Nobel Peace Prize: They've Outdone Stupid

[Virgil Showlion]

Per the WSJ (bold by me):

The European Union has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize in a nod to the 27-member bloc's "advancement of peace and reconciliation," and to applaud its solidarity as it continues to work to contain the debt crisis hanging over the euro zone.

The head of the Norwegian committee, Thorbørn Jagland, said the committee gave the award in an effort to encourage Europe to back away from the "extremism and nationalism" that led to major conflict in years past. "This is, in a way, a message to Europe to secure everything we have achieved and move forward," he said while addressing a packed crowd at the Nobel Norwegian Institute in Oslo on Friday.

"We don't have a position on how to solve the economic crisis, but we believe it will be important to solve it and that European unity can be kept so that Europe can move forward. There are many things to say about the economic crisis—where it originated, for instance. Actually, it started in the U.S. and all of us had to deal with it.

"Mr. Jagland said it is "up to the European Union" to decide what to do with the approximately $1.2 million in prize money that comes with the award. He also said the EU should decide how the award is ceremonially received.

Hear that, US? It's not because Europe is spending money like a drunken sailor or because the EU is a bigger Ponzi scheme than the OTC derivatives market. They're in trouble because America screwed 'em.

In other news: stocks in Belgian catering companies soared as a result of the announcement.

Anybody interested in the details of Europe's slow plunge into oblivion should visit Virginian's "Europe in Crisis" thread:

notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=startinvesting&action=display&thread=23511&page=7

[Green Eyed Lady]

We apologize?

[Deleted]

First Obama and now the EU..... The Nobel Peace prize committee must be on some heavy drugs.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Oct 12, 2012 9:12:33 GMT -5 Green Eyed Lady said:

We apologize?

[Deleted]

It's one thing when Time magazine takes a warm fuzzy BS stance and names everyone "person of the year." The Nobel Committee is phoning it in.

[wyouser]

One commentator this am called the Nobel comission a bunch of appeasement monkeys. So whats the EU goning to do with the prize money? Apply it toward the Greek bailout black hole, or use it to prop up Spanish banks??

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2012 9:14:07 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

First Obama and now the EU..... The Nobel Peace prize committee must be on some heavy drugs.

Whatever they are on I want some of it because it must be good!

[Virgil Showlion]

Oct 12, 2012 10:33:30 GMT -5 wyouser said:

One commentator this am called the Nobel comission a bunch of appeasement monkeys. So whats the EU goning to do with the prize money? Apply it toward the Greek bailout black hole, or use it to prop up Spanish banks??

Decisions, decisions.



Billis criticized me earlier today for having views that don't evolve with time, but here's a perfect counterexample.

Question: Do you believe the Nobel Peace prize carries considerable prestige and relevance?

Virgil in 2007: There have been oversights. Mr. Arafat, for example. And Mr. Gore for his agenda-driven work in "An Inconvenient Truth". But overall I believe the prize still carries a modicum of prestige and international respect...

Virgil in 2010: I've become jaded. The award going to Pres. Obama for his celebrity rise to power severely damaged its reputation, and the committee will need to work hard to win back the perception that it is awarded to individuals for credible work in the furtherance of global peace...

Virgil Today: Stick a fork in it. It's done.

[TonyTiger]

I stopped paying attention to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee's findings the day that they announced a Peace Prize for Barack Obama while he was still riding the crest of the Messianic Craze that attended his election and inauguration.

A rookie junior Senator from Illinois who'd barely even gotten his Senate Seat warmed-up yet, and who'd been largely a do-nothing State Legislator, and who hadn't done bupkess yet, and who was annointed by the DNC as the new Chosen One by giving him the Keynote Address at the 2004 DNC Convention even though he hadn't done a thing to deserve the honor yet.

Giving a Nobel Peace Prize to a Newbie who hadn't done squat yet - anywhere up and down the spectrum - never mind having been responsible for Peace breaking-out someplace.

