It's the Nobel PEACE Prize...
...not the Nobel Prize for Propagandizing Junk Science. Given that there's no peace in the world,and nobody making any, they had to give it to somebody, though there's always General Petraeus, or Lauren Canario ...and I understand that the Burmese generals made some peace recently too. So now Owlgore gets to join the distinguished ranks of Yassir Arafat, Henry Kissinger, Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt (not to mention the even more distinguished ranks of nominees, which include Stalin and Hitler).
I've known this was coming for three days, but like most things out of my control, I floated it down Cleopatra's favorite river. But knowing didn't make the news any easier to take.
So let's look at anthropogenic global warming and peace, shall we? We can convince poor nations to use the farming techniques of last century so that they can sell us carbon credits, and close down their industries. That's sure to keep them happy and peaceful. Whereas turning Canada into the breadbasket of the world and drowning NYC (and the UN!) will lead to constant war. If we really want to stop global warming, why don't we just nuke our enemies and be done with it, and bring on a nuclear winter? I'm sure things will be peaceful then, though Oog might still crawl into Bam's cave and spear him (but Bam will have insurance from GEICO).
Well, we've had over a century of the Nobel peace prize (except for WW II, when they pretty much gave up), and you can see how much good it's done. And at least Al isn't using the money to pay his electric bill. So joining the nonentities (and a few true luminaries) on the Nobel list is not the end of the world.
UPDATE: European gentlemen say these things so much more suavely:
"The relationship between his activities and world peace is unclear and indistinct," [Czech President Vaclav Klaus'] statement said. "It rather seems that Gore's doubting of basic cornerstones of the current civilization does not contribute to peace."
UPDATE 10/16: Here's one of the nominees who didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Clearly it's more important to save the planet than 2500 Jewish children.
Comments
Posted by: Jim Quick
Posted on: October 12, 2007 08:03 PM
Wow, Alfreds henchmen are 4 for five. picking a wimp (Jimmy Carter), A Windbag (Kissinger) A Terrorist (Araphat) and now an idiot (Al Gore).
Jimbo
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: October 12, 2007 08:34 PM
My first thought was, at least he's better than Arafat. And it's my impression that while the prize committee gets the blame for the actual winner, they have no control over the nominations.
The truly repugnant aspect is his co-winners, a UN committee.
But can we at least say three cheers for Doris Lessing?
On the bright side, apparently Algore won't try for the presidency again, because that would be a comedown now.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: October 13, 2007 06:32 AM
Yes, the UN aspect is disgusting, but it's hard to work up a good rant over a faceless committee. As for the presidency, why settle for being a Nobel laureate when you can be a Nobel Laureate AND a president? It's not fair that Gore is not the equal of Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: October 13, 2007 09:09 PM
Not fair at all, but I think Gore doesn't have quite the sense of self importance (at least not yet) that Carter does, nor the ability to mouth baldfaced lies, nor does he seem to have Carter's desire to keep on being president twenty years after he was voted out of office.
Also, he may be banking on the probability that Hillary will win next year, and that between the job of cleaning up Dubya's messes and the job of starting her own messes, she'll end up with such a shambled reputation that he will be able to reign as senior statesman of the Democratic party after 2012 or 2016. And to be senior statesman, it's best to be in position where you don't actually have any responsibility for anything getting done right.