Althouse: Count back 7 decades to appreciate the euphemistic understatement.

October 12, 2012

Count back 7 decades to appreciate the euphemistic understatement.

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 is to be awarded to the European Union (EU). The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe."

50 comments:

Tim said...: Too funny.

None of it would have been possible without the United States Army, U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Merchant Marine and, of course, the blood and treasure of the American people.

So here's to them.

They did what we can no longer do.; 10/12/12, 10:11 AM
Calypso Facto said...: Because it was the might EU that kept the Soviets at bay after WWII and during the Cold War?

US to EU and Nobel Committee: You're welcome.; 10/12/12, 10:16 AM
bagoh20 said...: That's goofy, but fine. The thing to do is to look back at who has received the Peace Prize in recent years and count up how many deaths they all have on their hands, some personally with their own actual hands. That's fine for me too, if those deaths we're in pursuit of peace and justice.

In fact, I think the U.S. military has been the prime maker and keeper of peace in the world for generations now. So if you don't care if the recipient is a killer, which they clearly don't, then the U.S. military is your recipient every damned year.; 10/12/12, 10:19 AM
edutcher said...: Tim stole mine, but it's true.

Without the US clearing Europe of fascism and then defending it from communism - while the Euros went increasingly wobbly - that Prize wouldn't exist.

Give it to the heirs of Mark Clark, Alec Patch, Courtney Hodges, Bill Simpson, and, yes, Georgie Patton.; 10/12/12, 10:19 AM
ricpic said...: The Euro, may it rest in peace.; 10/12/12, 10:20 AM
Palladian said...: They should have given it to Obama again.; 10/12/12, 10:23 AM
Skipper said...: Al Gore, Barack Obama, EU. Quite a run for the vaunted Peace Prize. (I considered throwing Jimmy Carter in this list, but he at least pursued something significant, although not successful).; 10/12/12, 10:25 AM
Tim said...: Palladian said...

"They should have given it to Obama again."

We all just *just* know they really wanted too, don't we?; 10/12/12, 10:25 AM
furious_a said...: This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners.

As in...NATO?

...many ethnically-based national conflicts have been settled.

...by by "settled", they mean "...dust settling on the mass graves at Tuzla, Vukovar and Srebrenica."

Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable.

Then the RAF and USAAF should share the prize.; 10/12/12, 10:26 AM
Nonapod said...: Hey, here's a meaningless prize for you as you rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.; 10/12/12, 10:28 AM
Amexpat said...: None of it would have been possible without the United States Army, U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Merchant Marine and, of course, the blood and treasure of the American people.

George Marshall deservedly got in it 1953. For peace in Europe, NATO would also be a worth recipient.

The ironic thing is that Norwegians have twice voted no to joining the EU. The only country to have done so.; 10/12/12, 10:32 AM
tim maguire said...: The Nobel committee has so devalued the Peace Prize that i would be embarrased if they had given it to the people who actually brought peace to Europe.

Go ahead, give it to the EU. They deserve what it is truly worth.; 10/12/12, 10:36 AM
RichardS said...: In this, the European Union has followed the U.S. Our union was designed as a "peace pact" among states, as a recent book put it.
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/henpea.html

With the one great exception of the Civil War, it has worked. If Europe holds together for 200 years, will be be without such a war?; 10/12/12, 10:36 AM
rhhardin said...: They can use the prize money to pay off the bondholders.; 10/12/12, 10:38 AM
Tank said...: Why not just call it the booby prize? A truly devalued "honor."

Dont' they see what a joke they [the prize committee] are?; 10/12/12, 10:42 AM
Sorun said...: The Nobel Peace Prize is really the Lefty Grand Prize. Nothing more than that.; 10/12/12, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...: 'Blogger Palladian said...

They should have given it to Obama again.

10/12/12 10:23 AM'

LOL You made my morning.; 10/12/12, 10:43 AM
jimbino said...: I can't wait to see Flanders, Scotland and Catalonia secede from their sovereigns and independently join the European Union. Those nations would then have achieved what our Confederacy couldn't manage even with the loss of hundreds of thousands of men.