Friggin' embarrassing... for Fearless Leader... for the United States... for the Democrats... and, most especially, for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee...

Somebody put some wacky-weed in their snuff boxes the morning that they made THAT decision...

So...

I'm not surprised in the slightest that those crackpots and freaks have awarded the prize to a Political Bloc...

The next guy who is awarded a Nobel Prize can always use the accompanying certificate if he runs out of Charmin...

[Virgil Showlion]

Friggin' embarrassing... for Fearless Leader... for the United States... for the Democrats... and, most especially, for the Nobel Peace Prize Committee...

It was the second-to-last nail in their coffin of their credibility, as far as I was concerned.

This marks the last.

[Colleenz]

What's next? Posthumously awarding it to Osama Bin Laden for feeding all those fish?

[Opti]

While I agree its a lame choice it might be motivated as a political
nudge for the EU to hang together.

Iceland was stupid on its own. Ireland reverts to being poor but with high house ownership and massive mortgage debt. But the Greek government did borrow $1 billion from Goldman Sachs with Goldman pocketing $300 Million in fees. Reading Boomerang it seems
the Germans are probably still sitting on bad securities like the banks here are.

For the most part it did start with US financial institutions. The smarter countries and bankers didn't join in or mitigated the damage. Greece sounds so corrupt and everyone for themselves that
it would have collapsed with or without the credit crisis IMO. It just happened sooner than it would have otherwise. Perhaps the committee is deeply concerned as to what will happen if the EU cuts Greece loose and they might be hoping this announcement will keep that from happening.

[Virgil Showlion]

it might be motivated as a political nudge for the EU to hang together

It is. They say so in the award speech. That's its purpose.

It's a "Sorry your union is falling apart like a cheap bag of garbage, but here's a Nobel Peace Prize to make you feel better."

[Deleted]

This may actually be worse than the Obama peace prize. This one, presumably, is something they had a good long while to think about, rather than the impulsive decision made to give it to Obama.

Can they also give Europe some sort of anti-peace prize for getting themselves into this mess?

[swamp]

didn't they give yassir arafat a peace prize back in teh '80's or '90's?

ETA: It was 1994.
That's when they lost credibility.

[Deleted]

Are the cultural differences between the EU and the United states opened up to such a large chasm that we can no longer relate to their reasoning's ? Aren't the committee members also living in the EU ?

[Virgil Showlion]

But having said that, I can see the reasoning behind it. Europe had been at almost constant war for hundreds of years. Germany and France (among others)were at war 3 times in the 70 years prior to 1945. In the 67 years hence it has been peaceful, at least among the European countries.

So give the US and Canada a joint Nobel Peace prize for our 200 years of peace.

Or award Richard the Lionheart the Nobel Peace prize posthumously for uniting Europe to reclaim Jerusalem in the crusades.

At one point the award was meant to recognize an individual's real, lifelong contributions to the furtherance of peace. Since then, they've used it to prop up flagging regimes, lend token support to globalist initiatives, and pat various institutions and individuals on the back simply for existing.

At this point, it's like handing the "Best Captain o' the Year" award to the captain of the Titanic as it sinks into the Atlantic. Too little, too late, and they've sundered what little credibility the award had left.

[Deleted]

Oct 12, 2012 9:14:07 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

First Obama and now the EU..... The Nobel Peace prize committee must be on some heavy drugs.

[Deleted]

At this point, it's like handing the "Best Captain o' the Year" award to the captain of the Titanic as it sinks into the Atlantic. Too little, too late, and they've sundered what little credibility the award had left.

[TonyTiger]

Here's an idea for the Nobel Peace Prize selection committee...

During years when there exists no worthy candidate, in keeping with the original spirit and intent and usage of the Prize, then...

Do not award a Nobel Peace Prize that year...

Sure beats making $hit up and cheapening an award that once-upon-a-time was easily understood and much-respected...

Then again, by now, it may very well be too late...

Much as there are Slow News Days... apparently, there are Slow Peace Years, as well...

