Obama's Only Middle East Friends Are Terrorists

First Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress against President Obama's wishes, deepening a discord between the two countries' formerly friendly relationship.

Now Saudi Arabia's new King Salman has declined to attend a Middle East summit meeting at Camp David with the President due to his coziness with the Iranian regime.

Is it just me, or are people starting to see that President Obama's only Middle Eastern friends are the terrorist sponsoring regime inside Iran? What say you Rush Limbaugh?

Racist Apple Watch Bands

Apple was showing off some new watch bands for its new must have devices in a fashion show in Milan, Italy over the weekend. The bands sported bold colors like red, blue, yellow and various pale pinkish hues described as skin tones.

Unless Apple thinks that having ten different shades of pink is what people are asking for, I'd say those skin tone watch bands are not designed for people of color. Really Apple? You don't think any brown people will want to wear an Apple Watch? All those pinkish watch bands will look a bit ridiculous on 80% of the world's population who are not light skinned. Frankly, even most white people are not that pale, especially on the arms. Unless that person has not seen daylight for months, Caucasians treasure their golden tanned complexion. The only watch band displayed that might be of suitable color for anybody is the dark blue one. It would look great on a Na'vi from the movie Avatar.

LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM? WTH?

I'm confused. Human sexuality was initially taught only as heterosexuality. Man and woman. Adam and Eve. However that wasn't fair to all the homosexuals who were kept in the closet. Then the homosexuals were welcomed out of their hiding places and we proudly cheered our inclusivity. Later bisexuals and transgender were added to the list, or LGBT. Okay. I'm down with that. The more inclusive the better, right? Then a couple of years ago I noticed LGBTQ. Q? I had to google that one. It turns out Q stands for Questioning. In other words they were not sure which category they fit into so they just tagged on another letter. But now the proliferation of letters and lifestyles have expanded to an almost comical degree.

The latest comes from Wesleyan University. In their student website, they offer a safe house for students of LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM persuasion. WTH? I'll save you some time, and so that you don't have to surf over to that site to find out what that means, LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM stands for 

Lesbians

Gay

Bisexual

Transgender

Transsexual 

Queer

Questioning

Flexual

Asexual

Genderfuck

Polyamourous

Bondage/Disciple

Dominance/Submission

Sadism/Masochism

Notice a few of those terms are paired or the acronym would reach an even more ridiculous length. I don't even know what some of those words mean, although sometimes I think my wife is the "A" in that list. I'm afraid to look up some terms on my computer lest I get caught for looking at something illegal on the internet. 

How did human sexuality become so convoluted? Do people really feel better about themselves knowing that there is a category for their feelings? Or does it just make them more anxious that none of the standard definitions fit them quite right and they have to invent one more? 

Perhaps this is one example where too much leniency proves detrimental to the person. Being allowed to do and feel anything they like without a strong supporting base for reference can make anybody feel confused and restless. I'm not saying that people should be ushered back into the closet. But having a sexuality that requires a safe house instead of gaining acceptance is not healthy either.

Medical Schools Also Discriminate Against Asians Americans

Asian American parents have believed for years that Ivy League universities discriminate against their kids for admissions. Black children can score 230 points less than whites on the SAT to gain admission to an Ivy League and Hispanic kids can get by with 185 points less. Meanwhile an AA child needs an SAT score 50 points higher to get into the same school. Consequently there is a thriving after school enrichment program in Los Angeles, specifically the San Gabriel Valley where most of the AA's cluster.

But if AA parents think they can relax once their children make it into an Ivy League, they better think again. The discrimination against AA students continues even into graduate school, or in this case, medical school.

With all the Asian doctors that we see nowadays, all the Indians, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc., one would think that medical schools accepted their students based purely on academics. But that is apparently not so. The Association of American Medical Colleges put together this table ranking how likely different ethnicities are accepted into medical school based on the MCAT scores and GPA's. As you can clearly see, an AA premed student with a median MCAT of 27-29 stands only a 22.5% chance of being accepted into med school. A white student has a one in three likelihood of getting in. But if the student is black, he has a greater than 80% chance of being accepted into medical school.

If the AA student makes only the lowest MCAT scores of 24-26, it will be almost impossible for him to get into med school, just a 7.7% chance. But a black person with the same score still has a greater than even chance of being accepted, 65.8%. At the other end of the academic spectrum, an Asian American premed with the top MCAT scores of 30-32 will still only have a nearly even chance of going to medical school, just 63.1%. A black student with the same score is nearly guaranteed to make it, with a 94.6% probability of getting in. In other words, the lowest scoring black student has a better chance of getting into medical school than the highest scoring Asian American student.

