irrational.

idiotic.

I'm sure there are 20 other people around the world who

a) have worked harder

b) done more good

c) and would be more effective if they had the cash to free them from other obligations.

Why can't you just say, "Good for him, I'm glad" and leave it at that?

Why does everyone feel compelled to crap all over an honor given to our president?

Why?

Philadelphia Steve, I agree with your "why". I don't understand it either.....

Maybe it is because the prize is supposed to go to someone who has actually done something, rather than someone who has just made speeches...

I bet you would have loved it if your hero George W. Bush had received such an honor.

With respect, that does not address the point.

I'm not American, so definitely have no presumptive patriotic duty to support the Obama Presidency. I am disquited about the Nobel decision because I believe it demeans the Nobel Institute.

In case it is not widely known, this decision was made last Spring. How absurd is that? He had done nothing at that time - nothing. This is not to say he is a bad President, or in fact to criticize him in any way. (Though I think a strong case could be made that he should have turned it down.)

Criticism of this decision - which does not equal criticism of Obama - is widespread, and in the majority, across Europe. The arguments are all the same: he has not yet done much more than express aspirations, and there were many real and deservign candidates who were not selected.

Yeah. Right. Keep on sneering away. It is what you are good at.

"I bet you would have loved it if your hero George W. Bush had received such an honor."

Wait a minute, I have to stop laughing... You obviously are new here. If you read any or my other posts, on this subject and others, you will know what I really thought of the Bushies... But, go on making yourself look like an idiot by jumping to conclusions... LOL

Maybe it is because the prize is supposed to go to someone who has actually done something, rather than someone who has just made speeches...

Uh no, actually. The prize has been given out before to people who hadn't actually accomplished their goals. Rachel Maddow just did a rundown on this very topic, naming quite a number of recipients who received their prizes many years before their work came to fruition. The prize is for advancing the cause of peace, not for actually achieving that peace. If it were for peace actually happening, very few people would ever receive it, as peace is something human beings seem loathe to ever have.

This is a just a "double underline" to make the point that the Peace Prize award is an exercise comparable only to the Oscars in its utter meaninglessness. I don't think anyone really wants to get up on the podium with Yassar Arafat and Le Duc Tho.

It isn't really an honor, it is an insult.

The Nobel prize is an insult? Must be awfully frustrating living in Opposite Land. Why don't you come back to Planet Earth? The food's great here!

Your eviserating intellect sure got me that time with the pointed Opposite Land analogy! Wow, I am out of my league debating you. But just for fun, the point of the award is pretty clearly to punish "BAD" American behavior (i.e., anything the grantors don't like about the US, which is most things) and reward "GOOD" American behavior (i.e., making peace-loving noises about the Middle East). I respect Barack Obama, or any president, too much to see the Prize as anything other than embarrassing. I will enjoy the discomfort the clowns in Norway will have when Obama follows through on McChystal's recommendation to send 60,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

And by the way, whether or not the food on Planet Earth is great depends on where you happen to be. The food ain't so great in, say, Darfur. You're a self-proclaimed geography expert so I am sure you won't even need to look it up.

I respect Barack Obama,

How can you claim to "respect" a president that neither you, nor any of your fellow Conservatives/Republicans will even admit is a US Citizen?

I am not a Republican. Your immature and apparently mindless way of viewing the world seems to lead you to conclude that anyone who disagrees with you is some evil "Other"; in this case, a Republican. Boo hiss.

Second, neither I, nor any of my friends that I am aware of, Republican, Democrat, Labour, or Conservative, place any credence in some phony right-wing nut job place-of-birth issue (which wouldn't matter anyway) that only a few nuts on talk radio care about.

Your response is a good example of why we can't seem to communicate like adults these days. It would be approximately as stupid for me to ask you, if you disagree with me on some trivial issue, "So WHY are you a Communist/Facist/Sexist/Rapist­, etc.?" It's just plain stupid.

Try to stick to the issue at hand, please.