Obama's Nobel: I Saw This And Thought It Was A Joke (UPDATED)

But then I remembered that they also gave one to Jimmy Carter.

And Al Gore.

And Yasser Arafat.

And I said to myself, "yeah, makes sense."

Like Ace said, somewhere (h/t Matt L.):

High school kids want to be popular. Nations want to be prosperous, secure and in America's case, a force for good in the world.

And like Bob & Tom said on the radio this morning (also, h/t Matt L.):

isn't this a bit like awarding super bowl MVP right now?

&

The Europeans are so mad that they weren't the ones to elect Barack Obama.

Or, like My Old Man said:

Is today April 1? This shows what a joke this [the Nobel Peace Prize] is.

But wait, there's more: I just got an invite to join someone's Facebook group (yup, I'm popular too): Help Barack Obama win the Heisman Trophy!

Then, of course, there's this: Nobel Peace Prize For Awesomeness

This is so utterly ridiculous, I almost wonder if this is a send-up of Obama. But then I remember how seriously these Nobel folks take themselves and realized that no, it is not a joke.

This is so outrageous, I almost feel bad for President Obama--I mean, this makes two weeks in a row that the Europeans (who are more in love with him, even, than the leftists) have made a clown of our President.

For shame. Does the office of the President of the United States mean nothing to these people?

UPDATE 10 October 1:09am BDT: Jansen G. does me one better and writes something intelligent about Obama's Prize:

So, Obama got awarded a peace prize for yet another promise, this time for promising a nuclear free world. After having added this venerable achievement to his trophy case, I have to say, Obama has done quite well making promises. US Senator? Check. President of the United States? Check. Nobel Peace Prize? Check. Though, all this makes me wonder: are any of these promises contractually enforceable? Because I'm not seeing much, if any, performance.

As for the substance (if you can call it that) of this Nobel Peace Prize, Obama promised reconciliation in the M-E, climate change, and a world free of nuclear weapons. Has there been any performance of any of these promises? No! Obama's speech in Egypt has had little affect on the contentious realities in the M-E, largely b/c it failed to address the real source of conflict (US involvement in anything related to or impacting M-E oil flow).
Performance on climate change? The conference on climate change doesn't start until December and its a virtually guaranteed failure given the interests of BRIC et. al.

And while Obama may believe in the ideal of a nuclear free world, he knows just how dangerous in addition to impractical an ideal it is. No one in their right mind believes disarming nuclear arsenals will do anything but create even stronger incentives for horizontal proliferation, further destabilizing already pressing crises. And that's just the catch. Obama either (A) disingenuously attempts a halfhearted, impractical endeavor to dismantle nuclear arms resulting in planned failure that potentially destabilizes a system that's fenced-in the powerful incentives of the prisoner's proliferating dilemma, or (B) he abandons the thought of an attempt to rid the world of weapons and goes down as one of the world's most undeserved Nobel Peace Prize winners. The obvious and preferable option is B, to continue to indulge in the proven double standard of the "powers-that-be." But one has to think that eventually these myriad of catch-22's that Obama promises his way into will expose him for the 'serial breachor' of promises he is.

Obama is an archetype with which, thanks to teen movies, we are all familiar: the popular kool kid who only hangs out with the leftist dork when no one else is around. And then, because the dork has a crush on the kool kid, he/she endlessly makes excuses for Obama.

Obama's apologists will always have a reason for why he was/is unable to deliver on his sweet nothings.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

London Underground Union Will Strike Is Striking, Believes People Are Sympathetic To Their Cause

Yeah, all those people who rely on the Tube for travel are really going to sympathize with union workers demanding increased pay, etc.

Especially given that the unemployment rate in London hit 10.4%.

I despise unions and am especially disgusted with them when their outsized sense of entitlement causes major disruptions to normal day-to-day activities like public transport in a city. In London, Tube workers are generally acknowledged to have cushy jobs with great pay. Do they really believe that a city with 10.4% unemployment is going to sympathize with their demands for increased pay, more days off, etc.?

Ridiculous.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

What Happens When The PC Warriors Have Their Way

I've never listened to Michael Savage. I don't know what his schtick is. I don't really care. He's a popular radio personality who generally seems to be a conservative fellow traveler, that's enough for me.

Even if he were a liberal trying to get into a Tory-run island (kind of defies logic, doesn't it?), I'd still stick up for him. Anyway, London Mayor Boris Johnson had a great quote about the whole Home-Secretary-denies-entry-clearance-to-Michael-Savage-kerfuffle.

My first objection to the utterly demented decision by Jacqui Smith's Home Office to announce that Michael Savage, America's third most popular radio show host, is banned from entering this country. It just makes us look so infantile, so pathetic. . . . Perhaps Jacqui Smith thinks that it 'sends out a signal' about the kind of Britain we want. On the contrary, it reinforces a culture -- created by this Labour Government, and its addiction to political correctness -- where people are increasingly confused and panic-stricken about what they can say and what is forbidden, a culture where a police officer can seriously think he is right to arrest a protester for calling a police horse 'gay.' Our courts and tribunals are clogged with people claiming to have suffered insults of one kind or another, and a country once famous for free speech is now hysterically and expensively sensitive to anything that could be taken as a slight.

