However, Gilmae’s expression of his own opinion was in a sidebar comment, which is the approved manner of doing this for ML because it maintains the Neutral Point of View convention of journalism while still allowing team members the luxury of expressing a personal viewpoint, as long as it’s made clear that that is exactly what it is.

Finally, I certainly don’t share CL’s jaundiced opinion of Al Gore, but I do wonder how the Nobel Committee concluded that making docos on global warming had a close enough connection with promoting peace to merit such a major award. Still, I suppose it’s no more indirect than awarding the Nobel to the bloke who started the Grameen Bank for micro-loans to the poor. No doubt one can argue that alleviating poverty/gross inequality may contribute to lessening the danger of wars triggered by disparities of poverty or envy or inequality, just as perhaps one can argue that agitating for action on climate change may (if successful) reduce the risk of war triggered by its effects on food production, drought, loss of coastal lands etc. However, it’s an extraordinarily indirect effect and not self-evidently worthy of a Nobel in the face of seemingly far more worthy candidates including Sendler and those mentioned by JC in #55.

The WJS thought these people were worthier than Al.

Olso Friday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country’s military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin’s slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

Or to Presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili who, despite the efforts of the Kremlin to undermine their young states, stayed true to the spirit of the peaceful “color” revolutions they led in Ukraine and Georgia and showed that democracy can put down deep roots in Russia’s backyard.

Or to Britain’s Tony Blair, Ireland’s Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland, who in March were able to set aside decades of hatred to establish joint Catholic-Protestant rule in Northern Ireland.

Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who’ve been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

These men and women put their own lives and livelihoods at risk by working to rid the world of violence and oppression. Let us hope they survive the coming year so that the Nobel Prize Committee might consider them for the 2008 award.

In order to find CL “contributions” you should use search terms like “Greedy Fat Al”, “The British Goracle” (an insult for Prince Charles) and “Fat Al”.

And more to the point of this thread, what do you think of C.L. title and subsequent bagging of Al Gore’s weight in the comments below of his Sendler post? Pretty poor IMHO.

KM (not KP)

No, not the economics prize because it isn’t actually a Nobel prize but the Peace prize. As commenter dover beach notes in the Open Forum, Al Gore and the IPCC have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Whatever the scientific merits of the IPCC’s work, this still seems like an odd choice. But no odder than honouring Yasser Arafat.

220 comments. No C.L. - unless I’m using my browser search incorrectly. I hope that’s not indicative of obsessive.

Just because some nominations are leaked doesn’t mean that all nominations are leaked. CL’s claim is that she was only nominated in 2007. Unless CL has got statements from every single person who can nominate (and the list is quite large) between 1945 and 2007, he can’t possibly know whether or not she was only nominated in 2007.

Despite your obsessions CL he did make a reasonable case and you ought to pat him on the back for doing so.

No he didn’t. He used the death of a great person to make a cheap and cowardly shot at someone who he doesn’t like. While I can see why it might appeal to ideologues, Gilmae’s comment that started this whole discussion off was entirely reasonable.

Actually there is no way that CL could know that this is true. Nobel prize nominations are kept secret.

Here’s KenM telling us the nominees are not a state secret and the ship of state leaks like the Titanic

In practice some nominees do become known<

All in the same comment.

Then here’s Ken M explaining the nominees are a state secret again.

Can you not read? Or do you just ignore facts which are inconvenient to your cheap idiotic shots? You have no way of knowing that she was nominated only once.

Here’s Tim L explaining that even Dave Hicks could have got a nomination for the peace prize.

And note further that it isn’t difficult to get nominated — any humanities professor or member of a national assembly can nominate by sending a letter to the Nobel committee.

Talk about CL obsession. Guys relax, all he did was suggest this woman was more deserving and explained why. Despite your obsessions CL he did make a reasonable case and you ought to pat him on the back for doing so. Frankly the woman was far more deserving than Albert. Albert had already received his Oscar or was about to and didn’t need two Academy wins as that was overkill.

I don’t understand Gummo’s narcissism comment, but the rest of comments bagging C.L. have been pretty spot on.

Who here has been belittling or dismissive of Irena Sendler?

Frankly, as a long time reader of C.L., I also found gilmae’s editorial comment surprising (C.L. obsessed with Gore??? you want to tell me about invisible pink unicorns again gilmae?) and despite his intentions, and along with some of the comments here, belittling and dismissive of Irena Sendler; let’s not go to some people’s obsession with C.L.

Perhaps some don’t need to succumb to “narcissism” because after all, even a “small effort” seems already beyond them.

Again, why would I do that when Ms Sendler was only a nominee in 2007, having lived in relative obscurity until a hit-play, ‘Life in a Jar’ (1999), made her work known to the wider world?

Can you not read? Or do you just ignore facts which are inconvenient to your cheap idiotic shots? You have no way of knowing that she was nominated only once.

She was obscure enough that she was recognised by Israel in the 1960s. Back then she would have been a much stronger candidate for the Noble - simply because of the passage of time reduces the chance that somebody will get the Peace Nobel.

And I’m not the one bitching. You, Tim, Gummo and Niall are - remember?

Yeah, because it was me, Tim, Gummo and Niall who were using Irena Sendler’s obit to take cheap shots at someone we don’t like.

Again, why would I do that when Ms Sendler was only a nominee in 2007, having lived in relative obscurity until a hit-play, ‘Life in a Jar’ (1999), made her work known to the wider world?

And I’m not the one bitching. You, Tim, Gummo and Niall are - remember?

And one last point, peace prizes tend to be given out shortly after the event (relative to science prizes which have to stand the test of time) so CL should be bitching about people who won the peace prize shortly after WWII, not Al Gore. Irena Sendler had a virtually zero chance of getting the Peace Prize in 2007 irrespective of who else was nominated.

Actually there is no way that CL could know that this is true. Nobel prize nominations are kept secret. From Wikipedia:

The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are sealed for fifty years. In practice some nominees do become known. It is also common for publicists to make such a claim, founded or not.

You mean varnish, then? I wouldn’t paint you with that, Niall. The sight of a naked, hairy and SHINEY man would scare the bejesus out of Vietnamese motorists.

“To lie is to state something one believes is false with the intention that it be taken for the truth by someone else”

C.L., I take it then you feel gilmae a) believes that you don’t have an Al Gore obssesion and b) intended that we all it take it as a truth that you do?

But back to the point: Gilmae’s reference - “get over his Al Gore obsessions” - presupposed such “obsessions” actually existed and are somehow known to exist in my writings. Got that? I obsessively write and post about Al Gore, according to Gilmae. Who knew? Well, nobody. It is, of course, a deliberate lie.

Perhaps the best way to get this dealt with, since it bothers you so much, is for you to lead by example and withdraw the numerous false accusations against others that you’ve made in your comments here. Starting with the one about gilmae’s remark on your obsession with Al Gore being, of course, a deliberate lie.