I watched the lunar attack on NASA TV. As is usually the case with that venue, it was boring to tears.
In other news, for those who thought that non-science Nobel peace prizes had any meaning, and haven’t just become a bad joke, the committee just awarded one to the president on the same day that he was the first one to bomb the moon.
I have to repeat the words on so many lips today. For what?
There’s a big roundup of commentary over at Instapundit. Even the Obamafellators in the media are stunned.
If he were a man of any sense or honor, he would point out the absurdity, and refuse it. So we know what he’ll do.
[Update a few minutes later]
A lot of good commentary at The Corner, for example, from Yuval Levin:
It’s hard to know quite what the right response would be, but it would probably require a self-effacing show of humility (including declining the prize) that our president may not even be able to fake, let alone actually exhibit. It is a dangerous thing for a president to become a joke, and between his Olympic Committee trip and this peculiar honor, he’s getting there fast, and in a way that could do him real harm.
I wonder if any commentator, anywhere on the political spectrum, will offer a genuine straight-faced defense or case for this prize. Whoever does will no-doubt win next year’s Nobel Prize for literature.
I don’t know if they’ve ever given one for fantasy.
[Update a few minutes later]
Getting back to the original topic, Clark Lindsey has some links to preliminary LCROSS results. Let’s hope that the moon was not attacked for no good reason.
[Another update]
Actually, President Obama wasn’t the first one to bomb the moon. Kennedy did, with the Ranger program. So I guess that’s another way he’s trying to emulate him. On the other hand, he was the first to do it on the first attempt. The first few Rangers managed to throw a spacecraft at the ground and miss (those weren’t JPL’s finest days).
[Update a few minutes later]
Thoughts from Jonah:
The only thing that really bothers me is that this comes just days after the Obama administration turned a blind eye to the Dalai Lama and told the world that it’s at least considering a separate peace with the Taliban. That’s grotesque. Meanwhile, there are real peace activists and dissidents out there whose dungeons will stay just as cold and dark for another year because of this. Indeed, this news comes during a year when the Iranian people rose up against tyranny and were crushed. Surely someone in Iran — or maybe the Iranian protestors generally — could have benefitted more from receiving the prize than a president who, so far, has done virtually nothing concrete for world peace.
That wouldn’t fit the template. Like the UN, the Nobel committee has become an enabler of tyrants and dictators. I expect that Ahmadinejad will get one in a couple years, once he’s wiped those war-mongering Jews off the face of the Middle East.
[Update a while later]
A lot more at The Corner. I agree that he should be given the Cy Young award, too. After all, he intended to reach home plate with that pitch. And that’s what counts, right?
[Update a while later]
Man, oh man, I can see this going on for days:
A reader asks:
Can Obama accept the $1 million Nobel prize?
I believe, since he’s also won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his groundbreaking work demonstrating that “profit” is part of “overhead“, that the prize is being increased to $1 trillion. They give it him in small bills and if Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod can get it in the attache case they get to share the Nobel Prize for Physics.
However, under Congressman Rangel’s recently tightened federal ethics rules, the President has to give the money to an Acorn-supported child-sex brothel symbolizing in a very real sense “cooperation between peoples” of many lands. So don’t worry about it. On Monday, he’s scheduled to win the Eurovision Song Contest…
Actually, this is the first time that I’ve actually felt any sympathy for the administration. The Nobel committee has put them in a real corner where there’s almost nothing they can do that will look good. But they’ve been asking for it, going all the way back to the speech in Germany last summer.
[Update mid morning]
Frank J. is taking all the credit, natch:
A lot of you laughed when I first unveiled my peace plan over seven years ago, but who is laughing now? This morning, America crashed a probe into the moon causing an explosion. And the result? Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
As I note in comments over there, though, and above, Obama was not the first American president to attack the moon.
And help Obama win the Heisman. I think he deserves it just for questioning the BCS.
[Late morning update]
John Podhoretz disagrees that he doesn’t deserve the prize:
he Nobel Committee chose him wisely because he does, in fact, represent the organization’s highest ideals.
He is an American president queasy about the projection of American power. He is an American president who rejects the notion of American exceptionalism. He is an American president eagerly in pursuit of legitimacy to be granted him not by those who voted for him but by those who do not cast a vote and who chafe at American leadership. It is his devout wish that America become one of many nations, influencing the world indirectly or not influencing it at all, rather than “the indispensable nation,” as Madeleine Albright characterized it. He is the encapsulation, the representative, the wish fulfillment, the very embodiment, of the multilateralist impulse. He is, almost literally, a dream come true for the sorts of people who treasure and value the Nobel Peace Prize.
