1 You mean it didn't go to Obama again?  Is there something wrong with the Nobel folks?

2
This just in... Tom Freidman (D- uber-rich American Communist) doesn't give a fuck about a man rotting in a Chinese prison.

No - give that Noble prize to Obama again.  Better yet, give the Noble prize to the scum sucking communist over-lords who rule China with a corrupt iron fist.

3 China responded by saying the decision violated the Nobel principles and could damage relations with Norway, where the Nobel Committee is based

Yeah, Chi-Coms, that's the way to get people to think you're all enlightened, threaten the country where an independent council meets, just because said independent council makes a choice with which you disagree.

Yeah, that'll work...

4 I heard that Obama called Oslo and told them to take his name of the list for this year.

5 It is better than the normal BS but what did this guy do to further "peace"?

6

Baring some surprising change in position by the Chinese government, Liu will be rotting away in a gulag.

 

Barry: Those comrades know how to take care of their counter-revolutionaries. I wish I could do the same here.

7

I heard that Obama called Oslo and told them to take his name of the list for this year

because he wanted Michelle's name on there.

8 Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal," it said. "China's new status must entail increased responsibility." Gee, getting a lock on selling cheap shit to WalMart is more impressive than transforming a savage wilderness into the global economic superpower inside of 150 years? (You know, I mean America - that burst upon the world scene literally out of nowhere, transformed the political aspirations of at least the sane parts of the world overnight, AND became the byword for opportunity the world over.) Norwegians clearly need to keep better track of who they are breeding with, now that they longer get married. Inbreeding has its price, even if it seems cool.

9 Wait....Chavez didn't get it this year?

10 (quietly opens sock drawer and puts silly sock in the back)

11 I'm thinking we really should just ignore the Nobel Peace Prize.  They have a record of selecting peaceful people about as often as the groundhog successfully predicts the length of winter.

12 Barry's disappointed he didn't get the Nobel for literature.

13 9 Wait....Chavez didn't get it this year?

There is always next year, or the year after Ahmedinejad receives it.

14 Nice to see that the Nobel Committee has sobered up. For a while anyway...

15 12 Barry's disappointed he didn't get the Nobel for literature. Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 08, 2010 09:56 AM (UOM4 Didn't he write Black, Like Me?

16 Imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize for 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights'

Hint:  Violent struggles are shorter and more effective.

17 The US military has done more to promote peace than any other organization in history, yet I don't think this oversight by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee bothers them in the least. 

18 Epoch Times is a good chinese pro democracy newspaper for people who are interested

19 16 Imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize for 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights' Hint: Violent struggles are shorter and more effective. Posted by: Herr Morgenholz at October 08, 2010 09:59 AM (5aa4z) Word.

20 Gen Jim Jones stepping down. My first reaction is good riddance but his replacement will probably be worse

21 The Nobel Committee should still be hanging their heads in shame at last year's debacle with Obama. Now they couldn't award the bastard the prize 2 years in a row, but maybe the scales are falling from even their eyes.
And maybe it's just my optimistic nature, but perhaps this will further aid in B. Hussein Obama's downfall as people realize the folly of their empty adorations when they compare the last 2 recipients side by side.

22

Via Drudge,

Man on Meth bites police dog.

23 Only the hard science prizes have any credibility. 

Posted by: polynikes at October 08, 2010 10:03 AM (m2CN7)

We're working on that.

24 Don't be sad China.  You still get the prize for giving the most children lead poisoning and killing my cat 3 years ago with your toxic Asian fertilizer.  Good job. 

25 You mean they actually gave it to someone who actually did something?

26 This is the guy taking over for Jones: For a long time, Donilon lived his life from presidential campaign to campaign. The Democratic operative worked on his first Democratic National Convention at 24, and heÂ’s been helping elect candidates ever since. He has worked for Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden. He has also served in policy roles, working as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and as former Clinton secretary of State Warren ChristopherÂ’s chief of staff. In that role, Donilon was intimately involved in many major foreign policy issues, including negotiating the Bosnian peace agreement and the expansion of NATO. He was a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005, and his sole client was Fannie Mae. Donilon worked as a member of President Barack ObamaÂ’s transition team, where he vetted potential State Department officials.(1) Since then, he has become a key National Security Council aide, helping craft Obama's temporary surge of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. (2) His brother is Michael C. Donilon, a counselor to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. His wife, Cathy Russell, is Jill Biden's chief of staff. G-D help us all

27 Posted by: polynikes at October 08, 2010 10:03 AM (m2CN7)

I agree, except for a few. Lech Walesa in 1983(?) stood up to the USSR. That took balls and brains, and he was part of the beginning of the end of perhaps the worst evil of the 20th century (apologies to Mao and Hitler).

28

The Peace Prize are given by politicians that has seniority but who the parties doesn't want in any serious position to do real damage. Sort of a consolation prize to keep them happy and out of the way.

