Dennis Hastert, the former Speaker of the House, is being indicted for covering the sexual abuse of a minor while he was a wrestling coach.  So if I get this straight:  Hastert was basically the prosecutor of impeaching the president, Bill Clinton, over the Lewwinsky sexual scandal.  During his stint as Speaker, he managed to ignore Mark Foley's sexual scandal with pages.  Hastert had replaced Newt Gringich, who while was going after Clinton, had an affair while his wife was extremely ill.  After Gingrich resigned, his designated replacement, Bob Livingston, also then resigned after it was discovered that he too had an affair. Of course, Hastert was supposed to be the clean one but now turns out he was worse than them all!

As predicted the Ducks and Rangers, the top team in each conference, failed to make the Stanley Cup finals.  The Lightning made it even though they should have been eliminated in the first round by the Red Wings.  Such is the luck of the NHL playoffs!

What has happened to the Tigers?  The only team the Angels seem to be able to beat is the Tigers!  When is Verlander going to show up?  And is the real Anabel Sanchez going to show up?

On this Memorial Day everybody says thanks to the veterans who served and sacrificed for us.  It is not unusual for people who pass soldiers at airports to stop and say thanks for serving.  Sometimes we even pick up a check for a military person at a restaurant.   But I am thinking that to really honor the sacrifices of the military, we need to be sure that in the future, they are deployed for the right causes.  Afghanistan yes, Iraq no for example.

Jeb Bush took several tries in answering the question of whether he would have gone to Iraq as his brother did.  That is a question that should have been anticipated.  Yet Bush took several tries before finally saying that he would not.  In one "answer", he actually said that to ask the question was disrespecting those who served.  I think sending them to Iraq under false pretenses was way more disrespectful.  Maybe Jeb has really learn the lesson.  But apparently Rubio and Walker have not.  They are advocating more military action in the Middle East now and maybe boots on the ground.  I think they also should be asked about Iraq.  On the Democratic side, Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq war so she should be asked the question as well.

Couple days ago a coalition of more than 60 Asian American groups filed a federal complaint against Harvard over its admission policies.  The groups claim that Harvard uses quotas to keep Asian Americans students population lower than expected based on SAT scores and grades.  I think this is an old story but it is interesting that white students have bought up more suits in the past comparing to Asian Americans even though in most schools it takes a higher SAT and grades for Asian Americans to get in than whites.

I think there is no doubt that qualified Asians are getting the short end of the stick with admissions at prestigious schools like Harvard.  The people who run these schools want to show that they are committed to diversity and thus will try to do anything to make their ethnic stats look palatable.  I don't have any problem with affirmative action based on socio-economic status.  But I bet a black kid from a rich family with the same score will have a better chance to get into Harvard than an Asian kid from a poor family. 

If there is discrimination against Asians, what is the effect of this discrimination?  Well, other than loss of pride of not getting into Harvard, not much.  The truth is getting into a prestigious school or not have little effect on a person's life.  Chances are if you were qualified for Harvard but didn't get in, you will end up at a good school.  And if you do well there, your futures is bright.  This is particularly true if you are in chemistry, physics, math or engineering.  There is no affirmative action at the graduate level.  You are either good at these fields or not.  So say if you end up at your "safety" school of Michigan or UCLA and graduate with a degree in engineering, you will command a good salary or can get into a big time grad school.  Maybe that is why individual Asians don't bring suits on their own.  Might as well concentrate in studying at the college you ended up with and become successful four years later!

Just last week I was talking to my brother in law about deflategate.   I said even though the report was kind of wishy washy,  I believe that New England did deflate the balls and that Tom Brady had to know about it.  After all, the person who would benefit from this would have to be Brady.  There was no reason for the Patriots employees to do this if Brady did not want it.  So I propose that Brady be suspended for 4 games.  Today it was announced that Brady will be suspended 4 games.  There were also draft choices lost and a million dollar fine.  But obviously the most important is Brady's suspension.  I thought 4 games would be a big punishment because with no experienced back up, I think that there will be a 2-3 games swing as a result of this.  So when Brady comes back they may have a difficult time making up the standings in the remaining 12 weeks.  They may not make the playoffs as a result of this.

Having handed out the punishment I am waiting to see if they change the ball situation. Why don't they have the same balls for both teams?  Tennis players don't get to use their own balls when they serve.  Pitchers don't have their own balls to throw.  So this can easily have been prevented if both teams use the same balls.

British prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party won an unexpected majority in the national election three days ago.  Polls for several months had pointed to a close election with neither the Conservatives nor chief opposition the Labor party getting a majority.  Even though I am no expert on British politics, I am going to make a couple of observations.

Cameron won election in 2010 after the world financial crisis made it impossible for the ruling Labor party to stay in power.  Since then the UK, as the U.S., have made a good recovery.  But like the U.S., the citizens of the UK are not convinced that the recovery is fast enough or permanent.  Social unrest and terrorist threats are actually worse in Britain than the U.S.  So given that Obama's ratings have been low and the Democrats had been shellacked in the last mid term election, it would not be surprising that the Conservatives maybe in trouble. 

