Thank you Mr President. Actually I knew that. In fact I am just watching its most high profile representative making a speech.
As Rector of the University of Dundee, I am entitled to put forward nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. With Obama as an example of the kind of person the committee want, I am wondering who I might propose. Charles Taylor? Maybe Osama Bin Laden? Or perhaps George W Bush and Tony Blair jointly?
Wow, those pompous Scandinavians are fucking stupid.
If Henry Kissinger can be awarded one anybody can. Sickening.
Perhaps Hitler could have one posthumously
“There will be times when nations ?” acting individually or in concert ?” will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified…war is at some level an expression of human feelings”
War is Peace.
I nominate Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dahmer, The Boston Strangler, Tim McVeigh, Jack the Ripper, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini. Who’d I forget?
America was founded on the Blood of the Indigenous People.
Hope, was the mask of Nothing Will Change, Obama, was chosen, to lead the Charge to the Past.
The US of A, is a WAR based economy….
WAR, is our only Manufacturing left..
WAR Crimes, are a thing of the past.
The Winner write History and the Law(s).
“Dear Obambi, I want your peace prize, as I’m a bit short at the moment… I’ll fight you for it; best of three.
:))
Temper temper Mr Murray. Been hitting the bottle late at night again?
I have been exceedingly caustic about that ‘award’ on 3 occasions, now, Craig : complete with illustrations of dysfunction.
The nuclear nonproliferation part is the most loathsome : and I didn’t even figure out all of why – though I was aware of penalties against NPT compliance – until I noted a strange correlation in search results between the NPT and Global Warming Dec 1 – which I reposted to opitslinkfest.blogspot.com Dec 4.
But I’m afraid many will be convinced Climategate a fraud as a reflex judgement.
Stolen from a comment thread I posted
Normal Scientific Method:
1. Purpose
2. Background information
3. Hypothesis
4. Perform experiment
5. Observe results
6. Conclusion
IPCC East Anglia Scientific Method:
1. Conclusion
2. Observe results
3. Manipulate results
4. Insult all opposition
5. More manipulation of results
6. Tax the heathens senseless
Obama’s main talent is delivering big, set-piece, speeches. In a way they are like sermons, delivered by the Pharaoh.
What’s striking about his speeches, especially the two most recent, is how incoherent they are. In the sense that they don’t really make sense. This sounds harsh, given how nice his words sound; but it’s the collosal gap between the rhetoric and the reality that shocks me.
But Obama knows where his skills lie, and he’s not prepared to enter into dialogue, or subject himself to criticism, in situations where he isn’t in total control of the forum. For example, it’s normal, after the ceremony to give an in depth interview, Obama declined to do so, because he’s weak in this area, and somebody might ask a question he hasn’t rehearsed and isn’t prepared for, then he often goes blank. He also refused to take part in the usual press conference, once again because of the possibility of a real question getting through the filter protecting him.
Like the Pharaoh who said, “So let it be written, so let it be done!” Obama has an extraordinary belief in the power of his own words, as if his words, are the same thing as reality. This is a characteristic of people who believe they have close to absolute power, and a sign of incredible vanity, bordering on the delusional and self-deception. And this “quality” in Pharaoh is extremely dangerous for an empire. When the Pharoah begins, or appears, to actually, or effectively, believe in his own mythology, one becomes divorced from reality, and this is obviously no way to run an empire.
Pompous Scandinavians… mmm? I once heard a Danish PM say, in all seriousness, the following; roughly translated;
“Let’s be honest with ourselves shall we? We are, deep down, probably, the most humble people in the whole world, aren’t we?”
The most humble, in the whole world!? Really? Perhaps the most stupid, but humble? I don’t think so.
Many Scandinavians are incredibly proud and self-satisfied with their societies, and regard themselves as being soicially and morally superior to other nations. A phrase one hears a lot is that they are “moral super-powers.”