This cheapening of their award is what happens when you give out Peace Prizes like they were 6-piece Happy Meals...

[Virgil Showlion]

During years when there exists no worthy candidate, in keeping with the original spirit and intent and usage of the Prize, then...

Do not award a Nobel Peace Prize that year.

There's no shortage of worthy candidates.

But the people shedding their sweat, blood and tears out on the front line in utter obscurity evidently aren't Nobel Peace Prize material anymore.

[Spellbound454]

hhhmm...I think you are getting confused with the EU and the Euro zone.

There are many countries in the EU which don't have the single currency..... and Britain is one of them.

[Virgil Showlion]

Oct 12, 2012 15:39:10 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

hhhmm...I think you are getting confused with the EU and the Euro zone.

There are many countries in the EU which don't have the single currency..... and Britain is one of them.

The distinction is somewhat irrelevant in this case, as a dissolution of the economic union would precipitate a dissolution of the political union, and vice versa.

All the major European leaders have said it.

The award in this case is going to the political union.

[Spellbound454]

The political union ran for years without the economic union.
Some of the problems have been caused because Countries of the Euro Zone cannot devalue their currencies and would have been better off on their own.

Whatever happens we are still all neighbours and trade will resume in whatever format it evolves into...simply because we are part of the same continent.

As for the EU being awarded a peace prize for keeping the extremists at bay and helping each other.
Firstly I wasn't aware we had a problem with extremists...only a few loud mouthed individuals who may like to think they number more than they do.......and secondly we aren't helping each other so much as ourselves.

[TonyTiger]

Yeah - I was not aware that another European War was imminent, and that everybody pitched-in and preserved the peace, resulting in such a Prize...

Oooops... wait... sorry... they give 'em out for any ol' reason and to any ol' entity nowadays, don't they?... kinda like party favors... and with about as much value...

Sorry... my bad... I don't know what I was thinkin'...

[Virgil Showlion]

Firstly I wasn't aware we had a problem with extremists...only a few loud mouthed individuals who may like to think they number more than they do.......and secondly we aren't helping each other so much as ourselves.

Spain has a raging separatist party (mainly Catalan separatists), which could spark a civil war in that country if they aren't appeased.

15% (and rising) of Germany's population identifies as neo-Nazi, and does so proudly.

Greece has had violent, almost non-stop riots since the first austerity measures in February.

The fact that Europe melting down is barely a footnote in American news is a reflection of the legendarily narrow focus and poor quality of the US MSM.

[Spellbound454]

Another war is nowhere near imminent......and......I suppose... that could be down to the co-operation between countries which has been necessitated by the EU
The only recent one was in the Balkans and they werent in the EU.

or, it could be that the arrival of the internet and mutual understand has arisen simply because we know each other better.

Still...its a little embarassing non-the-less.

[Virgil Showlion]

Another war is nowhere near imminent.

If by that you mean "within the next six months", I give you a high probability of being correct.

Going out 3-5 years, though... :-\

This thing in Europe has barely gotten started. We're only seeing the first convulsions as Germany (with the assistance and backing of the US Federal Reserve) steps in time and again to kick the can down the road.

But when the time comes that the Germans have had enough—and that time will come—we're going to see chaos and upheaval that Europe hasn't seen since the late 1930's. There is going to be a fracturing and regrouping of nations, violent civil unrest (at the very least), and a political reconfiguration of the EU into a new European core with Germany at its head.

It may take several years of flux to get there, but mark my words that it will happen.

[billisonboard]

Oct 12, 2012 11:25:38 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

...Billis criticized me ...

_{I was joking}

[TonyTiger]

Oct 12, 2012 18:01:15 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

"...a new European core with Germany at its head..."

That's when the French and the Brits get jealous and start makin' trouble, and overreaching their power, and get themselves into trouble again. Fortunately for all concerned, the French and the Germans have been thumping each other over the head since the days of Charlemagne and even further back, and can never seem to play nice together for very long, otherwise, between 'em, they'd gobble-up the rest of Europe in - like - ten minutes.