Scotland voted to stay in the U.K.  That was not too surprising even though the polls were very close.  I don't think there is much animosity between England and Scotland for the separation to occur.  It is not as if the Scots were suffering under the British flag.  Having won concession for more self rule from Cameron, I think it was best not to split up.

The problem now for Cameron is to back up his promises.  There will be people in his own party who do not support the concessions.  But if he goes back on his words, then there will again be calls for separation.  But if the concessions are given, are we going see demands from Wales, Northern Ireland and even England to have more self rule from the U.K.?  I would think that Northern Ireland has less attachment to the U.K. than Scotland.  So having avoided one crisis, Cameron and future prime ministers may face more in the future.

Canada, Spain, China and Turkey all root for Scotland to vote against independence.  Quebec has had 2 referendums for breaking away and the last one lost by 2 % points.  So if Scotland had voted yes, the Quebec separatist movement would have pushed hard for a future vote again.  In Spain, if the vote is allowed, Catalonia will probably vote to leave Spain.  With the Scotland vote, the Catalonia momentum is stalled a bit.  But I think in the near future, Spain will have to allow the vote.  By not allowing the vote, the anger will grow.  Of course, China does not care about anger in Xinjiang and Tibet and no vote will be allowed.  Nor will Turkey allow a vote for Kurdistan independence, although if ISIS continues to grow, perhaps Turkey would like to have Kurdistan as a buffer zone between its border with Iraq and Syria.  So stay tune for more demands for independence in different areas of the world.

Obama said what he had to say last Wed.   But of course there are no real coalitions out there.  I have not heard anyone willing to put troops on the ground.  So if NATO countries are not sending troops nor are Arab countries, then it is impossible to destroy ISIS.  It will be a prolonged war of attrition.

Couple of years ago I considered Spain to be best sporting nation in the world.  They were the world champions in soccer, second best in basketball and had Rafael Nadal and many other great tennis players.  But since then, Spain has lost badly in the World Cup, lost in the quarter final in basketball as host country, and Rafael Nadal is injured and no longer number one.  So fortunes can come and go quickly.

U.S. wins world championship in basketball by destroying all competition.  This is a team without James, Durant, Paul, Howard, Anthony, Love, Griffin.  Any other country would not field a decent team without seven of their best players.  But the U.S. won easily.  It was felt that since the original Dream Team, the gap had closed significantly between international teams and the U.S.  But with this tournament it seems the gap had widened again.

Been on vacation then away for Labor Day weekend.  Finally caught up with all the work.  Have not been reading and watching the news carefully in these past couple of weeks.  But it is obvious the ISIS and Ukraine situations are getting worse.  There are no good solutions out there.  So I don't blame Obama for not coming up with any great plans.  But I think he has made a lot of mistake in at least public perceptions.  For example, going golfing after the conference about Foley's beheading.  Also having leaked that the administration have no plan yet against ISIS was politically inept.  When there are no good solutions, at least act and talk tough but offer no specifics that can come back to haunt you, such as Assad's use of chemical weapons as the red line.  Look, nobody wants to send troops to Iraq and Ukraine.  So none of the hawks have a legitimate idea either.  For now, continue air power and send weapons.

Nishikori vs Cilic?  Whoever made a bet on this daily double can plan for retirement.  Or he may be investigated for blackmailing Djokovic and Federer.

Can the Big Ten play any worse?

My last blog before going on vacation!  China wins chess Olympiad with India finishing third.  China becomes the first Asian country to win what is essentially the world team championship in chess.  It is also the first time two Asian countries medal in the same Olympiad.  This has to be very frustrating to Russia as it finishes fourth and has failed to win the championship for 4 straight times!  Russia in chess is like the U.S. in basketball.  Their number 5 player is better than most teams' number one.  Sure a Bobby Fisher can beat any Russian but in a team competition over 11 rounds of play, you would think they cannot lose.  In fact China did not send 3 of its top 5 players, including their number 1.  So Russia's number 5 is ranked higher than Wang Yue, who played first board for China in this championship.  India is also missing its top 2 players, including its former world champion!  So how did this happened?  I have no idea.  But with this result, you can bet there will be a surge in chess in China, India and maybe other places in Asia.

First night on the NBA schedule:  Houston at Lakers.  I did not know that the NBA wants to give Jeremy Lin a chance at revenge so fast!  Well, Lin vs Rockets is not the top story line here.  How about Kobe vs Dwight after they parted ways last season?  Or Kobe vs Harden since Kobe is upset that people are saying Harden is the best SG in the NBA. Looking forward to opening night on TNT!

