Friday, October 9, 2009

President Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize


Alright, let me be clear (up front), I am not a Obama hater. Actually, I try my best to use my roots (as a Hong-Kong-born-American) to stay as neutral as possible.

However, I do not understand at all why President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. Can some one tell me what he's done to deserve this prize? I would not say that he has done nothing because I can say that he IS trying to smooth over the relationships with other countries in the world. He IS trying to bring more unity to the world and lessen the harsh feelings that some countries might have towards the US. However, I don't think it is Nobel Peace Prize worthy. He was, in fact, nominated for the prize after being in office 12 days. Did I miss something? Please tell me if he did something amazing that missed in January of 2009.

Is the committee for Nobel Prize giving him this prize for the promises that he made? That would be a real stretch. Who remembers the last politician that kept all of his/her promises. My dad always says that there are 3 types of people you should never blindly trusts: (1) Media, (2) Lawyers, and (3) Politicians. (Maybe I should car salesmen also - but everyone should know that one already). Or is the committee giving him the prize based on his powerful position? Either way, I don't agree with the face that he received such an honor (as he has not devoted his life to world peace, which I think some other nominees are more deserving).

Alright, so, what do you think? can you help me out this time?
Picture of President Obama is from Yahoo!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Tariff or No Tariff

Some of you might have heard that President Obama has imposed a 35% tariff on tires imported from China. So, I really don't understand that. Aren't we all for "free-trade" nowadays. Tariffs are so 80s. Anyways, my point is how can the president impose such ridiculous tariff without consulting the WTO at all. Really, the US is really not in the position to do that. Again, it's not the 70s or the 80s, where the US can say "jump" and the entire world jumps. I hope that our government aren't going to charge a tariff on the clothes, shoes, food, computers, or TVs, because to make up their 35%, they will just increase the prices. It's that easy, right? By the way, 35% is not a small number.

Also, why are we playing with fire. We import so much from China. And the Chinese are buying all our National deficit and our debt. If we go into a trade war with China, we (people living in the US) will be the ones that get hurt. See this article at yahoo! http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/333181/Obama-Playing-with-Fire-U.S.-Will-Lose-Trade-War-with-China-Pento-Says?tickers=tlt,tbt,fxi,spy,udn,uup.

If the Chinese starts dumping their investments in America, we are literally screwed!! COME ON!, Obama, you have gone from "you were so convincing that I almost voted for you" to "let me see what you are going to do to hurt the majority of US citizen next". This is unbelievable. I don't even want to start about the health care reform!!

So, again, I really don't understand what's going on with our foreign policies. Please help me understand!!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Tattoos

So, let keep things a little lighter. Tattoos always seems weird to me.

They were never that popular in Hong Kong. And if anything, my parents, friends, schools, and even TV/Hong Kong movie always taught us that tattoos are bad and usually only worn by bad people or gangsters. Not only are tattoos very common in America, they have some cool connotations too. Tell me if I am wrong, but a lot of people thinks that tattoos can potentially make you tougher, or sexier (which I think personally, some of them when placed at the right places, really can have these effects). HAHA.

However, what gets me is the Chinese/Japanese character tattoos. How would you like to put words you don't understand on your skin that is pretty permanent? Hmmm. I have seen some funny ones (e.g., "strong" turning out to be "getting schooled"), and others that I probably shouldn't repeat here on the blog. Here is just an example.

What if your intention was to put a tattoo about you first boy?! And what you get was "sex". Hmm. So peeps, what's so fascinating about Chinese/Japanese charaters on your arms, or back, or other secret places!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Cash for Clunkers

So, there are recently a lot of articles about cash for clunkers, where the government is giving out up to $4,500 for a car that is bearly drivable. The first $1,000,000,000 budget for this program is almost used up. Now Congress is asking for another $2 billion to extend the program to Labor Day. The pull as I have heard is (1) to get the low MPG cars off the road, and (2) to jump start the auto industry by increasing their sales.

But the way I see it (personally), is that indirectly I am giving money ($4,500) to some "lucky winner" to buy a brand new car!! Don't get me wrong, I am a very "green" person and am definitely in agreement with getting some of these fuel inefficient cars off the road. But at $4,500 a pop?! out of the governments pockets (which may I remind you, is already in deep hole)?!!! The $1 billion only benefited about 250,000 individuals or families who purchased the cars. The $2 billion additional funding if passed, will also only benefit another lucky group of 500,000.

So, folks, help a Chinese-American understand this. How can our legislative branch of the government pass something that does not benefit the majority of the people of the USofA? How can the government spend money (potentially $3 billion - part of my hard earn money funded to the government through something called "Income Tax") on such a small group of people? The $4,500 became pure and simple "gains" on these people's "balance sheet". Where is my share of that? It's not like I didn't pay for my gas efficient car at full price before! So, are you saying that I should have kept driving my banged up car and continue to pump harmful gases into the environment, then one day the government will say "good job, you have passed the test of endurance", and for that, collect $4,500?! And last question, how can the government spend so much money that it does not have? Who is going to pay for it? Someone, somehow will have to, sooner or later. Money, I believe, doesn't grow on trees!!