Is is any wonder AA parents are worried sick about getting their offspring into good schools? We have to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours in extracurricular studies just to make sure our kids are at least on the same playing field as other kids for college admissions. Meanwhile black and hispanic students can hang out, play video games, and watch movies all they want without worrying about getting into college. Even if they don't do as well academically, the schools are so desperate to achieve "diversity" that they will accept nearly any of them as long as they know how to read and write complete sentences.

Asian Americans have to learn to handle this ugly discrimination early and often. No matter how hard we try to do well, we get penalized by the elitist and racist powers that control our academic futures. In fact, the more we achieve, the greater the discrimination. It appears that we will always be discriminated against here in so called color blind, melting pot America.

Pants Up! Don't Loot!

Black Lives Matter. That's the new mantra following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in Ferguson, MO and New York, respectively. Yes, black lives do matter. As do all lives well lived. Yet I can't help feeling that the only people who don't think black lives matter at all are the African American victims themselves. In both cases, the victims died because they were in the process of committing an illegal act.

In Mr. Brown's case, it is well established that he committed strong armed robbery stealing cigars at a convenience store minutes before being confronted by Officer Darren Wilson. He then further inflamed the situation by reaching into the police car and assaulting a peace officer while trying to reach for his gun. So no sympathy from many of us who feels he deserved what he got. As for the whole Hands Up Don't Shoot? We now know after the grand jury testimony that that was a lie perpetrated by many unreliable "witnesses." Michael Brown never even tried to give himself up to Officer Wilson but instead attempted to charge and attack him before he was fatally shot.

Mr. Garner was likewise committing a crime when he was brought down by the police. In this case he was trying to sell illegal cigarettes on the streets when he was questioned by officers. He then ran away instead of facing questioning and arrest. His resistance eventually led to him being forcefully subdued. If he had given up peacefully, knowing that he was committing a crime, his own death would have been prevented. Again no tears here.

When the grand juries in both cases heard all the evidence, they rightfully declared the officers innocent. This led to weeks of rioting in Ferguson and marches in New York. Eventually some crazy person felt the need to assassinate two innocent NYPD officers, ironically neither of whom were white, as some sort of political statement.

Again, if black people really believed their lives are important and worth living, then they should be the ones to commit to lead better lives and not follow a life of crime. Blindly taking the advice of racist flamethrowers like Al Sharpton is not going to help them. Blaming the government, white people, schools, police, or any other easy scapegoats is not going to help them. Looting their neighborhood businesses just because they feel wronged is not going to help them.

We already know what can aid the poor and downtrodden become better citizens. This is where the model minority established by Asian Americans can help. I reject the many so called Asian American organizations that claim being labeled a model minority is a form of divisiveness used by a white majority to further suppress black people. Organizations for years have complained that there are no good role models for black people, particularly young black males. That's why President Obama established a group like My Brother's Keeper.

But based on centuries of experience with the integration of immigrants into American society, we already know what needs to be done to help people establish themselves as good citizens. And it does not involve any more government intervention. Stay in school. Study hard. Get good grades. Go to college. Get a good job. Get married and stay married. Don't have kids too early or too often. Don't have children outside of marriage. Follow the law. Obey the police. Asian Americans ARE the model minorities and can be the role models that these lost black males need. But instead of stating the obvious, AA groups confoundedly reject our success as citizens as a wedge between minorities. Echoing the words of Al Sharpton tells you all you need to know about the political bent of these organizations.

In conclusion, I too believe that black lives matter. But marching in the streets, rioting, and looting are not going to make any long term impact. African Americans need to do a little soul searching before they can start making a difference in their own lives. Blasting rap music out of their cars and playing midnight basketball isn't going to help. If they need to find good role models to emulate, just examine the quiet Asian student studying his ass off every night. Instead of derision, he should be the one held up as an example.

Domestic Car Companies Aren't Even Trying In California

Driving home every day I'm constantly reminded by how little American car companies are trying to sell their products here in California. On the radio I constantly here commercials for the imports. Names like Longo Lexus and Toyota, Fletcher Jones Mercedes, Norm Reeves Honda, Beverly Hills BMW are ubiquitous on the airwaves. The American companies? Nada. Other than Galpin Ford and Worthington Ford, I don't ever recall hearing advertisements for the domestics. I can't tell you the names of any GM or Chrysler dealers without having to take ten minutes to really think about it.