There’s a Michael Moore reference, too.
In a junior bowling league years ago I got a trophy just for participating. I suspect the same people who gave out those trophies are now in charge of the Nobel.
Obama did defeat John McCain in November 2008. Maybe that by itself was seen as advancing world peace.
The Nobel Hope and Change Prize.
the nominating process ended ten days after he took office, so its quite clear he won the award for not being George Bush.
I would have liked to see him earn the award, as opposed to having it handed to him.
Obama did defeat John McCain in November 2008. Maybe that by itself was seen as advancing world peace.
I was thinking that it was perhaps for knocking off Hillary in the primaries.
I would have liked to see him earn the award, as opposed to having it handed to him.
It would have been nice to see him get elected that way, too. But I guess you have to take what you can get.
Barack Obama = Zaphod Beeblebrox
Really, it all makes sense once you sass that.
I think it was a preemptive attempt by Sweden to suggest that Obama not increase troop strength in Afghanistan. “Here’s a Peace Prize, make us proud.”
I hope he does accept it. Today, there is no better example of how the Nobel Prize no longer carries the credibility others so willing try to give it. And since our President loves going into debt, I suspect he will take this prize.
If Barack is Zaphod, does that make Congress the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal?
I emailed this rant to Jay Manifold, and later blogged it:
Where’s my Oscar? Where’s my Deming Prize? Where’s my Heisman? You don’t have to do a damn thing to win a prize. Pay up. I deserve it. Everybody deservesw it.Prizes for everyone! A trophy in every garage!
“It would have been nice to see him get elected that way, too.”
No kidding. McCain ran his campaign like the Washington Generals play basketball.
If a foreign country wanted the US to lose its edge in the world and felt Obama’s policies were the best way to make that happen, this event is probably the smartest thing there is to help that along without a direct attack on our economy. There’s no way he’ll change course on anything now.
I feel a Greek tragedy coming. My conspiracy theory for the day.
Titus Says:
Really, it all makes sense once you sass that.
You think BO knows where his towel is?
Nobel song parody!
http://www.wbap.com/goout.asp?u=http://images.radcity.net/5155/3978692.mp3
Great line: “Better grab it and go, I think Oslo knows the Olympics nixed them too.”
Hmmm, maybe we should all mail in an acceptance speech for the Nobel peace prize outlining our innumerable contributions to world peace (eg, “I didn’t give any drivers the finger on Thursday”) and thanking the committee in advance for giving us one. Don’t forget to explain how you’re looking forward to blowing that prize money too. That’s like 80-90% of the fun for the prize right there. Maybe you should mail it in a way that someone has to sign for it, so your message gets to the intended recipients.
Robert Farley at “Lawyers, Guns and Money” blog offered this snark:
….You know, if Obama actually were the anti-Christ, he’d probably be winning a Nobel Peace Prize about right now. I’m just sayin’…
^^^^^ thread winner
I wish reality would stop acting like the Book of Revelations. It’s really unsettling that they’re using the thing as a screenplay.
Well, it’s been months since I posted ten entries on my blog in a single day. If that isn’t a contribution to world peace, I’m doing it wrong.
We should read up on the rules and nominate each other en masse as a form of protest.
Seriously, this prize is horrible. How will our President learn from his mistakes with such “noble” yes men coming from far lands to grovel at his feet? The mullahs, the Taliban, Al Quaeda, Putin and the North Koreans have won a great victory.
Yours,
Tom
Is this part of the self-esteem movement we see in education?
I’ve never declared war on anyone. Where’s my peace prize? And I sure could use the money.
Alan K. Henderson: an honorary Oscar’s next, you just wait. Maybe they’ll even get Halle Berry onstage again so she can screech like a maniac one more time.
So, how long before the Dear Leader claims to have shot 18 holes in one?
Hell, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m damn proud Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. So proud I think it is the duty of every American to rub it in the face of people from other countries at every opportunity you get. After all, their worthless, do nothing, whiney leaders didn’t win squat. And ours won the Nobel Peace Prize. THE FRICK’N NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!!! That is how great America is.
In fact, I’m ordering 10,000 T-shirts that say “Obama is Great! Your leaders suck! The Nobel committee says so!” to be handed out at airports for people bound for Europe. Hey, anything I can do to help Obama’s international image…
The prize is supposed to go “”…to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses…”
Who do you think best meets the criteria, and thus should have won?
Emperor Palpatine. His Death Star was built to blow up whole planets full of standing armies.
