President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize: Too Premature?

Even though the Nobel Committee has since stood by their decision to award President Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, does it seem too premature or is the Nobel Committee trying to raise a political statement?


By: Ringo Bones


Whether you are an unabashed fan or a very staunch opponent, it seems that almost everyone around the world who is not a Nobel peace Prize Committee insider seems to have reached a consensus. Especially in questioning whether US President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize seem a tad premature. But noting that a number of recent Nobel Peace Prize laureates of the 21st Century are either former US presidents or vice presidents and are distinguished democrats, the Nobel committee and the world is probably trying to send an urgent message to post-Bush America.

After the very rabid high-profile and somewhat Aryan Nation-leaning opposition to President Obama’s policies and plea for bi-partisanship by Über-Aryans Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the American chapter of the Waffen-SS who called themselves as the “Tea Party”. President Obama probably deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for just keeping his cool. I wonder if a sensible-minded opposition during the Bush Administration as loud as today’s Tea Party protesters would ever get away expressing their views without being sent to some clandestine CIA prison run by then Vice President Cheney.

According to the Nobel Peace Prize committee, President Obama just barely made it for this year’s nomination in February 1, 2009. Considering the new president is officially in office for just 11 days, gripes on whether he truly deserves it are thus inevitable. But does president Obama really deserve being this year’s Nobel Prize laureate? After all, giving Nobel Peace Prizes posthumously - if you believe in the crazy conspiracy du jour about an upcoming assassination - can be a very politically contentious issue. Mahatma Gandhi really missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize that he really deserved.

Back in May 2009, I checked out a Website called politifact.com after they did an evaluation on the feasibility of President Obama’s promise of phasing out nuclear weapons around the world. The site’s panel of experts stated that President Obama has yet to initiate the important steps to make his promise of a nuke-free world a reality. And considering the February 1 nomination, a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process was still a few months away. Further reinforcing the rumors of a prematurely awarded Peace Prize.

But if you ask me, I think President Obama really deserves this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. And probably the same reasons why the Norwegian-run Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded it to him in the first place. Ever since the US Strategic Air Command disestablishment of 1992, no US president has ever initiated diplomatically for further nuclear weapons reductions around the world. Preventing an accidental all-out nuclear war is still a valid excuse by the way. And don’t forget that former President Clinton was probably the last one to initiate a significant and meaningful Israeli-Palestinian peace process. President Obama’s promise of doing both during the very early days of his administration is probably all the luck and the rationale that he needs in being the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Glenn Beck’s obsession with NAZI-related numerology – i.e. the 9-12 and the 88 mm shell – was probably too much for the Jewish members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee.

USS Barack Obama

Though many believed that he’s destined for greatness by winning the US Presidency through his promise of hope. Would a US Navy aircraft carrier someday be named after President Barack Obama?


By: Vanessa Uy


Even though it is still quite presumptive given that the 20th of January 2009 inauguration day is still a couple of months away. The thought did came across our minds after receiving free brochures about how to reserve for guided tours on board one of the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carriers, the Nimitz-class USS Ronald Reagan super-carrier. After all, if the former President Reagan’s doctrine of “Peace Through Strength” brought to us the glorification of the Military-Industrial complex by Hollywood. Remember the naval aviation movie Top Gun, it heavily draws inspiration from then President Reagan’s “Cowboy Diplomacy” and managed to make Hollywood action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger gain an air of “sensibility”, then the Obama presidency could be comparable in greatness; Right?

It was just recently announced that a new Nimitz-class super-carrier named after the former president George H.W. Bush – outgoing President George W. Bush’s dad - or “President Bush, Senior” as he is more affectionately called has just been completed and ready for sea trials. Plus a new series of Ford-class aircraft carriers / supercarriers named after former US president Gerald R. Ford are already on the planning and pre-production stage. The “Howls of Protest” can now be heard of some Americans old enough to have lived through and remembered the Ford Administration. Given that President Ford was never elected and worst of all he pardoned then President Nixon over the Watergate debacle raised questions whether to name a series of the US Navy’s next generation of aircraft carriers after President Ford.

Given that someone like President Ford whose somewhat “marginal” – even controversial - influence of the history of the US Presidency gets an aircraft carrier – even a series of them - named after him, then surely the “expected” greatness of President Obama deserve some speculative prognostication. But since there won’t be an aircraft carrier named after President-elect Obama anytime soon, then it’s safe to assume that the vessel will be radically more advanced than existing ones.

Probably it’s safe to assume that the plane-launching system on the USS Barack Obama might use superconducting electromagnet or rail-gun technology as opposed to existing systems that uses a system of steam-driven piston and pulleys to accelerate high-performance jets to take-off speeds. The ship’s propulsion system might work using nuclear fusion, thus ending the problem of long-lasting radioactive wastes. Or it might employ a yet undiscovered technology that works on the principle of entropy-manipulation through a cyclical time-loop. This could give the term “ Groundhog Day” a whole new meaning if an unforeseen accident ever happens. Or what about a really exotic but might be feasible top-secret propulsion technology based on the workings of Sam Cohen’s “enhanced radiation weapons system”. Like the ballotechnic “red mercury” superfluid that mimics that of the “primordial superfluid” that originally permeates throughout the early Universe a few moments after the Big Bang. A newfangled “steam ship” if you will, only this time the working “steam” might be our exotic “ballotechnic superfluid” with a working temperature of trillions of degrees centigrade.

Also, if the now President-elect Obama’s kids choose to have naval careers, they might gain a command posting on a ship with their father’s namesake sometime in the future. Given that our hypothetical super-carrier USS Barack Obama won’t be underway any time soon. But still, given the proposed technology, this vessel might be a proof of concept that might be used as a basis for large volume space travel in the foreseeable future.