A good look at whether the Nobel was given too prematurely:
The Nobel Committee gave South African Bishop Desmond Tutu the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his leadership of efforts to abolish apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid wasn't fully abolished in South Africa until 1994. The committee could have waited until after apartheid was abolished to say, "Well done!" But the point of the award was to help bring down apartheid by strengthening Bishop Tutu's efforts. In particular, everyone knew that it was going to be much harder for the apartheid regime to crack down on Tutu after the Nobel Committee wrapped him in its protective cloak of world praise.
That's what the Nobel Committee is trying to do for Obama now. It's giving an award to encourage the change in world relations that Obama has promised, and to try to help shield Obama against his domestic adversaries...
Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP, "Some people say, and I understand it, 'Isn't it premature? Too early?' Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond -- all of us."
Rick Rolls
Warning - no music or video will play when you click on this. Because it's a pun.
That Nobel committee really upped their HSQ. It does feel somehow like there's several lines of subtext in the award. One is "Thank you for not being Bush." But I think there's also a little of "Yay America! you elected a black dude." and some, "Take that, you crazy whack-a-doodle conservatives."
Especially when you consider that Obama had been president for less than two weeks when the nominations were made. [link]
Of course, I was still full of high hopes for Guantanamo and the Obama Presidency in general at that point.
(oops, got delayed in posting. Waves at Kathy A.)
One difference between Tutu and Obama, is that Tutu was not in the middle of fighting 2.5 wars, at least 1.5 of which he is escalating. Also Tutu had been campaigning for the end of apartheid a long time. The Nobel committee has a long time history of bad decisions, and this is by no means the worst. It was awarded to Kissinger, and to Teddy Roosevelt. For that matter there was once a deadlock between giving the prize to Hitler or Ghandi so it was given to a commissioner on refugees as a compromise. As I said Obama is far from the worst they have ever done. But it won't go down as one of their good decisions.
I'm trying to decide what to do about lunch. I'm hungry for Pizza, but the Dominoes nearby has closed.
Are there
any
frozen pizzas that don't suck if you nuke them instead of sticking them in a convection oven?
pink bathrooms
LOVE. It is almost 100% assured that when I move next it will be to a 50s or 60s house and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a pink bathroom. If money comes out like I think it will on that move, I'll probably be re-doing part of bathrooms or a kitchen and I might very well do a vintage re-do of both. I can hear the sellers/designers screaming now as I probably rip out the brand new granite/marble counters they put in. I hate the new stuff.
