Monday Newsbreak: 4/14

--One of the front page headlines in yesterday's Gainesville Sun was "Obama's 'bitter' voter comment may revive Clinton's chances". Oh, com'n, people! Barack Obama is an articulate gentleman who thinks on his feet and can speak his mind without prepared statements that have been designed to achieve the desired "buzz" effect among the audiences. So, from time to time, something will come out and it will be mercilessly distorted by Obama's opponents. In my opinion, though, it's a little late in the game for Hillary Clinton to be going at it this hard against the probable Democratic nominee. Who knows, maybe she's thinking that McCain might want her as HIS running mate---NOT! I don't see what's wrong with any of Obama's statements. Especially in comparison with those of his two current rivals.

--It's mid-April and temperatures are dipping at night into the thirties. Here in Florida! I welcome the unusually chilly winter and spring we've been enjoying, but I also feel a little concerned that many will choose to see this very short-term phenomenon as a repudiation of global warming as a real ongoing threat.

--As the Olympic Torch goes from one major world city to the next, it is followed by human rights protesters who are determined to spotlight the deplorable state of human rights in the People's Republic of China, which is hosting this years Summer Olympics. And those protesting are fully within their rights to do so, as long as they don't actually interfere with the Olympic ceremonies. The problem I have with all this is that China's human rights shortcomings have been common knowledge for years, and comparatively very little has been done to protest them. And now, when this great nation is hosting the Olympics, the Olympics themselves are being ostracized as some kind of collaboration with oppression. Politician and celebrities are under great pressure in the media to boycott the opening ceremony events. And there has also been a push to simply boycott participation in the Games themselves. But I remember President Jimmy Carter's decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. I felt back then that it was a bad decision and I still feel so. I believe that one of the best ways to liberalize and reform an oppressive society is to engage with it culturally and economically, not by ostracizing it. And it was exactly this sort of engagement that helped to bring down the Iron Curtain in East Europe in 1989 (remember West Germany's policy of Ostpolitik?).

--The annual University of Florida Orange and Blue football game was held here in Gainesville this past Saturday. So what? The football team was split into two squads who played each other. One side won, the other lost. Who cares? And yet this event was considered to be so important that ESPN actually hyped it on the air and actually presented play-by-play coverage. And what about all the other college teams? Why do the Gators merit this mania? I see this as a disturbing trend about UF football, where excessive hype, fan hysteria, and hero worship (of athletes and coach) have distorted the image of my hometown team into something that is, frankly, ugly to me.

--I am sad to report that the cable TV channel AZN, devoted to programming for Asian-Americans (and me as well) has left the air due to financial problems. I enjoyed their morning news broadcasts, especially the one in Chinese.