chances. Rest up, Jeremy. Hope you get a call to play on the squad that scrimmages with the U.S. Olympic team. Playing against Deron Williams, Chris Paul etc. will be a great experience and improve his play next season.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
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I've gotta think that the crisis in Europe is dragging the world economy down. Things seem to be looking better here, but maybe any positive news is magnified.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise that Lugar lost. Seems to me that Indiana is one of the more conservative states and seems to head more to the right recently. I don't know who the candidate on the democrat side who will go against Mourdock, but it'll be very hard to beat Mourdock.
I had read somewhere that Lin thought he'd be back for game 4, but when that didn't happen, I just figured he might come back for game 5. I agree with you, that if he is not fully recovered and if he's rusty, why even bother playing him?
As far as Stephen A. Smith goes, I can't stand that guy. Every time he shows up on my screen, I just turn it. I don't need to hear a guy scream into the screen and make stupid comments.
Do you think that Taiwan would invite Lin to tryout for their national team one of these days? I don't even know if there is a competitive Taiwanese team. I remember that they had baseball, but I don't remember them playing basketball in the olympics.
What do you think of Obama talking about gay marriage? I was surprised that he would do this. The GOP says he's doing it for votes, but I think some people will not vote for him because of this.
I think it may have been better to say that he was in favor for same sex unions, since I think the word "mariage" has a deeper meaning to the religious people. A good thing that he said is it's a state decision and not the federal government's decision.
I still don't get how gay marriage is illegal in California. Out of all the states that I would think it would be legal, it would be California.
What do you think will happen in France now that they've elected Hollande? It will be interesting to see what policies he will be able to enact since he won by such a narrow margin.
-LBOAYM
It will be Hollande vs Merkle for the economic strategy of Europe. I have no idea what will happen. But you are right, any crisis over there will drag us down as well.
ReplyDeleteI think after North Carolina resoundingly voted against gay marriage, Obama figured that he may as well write that state off. I don't think this will help him except get the base more energetic and get more money donation from the pro-gay right groups. I think the only state that this may hurt now is Virginia. So I think it is not a big deal either way.
In California the polls show gay marriage is slightly favored, just like the country as a whole. There are a lot of conservatives and independents outside of the big cities in California that are against gay marriage. When it comes to voting, the people who are against show up at the booth more than people who are for. This will change with the younger people becoming a larger part of the electorate. I predict the majority of the states will approve gay marriages in 10 years.
Lin is eligible to play for China and Taiwan. Before he got on the Knicks, Yao Ming was telling him that if no team picks him up, he can go play in the CBA and get on the Chinese national team. China has qualified for London. Taiwan will never qualify, so if Lin wants to play in the Olympics, he will have to choose China. I don't think he will do so this year. But if four years from now and he is not a star in the NBA but a solid player, China may pay him enough to play for them.
China's coach is Australian. He may try Guo Ailin at point guard even though Guo has fallen out of favor with the Chinese authority. If Guo, who plays sort of like Lin, can play well, then it is less likely that China will try to get Lin four years from now. They have a 7 footer Wang Zhelin, who had 19 points and 8 rebounds against the Americans in the U.S. vs the World game in Portland last month.(For 19 under plyers) He outscored the 2 American centers together even though he only played about 22 minutes. So in four years with Yi, Sun Yue still around, China will want a point guard to get them to the level of top European teams. So that is when Lin may be a hot item even if he is not a NBA star at that time. Of course, playing for China will haunt him when he runs for president in about 32 years or so!