Nobel Prizes

22 Comments

1. markomalley says:

   14 October 2012 at 10:18 AM

   At least in the case of the restaurant, the laureate would have to actually do something to justify the award.
2. VexillaRegis says:

   14 October 2012 at 11:12 AM

   Funny sign, if you think about the prize winner of 2009, Obama, who didn’t do anything to get it.

   However, these laureates DID DO something to get it: Th. Roosevelt, Int. Red Cross, Bishop Nathan Söderblom (ecumenist), Alb. Schweitzer, G. C. Marshal, Martin Luther King, Bl. Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, Elie Wiesel, the UN and the prize winner of this year, The European Union. The EU has worked for 60 years to bring peace to Europe, and without it France and Germany still would be enemies.
3. asperges says:

   14 October 2012 at 11:31 AM

   I will take some convincing to believe that the EU deserves a peace prize. Their aim was at first economic, then it became political. It undoubtedly helped rebuilding (some of) Europe post war, but the idea that for two pins another European war would have inevitably broken out is utter nonsense. The real danger was always the cold war and the old USSR.

   In the UK not many of us see the EU as a humanitarian peace-seeking organisation. Its universal interference in nation states is deplorable along with its obsession for centralisation and constant arrogating of powers it was never intended to have. The euro crisis (which is entirely of its own making) is a fresh excuse for expanding these aims.

   This award is scraping the barrel. Surely there are more deserving causes. The Nobel Committee does itself no credit by these quasi-political hand-outs.
4. Andrew says:

   14 October 2012 at 12:21 PM

   Hopefully the restaurant won’t drive away customers. Most people have enough garbage already. I know the peace committee wants to be relevant and think the peace prize is some kind of tool for shaping policy or creating motivation in people and governments, but that only works by actually awarding it to people who deserve it. The EU, whatever problems I have with it, and however silly it sounds to give the EU the peace prize, at least has a better case than at least two of the previous winners in the last 5 years. Obama was really the last straw in the award being worth anything, and I feel bad for people who have won it deservingly in the past or in the future if the Norwegians regain any sense. Hopefully Obama won’t be similarly rewarded for doing absolutely nothing again this November by Americans.
5. frjim4321 says:

   14 October 2012 at 12:41 PM

   I have to admit, that was pretty funny.
6. VexillaRegis says:

   14 October 2012 at 12:43 PM

   I didn’t mean that war inevitably would have broken out here in Europe if it hadn’t been for the EU, just that France and Germany still would have been enemies and not working together for the common European good, which they now do. The existece of the EU has done a lot to stabilise the situation in E. Of course the EU is not perfect, and it’s not a humanitarian organisation, but I think it is seeking peace!

   I also think, that the Nobel Peace Prize has become politicalised, but that all those laureates I mentioned earlier (and most of the others), were extremely worthy of the award. By making fun of the prize, we risk putting them in a less favourable light too, and we wouldn’t want that, would we? :-)

   My point was, that there have been some extremely worthy prize winners during the years
7. VexillaRegis says:

   14 October 2012 at 12:45 PM

   edit: Please disregard the last line, distracted by 3 y o…
8. robtbrown says:

   14 October 2012 at 1:55 PM

   VexillaRegis says:

   The EU has worked for 60 years to bring peace to Europe, and without it France and Germany still would be enemies.

   The EU only began in the mid 90’s. The EEC is 60 years old and just a trade agreement among certain Euro nations.

   The EU eliminated passport control within Europe. It also created a common currency, which would give the EU economic sovereignty and a hoped for leverage over the US dollar. At the time I thought the creation of the Euro (AKA the Deutschmark) was not a good idea. Subsequent events have shown that I was negative enough.
9. Margaret says:

   14 October 2012 at 2:16 PM

   On a slightly happier note, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was given a few days ago to a Japanese scientist, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, for his development of ethical embryonic-like stem cells, i.e. cells that have the plasticity of embryonic cells, but don’t involve destroying or tampering with embryos.
10. jeffreyquick says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:02 PM

    The beef tacos only come with a free Pulitzer.
11. JacobWall says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:04 PM

    @VexillaRegis

    “By making fun of the prize, we risk putting them in a less favourable light too, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

    True, but that already happened when the prize was given to President Obama. I’d say handing out the prize frivolously does more to diminish the significance for those did earn it much more than the shrimp taco sign. The shrimp taco sign at least is clearly a joke. The prize for President Obama was supposed to be serious.

