President Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, bully for him, but can somebody please explain to me how exactly he pulled that off at this exact moment?
First lets make sure we understand what the prize is for, and lets read it instead of assuming shall we?
The Nobel Foundation is established under the terms of the will of the engineer Dr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, drawn up on November 27, 1895, which in its relevant parts states:
"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part 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. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not."
Okay, there it is, now lets discuss it. The first thing I highlighted was the words, preceding year. I will allow for options here, was the preceding year the standard calendar year from January to January? If it was, the what was Mr. Obama (not yet President Obama) doing during that year that made him eligible for the prize? As far as I can tell, all he was doing was running an election campaign and raising money for said campaign. He spent a small amount of that time on the foreign circuit glad handing and such after his victory, but by and large that was a year full of nothing but campaigning. Does that campaign do anything to work towards Fraternity between nations? No I don't believe it did. As he was not yet president he could not reduce standing armies, nor could he do much towards a peace congress. So, if the year were to run from January to January, I don't see that he did anything that would even remotely put him in the running for the prize.
Now lets assume that maybe the year is defined like a fiscal year and runs oh say from June to June or something like that. That would put him in a better position to accomplish some of the requirements listed in Mr. Nobels will. That does however limit his time significantly. Instead of having 12 months worth of deeds to qualify, he only has something like 5 months give or take a month since we eliminated everything prior to him actually taking office and having the ability to accomplish any of these tasks.
Now lets repeat the process, what has President Obama done since inauguration to earn himself a peace prize? Has he been: 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? I can't say that he has. He certainly has not reduced or abolished any standing armies. If anything he has increased our presence in Afghanistan with the intention of increasing it even more as he adds and shifts troops away from Iraq. He has implemented, or at least requested, a host of budget cutting measures like cutting funding to the Air Force and cancelling a missile deployment program, but he has not reduced the standing armies in any way. As an aside on these two budget items, President Obama was quoted as saying that he wanted to cut funding to the Raptor (F-22) because it was fiscally irresponsible to keep spending such large amounts of money on outdated technology. Well, that sounds good to me on the surface, unless you realize that the Raptor is the most high tech warbird ever devised or built and is still decades ahead of anything anyone else in the world has been able to come up with. Its the pinnacle of stealth, speed, and performance, but its cut as being outdated technology? One of two things just happened, either the President is ignorant and/or hopes we are ignorant of what the Raptor is, or, the next generation of warbird is ready and hasn't been revealed to the public yet. Either way, this was a dumb thing to say out loud. As for the missile deployment, that would happen no matter who was in office because it was only ever a diplomatic ploy to begin with. We neither have the materials, the resources, or the interest in renewing the cold war, which is what that deployment would do. This was just a reminder of what could happen if we went back to the days of ol'. Russia got the message and we withdrew the proposal. In light of this, the President has done nothing to reduce the standing armies. That only leaves holding and promoting peace congresses. So, what has he done to do this? Well, nothing. The administration has offered to give Pakistan 1.5 billion a year for 5 years if they keep after the Taliban and allow us to do the same, but they haven't even yet accepted that offer. The administration has engaged in a global apology tour with a nice stop in the middle east to basically say that maybe we have been a little hasty in the past, and now we should be a little more discreet in our actions. I don't think that's it either.
First lets make sure we understand what the prize is for, and lets read it instead of assuming shall we?
The Nobel Foundation is established under the terms of the will of the engineer Dr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, drawn up on November 27, 1895, which in its relevant parts states:
"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part 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. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not."
Okay, there it is, now lets discuss it. The first thing I highlighted was the words, preceding year. I will allow for options here, was the preceding year the standard calendar year from January to January? If it was, the what was Mr. Obama (not yet President Obama) doing during that year that made him eligible for the prize? As far as I can tell, all he was doing was running an election campaign and raising money for said campaign. He spent a small amount of that time on the foreign circuit glad handing and such after his victory, but by and large that was a year full of nothing but campaigning. Does that campaign do anything to work towards Fraternity between nations? No I don't believe it did. As he was not yet president he could not reduce standing armies, nor could he do much towards a peace congress. So, if the year were to run from January to January, I don't see that he did anything that would even remotely put him in the running for the prize.
Now lets assume that maybe the year is defined like a fiscal year and runs oh say from June to June or something like that. That would put him in a better position to accomplish some of the requirements listed in Mr. Nobels will. That does however limit his time significantly. Instead of having 12 months worth of deeds to qualify, he only has something like 5 months give or take a month since we eliminated everything prior to him actually taking office and having the ability to accomplish any of these tasks.
Now lets repeat the process, what has President Obama done since inauguration to earn himself a peace prize? Has he been: 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? I can't say that he has. He certainly has not reduced or abolished any standing armies. If anything he has increased our presence in Afghanistan with the intention of increasing it even more as he adds and shifts troops away from Iraq. He has implemented, or at least requested, a host of budget cutting measures like cutting funding to the Air Force and cancelling a missile deployment program, but he has not reduced the standing armies in any way. As an aside on these two budget items, President Obama was quoted as saying that he wanted to cut funding to the Raptor (F-22) because it was fiscally irresponsible to keep spending such large amounts of money on outdated technology. Well, that sounds good to me on the surface, unless you realize that the Raptor is the most high tech warbird ever devised or built and is still decades ahead of anything anyone else in the world has been able to come up with. Its the pinnacle of stealth, speed, and performance, but its cut as being outdated technology? One of two things just happened, either the President is ignorant and/or hopes we are ignorant of what the Raptor is, or, the next generation of warbird is ready and hasn't been revealed to the public yet. Either way, this was a dumb thing to say out loud. As for the missile deployment, that would happen no matter who was in office because it was only ever a diplomatic ploy to begin with. We neither have the materials, the resources, or the interest in renewing the cold war, which is what that deployment would do. This was just a reminder of what could happen if we went back to the days of ol'. Russia got the message and we withdrew the proposal. In light of this, the President has done nothing to reduce the standing armies. That only leaves holding and promoting peace congresses. So, what has he done to do this? Well, nothing. The administration has offered to give Pakistan 1.5 billion a year for 5 years if they keep after the Taliban and allow us to do the same, but they haven't even yet accepted that offer. The administration has engaged in a global apology tour with a nice stop in the middle east to basically say that maybe we have been a little hasty in the past, and now we should be a little more discreet in our actions. I don't think that's it either.
At this point, I am at a loss. I could toss out two cynical guesses. He got it for his campaign that kept Hillary out of office and tossed the Republicans out of power. That's one lame guess. Another lame guess would be that the folks in Norway figure he is going to bankrupt the country here shortly and thus we will recall our troops due to lack of ability to fund our global influence. I doubt that's it either, although its not out of the question.
The last thing that I have highlighted is the statement that, " The most worthy shall receive the prize" This alone should worry us because even if I missed something that the President has done, should I have been able to miss it if it was grandiose enough to get him the recognition of the most worthy?
Here is a fun fact for you, along the topic of bankrupting America. The total sum of U.S. currency now in circulation (as of October 9th) is just over 900 billion dollars. As of the end of the fiscal year, the national debt topped 1.4 Trillion dollars. We spent 500 billion more dollars than what is even in existence. That means our government spent every existing dollar over and over and over and over again, and then spent billion upon billions in dollars that don't even exist.
Let us now begin to prepare for the fall of the Greatest civilization. I suggest we begin by hoarding food and ammunition. I think I will run out an by a HAM radio and a CB radio while I am purchasing a couple of 10 lb. bags of flour. You can use a window screen to shift the bugs out ya know.
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