Peaceful, unarmed Alderaan was just a test. The Emperor was going to abolish/reduce the number of standing armies. Any day now. Those evil
RepublicansRebels blew it up before it could start its nobel — er, noble work.“reduction of standing armies “
Why didn’t the Nobel Peace Prize go to Yeltsin and Putin who reduce the active duty Russian Army from around five million down to a million soldiers?
“holding and promotion of peace congresses”
Or why not the Ayotallah? He’s been getting the West togeter to talk about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for almost ten years now.
All we need is a willing professor in social sciences, history, philosophy law or theology or maybe a congressman to nominate.
http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nominators.html
It would look good on a resume. Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
Yours,
Tom
Peaceful, unarmed Alderaan was just a test.
All propaganda lies. Aldaeraan was brimming with weapons and explosives. The Death Star was just supposed to leave a bad rash — and the place was blown to hell when all their hidden IEDs conicidently simultaneously exploded. It’s just too bad that the explosion left no bits larger than a pebble to prove just how bloodthirsty and warlike the Aldaeraan’s really were. Emperor Palpatine was doing the Middle Rim a favor by wiping them from the face of the galaxy.
Mike Thompson …
Change “Your leaders suck!” to “European Leaders Suck” and you should be able to sell 10 million.
Put me down for a couple!
The prize is supposed to go “”…to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses…”
Pray tell me, Bob, what precisely has Obama done? Even Saturday Night Live had a skit last weekend ridiculing him for doing nothing. Giving speeches is not equal to actually accomphishing anything.
As to who should’ve won, perhaps some charity organization (e.g. Doctors Without Borders or the Sisters of Charity, both previous winners) that is actually accomphishing something?
How about the Olympics? Nero won the Olympics despite falling out of his chariot. Of course the ancient Greeks declared Nero the winner because they feared him and because he wanted it. Can’t blame Obama for that. Obama is given awards because they so hate his predecessor that they might give it to him for not being GWB.
Nero won the Olympics despite falling out of his chariot.
Yeah, that’s at least doing something. What about Obama?
300 million other Americans are not GWB.
Hey, that’s been debunked, haven’t you been watching CNN?
“Who do you think best meets the criteria, and thus should have won?”
The Honduran Supreme Court. They stopped a wannabe dictator. That’s more than Obama has done.
President Uribe of Colombia for standing up to terrorist enabler and Socialist thug Chaves. That’s more than Obama has done. He just looks pretty and gives a good speech when he has a teleprompter. All hail TOTUS!!
Well, this settles it — our reality is just a simulation, in essence an immense combination of World of Warcraft and The Sims.
And somewhere the equivalent of a fourteen-year-old boy is saying, “Hah! Now watch how the little bastards react to this!“
Zugzug!
I wonder if any commentator, anywhere on the political spectrum, will offer a genuine straight-faced defense or case for this prize.
Sounds like my cue! Actually, I don’t think it was a good selection. Some prizes (e.g. MacArthur “genius” grants) are meant to not only reward past accomplishments, but also make it possible for the honoree to achieve greater success in the future. I’d say that giving Obama the Nobel now slightly reduces the odds of his doing more of the things that the committee admires, because he will feel more pressure to demonstrate that he’s pursuing U.S. interests and not international popularity for its own sake. I will be surprised if the gain in terms of international prestige will outweigh the domestic political costs.
That said, if I had to defend or explain this selection I’d say that it reflects an awareness of the power of the U.S. presidency in a post-Cold War world. The U.S. spends as much on military power as the rest of the world combined, and the U.S. system of government gives the president a great deal of freedom of action where war and peace are concerned. The man or woman in the Oval Office has far more influence over issues of global war and peace than anyone else on Earth, and even a slight shift in policy or just emphasis by a U.S. president can make an enormous difference in the lives of millions of people around the globe.
In that light, the mere fact that Obama has changed U.S. presidential rhetoric in matters of war and diplomacy, and made small policy adjustments in the direction of a less confrontational foreign policy, is an achievement of note. Obama’s accomplishment may, like Armstrong’s step, be a fairly unremarkable action on the part of one man, but of great consequence for mankind. Perhaps George W. Bush can claim, as part of his legacy, the extension of the “soft bigotry of low expectations” to the Nobel committee’s view of the U.S. presidency.
If I had to pick a U.S. president for the peace prize I’d pick George H.W. Bush (along with James Baker) for their handling of the end of the Cold War, an event that was the greatest boon to peace that I expect to see in my lifetime. I could see honoring Clinton for Bosnia and Kosovo. I can only imagine Clinton’s reaction to hearing today’s news!