    By the way, where is the deal – the shimp tacos sound good right now … (what am I saying? I’m on the coast in Mexico, I can get shrimp tacos anywhere! But I’m not sure if they’d give me the Nobel Prize with them – in fact, I’m not sure if they would even know what the Prize or the EU are. They may not even know much about Pres. Obama other than perhaps having heard his name. They’d definitely know about Mother Teresa; maybe that could be a good starting point to explain it and try to get them to offer a Nobel Prize with their tacos – no, no … having given it more thought I’ll just go enjoy the tacos. I’ll be content to talk about the usual favourites – God, the many blessings they have even though they live in thatched-roof huts, money can’t buy happiness – in fact, money often corrupts us to great sin – family values, manliness, and – always important – how the current generation is forgetting all of these good things. Good conversation. Much better than the Nobel Prize. And it really does come free with the tacos!)
12. SKAY says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:25 PM

    There are precidents to the Obama award–

    “Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday, and the former vice president used the attention to warn that global warming is “the greatest challenge we’ve ever faced.”
13. SKAY says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:28 PM

    Sorry-precedents
14. wmeyer says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:32 PM

    The Jimmy Carter Nobel was a precedent, as well.
15. Sissy says:

    14 October 2012 at 3:43 PM

    Ahem, Yasser Arafat, anyone?????
16. VexillaRegis says:

    14 October 2012 at 4:00 PM

    @Jacob Wall: “True, but that already happend when the prize was given to President Obama.” I agree. It’s just so sad that this very prestigious prize has been tarnished. Mr Alfred Nobel would rotate in his grave if he knew what was going on. Hmm, this sign seems to have hit a nerve in me. Food for thought to night! :-)
17. VexillaRegis says:

    14 October 2012 at 4:03 PM

    Just wrote a post that went to moderation. Good night! :-) (11 pm here)
18. Alan Aversa says:

    14 October 2012 at 6:53 PM

    @VexillaRegis: Without the UN there would be real humanitarian aid (condoms and abortion aren’t humanitarian aid!) and less promulgation of Masonic, naturalistic rights of man (such as the supposed natural right to publicly practice whatever cult you want). Pope Leo XIII said: “The world has heard enough of the so-called ‘rights of man.’ Let it hear something of the rights of God.” (Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus).
19. Matt R says:

    15 October 2012 at 12:20 AM

    I hope the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the World Organization for the Scout Movement; the work of the Scouts to produce youth of good morals and virtue is incredible, and considering the work done by the WOSM to sponsor illegal Scouting and exile Scouting as a bulwark against Nazism and Communism, I’d say they’ve done something to promote peace and righteousness.
    Perhaps, in the future it will also go to the International Baccalaureate Organization for working fo peace through education…a more distant future.
    Sheesh, there are a number of worthy NGOs and charities that deserve it too, I’m sure, that I just haven’t heard of.
20. Magash says:

    15 October 2012 at 9:34 AM

    As a yank I don’t really have a dog in the EU fight. However am I not right in assuming that the EU is basically a type of, or aspiring to be a type of, federal government in which the citizenry is ruled by a group of appointed bureaucrats? Basically though they have a parliament, the parliament has no legislative powers? The courts seek to establish precedent and control over national courts, with basically no elective control of the citizenry, not even the kind of indirect control we have in the U.S. under the constitution?
    Sounds like a recipe for future tyranny to me. The strength of the U.S. government has always been the built in balances in the Constitution. Both between the three branches of the federal government and between the federal governments and the states. That last one has been weakened in the last century, but its becoming ascendant again. I don’t see balances built into the EU government.
21. Charivari Rob says:

    15 October 2012 at 11:38 AM

    The USA gets a share of the prize as well, right?

    After all, without the Arsenal of Democracy, liberating Europe in WWII, rebuilding and/or shoring up Europe with the Marshall Plan, and defending it with NATO – there wouldn’t have been any of this achievement by the EU.

    I suggest the President promise to put our share of the prize money to debt reduction. 8)

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