Posted by
Bullfrog on Sunday, October 14, 2007 3:35:34 PM
The
Nobel Peace Prize is supposed to go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for
fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of
standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
What exactly has Al Gore done that falls within those guidelines? He's written a book and produced a documentary, both of which are filled with Chicken Little "the sky is falling" fear mongering. Time and again, it has been pointed out by real scientists that predictions of the sea rising 20+ feet won't happen until the next millennium, yet Gore insists it will happen within this century.
I, for one, think the Norwegians who selected Gore are out of their minds, and have lost sight of what the prize is supposed to represent. Psuedo-science doesn't qualify as promoting peace or fraternity between nations. The following paragraph from the
Union Leader (no single author gets a by-line) says it all.
The Nobel Peace Prize is worse than a joke. It's a fraud. It is such a
transparent fraud that the five Norwegian politicians who award it have
been reduced to defending their decision by concocting elaborate
rationalizations. This year they laughably claimed that Gore deserves
the prize because, well, global climate change" may induce large-scale
migration and lead to greater competition for the Earth's resources,"
and "there may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars."
(Emphasis ours.)
That logic doesn't even qualify as backpedaling. It's insanely convoluted. "Pretzel logic" doesn't begin to describe it. It's the proverbial Gordian knot of logic. Nobody can unravel it.
I have a working theory about why Gore was given this award. Naturally, it involves politics, and a nod to his uber-lefty views, as if this prize will somehow make up for the presidency that was "stolen out from under him by the U.S. Supreme Court" back in 2000. It's no secret that Scandinavian countries are essentially leftist welfare states. That political philosophy jibes with Al Gore's "until taxation do us part" vision for a Utopian society.
Here's a link to a web page full of
voting statistics for Norway since 1907. Note the dwindling percentage that voted conservative since 1930 or so. There are spikes along the way, but the overall trend has been downward into the low teens. Labor plus Liberal comprise an overwhelming majority of voters.
Other Scandinavian countries have similar voting records. Note that these pages are hosted at Kent State.
Socialism and Communism simply do not work. The examples are legion: Cuba, the former USSR, North Korea, etc. France is about as socialist as it gets; look at its economics and unemployment statistics. Sarkozy would not have been elected if the populace hadn't wanted change.
Rewarding a hypocrite who tells everyone to conserve gasoline, electricity, and "be green" while jetting around the world on private planes, driving around in gas-guzzling SUVs, and using more electricity in his own home in Tennessee than a small town in Kansas needs is simply insane.
I suppose the award assuages his none-too-small ego for losing the election because the electoral college trumps the popular vote. Perhaps that was the purpose. It certainly had nothing to do with promoting harmony between nations.