They might even pave the way for Texas to join the EU!; 10/12/12, 10:47 AM
DADvocate said...: After starting two wars that killed tens of millions of people. Nice.; 10/12/12, 10:49 AM
traditionalguy said...: Well yes, compared to the Third Reich's European Union under a single mentally ill war lord whose ways attracted counter-attack from superior armed forces on two sides until Europe was literally destroyed scorched earth in 1945.; 10/12/12, 10:49 AM
Big Mike said...: Just in time for the EU's dissolution, or so it seems.; 10/12/12, 10:51 AM
Bryan C said...: How does an unelected autocracy driving an entire continent into bankruptcy while operating under a treaty imposed by fiat on its member nations contribute to "democracy and human rights in Europe"?; 10/12/12, 10:52 AM
edutcher said...: jimbino said...

I can't wait to see Flanders, Scotland and Catalonia secede from their sovereigns and independently join the European Union. Those nations would then have achieved what our Confederacy couldn't manage even with the loss of hundreds of thousands of men.

They might even pave the way for Texas to join the EU!

Texans are smarter than that.

And richer.

Give it a couple of years and TX will be able to buy jimbino's beloved Europe.; 10/12/12, 10:53 AM
Sam L. said...: Richard S, I give it no chance of being peaceable for 200 years, given the Muslims living there plus the indebtedness of so many nations.; 10/12/12, 10:59 AM
ddh said...: As the creation of the euro, the most disastrous economic policy decision since World War II, revives fascism in Greece; sparks riots in Greece, Italy, and Spain; Spanish Army officers threaten intervention in Catalonia; Norwegian socialist politicians beclown themselves in their choice of Peace Prize recipients.; 10/12/12, 11:03 AM
ddh said...: As the creation of the euro, the most disastrous economic policy decision since World War II, revives fascism in Greece; sparks riots in Greece, Italy, and Spain; Spanish Army officers threaten intervention in Catalonia; Norwegian socialist politicians beclown themselves in their choice of Peace Prize recipients.; 10/12/12, 11:03 AM
Jay Vogt said...: This is too rich.

While we are all quite grateful that Germany and France have refrained from massing troops on the border ( uh . . . well wait, I guess the French have not really ever been able to do that), the EU is ultimately a destabilizing creation. Switzerland for example is not a member. Does anyone really believe there is the remotest chance they will be on either side of belligerence?

The most practical manifestation of the EU, the Euro, is clearly destabilizing, and in my view unlikely to survive.

The institutionalized divorce of monetary policy from fiscal policy that allows it to exist is without question unsustainable over the long run. Witness Greece, Spain, Portugal and soon France itself.

The EU is the political/economic equivalent of cold fusion: an unworkable contraption that consumes more than it produces. It requires unsyncable variables to sync and whose only real input is hope.

Inebriated as they are by petrodollars it's hard for Norwegians to see this or to care much about its consequence.; 10/12/12, 11:11 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: Last I saw, this news item was fairly hidden on cnn.com; don't know if it's the same elsewhere. Let's face it: the Nobel Prize now has the same relevance as the Eurovision Song Contest.; 10/12/12, 11:12 AM
Dante said...: They should give the Nobel Peace Prize to the US Military and taxpayers, for covering the EU's asses for so damn long.; 10/12/12, 11:13 AM
Dante said...: They should give the Nobel Peace Prize to the US Military and taxpayers, for covering the EU's asses for so damn long.; 10/12/12, 11:13 AM
Anonymous said...: That's really quite a bubble that some folks are living in. Human rights, secular humanism, peace etc.

Why, it's almost like a secular religion.; 10/12/12, 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Don't immanentize the eschaton!; 10/12/12, 11:30 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Dante,

You want to slur the US Military by giving it the same award given to Yasser F'n Arafat???; 10/12/12, 11:30 AM
Carnifex said...: Jay Voght said--"The institutionalized divorce of monetary policy from fiscal policy that allows it to exist is without question unsustainable over the long run. Witness Greece, Spain, Portugal and soon France itself

As opposed to our policy where the Fed works to monetize the debt while the administration seeks ever increasing deficit spending. Our system is so much better. Those fool Swiss bankers know nothing,nothing about monetary policy!

