Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 10, 2009 10:24:37 GMT -5
I was very much surprised that this happened, mainly because one would have thought the committee would have had more sense than that (even if they were the biggest Obama fans in the world, surely they should have realized how awkward it would be). Having said that, I think people's conception of the Peace Prize is a bit skewed. Everyone seems to think it is a Lifetime Achivement Award for Good Deeds. Maybe ideally it should be. But that's not what it is:The Nobel Peace Prize's aims are expressly political. The Nobel committee seeks to change the world through the prize's very conferral, and, unlike its fellow prizes, the peace prize goes well beyond recognizing past accomplishments. As Francis Sejersted, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the 1990s, once proudly admitted, "The prize ... is not only for past achievement. ... The committee also takes the possible positive effects of its choices into account [because] ... Nobel wanted the prize to have political effects. Awarding a peace prize is, to put it bluntly, a political act."Do they have the same descriptions for literature and economics? Because it's pretty obvious those prizes are "expressly political" as well.
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RusskyHoya
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Post by RusskyHoya on Oct 10, 2009 10:50:25 GMT -5
I don't know if that has been addressed as explicitly, but I think it's understood that there's going to be political and cultural biases that shape the decisionmaking process in those prizes as well. On the other hand, I think the recipients in those fields have all demonstrated sufficient merit that the decisions become much less contentious (unless you subscribe to the "Tony Morrison has no talent and only won cuz she's black" theory that I heard so often growing up).
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 10, 2009 12:01:36 GMT -5
Anyone notice the SNL takeoff on President Obama has been taken off youtube due to possible "copywrite" issues with NBC? Funny they did not do this with the Sarah Palin bit. Purely coincidental I'm sure. Yeh.
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on Oct 10, 2009 12:45:41 GMT -5
Castro just lauded the selection. Another socialiist for Barry O.
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HoyaNyr320
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Post by HoyaNyr320 on Oct 10, 2009 13:31:16 GMT -5
Anyone notice the SNL takeoff on President Obama has been taken off youtube due to possible "copywrite" issues with NBC? Funny they did not do this with the Sarah Palin bit. Purely coincidental I'm sure. Yeh. They did take the Sarah Palin quote off of youtube. There's this new site though where you can watch both skits. It's called Hulu. www.hulu.comLove how conservatives think the media is out to get them.
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TC
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Post by TC on Oct 10, 2009 13:36:49 GMT -5
Left Wing Youtube Bias!
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 10, 2009 13:48:56 GMT -5
Anyone notice the SNL takeoff on President Obama has been taken off youtube due to possible "copywrite" issues with NBC? Funny they did not do this with the Sarah Palin bit. Purely coincidental I'm sure. Yeh. They did take the Sarah Palin quote off of youtube. There's this new site though where you can watch both skits. It's called Hulu. www.hulu.comLove how conservatives think the media is out to get them. Well, I sure don't remember CNN feeling as though they had to "fact check" the Sarah Palin sketches the way they did the Fred Armisen-Obama bit.
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 10, 2009 13:53:00 GMT -5
I stand corrected.
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TC
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Post by TC on Oct 10, 2009 14:01:35 GMT -5
Well, I sure don't remember CNN feeling as though they had to "fact check" the Sarah Palin sketches the way they did the Fred Armisen-Obama bit. Fact checking an SNL sketch is stupidity - not bias.
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theexorcist
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Post by theexorcist on Oct 10, 2009 21:11:30 GMT -5
I really think that "to win the Nobel Peace Prize" needs to enter the lexicon as succeeding despite not being deserving. I.e.,
Joe didn't study and barely made any classes, but he won the Nobel Peace Prize and got an A- in the class.
Mike's clothes didn't match and he hadn't showered, but he won the Nobel Peace Prize and got the number of the hottest girl in the bar.
The Georgetown men's basketball team couldn't shoot free throws and didn't rebound, but they won the Nobel Peace Prize against Duke.
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 11, 2009 10:51:57 GMT -5
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Oct 11, 2009 12:30:33 GMT -5
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Post by WilsonBlvdHoya on Oct 12, 2009 8:43:54 GMT -5
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Boz
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Post by Boz on Oct 12, 2009 11:19:19 GMT -5
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 12, 2009 15:49:55 GMT -5
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Oct 12, 2009 16:29:24 GMT -5
I'm not sure how many economists would be shocked by this. (Compare historical Yuan/USD exchange rate - tinyurl.com/yzfljo6 - taking it back to 2001 when you adjust the dates in the graph specs). This analysis would reflect roughly a 16% loss in the dollar's value against the Chinese yuan during Bush's 2nd term. Obama has said repeatedly that he takes responsibility for cleaning up the economy and should be judged accordingly, which seems fair, but I'm not sure this is a problem of his creation when looking at the situation quantitatively.
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The Stig
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Post by The Stig on Oct 12, 2009 16:42:18 GMT -5
Nice one
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EasyEd
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Post by EasyEd on Oct 12, 2009 18:52:05 GMT -5
I'm not sure how many economists would be shocked by this. (Compare historical Yuan/USD exchange rate - tinyurl.com/yzfljo6 - taking it back to 2001 when you adjust the dates in the graph specs). This analysis would reflect roughly a 16% loss in the dollar's value against the Chinese yuan during Bush's 2nd term. Obama has said repeatedly that he takes responsibility for cleaning up the economy and should be judged accordingly, which seems fair, but I'm not sure this is a problem of his creation when looking at the situation quantitatively. I can't believe you seem to be refuting a spoof. Or am I missing some sarcasm?
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Oct 12, 2009 18:55:36 GMT -5
In today's America, it is only a matter of time before the spoof becomes "analysis." Douhat's column discussed above could have been reprinted with permission from The Onion. That being said, I saw Marketwatch more as sarcastic than a full-on spoof/parody. Still, no harm, no foul on its part.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Oct 14, 2009 17:09:12 GMT -5
Pat Buchanan's application of the Nobel Committee's decision to current policy debates as to affirmative action: news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20091013/cm_uc_crpbux/op_3311609I normally like Buchanan's unabashed analysis, but he jumps off the tracks on policy matters relating to race. Nonetheless, this opinion piece brings to mind an interesting social debate as to why receipt of something like a tax cut is earned/deserved or something like Tenet's Presidential Medal of Freedom was earned in the eyes of the right - hell, think of even a participation trophy in your suburban soccer league - when Sonia Sotomayor was an affirmative action nominee, Obama was an affirmative action recipient of a Nobel Prize, etc. (Or to the extent tax cuts were not earned or Tenet and others did not earn that recognition, why there is/was not similar outrage or calls for them to be given relinquished) I am hard pressed to name the last time Obama "earned" something in the eyes of his critics, except their own criticism. We're almost a week deep in this thing...
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