October 09, 2009

What is the Nobel Peace Prize? Why No One Should Care

The Blogoshpere ‘sploded this morning with the news that his high holiness, the One, the Obamessiah, our own pResident and Chairman Zero won the (not so) coveted Nobel Prize. The Sundries Shack, BBCW, Left Coast Rebel, The Right StuffFeed Your ADHDThe Rational Jingo, MAinfo, Right Klik, Guys, you know I love you all, we are all in this together but we should not be so upset with this pick…and before you lynch me read why I think this.  Or you can just read TCL’s Post

Alfred Nobel was a Swede who is  most notable as the inventor of dynamite,which incidentally has done more to further human advancement than it ever did as a weapon of war.  But due to his reputation as a war monger in his last will he used his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. The prizes are awarded for eminence in physical science, chemistry, medical science, literature and, “Peace”.  The Peace Prize  is to be given to the person or society that “renders the greatest service to the cause of international fraternity, in the suppression or reduction of standing armies, or in the establishment or furtherance of peace congresses”. 

Alfred Nobel's will stated that the prize should be awarded by a committee of five people elected by the Norwegian Parliament.  The Peace Prize,the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm, Sweden is presented annually on the anniversary of Nobel's death in Oslo, Norway in the presence of the king.

Nominations for the Prize may be made by a broad array of qualified individuals, including former recipients, members of national assemblies and congresses, university professors (in certain disciplines), international judges, and special advisors to the Prize Committee. In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received. The Committee keeps the nominations secret, however, nominations from 1901 to 1955 have been released in a database.  When the past nominations were released it was discovered that Adolf Hitler was nominated in 1939 by Erik Brandt, a member of  Parliament.  Other infamous nominees included Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini. Nomination only requires the support of one person and does not mean that the committee would actually AWARD the prize to someone like that, but it does speak to the types of people that “qualified people” nominate.  The Peace Prize has always been the most politicized and controversial of the awards.

The peace-laureates often have a lifetime's history of working at and promoting humanitarian issues, as in the examples of German medic Albert Schweitzer (1952), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., (1964) and Aung San Suu Kyi, a Buddhist nonviolent pro-democracy activist (1991). On the other hand, many of them are…*ahem*… questionable:

  • President Theodore Roosevelt (4th worst US president of All Time) received the  Prize in 1905 for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. However, he played a role in the suppression of a revolt in the Philippines. And there was that whole Spanish American war thingy , you know,  Rough Riders, San Juan Hill, Medal of Honor Nomination because of his valor in battle… For those that may not know this “splendid little war” was the US ONLY foray into imperialism.
  • Woodrow Wilson (2nd Worst US president of All Time) was awarded the Prize in 1919 for founding the League of Nations (Epic Fail) 
  • Cordell Hull was awarded the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1945 in recognition several things including his work to establish the UN. Hull was FDR's (3rd Worst US president of All Time) Secretary of State during the SS St. Louis Crisis. The SS St. Louis left Germany in the  summer of 1939 carrying over 950 Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution just before WWII.  Initially FDR was mildly  supportive of taking some of those on board, but vehement opposition by Hull and from Democrats resulted in  Roosevelt denying the ship entry to the US. The ship was forced to return to Germany where over a quarter of its passengers subsequently died in the Holocaust. (you know, unless like immadinnajacket you believe it didn’t happen)
  • The Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his work on the Vietnam Peace Accords, despite having instigating the bombings in Cambodia,  Operation Condor and supporting the Turkish intervention in Cyprus resulting in the de facto partition of the island.
  • Rigoberta Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, in part for her autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchu in which she heavily fabricated events in her family history in the book to further the guerilla cause. That is right… for the most part, the book was a lie.
  • Yasser Arafat, was a joint winner in  1994.  Arafat was an unrepentant terrorist with a long legacy of promoting violence between Israel and Palestine.
  • Jimmy Carter (5th worst US President of All Time) was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement of the award came shortly after the U.S. House and Senate gave President George W. Bush authorization to use military force against Iraq in order to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring that Baghdad give up weapons of mass destruction. Asked if the selection a criticism of Bush, Gunnar Berge, head of the Nobel committee, said: "…it can and must also be seen as criticism of …the current U.S. administration ..."
  • Wangari Maathai, 2004 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was reported  to as stating that AIDS was originally developed by Western scientists in order to depopulate Africa. She  denied these claims, but, in a Time magazine interview, shesaid that someone knows where it came from and that it "...did not come from monkeys."
  • Al Gore (Worlds biggest idiot and hypocrite) and the IPCC (UN), joint 2007 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, have had the validity of their winning of the prize disputed as many believe global warming is neither man-made nor a problem, and have claimed the decision was politically motivated.
  • In fact the UN has received the Peace Prize 5 times.
  • Barack Obama, (Current Nominee for #1 worst US President of all time, narrowly unseating Woodrow Wilson) 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was nominated for the award after being in office for 11 whole days.

This is a prize handed out by NORWAY a country with a population less than Louisiana, a land area about the size of New Mexico, and a GDP roughly that of Pennsylvania’s.  Norway is an enormous supporter and player in the UN.  The same UN whose policies run counter to virtually all US interests. This prize  has been handed out to some of the most corrupt, dishonest, and warmongering people in the world.  A prize for which Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini have been nominated.  Did I mention they nominated him for the prize after he had been in office 11 days… 

Taking all of that into account, please tell me why, #1 we care, or #2 why we are even shocked that the Obamessiah won it?   It is an irrelevant award, given out by a corrupt group of individuals, by a (far left) bit player on the world stage.  If anything it is further evidence that he sucks.

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