I want to hear some opinions on the new sitcom Fresh off the Boat.  Since this is only the second Asian American sitcom after Margaret Cho's show, I am hoping it would be a success.  It is extremely difficult for a show like this to succeed. On the one hand, if the characters are portrayed like "average Americans" then what would be special about the show?  But if too much racial undertone is used then "average American" may not watch.  And if too much stereotype is used, then it would not serve Asian Americans well.  So all this is a fine line to walk on.  Add to that, you have to be funny.  So this is a high mountain to climb.  I just wish the show the best of luck.

I actually did not watch the Super Bowl last week.  Don't ask!  After hearing people say that Pete Carroll called the worst play in history of the Super Bowl, I looked at the highlights.  I didn't think that was such a bad call.  I mean, there was about 30 seconds left and one timeout.  If they ran the ball and failed, they would have had to use the timeout.  Then if they ran it again and failed, they may not have time to run a third time without a no huddle.  Sure, the chances are they would have scored on two tries running from the one.  But there have been times when NFL teams fail on 2-3 times running from the one.  And the odds are overwhelming that they can pass for one yard as well.  I suspect the odds of an interception from the one is not higher than a fumble from the one.  If the pass is incomplete, the next two plays can be run without a no huddle regardless of what happen.  So I don't think it was a gamble at all for Carroll.  On the other hand, why no criticism for Belicheck for not calling timeout after the first run?  Maybe by not watching the game itself, I missed something but that is my opinion from the highlights.

The LA Times editorial recently called out three Asian American California state senators for backing out of their support for repealing prop 209 which banned affirmative action.  Supposedly the three liberal Democrats withdrew their support because they received "thousands" of complaints from Asian Americans fearing that the repeal will decrease Asian American enrollments at Berkeley and UCLA.  The Times said that the debate should be about whether diversity in universities is a benefit and not whether a particular group gain or lose acceptance letters.

First, I would agree that we should argue whether diversity is important enough to justify racial and "gender" bias.  By the way, if prop 209 is repealed, then gender affirmative action can also be used.  In that case, it would benefit males as they represent less that 45% of the enrollments at Berkeley and UCLA.  I would like to see what liberal female groups think about that!  But by singling out selfish desires of Asian Americans, the Times is being dishonest.  I am sure that Latino and Black groups who want affirmative action are not doing so because of diversity but because they want increase in enrollment of their own group.  If these groups and liberal whites believe diversity is that important then they should have complained about black colleges and women colleges.  Would they come out and say the students in these colleges receive an inferior education due to lack of diversity?  Anyway, I would submit that Berkeley and UCLA is more diverse as it is compared to most elite colleges.  Its white enrollment is less than 40%  compare to some famous liberal art colleges that are 70% plus white.  Asian Americans ARE a diverse group.  There are big difference between East Asians, South Asians, South East Asians, Pacific Islanders etc.  They are also diverse in socio-economic status, immigration history and religious preferences.  They are also diverse in conservative and liberal ideology.  I would argue that a political science student at UCLA would have a more diverse experience than someone at Howard or Amherst.

I do believe that the playing field is not level.  Kids who go to private schools and have SAT tutoring have big advantage over poor kids.  So to me using affirmative action due to socio-economic status is fair.  A kid who came from a poor family and went to a bad school, regardless of race, should be given extra points against my kids when applying to college.  But Obama's kids should not have an advantage against my kids just because their parents are black.  I am sure the president would agree with that.

An aside, MSU and Michigan put up good fights.   The Big Ten could have easily gotten 3 of the final 4 spots.

Yes, I am an Asian American. However, the things I will be writing about on this web site will rarely be about Asians. Sometimes I won’t even be angry. Most of you who happen to come across this site will agree with some of my opinions but will also disagree with some of my other opinions. If you are an extreme liberal or an extreme conservative you probably won’t like what you read here. I think it is people like you who cause so many of the problems in this country. You are so close minded that you agree with liberal Democrats or conservative Republican views on an issue when it is obviously wrong. Unfortunately, it is people like you who dominate the two major political parties. As a result people who are not of either extreme find it difficult to vote for anybody they really like for political office. We are usually voting for the less of two evils. Frankly, I wish the moderates in both the Republican and Democratic parties would come together and form an independent-minded party.

Notice I said an independent-minded and not a centrist party. I don’t believe that we should be middle of the road on every issue. In my future writings, you’ll notice that I may sound extremely liberal or extremely conservative on a particular subject. I believe that sometimes the liberals are right, sometimes the conservatives are right and other times a compromise is in order. In a way this makes an independent-minded party difficult to form as reasonable people may have extremely different opinions about a particular issue. It is also one of the reasons that the extremists on either side are so powerful. We must try to overcome this recognizing that having an independent thinker in office is much better than having an ideologue. For example, I disagree with many of Sandra Day O’Connor’s Supreme Court opinions but I much rather that she stays on the Court instead of Ginsburg or Thomas. With O’Connor you won’t know how she will vote but with most of the other members of the Supreme Court you can figure it out way ahead of time.

In a few days I will write my first article. Yes, I am quite busy and I write very slowly. If you like what I write, just check in once a week or so. You wouldn’t have missed much.