Hi Ernie,
These are my favorites:
> "If peace is such a great thing, why is there a country-wide ammo
> shortage?"
> (Kim Moser, New York, NY)
>
> "This was prophesied in the Book of Revelation, before pestilence
> and same-sex marriage, but after earthquakes."
> (Pam Wylder, Bloomington, IL)
>
> "You sure it's not the 'Appease Prize'?"
> (Dave Wesley, Pleasant Hill, CA)
One quote from the Swedish press - don't remember where exactly - said
"the Nobel peace price died with Arafat and was buried with Obama".
Case closed.
It's always fund to laugh at Republicans (i.e. when the jokes are
actually good) but in this case the joke, I think, is on Obama and the
Nobel Committee. Somehow this Emperor seems so stark naked. It was a
revealing moment (no pun intended).
On a more serious note I read an excerpt from Krauthammer in the
Notable & Quoatable section of the WSJ this morning:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461293823826308.html
He said:
(Charles Krauthammer on the loss of American hegemony. Washington Post
columnist Charles Krauthammer in the Manhattan Institute's Wriston
Lecture, delivered last week in New York:)
Henry Kissinger once noted that the only way to achieve peace is
through hegemony or balance of power.
Well, hegemony is out. As Obama said in his General Assembly address,
"No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation." (The
"can" in that declaration is priceless.) And if hegemony is out, so is
balance of power: "No balance of power among nations will hold."
The president then denounced the idea of elevating any group of
nations above others—which takes care, I suppose, of the Security
Council, the G-20, and the Western alliance. And just to make the
point unmistakable, he denounced "alignments of nations rooted in the
cleavages of a long-gone Cold War" as "making no sense in an
interconnected world."
What does that say about NATO? Of our alliances with Japan and South
Korea? Or even of the European Union?
Surely this is nonsense. But it is not harmless nonsense. It's
nonsense with a point. It reflects a fundamental view that the only
legitimate authority in the international system is that which
emanates from the "community of nations" as a whole. Which means, I
suppose, acting through its most universal organs such as, again I
suppose, the U.N. and its various agencies. . . .
To be sure, the idea of the international community acting through the
U.N.—a fiction and a farce respectively—as enforcer of norms and
maintainer of stability is absurd. . . .
But whatever bizarre form of multilateral or universal structures are
envisioned for keeping world order, certainly hegemony—and
specifically American hegemony—is to be retired.
- - - -
I think he hits the nail on the head. It is Obama's commitment to
"...a fundamental view that the only legitimate authority in the
international system is that which emanates from the "community of
nations" as a whole." that won him the prize.
Rejecting "American Exceptionalism" in speeches around the world and
at the United Nations is a key strategy in winning certain kind of
prizes.
Here's a video of the event (I have not viewed it myself yet).
http://www.freedomslighthouse.com/2009/10/charles-krauthammer-blasts-obama-for.html
// Lennart
Ps. I heard he's up for a prize in the "Best Actor in a Reality TV
series" as well but I think that was a price from some former Eastern
Block country. I am sure we'll hear more about it....
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