Now that the Tigers have traded for Price and Soria, they just need couple more starting pitchers and couple more relievers and they can maybe catch the Royals!

Obama decides to use air power to stop the advancement of ISIS.  I am ambivalent about getting involved in Iraq again.  It seems we are just trading one dictator for another whenever we are involved in this area of the world.  ISIS appeared to be our worst nightmare.  A terrorist group that somehow got so powerful that it is operating in the open and destroying the Iraqi army that we have trained.  The major reason for this is that the current government refused to be inclusive of the Sunni minority which led to the rise of ISIS.  It is also so corrupted that the military is run by incompetent people and thus many of the soldiers refuse to fight for them.  So unless there is significant change at the top, I don't see how the U.S. can help them.  We sent in "advisers", just as Kennedy did in Vietnam.  But like Vietnam, if the people are not willing to fight for that government, we will end up in a quagmire.

So is Obama making a big mistake by using air strikes now when he did not do so in Syria?  I don't think so.  In the past few days before the air strikes, ISIS was advancing toward Kurdish territory.  This area has been an oasis in Iraq.  The Kurds were abused under Saddam Hussein.  They were hopeful that after the first Gulf war, Bush the First would have gone into Baghdad and got rid of Hussein and help establish Kurdistan.  That didn't happen but the U.S. did create a no fly zone to help the Kurds somewhat against Hussein.   Since the fall of Hussein, the Kurds have been trying to be loyal to the new government despite not getting anywhere politically.  They have also made peace with Turkey so that now I think Turkey would accept an independent Kurdistan at its border.  The area has been democratically run and westernized.  So I think we cannot let this oasis fall to ISIS.

The Kurds are willing to fight for their homeland, unlike many of the Iraqis under the Baghdad government.  They had to retreat due to the overpowering forces of ISIS.  But I believe with U.S. air power, the Kurds can turn back ISIS.  So here we have a democratic ally that needs our help.  It is essential that we give them help.  Criminals like easy targets.  Once they realize that they can't overrun Kurdish territory like they did in Mosul, ISIS will turn back toward other areas of Iraq.  We should allow Kurdistan to be declared an independent nation.  If it can survive and prosper, we may have a model for other countries in the area.

First a water pipe broke near UCLA spewing millions of gallons of water, breaking concrete roads, flooding parking lots and buildings, including the famous Pauley Pavilion.  Then underground gas lines exploded in Taiwan, destroying buildings and killing people.  Then the water supply in Toledo got contaminated with a toxin from algae, causing a run on bottled water and shutting down restaurants.  All of these may seem like isolated incidents but I am wondering if more of these things will increase in the future.

I am not sure what happened in Taiwan.  It maybe an accident from nearby petroleum companies.  The UCLA situation is obviously a sign of crumpling infrastructure.  The pipe that broke was over 90 years old.  It is estimated that the pace of repair and changing pipes in southern California is such that it will be 300 years before all the pipes will be repaired or changed.  So if the pace is not picked up greatly soon, I see a lot more pipes bursting.  And it is not pipes underground but bridges are not being maintained in this country also.   Remember the bridge that broke in Minnesota a few years back?  That bridge was fixed but I have not heard of a national effort to check and repair all the bridges.  There will be more collapsed bridges for sure.

The detection of toxins in Toledo actually worked well, giving warnings before anyone got sick.  But isn't algae always going to be growing in Lake Erie?  Are there any proactive plans to prevent contamination in the first place?  I think most of the time, the local government spent money on what the people can see, such a police, fire and schools.  Most people never think about what is under the ground or the electric grid until something happens.  So unless we demand that our infrastructure be upgraded, we are just waiting for the next disaster to happen.

Besides exposing our poor infrastructure, I am worried that what happened in the last few days also give terrorists ideas.  It seems to me that if they have a few smart scientists they can figure ways to cause explosions in gas pipes or contaminate our water supply.  So besides upgrading, we also would need to find ways to protect our infrastructures.

Meanwhile I am thinking what my late grandmother used to admonish me:  stock up on more rice and water!  I am also going to drive faster when on a bridge so that I will spent less time on it!

The downing of a Malaysian Airline plane over Ukraine will mean a cold relation between Russia and the U.S. for years to come.  I think it is obvious that Ukraine rebels fired the missile, mistaking the plane for an Ukrainian air force jet.  But the sophisticated weapon can only be supplied by Russia.  Putin will lie and try to cover this up but nobody from the western world will believe him.  The U.S. had announced tougher sanctions days before this and will tighten the grip on Russia more now.  More importantly, the Europeans, who had not been as tough on Russia because of their larger trades with Russia, is now much more outraged.  So I believe the Russian economy, which had been slowed lately, may well going into a recession.