I suppose one should also remember that these are very small countries, with tiny ruling elites, and when they come to a consensus about an issue, then all debate virtual stops, because power is concentrated in so few hands. That, by the way, is the non-cartoon version of Scandinavian democracy at work.
Also, these small countries, simply adore being admired by foreigners and praised for how “progressive” they are, and how they lead the world in so many areas of social policy. Which in some respects is true.
It’s a characteristic of puritans that they exibit the outward trappings of piety and humility, and have an almost pathelogical desire to be publically recognised and praised for their quite, reserved, humility. Us, vain, conceited? How dare you even suggest such a thing! You are hearby banished from paradise, you serpent!
Clearly, I’m deeply frustrated and offended at the idea of awarding the peace prize to Barack Obama.
On the one hand he states that there are others who have actually done more for peace, and are more deserving of the great honour bestowed on them, having risked and dedicated their entire lives to the cause of peace; yet none of this stopped him from accepting the prize, did it? If he accepts that he didn’t deserve it, why accept it? Isn’t there a collosal contradiction at work here? And this contradictory thread, runs through virtually everything he says. It’s odd that his skill screen-writers don’t pick up on this, but I imagine they so consumed by their own power, conceit, and self-regard, that they are incapable of recognising it for what it is, vanity on an epic scale.
I think Obama’s speech was extraordinarilly offensive, arrogant, and stupid. Most of his speech was an attempt to justify war as a route to peace. One needs a lot of gall to do that as one accepts the Nobel prize for peace!
Obama must lead an incredibly sheltered existance if he really thinks his arguments for “just war”, for “moral war” have any real substance and strength. Doesn’t anyone in his court ever say, hang on a minute, this is pure bullshit, maybe we need to think again, oh great Pharaoh? Probably not.
It’s chilling to think that Obama gets away with this bunk with such ease. He is so like Tony Blair, it’s scary. There is cult of personality surrounding Obama that’s disturbing. It’s all about him, hardly anything about his real policies and how they are implimented, and their consequences out in the real world. The real world hardly seems to even matter anymore, compared to the fantasy world Obama conjures forth with his words.
One is brought to the edge of dispair. What has happened to our culture, when men like Blair and Obama can just sail through it, and with such disasterous results to follow?
A final, instructive, “detail.” Around 1000 people have been slaughtered in the Pastun border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in these vile robot/drone airstrikes. Most of these people are innocent civilians. The number of “badmen” “taken-out” is a mere handful, litterally a handful. Yet, Obama can seriously talk about proportionality, and the moral dimension of America’s way of war, and how “just” it strive to be. It simply beggars belief.
Language really is inadequate to portray the Orwellian farce that just took place in Oslo. Funny; there was I thinking that Norwegians were marginally less stupid than than the rest of the so called ‘civilised world. I had even allowed myself to categorise the Kissinger and assorted other jarring recipient prizes over the years as unfortunate but well-meaning aberrations.
Then this!
Their precious ‘Peace Prize’ awarded to the very man who dropped the most bombs and killed the most people on the planet for the year in question – and that excriciating acceptance speech greeted with fawning obsequious applause. Enough to make me physically sick.
F***ing for virginity as a perceptive commentator on one of my lists put it, which sums the whole thing up rather well in an earthy kind of way.
what would peace be without war?
I had listened to his speech, but when bits were re transmitted later on, I had to switch off.
Strangely my thoughts butterflied to Chico mendez, ten times more worthy than that president, a rubber tapper in the Amazon forrest who for decades tried to persuade and cajoule large farmers from cutting down the rainforrest for their cattle.
They killed him, I’d love to errect a statue to remeber him, somewhere, ideally in the middle of a forrest.
Obama identifies, and is identified, as black. That’s why he got a nobel prize. Yes, those pompous Scandinavians really are fucking stupid self-righteous white “liberals”. That’s how they all look, sound, and behave. What’s new?
“My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.”
Alfred Nobel to “peace suffragette” Bertha Von Suttner.
Clearly what we need IS MORE DYNAMITE.
