Re. Syria

Obama is right on not getting directly involved in Syria. America should learn from its lessons in Iraq and stay out of all foreign wars unless America’s vital interests are at stake or such an action is sanctioned by the United Nations. America has enough nation building to do in America. This is also tre for other nations.

Copyright© 2013 Krishna Chandra, all rights reserved

Fighting the Drug War

First step is to legalize the drugs, which was the case in early part of 20 th Century. We should learn from our experience from the prohibition days in 1919 through 1933. Next step is to use the tax dollars so collected to educate and treat people.

Copyright© 2013 Krishna Chandra, all rights reserved

George W. Bush Legacy

G.W. Bush best vindication is that President Obama while bashing him in public has quietly followed most of his policies at home and abroad. Bush tax cuts were extended through Obama’s first term and most of them have been made permanent for upper middle class and lower, GITMO is still open, and concept of the Iraq Surge was used in Afghanistan. His help saved hundreds of thousands of live from AIDS in Africa. The seeds of the 2008 economic meltdown were sowed by earlier Administrations and Greenspan, Bush did try to save the banks and domestic auto industry.

Bush immigration reforms ideas are being talked about and Republicans are trying to figure out how he got 35-40% of Hispanic votes.

While Bush deserves criticism of his debatable decision to invade Iraq and poor handling of the Iraq war, his critics are too biased to give him due credit for his contributions.

Copyright© 2013 Krishna Chandra, all rights reserved

KEEP IT SIMPLE LAKERS!

The Lakers fired Mike Brown as Head Coach on Friday, November 9, 2012. According to the press reports, it appears that Mike Brown was a good coach. However, it apparently did not work out. I had concern about his coaching during the last season’s play offs and had expressed this concern in my earlier article below:

voices.yahoo.com/the-lakers-coach-needs-strategic-thinking-11258086.html?cat=14 … … … … … …

My major concern with Mike Brown was about the strategic thinking which is required to win a Championship.  To be fair to Mike Brown, he was filling a large void left behind by Phil Jackson who in his remarkable two stints with Lakers had won five Championships.  Add these to the six Championships he won at Chicago, it is an unbelievable record of a total eleven Championships. No wonder it is a lot of pressure and stress for any new Lakers Coach. Phil Jackson did not have any such pressure when he became Head Coach at Chicago or when he came to Lakers.

As I stated in my earlier article, Mike Brown has a reputation of being an ardent Basketball lover and a highly qualified X-O type of coach. However, some times, this can also become a problem while coaching highly talented and well paid NBA players where skills in players’ ego management are equally important.  These players need a Head Coach who acts more like a Manager and is a strategic thinker who understands his players, can manage their egos constructively to inspire them to put their selfish interests aside and motivate them to play as a team. He has to have fast thinking so that in actual game situation, he can evaluate his team’s momentum and energy level to come up with right substitutions, and also study the opponents’ strategies to design the right plays to counter them. While strategies like “Princeton offense” or “Triangle” have merits they are not a requirement to win Championships.  Many coaches who have won multiple Championships by using simple pick & roll type of plays, good defense and by training their players to execute them well and by molding them into well knit teams. I am not saying that basic training in fundamentals and plays is not important but they can be handled by the qualified Assistant Coaches at the practices. Phil Jackson, though technically an average coach, is a master of managing top players’ ego and could get the best out of super stars like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant to win eleven championships.

According to the news reports, it looks like that after firing Mike Brown, Lakers were talking to Phil Jackson to take over the head coaching assignment again and then with a drama more befitting a Hollywood thriller ended up signing Mike D'Antoni late last Sunday night on November 11. All this happened in a matter of just three days and after Phil Jackson’s first stint with the Lakers, this is the third time that Lakers have hired an outside person to coach this great team. I wonder why this important decision was in such a hurry. Based on his past record at Phoenix & New York, Mike D'Antoni does not appear to be much of an improvement over Mike Brown and if he does not win a Championship this season there will be panic in Lakers land all over again.

In my opinion the long term solution lies in giving an opportunity to someone with experience within the Lakers Organization. It did work marvelously when the Lakers picked up Pat Riley within the organization after the forced exit of another Coach during the “Show Time” years of the eighties. It may work again. Instead of taking a decision in such a hurry, Lakers should have given an opportunity to either Kurt Rambis or Brian Shaw for an Interim Coaching position this year. They both are familiar with the Lakers organization and the players and deserved a chance and if it had not worked out, Lakers would have plenty of time to look for another outside Coach. However, the die is cast and I wish Mike D'Antoni all the best. Hopefully he has learned from his past experience and he will complement his excellent offensive talent by hiring a good defense minded assistant coach to prepare the Lakers for a successful season this year. Keep it simple Lakers!

Copyright©2012 Krishna Chandra, all rights reserved

It is Vatican again

As long Vatican requires its priests to be celibate, there will remain a high likelihood of sex scandals. The Catholic Church should join the 21st Century. The Church should allow its priests to marry and lead a normal life so that they can focus on delivering Jesus message.

Vatican’s response to the latest sex scandal is just shameless and sickening. The Pope should apologize, punish and turn over the culprits to law agencies and make restitution to the victims.

Bravo Google!

Google's decision to stand up to Chinese dictators is bold and deserves the support of free world. In a clever move, Google has moved their uncensored search engine to Hong Kong and has started directing the traffic from its China web site to its Hong Kong web site. Google is thus complying with the Chinese as well as the Hong Kong laws. The Chinese censors reacted by blocking access to politically sensitive information from Google’s Hong Kong site. However this will eventually back fire as the Chinese web surfers who are educated and younger will eventually start resenting Chinese government’s censorship. This may start a mass movement against the Chinese dictators. If that happens, Google might have inadvertently put the first nail in the coffin of the Communist & Fascist regime of China.

All freedom loving people of the world should support Google’s fight for internet freedom by boycotting the products made by Communist China.

House passes the Health Care Reform Bill

It is not a perfect bill but it is a good start. Hopefully improvements can be done in future with bi-partisan support. After all, no body can dare take Medicare away from seniors now.

One concern is whether it will survive the constitutional challenge based on states rights. We will find it out in due time.