If their publicity is bad, the dealerships are worse. In my neighborhood in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, the American dealers look utterly antiquated compared to the imports. Scott Robinson Honda just built a brand new building that takes up half a city block. It is full of light and glass, giving a sense of airiness to the whole facility. Audi also recently opened the largest Audi dealer in the country with a showroom that is easily seen from the busy main street.

What have the American companies done? Here in Torrance, Martin Chevrolet recently upgraded their facade. Whoop dee do. The interior looks exactly as it did thirty years ago. Their new car inventory sits in a tiny corner of the lot that maybe holds twenty cars. About two thirds of their lot are for the used car inventory and service area. Not exactly inviting for anybody seeking a new Chevy.

Penske Cadillac looks like it's trying to hide itself from customers. Its building features glass so dark you can't even see their cars inside. Worse, they have a low wall separating their lot from the public sidewalk. When their cars are parked behind the wall, the fronts of the cars are obscured and you can only see the vehicles from the windshield up. By comparison the South Bay BMW next door is a huge open lot with seemingly acres of BMWs easily seen and envied from every direction.

If the Cadillac dealership design is bad, the Buick/GMC dealership next to it is even worse. Squeezed between the Cadillac and BMW dealers, it is a tiny hangar of a building that is easily missed if you blink on the busy drive up Hawthorne Blvd. I rarely even see any new Buicks on display. Occasionally there are one or two GMC's that are parked up front. I can't think of a worse way to sell a car, especially in a competitive environment like Southern California.

And Chrysler? Is there even a Chrysler dealer in the South Bay? Oh yes. Scott Robinson recently took over the old Chrysler dealer. But as far as I can tell the building is still the same old staid facility and I have heard zero advertising promoting its presence. You would have to search really hard to even know that it exists.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really rooting for the domestics to do a better job here in this state. Strong domestic car companies will produce a stronger national economy. They also have some very compelling new vehicles that are worthy of consideration by anybody, including some of my favorites like the Cadillac CTS Vsport, the Chevy Corvette, the Chevy SS, and GMC Denali. But the car companies can only do so much with product development. Unless their dealers do a better job of making their presence known through better advertisements and they upgrade their dealerships, it is unlikely they will win much marketshare from the imports. They will in essence lose the battle without ever putting up much of a fight.

Gloria Allred's Legal Confusion

It seems that every other day another woman pops out of the woodworks to accuse comedian and uber famous star Bill Cosby of committing rape that occurred at least ten years ago. Naturally when there are women involved in a high profile lawsuit, guess who will appear at a new conference in front of dozens of cameras leading the charge--Gloria Allred.

This Los Angeles feminist rights lawyer has been photobombing sensational news stories for decades, always holding herself up as a savior to women involved in some sort of lawsuit against a greater, meaner, more callous defendant. A couple of days ago, she demanded that Mr. Cosby put up $100 million as a legal fund to compensate all the potential suits that women may bring against him now and in the future. Says Ms. Allred, "If Mr. Cosby believes all the women are being untruthful, then this is his opportunity to prove it. What could be fairer than that?"

I don't know what kind of law the Loyola University School of Law taught Ms. Allred, but the American legal system has for centuries been based on the maxim that a person is innocent until proven guilty. It is very disingenuous of her to demand that Mr. Cosby drop the statute of limitations of these accusations and allow these women to sue him and have him prove his innocence. As a lawyer, she should know that it is not the defendant's duty to prove his innocence, it is the plaintiffs and their lawyers to show guilt. Mr. Cosby has no legal obligation to prove that he did not touch these women. That would be like asking him to prove he did not touch the other seven billion people on this earth. How would you prove a negative?

Most people I know are quite skeptical of all these women who suddenly appeared in the last few months to make the same complaints over and over again. Where were these women ten or twenty, or even forty years ago when they were supposedly raped by Mr. Cosby? Not a single one of them went to the police or told a family member who could talk them into going to the authorities?

Also hanging a $100 million kitty out there for anybody to collect is bound to bring forth even more women, not least of which is Ms. Allred herself. History has taught us that anytime a defendant settles with a large sum of money to distribute to plaintiffs, the legal vultures start circling hungrily. This has happened in cases like the tobacco and BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill lawsuits. Once an enormous amount of money is at stake, more people will suddenly decide that they have a good reason to want a pick of that carcass.

I don't know if Mr. Cosby is innocent or guilty of these charges. But his lawyer is smart in keeping him mum about the whole legal circus that is swirling around him. He is legally protected by the statue of limitations for activities that may or may not have happened decades ago. Unless there is some sort of photographic or DNA evidence, it is basically a he said/she said situation. Lawyers like Ms. Allred are just there to get their faces on the news cameras and make more money and fame for themselves.