While we can use Russian help in Syria, Iran and North Korea, they have not been much help anyway.  Putin will hang on power because of propaganda about Ukraine have increased nationalism in his favor.  But eventually the economic blows will make it hard for him to stay in power.  This may take a few years but we must be patient.  After all there is no military solution to this.

I see that Dick Cheney is calling Obama the worst president in history.  I will call out Cheney and others with the same view their credential as historians.  Are they such experts in our presidents that they know how good Fillmore. Pierce, and Garfield were?  I believe such claims have racist overtones.  There were 43 white president and they think that Obama is worse than all of them?  I don't think Obama is the best president ever but he is way better than George Bush for sure.

Let say Obama was elected before Bush.  Let say  during Obama administration 9/11 happens, the economy collapses, we invade Iraq and thus taking our eye off Afghanistan and allowing bin Laden to escape and the war causes a trillion dollars and thousands of American lives.   Let say during the Bush administration bin Laden is killed, the economy revives and the wars are over.  If all of the above are true, would any of these Obama haters call Bush the worst president in history?  I think we should ask Dick Cheney this question and see what lies he comes up with.

Due to too much time spent on monitoring the NBA free agent deals and watching the end of the World Cup, I have not looked into Hobby Lobby case carefully as promised.  So let me just make two quick points and see if there are specific questions out there.  It appears from what I read that there are other ways for woman to obtain contraceptives other than directly from employer health plan.  But again I don't see how corporations can be same as people.  Isn't a major reason an owner incorporates his business is to separate his personal liability from the liability of the business?  So for example, if a business is sued and loses, the owner is liable only for his investment in the business if it is incorporated.  So that same owner is claiming that the corporation is same as him now?   If a corporation is owned by someone whose religion forbids treatment by medical doctors, can it then refuse health coverage altogether?

Great news out of the NBA is that Jeremy Lin is coming to LA!  So now I can follow my favorite player all season!  Also it is great for him to get out of Houston where he is basically told to stand in the corner while James Harden run the offense.  I only wish that D'Antonio had not resigned so that he and Lin could have reunited.  D'Antonio's offense system work best with a point guard in charge and is best for Lin.  The new coach may very well let Kobe Bryant run the offense.  But at his age and coming off two major injuries, Bryant cannot carry a team anymore and I think he would welcome someone who can lighten the load for him.  Plus there is no guarantee that he and Nash will last the whole season.  Finally, the chance to learn from Nash will be of great value for Lin.  So I think this will work out much better for Lin than the last two seasons in Houston.

This is the last blog regarding the World Cup 2014 unless something extremely crazy happens.  At this point, any one of the final four winning the Cup would not be shocking.  I will still go with Brazil to win it all even though they won't have Neymar and Thiago Silva.  On paper Germany is now a slight favorite but I think this may actually be advantage to Brazil.  There is still great pressure but instead of being heavy favorite they are a slight underdog.  They may play with a chip on their shoulder instead of a heavy burden.  And teams like Colombia, Costa Rica and France have lost top players and have played well.  Given the depth of the Brazilian team, they should be able to weathered the losses better than those teams.  So I will go with Brazil but as I said before, all four remaining teams can win it all.

There seems to be a lot more parity in this World Cup with the CONCACAF and African teams doing better than expected.  But I don't agree with those who think that the U.S. are close to winning the cup.  The U.S. has the best goalie in the world and we always produce great goalies.  We have speed and athleticism.  But our skill level are nowhere near the top teams.  We lost in possession in every game and the discrepancy in possession and shots in the Belgium game only points to our lack of world class skills.  The gap will not be closed completely in 4 or even 8 years.  Only Bradley and Dempsey can start on most teams in the world.  We have 5 Germans on the team and except for Green, Germany have no interest in them.  So unless we get athletes like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant to play soccer and we get a grass root system like they have in European countries, we have a long way to go before we can win the cup.  Sure, we can beat one of final four team on a given day, but to win four knockout round against the best teams, we can't do it in the near future.

My prediction of Roger Federer winiing Wimbledon almost came true.  He played a great tournament but unfortunately father time wins again.  I think this is his last chance to win another major.  I expect that Nadal will pass him in major titles.  Is he the greatest ever?  Given that he has a losing record against Nadal, even though Nadal was rising as Federer started to decline, it is hard to say that Federer is better than Nadal.  But I think Federer is still the best all around player, being in the top 3 of all time on clay, grass and hard courts.  This is something I don't think any other player can claim.