Japan's victory in the women's World Cup final was welcoming to everyone in the world other than U.S. fans. Given the bad year Japan has had, this should boost the country's spirit. This game was almost the reverse of the U.S.-Brazil game with the team that fell behind in overtime coming back with a dramatic late goal to tie and then win in pk. The U.S. team gave a good account of themselves and with a little better luck yesterday, would be 3 times champions.

Japan's victory I think support my theory about the rigid system in China will not produce teams that can compete as well as they are capable of. Sure, China almost won the Cup in 1999. But for the first 10 years of world competition for women, only the U.S., Norway, Sweden, Germany and China were good teams. With the sport institute system, China was able to jump ahead most countries that did not have much of women soccer history. This includes Japan. But while rest of the world have improved a great deal, (I think this U.S. team would have beaten the great U.S. teams of the 90's.), China is still stuck with the training and skills of the 90's. Think back to when the USSR and East Germany were dominating Olympic individual sports, they could not beat the top western European and South American teams. China has more talent than Japan. But with freedom to train and explore different styles, it is the Japanese who are the world champions today.

I felt sad when I heard the news of Yao Ming's retirement. I followed Yao's career with great interest because he is the first Chinese athletic star in a mainstream sport in the U.S. Even though he did not have much of a formal education, he had a great understanding of the world and was very funny during interviews. My favorite was when they interviewed him before the Bejing Olympics in the Chinese team's locker room. It was obvious that in order to advance into the second round the Chinese team had to beat Germany. Right before the Games, Chris Kaman, who has German blood from about 3 generations ago, joined the German team. Yao was asked if this frightened him. Yao, with a serious expression, said that he will personally take care of Kaman so there is nothing to worry about. Then turning to his teammates, he then asked: "Now would someone else take care of Dirk Nowitzki?" This cracked up the reporters and also his teammates. Well, maybe his teammates had a nervous laugh.

Yao's coming to America was taken by some as the beginning of the invasion of players from China. It didn't turn out that way as Yi Jilian and Sun Yue had not played well in the NBA. So the question is, can China ever catch up in the major sports. My answer is no, if they continue their methods of selecting and training elite athletes. By looking for youngsters with the "right" size, strength, speed and flexibility for various sports and then train them in a very strict manner, China will continue to produce world class athletes in sports like gymnastics and diving. But this method does not work for team sports where someone is defending against what you are doing and you must defend against what they are doing. China tends to try to match westerners in size in sports like soccer and basketball. The smaller players are overlooked and are not given the training. Since there is no AYSO and youth basketball leagues in most of China, unless you are big at a young age, you will be forgotten. I think if properly trained there would be players similar in size of say Allen Iverson and Diego Maradona who can be better than people on China's current soccer and basketball national teams. Sports like basketball and soccer also require individual imagination that cannot be taught at a sports institute that has rigid training methods. Playing in the playgrounds like Americans would actually be better. Yi, who has the height, quickness, jumping ability and shooting touch, should be much better in the NBA. He looks lost out there. I think if he had grown up in New York, LA or Detroit he would be a dominant player in the NBA.

Yao is owner of the Shanghai Sharks of the CBA. I hope that he will use his knowledge learned in the NBA to improve basketball in China. He also wants to go back to school and get a formal education. You think he maybe a popular pick in intramural basketball? After he gets his education, I hope he fulfills the prediction I made a few years ago on this blog: Yao becoming a great politician>

An independent commission of citizens in California recently redrew districts for the state assembly, state senate and House of Representatives. This commission was formed following a law passed by the voters to take away the power of forming political districts from politicians. This ensured that there is no gerrymandering in order to keep as many incumbents in "safe" districts as possible. I think this is a good progress to get more centrists and less extremists into political office. After redistricting was announced, the magazine The Economists analyzed the result and find that more districts are going to be competitive in the next election in California. For example, for the 53 Congressional districts, 9 are now deemed competitive compared to 4 before. This does not sound like much but it is a step in the right direction. This is an idea that should be followed by other states.

Another thing we should consider is to get rid of the electoral college. States like Wyoming and Alaska should not get 3 electoral votes. This does not fit the idea of one man one vote democracy. Also the American citizens of D.C. and Puerto Rico are shut out of the process. It is time to amend the Constitution and get rid of the electoral college.

Haven't had time to write lately. As a result I have missed talking about news such as the Republican debate, Weiner's weiner, and the Wal-mart case. If anyone have any interest in these and other old news, please write in.

Today Obama decided to open the oil reserve and flood the market with oil to bring down the prices. I don't understand this since the prices were already dropping and there is no shortage at this time. He is probably thinking that by lower the price of oil it would stimulate the economy indirectly by making the cost of doing business lower and keep more money in the pockets of consumers. It may also put a chill on futures traders who want to bid up the prices down the line as they maybe afraid Obama will do this again. But I don't like this move as the reserve should be used in emergencies only. I think this has only been done couple of times before. If we do this at $3.65 per gallon, what are we going to do when it goes over $4 next time? This seems like a desperate political move for the economy and I don't think will play well.