That backfired monumentally last year, so they have probably been told over and over again by their party leadership during this year to shape up or else. Which is why they went with a safer choice and picked the one that the betting firms expected, I believe this was the front runner last year as well.

29 23 Only the hard science prizes have any credibility.

And even those are somewhat "political" (in terms of the popularity of the candidates, or lack thereof).

30

16 Imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize for 'his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights'

Hint: Violent struggles are shorter and more effective.
Posted by: Herr Morgenholz at October 08, 2010 09:59 AM (5aa4z)

that's an iffy proposition. Chinese wars and rebellions are often very very very costly

Check out the Taiping rebeliion, An Shi Revolt, Dungan Rebellion. Some of the deadlist events in all human histroy. 

China is a massive country. An armed revolt, which won't happen, would results in easily millions of deaths, but likely tens of millions of deaths. Most would not come from fighting, but rather starvation and disease as a result of destroyed infrastructure in any conflict.

It is a safer bet to try it peacefully.  The people have seem what capitalism can do for their lives and they like it, now they want to try freedom. It will happen eventually.  I imagine the transition will be much more like Francisco Franco's fascist Spain to a democratic Spain than it was for the USSR to The Russian Federation and the CIS.

31 Jill Biden's chief of staff.

God In Heaven! Why does the vice-president's wife need a cheif of staff? A job that has been described by it's first holder as "warm spit".

Hell, the President's wife doesn't need any staff and having them is unconstitutional. The VP shouldn't even have a house provided in DC.

32 You mean they actually gave it to someone who actually did something?

No, they gave it to somebody who symbolizes something, again.  He's sitting in a jail cell "raising awareness".  If he actually wanted to do something, it would require indirect fire support.

So no, this is yet another worthless "statement".

33 26 Don't be sad China.  You still get the prize for giving the most children lead poisoning and killing my cat 3 years ago with your toxic Asian fertilizer.  Good job.

You are welcome, round-eye.  Here is an additional bill for the metal "supplements" we put in those products.

34 China's official reaction would indicate that this is probably a good choice (as opposed to the general disbelief and hubris expressed over last year's pick).

35 O/T - I'm getting ready to go out and will prob'ly miss the upcoming election threads, so just in case no one has posted this shocka from Detroit, John Dingell is down 4 points.

36 seen*  not seem

37 Chinese wars and rebellions are often very very very costly

All wars are very very costly.  Is the cost worth the prize?  If freedom is that undervalued in China, then they've made their own bed.

38 Akchmedinnerjad will end up getting it in a couple of years for promising not to nuke Israel in exchange for 50 billion a year.

39

(there is stirring news footage of him seizing a rifle and smashing it at a Tiananmen rally shortly before the crackdown)

Stirring ...

The Nobel Prize for Peace has never been anything less than a total joke.  Some years it's not as offensive to civilized people as usual, but it's always a bad joke.  Now, news footage of him having seized the Nobel committee and smashing it into the ground ... that would have been stirring.

40 "Here to present the award and also to accept it on behalf of this year's winner...please welcome last year's winner, the reigning Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Barack Obama!"

41

Chinese wars and rebellions are often very very very costly

All wars are very very costly.  Is the cost worth the prize?  If freedom is that undervalued in China, then they've made their own bed.

Chinese wars especially so.

Not in this case, I do not believe so.  10+ million lives for something that is going to happen in 30 years anyway doesn't seem like a fair trade  off. China is 5,000 old. They've got the time. They are a slow country, they will get there. .It is going to happen and in China it would be better if it happened peacefully.

 

42

This is the dullest Chink ever!

 

43 If Tiananmen Square activities are the touchstone for a Peace Prize then it should go to Tank Man.

44 117.28.78.135

45 10+ million lives for something that is going to happen in 30 years anyway doesn't seem like a fair trade  of

Perhaps the colonists should've waited.  Hey, Britain would've cut them loose by 1850, right?

Not picking a fight, but I believe people have a responsibility to secure freedom, if not for themselves then for subsequent generations. 

46

I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in their decision. But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any one of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that Oslo acted stupidly in not awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to me again this year.

47

So ... the Nobel committee is saying that the long, distinguished history of Chinese culture and its antipathy towards individual freedom is ... objectively bad.  Good to know that cultural relativism is dead.  I wish we had some stirring news footage of Xiaobo smashing cultural relativism at Tiannamen ... That would have been worth a piece prize.

BTW, people being jailed and dying for going against the Chinese state are a dime a dozen ... literally.  So ... the whole pathetic UN climate crime panel get a Piece Prize, but only one jailed Chinaman.  Hmmm.

48 If Tiananmen Square activities are the touchstone for a Peace Prize then it should go to Tank Man.



+1000

Pat Caddell, Chuck Norris and Darth Cheney WISH they had balls the size of Tank Man. Dude definitely has an honored seat in Valhalla.

