Friday links: Any of us could win the Nobel Prize at any time edition

Like when the girl you've been dating for three months gives you a kitten

Like when the girl you've been dating for three months gives you a kitten

Let’s see, what’s in the news to…OH MY FUCKING GOD! WHAT THE FUCK? HOLY SHIT, THOSE ASSHOLES AT FOX ARE GOING TO SHIT PIGLETS! ASS! Excuse me. I was just a little surprised by the news that Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning, despite the fact that he is currently presiding over two wars and still has a vacation place in Guantanamo Bay. Granted, he inherited those things, and he’s certainly a profound improvement on the guy who put them together. But this is the last thing the President needs right now, and frankly not the first thing he deserves. Those of you who read Combat! regularly (and did not just get here by typing “joose sociopath” into Google, which a surprising number of people do) know that I’m a big fan of Obama’s agenda, but for the last nine months it has remained an agenda, often to a frustrating degree. That’s due in part to the particularly toxic political climate in which he’s been forced to operate, and the jacked-up federal government that he has to try to repair. Still, awarding him a Nobel Prize because he has “captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” as the Prize Committee put it, is only going to feed allegations that he is more symbol than substance. Perhaps, as Lech Walesa speculated, the prize is “an encouragement to act.” Let’s hope it works or—better yet—Obama gets all the advantages of the Prize and none of its liabilities by refusing it. You can do that, you know.

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