Nobel Peace Prize always had something of a funny history, IMHO.
FFS, what do you guys expect?
The problem is that there was no ovious “mainstream” candidate this year.
Can anyone nominate a better candidate who was realistically likely to be chosen?
Obama is a smooth talker who has done nothing (yet) but continue the policies of the military – industrial complex. Who expected him to do anything else? He wouldn’t have been elected if he was really radical.
Look on the bright side, it could have been Tony Blair…
At times like these, I long for the withering rebuke that Harold Pinter would have levelled.
War is peace – reverse every statement uttered and it makes perfect sense.
Keith Chegwin gets my vote.
>>The problem is that there was no ovious “mainstream” candidate this year.
Uh-huh. I know there are some awards which are withheld if no-one is deemed worthy of receiving them. Perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize should be mothballed until our species comes to its senses.
I smiled at this (wryly): tinyurl.com/y9br5mn
Jeremy Scahill on Twitter:
“I’d hate to see the Nobel War Prize acceptance speech”
>Uh-huh. I know there are some awards which are withheld if no-one is deemed worthy of receiving them. Perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize should be mothballed until our species comes to its senses.
But then how would they justify their positions, no slap up meals, expenses etc.
However Craig I seem to remember in your book praising the Scandanavians for their stance on Human Rights Abuse contrasting it with ours and the US’s if I remember!
Changed your mind?
So now we can all see that Obama is America’s Tony Blair. Ushered in after a long, grinding rightwing regime, carrying a huge freight of hopes and anticipation, possessed of good public speaking skills….and, without the slightest compunction, thoroughly willing to ditch every pledge and principle in pursuit of an egomaniacal/ narcissistic ‘leadership’ agenda. Only difference that its taken less than a year for Obomber’s shine to come off in the eyes of the public, as opposed to Blair’s 5/6 years of steady erosion.
And so next year we face a General Election, in which Labour is going to get the proverbial kicking and the Tories take power, while over in the States, the midterm congressional elections could see a similar gutting of Democrat reps, going by recent polls which suggest that 40% of Dem voters are just going to stay at home.
The timing is almost balletic.
Obama is still a puppet. The UK is governed by the ‘civil service’, the USA by the CIA. The figureheads are bought. As soon as they get into ‘power’ it is made very clear to them that they have signed a pact with the real powers-that-be. Blair changed visibly after meeting Bush just after 9/11. The ‘personality cult’ mentioned is generated by by the real powers-that-be and their propaganda machines. Obama will now become more mad, and in four years another neo-con will be elected. It’s a Great Game!
@ writerman
There’s quite a good film about those aspects of Scandinavian society. It was on the telly a few months ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bothersome_Man
So, Obama isn’t a goodie and the Skandies are smug puritans.
Oh dear.
I just don’t know what to think anymore or what to do for the best.
I thought Michelle Obama looked distinctly uncomfortable at the award ceremony. Whatever she thought her husband would achieve, it’s surely not going in that direction so far. Bearing in mind the number of presidential wives who either went completely insane, hit the bottle or got zonked out on prescription drugs (most recently Laura “Pickles” Bush), Michelle may well be experiencing a very unpleasant awakening.
glenn, you will find that Laura Bush and hubby george had plenty of ‘pickling’ training before they even got married, during the time when he was supposed to have served in the ‘home guard’.
Steph and myself watched him walk into the ceremony on last nights news, we both remarked on Michelles looks instantly, she is putting on weight, maybe she is expecting.
Another one from the much missed Harold Pinter:
“In politics,language is designed to keep thought at bay.”
http://newsarse.com/2009/12/11/obama-credits-nobel-peace-prize-to-us-missiles-of-friendship/
Two wonderful Scandinavians, both Norwegian, are Dr Mads Gilbert and Dr Erik Fosse who worked in Gaza during Cast Lead. I heard Dr Gilbert speak at UCL recently – an amazing lovely man. Their country has been giving aid to Gaza for three decades.