I also didn't like the troop withdrawal decision yesterday by Obama. I know withdrawal needs to be done as Obama had promised. But he should have listened to his military leaders who want to do it slower. With the cost of the war and the bad economy there is an urgency to leave Afghanistan. But as I have said before, I think we have an obligation to leave the country with a reasonable chance of surviving without the Taliban taking back over. I think Patreus's time line is better than Obama's. Many people on the Republican side who want quicker withdrawal are also the same people who advocated the invasion of Iraq. Of course we would have been able to get out of Afghanistan a lot quicker if we never went into Iraq in the first place. Now, I think we can get the rest of the soldiers out of Iraq quicker since I don't think we are doing anything there now anymore. Quicker out of Iraq, slower out of Afghanistan, that's what I advocate.

Last week Goodwn Liu took himself out of the nomination for an Appellate court position. This occurred after the Republicans filibuster his nomination. Of course they accuse him of being biased and unqualified. I am not familiar with all his writings and of course the Democrats say the opposite. But one thing is certain and that is both Kenneth Starr and John Yoo, two of the most well known conservative lawyers in the country, support Liu and think that he is well qualified. Certainly if Liu is an extremists like the Republicans claim, then Starr and Woo would not have supported him. Given that there have never been an Asian American Supreme court justice and only couple of Federal Appeals court Asian American judges active right now, I find this tactic by Republicans to be a travesty.

Last week the Democrats won a Congressional seat in upstate New York, in Republican territory. They attributed that to the Medicare plan by Paul Ryan. The Republicans attributed that to a third party candidate from the Tea party which siphoned votes from the Republican candidate. I think both of these contributed to the upset. But regardless I think you will see Republican candidates in close contests try to stay away from Ryan's plan while the Democrats will use it to their advantage. The Ryan plan was terrible but I think to cut into the deficits, social security and medicare have to be discussed. But it is obvious that people want to cut deficit but nobody likes to lose their entitlements. Politicians touch these entitlements at their peril. The Republicans are screaming unfair, saying that Democrats lied about the Ryan plan. But don't forget they lied more when they said that Obama's plan would have got rid of medicare and that there were death panels in his plan. What goes around comes around!

Last week Obama was criticized by Romney for throwing Israel under the bus by suggesting negotiation with the Palestinians begin with the 1967 boundary. Come on, I don't see anybody under a bus at this time! Netanyanhu then lectured Obama about the 1967 line being indefensible. It seems to me that Israel defended very well in 67 and again in 73. Since then the gap between the military strength of Israel and its neighbors have widened tremendously. There is never an issue of Israel defending itself against an army attack from the Arabs. No Arab army is going to invade Israel and be successful, no matter where the border is. The problem for Israel is going to be terrorist attacks and those can occur no matter where the border is. Netanyahu was playing to his audience back home by lecturing Obama which to me is arrogant given the U.S. is Israel's biggest supporter. I am also pessimistic that Israel and the Palestinians will ever make peace which have dragged the U.S. into a mess that we will never get out of. I am not sure that there is a strong enough partner for peace among the Palestinians right now but I think Israel will be getting more and more conservative in the future. I think liberal Jews are now less likely to immigrate to Israel from the U.S. and Europe. The people who want to move to Israel and live in the settlements are going to be hard liners. Israel has always been the democratic state in the Middle East that is a friend of the U.S. But I am afraid the demographics will be changing and with people like Netanyahu being elected, I don't see peace coming.

So the apocalypse did not come! It is incredible how many people actually believed what that crazy guy predicted. Many were actually intelligent people, supposedly. Now you can see why people can be brain-washed into believing anything. This is why you have people committing massive suicide for whatever they believe. It is why people can be convinced into being a suicide bomber. Now I do have to believe that a miracle has happened as the two comments that were missing from my post before the last one have reappeared! This obviously cannot be explained scientifically and thus maybe I have proven there is a God! Or else it is the work of Big Brother.

On DWTS tonight, I believe that Hines Ward did out dance Chelsea Kane and deserve the championship tomorrow. Even though they got the same scores I think Ward had more difficult routines. In particular in the free style, Mark Ballas lifted Kane several times. While that made Ballas look good, he IS the pro. Those lifts cut into the time that Kane is dancing herself. Ward, meanwhile did a great job of dancing and did his lifts well. And as I said before, I think Ward will get more audience votes so the tie score among the judges is all right for him.

A strange thing happened in the past few days. On Thursday I was trying to get on the blog and write more comments about the previous post. The whole thing was shut down for the day. When I checked back yesterday, I realized that comment #4, written by me, and comment #5, written by LBOAYM, were deleted. I waited another day and the comments are still gone. So I am writing a new post which are based on the last two comments with additional info that have come out the last couple of days. If this post do not get published, then I will have to think that maybe I am being watched by some Big Brother who doesn't not like my blog!