If I had to pick a U.S. president for the peace prize I’d pick George H.W. Bush (along with James Baker) for their handling of the end of the Cold War, an event that was the greatest boon to peace that I expect to see in my lifetime.
My sincere agreement with this comment. Indeed, it was at this point, when the Nobel prize decided to ignore this accomplishment and instead award prizes to people like Yassir Arafat, that I decided to ignore the Nobel Prize as anything of consequence.
I will say, as much as I don’t like President Carter now as a politician on US matters, and didn’t like him as President. President Carters real and excellent worldwide work with Habitat for Humanity is an achievement that far exceeds President Obama’s community organizer work. Indeed, President Carter’s work in this area has done more to house people like Obama’s brother in Kenya than anything Obama has done personally or professionally.
If he had only stuck to building houses, I guess the world could have forgiven him for unleashing the Iranian nightmare we now face. I can’t put it any less back-handedly, sorry.
“The man or woman in the Oval Office has far more influence over issues of global war and peace than anyone else on Earth, and even a slight shift in policy or just emphasis by a U.S. president can make an enormous difference in the lives of millions of people around.”
Yes, his obsequiousness towards Iran has put millions of Jews in more danger than they have been since 1948. I’m sure the committee approves.
President Carters real and excellent worldwide work with Habitat for Humanity is an achievement
True.
What’s odd is that the things he says when he is not doing Habitat for Humanity work tend to be worse than the things one might say when one hits one’s thumb with a Habitat for Humanity hammer. Carter’s inability to keep his lips zipped is worse than Clinton’s inability to keep his pants zipped.
Yours,
Tom
Actually Rand, Nixon was the fisrt President to bomb the moon.
Spent S-IVB stages were crashed into the moon to create artifical ‘moonquakes’ (sounds like something a Bond Villian would do) to help the ALSEP Sisemometers do soundings.
Kennedy would be the first if you count the Ranger series.
Ranger 4 hit the Moon in 1962.
Stupid Moon — always looking down at us with that smug look on its face..
If I had to pick a U.S. president for the peace prize I’d pick George H.W. Bush (along with James Baker) for their handling of the end of the Cold War,
I am struggling to wrap my head around the fact that I think Jim is 100% right on this.
I would pick Ronald Wilson Reagan for actually, you know, ending it.
While I’m total agreement that this appears to be the Nobel Prize awarded for “Not Being George Bush”, reading you guys today, especially the “revelations” comment reads like a Democrat blog from 2001/2/3/4/5/6/7…
McCain ran a dreadful campaign, had a dreadful running mate, but who in the hells was going to win anyway?
Not to mention: Rand, having spent most of the campaign explaining in detail how Obama couldn’t beat Clinton; wouldn’t be the nominee; wouldn’t possibly be elected… it’s pretty disingenuous of you to say the election was handed to him.
I didn’t believe the result myself until I saw McCain’s speech. Based on the room I was in, neither did anybody else.
Luna 2 hit the moon in 1959. Rand’s intial wording left it ambiguous whether a president had to be involved, but the USSR’s constitution left that question ambiguous (to English speakers) as well. 30 minutes after Luna 2’s impact, the third stage of its rocket also hit the moon.
Unfortunately I’d also pick Ronald Wilson Reagan for creating some of the mess we’re dealing with now, especially with the Taliban. Not sure that it could necessarily be avoided, but the handling of the post-USSR Afganistan isn’t something the West in general has any right to be happy with.
I just hope we don’t screw it up again, otherwise we’ll be rinse repeating this stuff a decade from now.
I would pick Ronald Wilson Reagan for actually, you know, ending it.
But it’s a peace prize, Mike. It’s inarguable that Reagan ended the Cold War — to hell with you Gorbyphiles — but it was Bush Sr. who made sure it ended peacefully by, in essence, privately convincing the Soviet leadership that while the US was determined to see the Soviet Union extinguished, it had no such existential quarrel with Russia.
Let’s call RR General Grant, convincing the Southerners through sheer implacable force that the result of continued struggle would be annihilation, and GHWB President Lincoln, convincing the Southerneres through forbearance and understanding that the result, on the other hand, of capitulation would not be annihilation of their beloved Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, et cetera, even if the CSA itself had to die. The one-two punch is what does the job, and it’s hard to see how the two roles can be combined in the same personality.
We were very fortunate in Presidents 40 and 41, very lucky indeed. Without one, the world might have congealed more permanently into the eternal twilight totalitarian nightmare of the Cold War, and without the other, the world might have ended in nuclear fire.