Spew hatred towards women, Jews, & Western Civilization generally, and you will be admitted and protected in this country--MI5 might track you, but your right to say such ridiculous things will not be impeded.

Speak out against this kind of hatred every day on the radio and effectively, call a spade a spade, and you will not be allowed past the Immigration desk at Heathrow Terminal 4.

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Grandstanding, Baby-Kissing & Staged Community Service Photos

On Saturday I joined a group of youths in cleaning up the yards and streets near Willesden Green in the Brent Council here in London. It was your typical street/yard cleaning service project. We found all the usual things, though certainly nothing so crazy as the meth lab remnants I found while doing a similar project in Mead Valley, CA.

While I was glad to not involve the UK version of Hazmat in our service project, I was disappointed we didn't find anything stranger than a half-filled bottle of transmission fluid. That's a boring service project.

The one thing that did make it interesting was the appearance of the Brent East MP (Member of Parliament), Sarah Teather. Hers was like the visit of politicians to service projects everywhere--all about staged photos. I know I shouldn't have given it another thought--it goes on all the time--but I was, admittedly, a little disgusted.

To my mind, if you want to take pictures of yourself picking up trash with all the rest of us morons, you ought to at least, you know, pick up a little trash.

I don't know anything about her politics--other than the fact that she's a Liberal Democrat. But her "appearance" at the service project Saturday made her just another politician.

She's just like the hacks in Congress who write ex-post facto bills of attainder meant to "punish" people who earned bonuses at a company that took TARP money. Never mind that Congress--Chris Dodd, at the urging of the Obama administration--wrote the rule in the first place. Now that there's a backlash, Congress will do what it does best--grandstand.

Consider the WSJ's quote of James Madison in Federalist 44:

such punitive laws were expressly deplored by America's Founders. In Federalist 44, James Madison warned that "Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligation of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation."

I get the populist pulls on these people. I understand that they need to get elected (or re-elected for the 17th time). But why can't a Senator or President Obama show a little bit of leadership on this issue--why can't anyone in Congress behave like an adult?

Instead of making a superficial production of everything--the Guitar Hero* phenomenon I wrote about all last year--how about a little substantive leadership?


*Over-the-top performance, no real skill or experience.


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Just Another Liberal Journalist

In yesterday's post at NewsBusters, I examined the stereotypical life of a liberal journalist: privileged upbringing, radicalized in college in the 1960's (If they're of that generation. Otherwise, they just wish they'd been alive during the '60's. Ah, the good ol' days.), becomes journalism student, and so on and so forth.

You could pretty much fill in any liberal member of the mainstream media and you'd be spot on.

For the sake of accuracy in reporting, let's say that this week's typical liberal journalist is Jennifer Siebens--CBS VP and London Bureau Chief. I'm not sure why I capitalized all of her titles, though I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

CBS VP & London Bureau Chief: 'Just Another Typical Liberal Reporter'

Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be liberal journalists.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Global Warming Hits London (UPDATED)

The Daily Telegraph headline reads: Britain Paralyzed By Worst Snowfall in 20 Years.

Up to 1ft of snow fell in parts of the south east and the Pennines while most of the country was blanketed in at least four inches of it.

Forecasters are warning of worse to come and the Arctic blizzards are being treated as an "extreme weather event".

The Met Office said that it was the most widespread snowfall in Britain for 18 years.

With bus and train services out of action and drivers urged to stay off the roads, a handful of commuters took to skiing through the streets of London.

If only I had my "street" skis (as opposed to early-season, rock skis).

UPDATE 2:49pm BST: Do check out the snow-covered pictures of London posted by my flatmate, Seb.

Ice Age: Part 1
Ice Age: Part 2
Ice Age: Part 3
Ice Age: Part 4
Picasa Album

Last year, my brother, Matt, and I lived in a snowbound cabin the entire winter. From the time snow first fell in November, it persisted--w/o major melt--until April. One could climb, from the snow piles on either side of the entry, with very little difficulty, right onto the roof. The wild turkeys took shelter underneath our deck.

All of this is to say: I've seen snow, but I've never seen Londoners in snow, and let me tell you, it's great.

From our deck, overlooking the local cemetery (image courtesy Seb's Picasa album)

If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Election Night Treats

This is how we do it in London. Courtesy of my Brit flat-mate, Sebastian D.:

You'll forgive, of course, the 15 stripes and 28 stars. I'd like to see you do better.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Programming Note: Internet Availability

Thank you to all those of you who continue to email me with comments and tips and whatnot. I really appreciate it. I apologize for not taking the time to get back to all of you or even having the opportunity to post a fraction of the many good links and youtube videos and quotes you all send me.

With no internet at my flat, I'm only able to access the wonderful web once-a-day and when I do, I'm inundated with 70-80 emails, at least. I try and schedule posts for the times when I won't have access to Al Gore's baby, which leaves me a little less timely than I tried to be in the past.

Bear with me. It will get better.

Keep sending stuff--comments, links, vids, etc.--and be patient as I sort through all the various housecleaning details.

Thanks.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.

Programming Note: Travel Advisory

Again. This will be the longest leg of my interminable move. Today I leave for London. I don't know what my internet connection will be like when I arrive, so bear with me. I'll update where and when possible. For those of you accustomed to near instantaneous email & text response from me, well, it will take me a few days to see about getting my BlackBerry up to British speed.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.