49 Al because some shitty paper thought Nobel was dead and he got to read how they blamed him for death because he invented TNT.

Posted by: buzzion at October 08, 2010 10:44 AM (oVQFe)

And in the odd confluence of leftist insanity, it was the Chinese who invented gun powder ...  So, the Chinese should be the ones giving out Piece Prizes.

50   Expect a condemnation for the UN Human Rights Commission which China sits on.

51

HAH!  I guess the Nobel committee decided it had to try and rehabilitate its image a little given the pathetic debacle from last year. 

"What do you think?  Is Arafat still available?"

"Um, Arafat is dead sir.  And he already won the Nobel anyway, which, I might add, wasn't viewed as terribly bright by a lot of people at the time, either."

"True, true.  Dammit, what do these heathens WANT?  What will make them happy and keep us from being just another punchline?"

"Well... I suppose we could give it to someone who's attempted to further the cause of peace, sir.  There's this guy in China-"

"Is he black?"

"Er, no.  He's Chinese."

"Damn.  Well, it's a minority, so I guess we can make it work."

"Um, China is actually the most highly populated country in the w-"

"Whatever.  Does he look good in a tux?  He'll need to look good in a tux for the dinner party and pictures."

"He won't actually be able to attend the ceremony, sir - "

"WHAT?!  But the publicity!"

"-on account of him currently rotting in a Chinese jail, sir."

"Oh.  Well.  Let it never be said that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee isn't devoted to the cause of political prisoners rotting in Chinese jails.  In fact that sounds like a good slogan.  The Nobel Peace Prize: Devoted to the Cause of Chinese Jails and Rotting Prisoners."

"You mean, devoted to the cause of PRISONERS rotting in Chinese jails, sir."

"Whatever.  Get PR on it, they can sort out the wording.  So what's this guy's name?"

"Liu Xiaobo, sir."

"Well, get Lil Bow Wow-"

"Liu XIAO-BO, sir."

"-or whatever his name is engraved on the trophy.  By gum, we'll be the talk of the town!  Awarding the Nobel to a Chinese dissident.  Genius.  I'm a genius!"

"Sure you are, sir."

52

Damage relations between China and Norway?

Really - why would Norway care?  What will China do to Norweigian interests - refuse to buy herring?

53 Baring some surprising change in position by the Chinese government, Liu will be rotting away in a gulag.


Is the Chinese government getting buck naked?  I think you meant "Barring."

54 Also receiveing the literature nobel prize was Mario Vargas Llosa, known for his conservative/libertarian stance and critics of Fidel Castro & Co.

55 Thank you, thank you! Winning the Nobel Piece Prize was the high point of my life. It doesn't get better than this!

56

Thousands of years of culture and class distinction have inhibited Asian countries from truly being free.  South Korea and Japan may be a democracy and capitalistic but acceptance by its citizens that they are born to a certain class and that's where they will remain is still strong.  

I don't think it's so much class distinction as the fact that Confucian societies value social order above all else. Democracy is often seen as disorderly and chaotic. (The mainlanders like to get all snarky when Taiwanese politicians get in fistfights in the legislature. Eh, I still prefer the corruption and messiness of democracy to authoritarian dictatorship, but clearly they don't see it that way.) It's just a completely different mindset. I think it's not that they don't want to be free, it's that they perceive "freedom" as an abstraction that is not worth sacrificing an orderly society. These are ideas that have been ingrained into the Chinese mind for millennia. The idea of democracy is still a relatively new one.

Mao was able to take control in a relatively short time because of what he and the Communists promised to give the Chinese people -- order. Which was something that the Kuomintang could never achieve. The whole country had basically been carved up into warlord kingdoms since the Republic was established. They were too busy fighting each other to really get anything done.

Also, the Chinese as a people are extremely averse to internal wars because of the terrible suffering they experienced during rebellions and wars in the past. Looting, starvation, etc. There's a proverb to the effect of, "better to be a dog in peacetime than a human being in war." 

57 After AlGore Inc, and O'Bugger Inc. were awarded it, I no longer have any respect for the Nobel committee - or the prize. They are forever tainted.

58 60 Thousands of years of culture and class distinction have inhibited Asian countries from truly being free. South Korea and Japan may be a democracy and capitalistic but acceptance by its citizens that they are born to a certain class and that's where they will remain is still strong. I'm not so totally sure of that... Asians (at least the Northern ones) tend to be EXTREMELY ambitious. My Korean wife came from a dirt poor family, and now all 5 of the kids, her included, are well paid professionals that all went to college. (Well, 4 out of 5 - her sister is a housewife in the USA, but raised three kids in graduate and medical school).

59 51
Dude definitely has an honored seat in Valhalla.

Truth be told, the tank driver that didn't smear him into the pavement was just as brave if not braver.  The Politburo knew who the tank driver was, yet wasn't sure who Tank Man was.