THE NOBEL "PEACE" PRIZE

Mikhail Gorbachev, Yasser Arafat, Barack Obama - all "winners" of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Golda Meir, a Pope - all not winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

From the Nobel Peace Prize web site (italics are mine): "According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is to go to whoever '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'. "

Also, according to their web site, the deadline for nominations is February 1. That's right February 1!! That means that the winner of the prize for 2009 was President for twelve (12) days. I assume by the requirements set forth in Nobel's will the prize was awarded for the winner's entire body of his life's work, from his splendid collegiate leadership in foreign affairs to his legal writings on behalf of his many notable clients around the world to his astounding volume of bills introduced to the U.S. Senate to ensure the future of the United States and the world in peaceful solutions to international conflicts. It couldn't POSSIBLY rely on these mere first twelve days of his Presidency, could it?

It seems that the committee has once and for all jumped the shark (as if the 2003 prize to Jimmy Carter and the 2007 prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Algore weren't foolish enough).

As a side note, if you are not aware, the originator of the Nobel Prize for Peace (and physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, land iterature), Alfred Nobel, made his fortune after inventing dynamite in pre-soviet Russia. I guess, after deliberation, he must have concluded that peace through strength is a viable concept.

By the way, if you disagree with me you are a racist! (This is the manner in wich a blogger, Greg Gutfield, ends his entries on bighollywood.com shown at right)