I wrote before that bin Laden's pictures were released by Obama to show the world that he had been converted to our side. He was shown lying on the couch in his pajamas and blanket, using a remote to channel surf. He does not do anything all day except play with his computer and plan war games. He was living a typical American male's life. His advantage is that he has many wives, tons of money and people who bring food and play things from the outside. The last couple of days revealed that they had bought him pornography! So now he is more American male than we realized even couple of days ago! It is also shown that he dies his hair which again is typical of middle aged males in this country! His followers should take note as their leader had clearly defected before he died.

The other story that I commented on was just beginning three days ago. I did not get the story of the Wall Street trader right. His name is Raj Rajaratnam. He was not arrested as I wrote but was already convicted. He is not Indian but of Sri Lanka descent. I thought the whole thing looked suspicious as most of the big time traders are white and yet only this South Asian guy is going to jail. I stand by this opinion because the prosecutor in the case is of Indian descent. It is typical that when prosecutors don't want to look prejudice to use people of the same race or ethnicity as the defender to prosecute the case. Think Chris Darden vs O.J. or the Jewish prosecutors and judge in the Rosenberg spy case. I know Sri Lankan is not the same as Indian but I am sure they have to go out of their way to find any South Asian to take this case. LBOAYM made a good point about Raj may look like a terrorist so it is a good target for the government. Well, I looked it up and Raj was known to be a donor to the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group against the government of Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tigers are considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. Hmm, again this looks suspicious. Now if they next prosecute a guy from Dearborn who supports the Detroit Tigers, then we will have seen a pattern for sure.

Recently I watched a documentary called "Inside Job" which detailed the collapse of the financial market that led to our current depression. I think it is a film everybody who is concerned about the financial future of this country should watch. Wall Street and the government will not want us to watch it because it shows who really control our country.

As I asked before, why nobody has gone to jail for what happened with subprime loans and derivatives that caused the financial meltdown? Somebody like Angelo Mazzillo, head of Countrywide, used subprime loans to inflate the profits of his company and then when he realized that the whole thing was going to collapsed, sold his stocks before they fell. Now if Martha Stewart can be jailed for getting inside information to sell her stocks in a company she does not own, how is that Mazzillo is not guilty? The film also showed how academics were paid by corporations or foreign government to tell how well the economic conditions of these entities were. For example one economics professor wrote that Iceland was in great shape in an article when he was a consultant for Iceland banks. This was just before Iceland collapsed. And he did not have to disclose his financial ties to Iceland. How is this different situation than a doctor who is paid by a pharmaceutical company have to reveal that relationship when he writes or talks about a drug from that company?

Worse than that above sample is companies like Standard and Poor who rates companies, governments etc. S & P recently wrote that they may have to downgrade the U.S. government in the future. Why should we listen to firms like that when they were paid by investment banks to tout how financially sound these banks are? Just right before Lehman Brothers collapsed, S&P had double AA ratings or them. Bottom line we can trust them. We also cannot trust people like Greenspan who refused to regulate the industry as the government should. If people like him didn't understand the dangers of derivatives, who can?

People on the right accuses Obama being a socialist. I always said that presidents have very little control of the economy and I think he is doing as well if not better than Reagan did after he took over the disaster from Carter. But if I fault Obama, it would be that he really did not change anything from Bush. Bernanke is still here as Fed chairman, Geithner is a protege of Hank Paulson and Larry Summers has been around presidents for many years. They are not socialists and they are not for increasing regulations on Wall Street. It is the same policies that have gone on since Regan deregulated. By the way, that led to the savings and loan debacle which we never learned from. Obama is not a socialist. He just does not have great ideas about economics. But then neither did any of the people I mentioned in this paragraph.

Couple blogs ago I complained about public unions. I stand by that. I will admit that after watching this film which just confirm what I had believed all along, I find the people in the financial sector more despicable than the union people. I can understand somebody making average money trying to get more, even if they buy off politicians to do that. What I don't understand is that people making millions already is trying to rip people off. How much is enough?

Well, Jack Bauer did it. I am convinced that it took someone like Bauer to finally kill bin Laden. His identity will only be known to Obama and a few others. I have doubts that Pakistan was let in on the operation until it is over or at least underway. With the likelihood that the Pakistani intelligence force having been infiltrated by terrorist groups, I would be shocked that if the U.S. had informed them of the operation being planned. I think it is just good PR for Obama to thank Pakistan for its help. This way it is a face saving thing for the Pakistani government as it always insisted that bin Laden was not in Pakistan. By giving them credit, Obama is hoping that they will give more cooperation in the future. Anyways, it is a great victory for the country and the fight against terrorism.

Having said that we can't let our guards down. Having been killed by the U.S., bin Laden is not only a hero but also now a martyr to the extremists. While bin Laden is the face of al Qaeda, there are many other who do the planning still at large. It is likely they will plan an attack in the near future for revenge and to show that they are still relevant. So I like Obama not gloating in his speech. It is a great victory but we the war is far from over.