I can now say that I am incapable of being surprised by world events anymore. I had that confirmed this morning when I heard this on the news and didn’t immediately drive my car into a ditch in complete and utter bewilderment at the brazenness of it all. I’m sure my ho-hum reaction says as much about my cynicism as it does about how much the Nobel Committee values its prize.
U.S. President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for offering the world hope and striving for nuclear disarmament in a surprise award that drew both warm praise and sharp criticism.
The bestowal of one of the world’s top accolades on a president less than nine months in office, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, was greeted with gasps of astonishment from journalists at the announcement in Oslo
Oh, I’m quite certain there were some gasps, but I don’t think astonishment was the only emotion at work in the room. I’m fairly sure that a number of journalists had to have themselves a post-announcement cigarette and a moment to enjoy the afterglow.
Memeorandum is on fire this morning and not everyone is happy. Glenn Reynolds has probably the best roundup of reactions so far.
This has to be a disappointing award for people who are actually working toward a more peaceful world where people can live free and unmolested by petty tyrants. Not only has President Obama accomplished absolutely nothing toward peace (though he is giving the doctrine of “peace in our time” a new life) but the Nobel committee seems to have broken, or at least severely bent, its own rules for the award. The deadline for nominations in February 1, which means the President had only been in office ten days before he was nominated. The committee works through February and March to whittle the list of a couple hundred nominees down to a “short list” from which it picks a winner.
Now, what had President Obama done to that point to advance his “vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons” and how had he “powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations”? All that powerful stimulation, which occurred from the podium of the UN, happened last month. He hasn’t brokered a single disarmament deal. In fact, he’s not openened any “arms control negotiations” at all. Oh, he wants to open some with Russia, which is why he sold the Poles and Czechs down the river a couple of weeks ago, but there aren’t any talks going on, just talks about talks. Ditto Iran, where the President allowed the Mullahs to slaughter peaceful protesters in the streets with barely a discouraging word in order to keep the possibility of talks open. But that’s all stuff that happened well after March. He didn’t begin his Obamessiah World Tour until late July.
This prize award strikes me as just another way for the international community to shower praise on their Obamessiah for his bountiful hopey-changitude (Jules Crittenden is all over that). They’re not really sure what that is, except to say that it’s not George W. Bush who was all unilateral and icky and stuff (except when he was involved in six-party talks with the Kim Jong-Il and the US/EU/Britain talks with Iran, but don’t mention those. They soil the committee’s pretty song lyrics). They’re just glad for it and are absolutely sure it’s some miracle cure to all their ills. So now they’re singing Barack Obama’s praises and waving their palm leaves just as hard as they can as he rides in among them.
But the President would be wise to remember that the same people who were cheering for the real Messiah when he rode into Jerusalem on ass-back were yelling “crucify him” just a few days later.
UPDATE: Here is the list of people shouldered aside by the Nobel committee so the Obamessiah’s ass could get to the adoring crowd. Let me spell out the math.
Ten Days of Hopenchange > Six years as a hostage to Hugo Chavez’ paid terrorists or seventeen years in Chinese prisons fighting for freedom.
UPDATE 2: The Democratic Party’s position is that you either agree that the President should have won the prize today or you’re of a piece with the terrorists. The DNC is under the illusion that the Nobel Peace Prize is a singular honor. It is not. The day the committee awarded it to a thief and murderer named Yasser Arafat, it became worthless.
UPDATE 3: Quick! Someone get Troglopundit a Pulitzer and Obi’s Sister a napkin!
UPDATE 4: Video awesomeness from Alison Jerabek. Not bad at all for a rush video job with home equipment. That young lady has a future in video commentary, I think.
UPDATE 5: I bet Barack Obama wouldn’t have had to wait 20 minutes for a new cable modem. Also, who knew Hell had telephones?
I’m not George W. Bush, can I get a Nobel Peace Prize, too? If I get one, I promise to try to do something to deserve it, within the next few years.
[...] More Opinions: Anchoress Yuval Levin Glenn Reynolds Times of London – “Mockery” Jimmie Bise (put liquids aside) Ed Morrissey, [...]
I’m afraid you have to have some aspirations involving nuclear weapons or something like that.
Do you have any of those?
Jimmie, How are you?
RE: Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize…IMO This award was well merited and entirely justified.
Regards,
Rob
Heh. You still bring the funny, man!
Quoted from and linked to at:
LIES ON THE PRIZE
[...] done thus far. – Kaus gives Obama some good advice. Here’s hoping he’ll follow it. – Jimmie Bise: Just Consider this the Obamessiah Version of the entry into Jerusalem – Scalzi pretty much sums up how I’m feeling about it. (But don’t worry, I’ll [...]
That list of those snubbed is pretty weak. Mine is better:
1) Doctors Without Borders.
2) Morgan Tsvangirai.
3) The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
4) Bono.
5) Nothing But Nets.
But Desmond Tutu got the award on future expectations from both him and his adversaries. And the award did keep Tutu out of jail. And kept his adversaries at the table. I don’t think Obama really deserves it yet, but as prod to do better, it’s good.
If I’m not mistaken, Doctors w/o Borders won an NPP a few years back. I don’t have a big problem with the list except that the list doesn’t seem to be particularly peace-oriented.
And it’s funny you think Obama is some kind of Messiah. We don’t, and are quite critical of him. But you guys do think he’s some kind of a religious leader while simultaneously criticizing us for having no religion. And now you say we worship Obama. And I can say that if you don’t worship Jesus in a specific way, it’s difficult. How do you answer the question: “are you Christian or Catholic?” That’s just absurd anyway, and if you’re non-Christian it means that the ‘neither’ answer means you have to leave because you’re not getting served. These are people who can only understand that someone is either the Messiah or the Devil. They need to understand that only they control their lives.
