I woke up this morning to news that President Barak Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize, and immediately thought that NASA’s attempt to bomb the moon has turned the earth on its axis and sent us into an alternate reality.
Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize … for what?
The general consensus is that it was awarded for his aspirations towards ending nuclear armament rather than any actual success in that arena. (Or any arena, for that matter.)
The news outlets are reporting that when he was awakened with the news this morning, his response was that he was humbled to be selected, but let’s be honest. His response was probably the same as the rest of us: “You’re shi*tting me, right?”
Maybe they felt bad that he lost his bid to hold the 2016 Olympics in Chicago and didn’t want him to cry. Either that, or the Nobel committee was drunk when they voted. Polish President Lech Walesa, a 1983 Nobel Peace laureate, was quoted in a Fox News story:
“So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act. This is probably an encouragement for him to act. Let’s see if he perseveres. Let’s give him time to act.”
Translation: “You’re sh*tting me.”
While the Nobel committee can’t release the names of this year’s nominees until 50 years after the prize is awarded, it’s believed that the list included Denis Mukwege, the doctor who founded founded the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he helps women who have been sexually abused. As of last October, Dr. Mukwege had treated 21,000 women suffering from devastating gynecological injuries as a result of rape in Congo’s brutal war.
And Obama wins?
(Hey, what about Bono? Isn’t it time he got the official Nobel nod? Despite the fact that Bono was awarded a “Man of Peace” award in 2008 by the Nobel Committee, that isn’t the Nobel Peace Prize; that award went to Finland’s Martti Ahtisaari that year. But I digress.)
Awarding a major international award to a man who hasn’t accomplished anything even remotely measurable – nothing in his years in Congress, nothing in his first months in office (unless you count borrowing a gazillion dollars from China, in which case maybe he should have gotten the prize in economics), nothing in any way that would even hint at a nomination – is surreal.
It’s like awarding me a Pulitzer for a book I’m thinking about writing. Everyone thinks it’s a great book idea; all I need to do is actually write it. In which case it may or may not even be readable, let alone a success.
Hey, maybe there’s a chance I could win the Pulitzer!
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Notes From The Funny Farm 
I completely agree with your "Sh*tting me" assessment. This is odd. When (if) a president wins such an honor, the country should be proud, but we're all just kind of scratching our heads even the president himself. It will be interesting to see how he handles this.What's he going to do with all of that money? He's got every resource at this finger tips already. If Mukwege or some other person would have won it's likely they would have sunk it right back in to their work that won them the prize to begin with.