Of course Republicans can attack Obamacare but then the British health system is way more socialistic than Obamacare and there is no call from Cameron and conservatives to get rid of it.  I think rather than comparing to the U.S., the British election should be compared to the recent Israeli election.  That election polls also pointed to a close race with Netanyahu probably losing.  Turns out Netanyahu won despite low ratings for his economic and general performance.  Netanyahu won because of scare tactics about his opposition will be dangerous for Israel's security.  Right or wrong, this proved to have worked.

Cameron warned about Labor's close ties with Scottish separatists and the European Union.  He arouse fear about immigration problems with Labor in charge and that the UK will lose its independence to the European Union if Labor wins.  Right or wrong, this tactic also worked.

Cameron is not a conservative extremist.  He will try to keep the Scottish in the UK.  And with Scotland having had a negative vote on independence last year, he can easily decline to have another referendum in the near future.  He has promised a vote on staying in the European Union by 2017 to placate the conservative voters.  I don't think he wants to bolt from the Union but if the UK does leave, it will be a blow to Europe and Britain itself.  Meanwhile, I don't think the relationship with the U.S. will change.  Like Thacher-Regan and Blair-Clinton, Cameron and Obama have a good working relationship and it won't change with this election result.  But maybe Obama should have learned from Cameron and Netanyahu and asked the electorate:  Do you want to go back to recession and war under the previous administration?

While lamenting Pacquiao's loss to Mayweather, I was thinking how he would have ranked among Asian male athletes in my life time.  I think if Pacquiao had won I would have ranked him number one.  Even with the loss, Pacquiao would still be in the top ten.  So I am going to put up my list of the top ten Asian male athletes during my life time up to this point.  I am only doing a male list because frankly, Asian females have done a lot better than males in international sports.  Just look at golf where the Asian females are dominating whereas males have just made some progress in being competitive.  The lone exception being Tiger Woods whom I am putting on the list even though most people consider him to be black.  The truth is that Tiger is 50% Asian so he qualifies to be on my list.

The same reasoning that I am doing only a male list means that I am not going to put up names of table tennis players, badminton players, gymnasts, figure skaters, divers, and short track skaters.  All of these sports have way too many great Asian male athletes so it is not unusual for an Asian male to succeed in these sports.  So that is why Apollo Anton Ono is not listed since there are many Koreans, Japanese and Chinese short track skaters who have done well.  So in no particular order (too difficult to rank from 1-10 since each sports are so different) here is the list:

Sadaharu Oh--all time home run hitter.  Question of whether he would have been a star in the MLB.  But he did well against American pitching in exhibition games and given that Japanese players have done well in MLB in recent years, I believe Oh would have had a Hall of Fame career in MLB.

Ichiro--He makes my point for Oh easy.  He is a certain Hall of Famer.

Yao Ming--A pioneer in the NBA for Chinese basketball player.  His career was cut short but he is a certain Hall of Famer.

Michael Chang--Won a grand slam and rose to as high as umber 2 in the world.  A Hall of Famer.

Tiger Woods--Nothing needs to be said.

Liu Xiang--Won Olympic gold in 110 hurdles.  First Asian to win in track and field sprints.  Also held world record in the event.

C.K. Yang--Silver in Olympic decathlon to Rafer Johnson.  He actually beat Johnson in 7 out of 10 events but lost because Johnson, with his powerful body, trounced Yang in the three throwing events.  Yang held the world record for the decathlon as well as the indoor pole vault world record.

Sun Yang--Won Olympic gold in 400, 1500 freestyle and silver in 200.  There have been Asian male swimmers who have done well in swimming but Sun's feat is incomparable.  It is almost like a record holder in the mile beats Michael Johnson in the 400 and finish a close second to Johnson in the 200.  Nobody has done that in swimming, Asian or not.

Jeremy Lin--Not quite the accomplishments of some of the others on the list since he is not even an all star in the NBA.  But he plays a position that is the most difficult and most athletic in his sport.  Also consider that China, which is the best in Asian basketball, has only produced big men to the NBA, I think it is safe to say that Lin has done something worth of being on this list.

Many Pacquiao--Despite the loss, he is a sure Hall of Famer and the second best pound for pound figher of his generation.

So this is my list.  I am sure there can be argument for inclusion and exclusion on this list.  So bring it on!  If I had to pick the number one I would pick Liu Xiang.  I know it is an event that takes less than 13 seconds to run.  But it is also an event that no Asian male or female had come close to be world class before Liu. Even Tiger has lost to Asian males in the PGA tour.  When he won in Athens, Liu famously said that he won not only for China but for the Asian race.  It maybe stereotype, but it is the truth for whatever reason.  So with the risk of offending all great Asian male athletes, I pick Liu Xiang as my all time great.