Five Most Entertaining Outrage on Obama & the Nobel Prize

In India, if the sitting PM or President won the Nobel Prize, there would have been a month long celebrations amongst the people where every Indian would think that HE himself have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

However this is the partisan ridden United States ..

There was an outrage on Obama winning the Nobel prize! These are the most entertaining of the outrages. There were not any arbitrary comments. The were from reputed columnists publishing in reputed newspapers or web-sites.

Finally, we will show you an element of sanity in this insanity.

Here are the FIVE most entertaining outrages.

5: "Heckuva Job, Barack" by Ross Douthat in the New York Times.

The article requests (rather orders) the President to refuse the prize because "the prize makes every foreign-policy problem Obama faces seem ever so slightly more burdensome". The article keeps repeating this point. The tone was sarcastic but The NY times accepted it for publication!!

Pièce de résistance

People have argued that you can’t turn down a Nobel. ......

Would the world have been offended? Well, to start with, the prize isn’t given out by an imaginary “world community.” It’s voted on and handed out by a committee of five obscure Norwegians. So turning it down would have been a slap in the face, yes, to Thorbjorn Jagland, Kaci Kullmann Five, Sissel Marie Ronbeck, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and Agot Valle. But it wouldn’t have been a slap in the face to the Europeans or the Africans, to Moscow or Beijing, or to any other population or great power that an American president should fret about offending.

4. Why President Obama Was Awarded the Nobel Prize

This article is more fun. Written by Dennis Prager and published in Real Clear Politics. The article parses the Nobel Committee announcement and writes a commentary. For example, parsing, "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" to "Meaning: No more Lone Ranger America."

The article reads like a "commentary" of a sacred text. The words of Nobel Committee were first and then a commentary on this later.

The essential theme of the article is that this prize undercuts..

American exceptionalism -- the notion that America has a superior moral value system to that of the "world" (specifically the United Nations and the European Union) and America's willing to use its unique power, alone when necessary, in accordance with that value system.

Incidentally, this theme of surrendering American Exceptionalism is noted in virtually all right wing articles.

Pièce de résistance

6. "Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting."

Meaning: To our delight, unlike the previous president, this one believes in global warming and in changing the American economy to combat it.

The "climate change" scare has become the most effective vehicle for compelling a transformation of Western economies along the lines that left-wing environmentalists have urged for decades.

3 . A Wicked and Ignorant Award

This article has been published in none the less but the prestigious Wall Street Journal Opinion Pages written by none other than Peggy Noonan. The quality of the English is exceptional. The content, none!! The article was nothing but polemics against the Nobel committee. Some of the polemics are:

• In one mindless stroke, the committee has rendered the Nobel Peace Prize a laughingstock, perhaps for as long as a generation. And that is an act of true destruction, because it was actually good that the world had a prestigious award for peacemaking.
• ... puts him at a disadvantage in his own country, because Americans don't really like it when flaky European politicians tell them how they ought to see him or the world.
• Hmm, can a president who just won the left's great peace prize decide to increase American troop strength and presence in a foreign war? What impact will this have on larger geopolitical considerations?

Anyway here is the ...

Pièce de résistance

It was always absurd that Ronald Reagan, whose political project led to the end of the gulag and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who gambled his personal standing in the world for a system that would protect the common man from annihilation in a nuclear missile attack, could not win it. But nobody wept over it, and for one reason: because everyone, every sentient adult who cared to know about such things, knew that the Nobel Peace Prize is, when awarded to a political figure, a great and prestigious award given by liberals to liberals. NCNA--no conservatives need apply. This is the way of the world, and so what? Life isn't for prizes.

2. An Unconstitutional Nobel

From the funny we arrive at the ridiculous! This article actually says, with some interesting legal imagination. We begin with...

Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, the emolument clause, clearly stipulates: "And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State."

.......

The five-member Nobel commission is elected by the Storting, the parliament of Norway. Thus the award of the peace prize is made by a body representing the legislature of a sovereign foreign state. There is no doubt that the Nobel Peace Prize is an "emolument" ("gain from employment or position," according to Webster).

It is unfortunate that in this day and age, one is not aware that the Nobel prize is awarded by the Nobel Foundation which is a private institution based on the Will of Alfred Nobel. The selection could be subcontracted to whomsoever they Foundation feels like, and the award my be formally presented by whomsoever they choose, but at the end of the day the prize comes from the Nobel Foundation.

Or, Mr Obama can get Congressional approval for him the accept the Nobel Prize.

Pièce de résistance

An opinion of the U.S. attorney general advised, in 1902, that "a simple remembrance," even "if merely a photograph, falls under the inclusion of 'any present of any kind whatever.' " President Clinton's Office of Legal Counsel, in 1993, reaffirmed the 1902 opinion, and explained that the text of the clause does not limit "its application solely to foreign governments acting as sovereigns." This opinion went on to say that the emolument clause applies even when the foreign government acts through instrumentalities. Thus the Nobel Prize is an emolument, and a foreign one to boot.

Second, the president has indicated that he will give the prize money to charity, but that does not solve his legal problem. Giving that $1.4 million to a charity could give him a deduction that would reduce his income taxes by $500,000 -- not a nominal amount. Moreover, the money is not his to give away. It belongs to the United States: A federal statute provides that if the president accepts a "tangible or intangible present" for more than a minimal value from any foreign government, the gift "shall become the property of the United States."

The author needs to see a Tax Consultant! Please! Even if he donates the money, he has to still pay taxes. This is because the prize will show up as income the donation cannot be fully deducted. He would probably wish that the prize becomes "the property of the United States."

1. THE NOBEL PRIZE TO OBAMA: EUROPE’S BID TO RE-COLONIZE AMERICA

This article takes the cake! It has to be read to be savored...