“If I’m not mistaken, Doctors w/o Borders won an NPP a few years back.”
You would be mistaken. Amnesty International won one.
As for my list not being peace oriented, it’s mostly medical, I’d agree. But I do think saving people’s lives has a very serious aspect of peace to it. If you save a child, his mother will support you. My uncle spent three years as a surgeon in Vietnam. And he let anyone in medical need into his hospital. I met a guy in Da Nang who was delivered by my uncle. And trust me, when they knew I was Uncle Charlie’s nephew (that was their term, not mine), I couldn’t buy anything. Everything was free after that. Decades later, they respect that medical care so much that they’ll style a relative visiting. So why do you think I favor medicine over war and negotiations?
My uncle had an interesting distinction of having been a Captain in the Navy without ever setting foot on a boat. They needed him too fast to ship him on a boat. He flew on planes. But they give surgeons high ranks. He started out as a Lieutenant Commander. MD-PhD will do that. Especially from MIT and Penn. They upped him to Commander quickly when they needed someone to run a MASH unit. The Da Nang unit, which was as ugly as it gets. He never saw combat, he just saw the results. Every medical veteran from that war I’ve talked to says that they’d probably rather see combat, but if they did, who would take care of the injuries? Every soldier I’ve talked to is glad that he didn’t have to work in those hospitals. And they are grateful for the treatment they got. And so are the random locals that came in. My uncle didn’t know which side they were on, but it doesn’t matter once you’ve taken The Oath. And that, I think, is the one thing that separates us. If I saw you dying, I’d do everything I could to save you. If you saw me, you wouldn’t have the physical ability, and you wouldn’t bother trying. So who really wants to preserve life?
No, Doctors Without Borders won the NPP in 1999, according to the Nobel folks.
I don’t think that he is. I think that he’s been built up as one by his supporters and the media, generally.
And I’ve never criticized progressive for having no religion. I’ve criticized them for having one while not being honest enough to admit it.
Again, you guess something about me that is wrong. If I saw you dying, I would do everything I could to save you as well. It’s more than a little insulting that you assume I would not.
Ah yes, you are right on Doctors Without Borders. A well deserved win. I know of no organization that gets more respect in developing countries.
As for assuming that progressives have some kind of religion, I’d assume you mean a meta-religion. Some kind of mix of all religions. Except for Islam, of course, which is very conservative. Progressives represent half of society and Christians represent 80% of it. So Christians are the majority of progressives. So this crazy religion you speak of must be Christian one. But let’s be real, it’s not a religion, and if it were, I certainly wouldn’t be following it. I’m in to reality, not dogma.
And I’m surprised you’d save me if I’m dying. You’ve made it clear that you wouldn’t. After all, when I get cancer, I’ll die because I’ve been denied insurance already. And you support the idea of insurance companies being allowed to do so. And you make it quite clear that a government option is not possible either. So I will die to support your political agenda. And you will continue to support that agenda knowing that it will kill me. So really, how are you going to save me? Watching me die isn’t exactly a good way. How about raising the money it would take to save me? You think charity can make up for a government program, so pony up. Let’s see that charity save me. And don’t think I’m looking for a handout, I paid into the private insurance system for years and now they say they won’t pay back. That’s fraud, Jimmie, and you support it. All I want now is these premiums paid back to me with interest. Give that to me, and I’ll shut up. But without that, I’ll call it what it is: legalized fraud. And it’s legalized because the Republican Party and some Democrats are bought and paid for by the people who commit this fraud. And you support it.
And you know, that $200K would go a long way to helping me with current issues. If I had that money I wasted on private insurance, maybe I could solve my medical problems. But instead, I wasted it on a business that commits fraud. And they legally can do it because they are exempt from such laws. Now, I have no insurance, don’t have the money I wasted on insurance, and don’t have the money to pay for finding out what’s wrong with me. Yeah, private industry really worked for me. If I’d just paid nothing and got nothing, I wouldn’t be angry about it. But I paid a lot for nothing, and you think this is just commerce. Now, suicide is my health plan. And this is what you support. You support a 911 event every single month. You want to kill me and these other people that die every month. And you do it just because you know these guys that want to kill me give big bucks to your party.
Instead, I’ll close my business and take a job at a third of what I’d usually make just to get insurance. And that is exactly what I’m doing. It’s my only hope of living. And sorry about whatever new products that won’t be developed, you didn’t want them anyway, or did you? Health problems happen, and they are not covered by individual plans. And people like me can’t even get those individual plans. We have to hide out in corporate plans so nobody notices us. So we have to do crap work that doesn’t result in new products. Sorry for you, but I have to do it. Back i the day, small companies did give you insurance, now no company under 200 people offers you an insurance that actually pays for medical problems. And no company over 200 people can actually come up with a real product. The current situation makes it impossible to work for a small company. Or as your own company. It kills innovation. But hell, you guys don’t even believe in science, so why would you be concerned about innovation?
The irony being that the innovation I speak of is medical. I have to stop innovating in the medical field because I have medical problems that can’t be treated without the medical insurance I can’t get. So I’ll have to get a corporate job doing something else. In the end, I’ll kill plenty of people to stay alive. But what else can I do? It’s the only way I can stay alive. Unless somebody would give me insurance. Then, those people would live. But private industry just can’t find a way to insure me, and they’re fine with those other people dying too. Saves them a lot of money. But so what? People die. Your philosophy lives on. Granted, on the deaths of those people, but it’s not like you care.