@Dante

Be careful posting! Romney and Ryan want you dead! Joe told me so last night.(when he wasn't chuckling about dead ambassadors, Israeli's, soldiers,
Americans...etc.; 10/12/12, 11:31 AM
Biff said...: I thought that Nobel Prizes could only be given to the living.; 10/12/12, 12:15 PM
CWJ said...: Big Mike@10:51 got there before me. As did Bryan C one post later.

"Unelected autocracy". Yep sounds like the Europe that had always existed right up to 1918. Democracy sounds like a nice thing, but the continental elites were bound to reassert themselves.; 10/12/12, 12:37 PM
Methadras said...: We will give ourselves the prize because we can. Thank you and goodnight. ROFL!!!; 10/12/12, 12:56 PM
Methadras said...: We will give ourselves the prize because we can. Thank you and goodnight. ROFL!!!; 10/12/12, 12:57 PM
Methadras said...: Then at this point we should pull out of europe now. They clearly do not need us anymore. amirite?; 10/12/12, 12:57 PM
traditionalguy said...: It's the Cezchs they had better watch out for. The weapons industries were their specialty in the Third Reich's glory days.; 10/12/12, 1:14 PM
Peter said...: 'bagoh' said, "I think the U.S. military has been the prime maker and keeper of peace in the world for generations now."

Then perhaps you'd agree with the old saying, "If you want peace then prepare for war."

The Nobel committee would, I think, have difficulty finding the meaning in that old saying.

As for the EU, it's true that it has produced no Mussolinis, Francos, Hitlers, Bonapartes, etc. lately. Today's EU produces a soft, nurturing, suffocating tyranny instead of the hard-edged tyranny imposed by its old would-be world conquerers.

But a soft, nurturing tyranny is still tyranny.; 10/12/12, 1:38 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: How about giving it to NATO instead?; 10/12/12, 3:43 PM
Anonymous said...: It was a lifetime achievement award for the once great actor who is at risk of shuffling off his mortal coil before another season passes.; 10/12/12, 4:00 PM
Temujin said...: Rigoberta Menchu. Yasser Arafat. Al Gore. Barack Obama. The EU.

Can we just close down the Nobel Committee now?

It was a good for an annual giggle a few years ago. It ceased to be funny when they handed the award to the likes of Algore for his documentary on saving the planet. Giving it up to Barack for...well...just being Barry and what he might do in his life- that was the time to shut it down.

Next year they will give the award to themselves in honor of themselves, for being themselves, with honor, and for the planet. And because they eat so much herring. Thank you.; 10/12/12, 4:05 PM
Jay Vogt said...: "Carnifex said...

Jay Voght [sic] said--"The institutionalized divorce of monetary policy from fiscal policy that allows it to exist is without question unsustainable over the long run. Witness Greece, Spain, Portugal and soon France itself.""

As opposed to our policy where the Fed works to monetize the debt while the administration seeks ever increasing deficit spending. Our system is so much better. Those fool Swiss bankers know nothing,nothing about monetary policy!

OK, I'm not here to pimp the USA system we have plenty of problems. However at least we don't have one money supply manager for 17 sovereign checkbooks.

Not sure if you are being sarcastic about Swiss bankers. However, if you are as of today they are about 95 basis points smarter than the Germans, 163 bps smarter than the Swiss and 119 bps smarter than us.

Reference http://www.tradingeconomics.com/; 10/12/12, 5:04 PM
Jay Vogt said...: Er, my bad. that final comment should read . . .163 bps smarter than the French. Not Swiss; 10/12/12, 5:09 PM
William said...: I think next year's Nobel should go to sunny days. Nothing does more to spread happiness and peace than a sunny day. The following year pina coladas and getting caught in the rain should be given serious consideration.; 10/12/12, 5:49 PM
kentuckyliz said...: Nobel created the Nobel Prize to exorcize his guilt at inventing dynamite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamit_Nobel

Can we just tell him he's forgiven now, and we don't have to perpetuate this charade any longer?; 10/12/12, 6:48 PM
JAL said...: OMG; 10/12/12, 7:20 PM
Steven said...: I can't wait to see Flanders, Scotland and Catalonia secede from their sovereigns and independently join the European Union.

Joining the EU requires the unanimous consent of the member states. An independent Scotland can't join without the permission of the rest of Britain.; 10/13/12, 12:34 AM