Pièce de résistance

So, Lenin was right. Socialism cannot exist in just one country - or one continent. It must dominate worldwide or wealth and power will flow to those who remain committed to the free market. Europe realizes this reality and it makes Obama’s election as president of the United States all the more welcome.

The Nobel Prize is really Obama’s payback for disciplining the unruly United States and taming it to be a member of the European family of nations. Europe wants to reverse the American Revolution and re-colonize us and it sees in Obama a kindred spirit willing to do its bidding.

Return to Sanity

A prize that’s also for us

This article states the original intent of this blogger. "This is Our Nobel".

This is the feeling a Normal Person would feel when his Head of State (especially of a Democratic Republic) wins a prize like this.

Please read the article. Especially the final words..

The Nobel Committee clearly was awarding Obama the Nobel for hauling America out of the pits of unilateralism. What had to come first was America fulfilling a major portion of the dream of another Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Martin Luther King Jr. For that, America is worthy. The Nobel Committee in fact might have made a mistake. It said, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future.’’

It would have been better off proclaiming, “The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards its 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to the United States of America for having the courage to come full circle 233 years after a slave-owning nation declared independence by saying all men are created equal.’’

A Greek Tragedy in Silicon Valley

Preface
Are Silicon Valley professionals are manufactured as Narcissists. The author seems not only to find that out but also inexplicably he too is a part of that club. He places this in the toastmaster's meeting an Palo Alto and at the end asks the audience a question. The question was essentially how we could redeem ourselves.

A Greek Tragedy in Silicon Valley

[This speech was given to LEB toastmasters in Palo Alto on October 7, 2009. A question was asked at the end. Selected replies are given at the end!]

Thank you Mr Toastmaster to narrate a Greek Tragedy and then say how it is replayed amongst the Silicon Valley IT professionals - in a different way. Finally I shall ask the audience a question.

So, Mr. Toastmaster, my fellow toastmaster, members of the audience and welcome guests, I begin the evening to take you to Mythical Greece ....

A long time ago lived a very handsome smart with all the good looks he could possess. His name is Narcissus. Narcissus was sought after by all the maidens and the nymphs. But he rejected them all!

Among those ladies was a nymph, Echo. Echo had been cursed by Hera, the goddess of marriage, that she cannot speak on her own but can only repeat back what was told to her.

One day, Narcissus was in the forest lost from his friends. Echo was amongst the trees unable to call for him so she was following him. Narcissus heard the rustling leaves and asks, "Is anyone here?". Echo could only reply, "here here". Narcissus said , "come come". Echo ran towards Narcissus with outstretched hands. But Narcissus declined her love. Echo was so humiliated that she went and hid in a cave. She disintegrated and died there. Only her voice remained.

They say that even today, if you go inside a cave and calls out for her, she would reply only repeated what you said.

This made Nemesis the goddess of retribution angry and Narcissus was cursed to fall only in love with himself. So one day when he went to the river to drink he fell in love with his reflection on the water. He hopelessly fell in love with his beautiful face. But when he moved back the image disappeared. So he lay next to the water looking at his reflection till he dies. A beautiful flower grew where he died. It was called Narcissus.

Fast forward to twenty-first century Silicon Valley.

Narcissus has graduated from one of the worlds top engineering schools. His admission in the school was maybe 100 to 1 competition. When he got admission his extended family gave him the accolades. He was told that he was the bright star of the family. The school chairman welcomed him and his other freshmen as the creme de la creme of the Nation. These accolades he never forgot. He gets the best grades from this world class engineering school.

With this stamp he enters the workplace of Silicon Valley and commands a six-figure or near six-figure salary with an obscene amount stock option. He tastes success and but recognizes that this is a mere stepping stone for more money, more power, more attention. This ambition seems to be deemed good. But he goes to the extreme...

How do I go to the top? He asks. Friends are disposable objects. To be used and if failed rejected. There is mad drive to succeed, over succeed. To quote a technical term from Animal Planet channel - "The alpha male or female".

What is the beauty he posses? It is something more rare than the Greek Narcissus had. It is called intellect! That gives Narcissus the feel of being on the top of the world. He has friends amongst his tribe and they speak amongst themselves in a strange language. He does not like criticism but is free to criticize others for being slow and not upto his standards and even critizes himself.

One day, Society at large or Echo meets Narcissus. Echo needs his help for Societies many problems. But Narcissus cannot listen. He has lost his empathy. He leaves Echo by the wayside. He only can speak to his equals (if any). Echo is good as someone to speak to. Someone to dictate to. But not someone with a free will and free self.

The problems of Echo is not his problem. Narcissus sends Echo back. He can only use society but cannot give. Cannot listen. Echo realizes it and moves on.

Today's Echo may live on. But Narcissus will one day be old, be friendless, be lonely. He has not learned to listen but to control. He stands alone - loveless and asking the very question - I came to the world to be admired but why am I not admired?

So I ask the audience at large, what can Narcissus do to get Echo back, or removing the metaphor what can we the single-minded, victory-oriented, over-intellectual Silicon Valley IT demi-god can do to be considered acceptable to the the larger society. What can we (the speaker is a member of the crowd) do so not to sound very aloof, detached and unempathetic.

When you write your feedback, answer this question on the reverse side.

Thanking you and over to Mr, Toastmaster.

Selected replies

"They have to get in touch with their feelings. They, or most of them, live all their lives in the head"

"How can CEOs become equal to society? By showing social responsibility and become involved in the society?"

"IT professional should take time to 'smell roses'."

"They should think of others and not just of themselves. They should join a philanthropic foundation to give some of their money away."

..................

Please feel free to add your answers in the Comments Section