Tomorrow they will announce the Nobel Peace Prize, the most important - and most farcical - prize of them all. Because we live in a degenerate age, the best way to calibrate who will win is to go to a sports betting site, like this one (Centrebet). Note, Slate sent me to this link.Personally, I think that Bill Clinton should have better odds (he's not even listed).
Ya see, Literature and Peace have by design or adaptation become purely political. Literature is basically a second peace prize (does anybody actually consider a bunch of Swedes capable of determining the quality of art? The Lit prize is a joke. Science is universal and a group of scientists in scandanavia have probably as much acumen as anywhere else as to what research deserves a prize. And in the past years there's been very little dissent over appropriateness of the receipients - if there has its over people who were overlooked). But Literature?! How much world lit is written in Swedish? Which means these bozos are reading it in translation. And its art. Ah well)
As I, and anybody with a brain, predicted, Literature went to a Muslim (Orhan Pamuk). Considering that the Muslim world has shown in the past 12 months that they are against any form of free expression no matter how benign (cartoons?!) or important (Mozart), this seemed inevitable just as last year's lit that went to an anti-war (and anti-British) activist (Pinker).
The fact that both Lit and Peace are given by the Swedes/Norse to change the world's direction, I wouldn't be surprised if the Peace Prize went to someone that repudiates the current American administration. Given that Bill Clinton has spearheaded in the past year the US relief efforts for the Tsunami, for Katrina, and his Clinton Foundation Thingie has been doing high-profile do-goody things all over... and because he is getting more popular in world opinion every living second when held in comparison to the unhinged brute malevolence of his successor.
The odds for peace this year seem to be for Martti Ahtisaari of the "Crisis Management Initiative." Now that I've seen his bio on the wiki, I'm seeing why he's a front runner. First, his group negotiated a peace treaty in Indonesia. He also was in charge of the Vienna Peace Treaty for Kosovo. Most importantly, he was the former President of Finland. That's locks it - those lapland types stick together.
Sick enough, there's decent odds on Mordechai Frickin Vanunu (the traitor who revealed Israel's Nuclear program). That should also favor heavily into the Nobelian system. What better way to send a message for world peace than to thump Israel?
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