Ig Nobels

[Mark Kohut]

To quote the head of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee: It is a combination of idealism and realpolitik that changes the world....

--- On Sun, 10/11/09, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> Subject: Re: Ig Nobels
> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009, 1:01 AM
> I appreciate the reasoned argument
> here.  I am not looking for a savior and my vote cast
> for Obama was not a product of naivete though every vote
> expresses some degree of wishful thinking . But something
> important happened in the financial meltdown that created an
> opening for dynamic leadership and change. The opportunity
> was squandered, a great lie was perpetrated and Obama became
> a participant in the  biggest financial fraud in
> history. This was followed by escalating a failed military
> policy in Afghanistan, continuing to hire mercenaries,
> to  practice torture and to fail to prosecute war
> crimes, backing off his stand on Israeli settlements,
> refusing to honor the UN investigation into war crimes in
> Gaza, and recently undermining climate change
> protocols.  Somewhere along the line  I came to
> realize that putting a friendly smart  Democratic
> party, multicultural face on the US colonial
> enterprise  and the corporate state was  as
> meaningless as I had begun to suspect.
> 
> I also agree that change is a local enterprise  and I
> find myself working for that change with others in my
> Vermont town. But I refuse to give praise where none is due.
> Justifying failed leadership does not change its miserable
> ineffectiveness. The problem is not that Obama tries and
> fails to make the serious changes which are needed in the
> US. The problem is that he has not tried in a single area to
> contend for the best possible outcome.  Obama's support
> is dwindling not for the lack of awards but for the lack of
> courage, he does not support the best interests of voters
> and they are losing interest in supporting him.
> 
> 
> 
> > On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 8:33 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> if no one is gonna rock the boat, what's the
> point? Yes, I understand
> >> the vampire like suck the entrenched interests
> have in the US but if
> >> the prez can't do it, who is?
> >> 
> >> we want more--that so hard to understand?
> >> 
> > You are quite right, if, perhaps a bit overzealous,
> given that you are
> > actually preaching to the choir. Yes, we want more,
> but are we willing
> > to make that more happen? National change does not
> happen from the top
> > down, as zealous Alice likewise overstates, change of
> the sort you are
> > on about is a national thing that requires more than a
> vote, more than
> > a man with a few allies.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 8:33 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> if no one is gonna rock the boat, what's the
> point? Yes, I understand
> >> the vampire like suck the entrenched interests
> have in the US but if
> >> the prez can't do it, who is?
> >> 
> >> we want more--that so hard to understand?
> >> 
> >> 
> >> On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:55 PM, alice wellintown
> >> <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> But surely you understand that Presidents of
> the US don't have the
> >>> power needed to make the kinds of changes we
> would love to see, right?
> >>> Having a set of brazen Brunswicks doesn't mean
> the Prez can knock the
> >>> pins down. He doesn't get to roll in most
> frames. And, some of the
> >>> pins are glued to the lane. It ain't as easy
> as it looks on TV. The
> >>> Nobel folks might just hekp the guy get
> re-elected. Right now it looks
> >>> like he's lost a lot of support from the Peace
> vote, the gay voter,
> >>> the anti-wall street vote, and other left,
> liberal, democractic,
> >>> Reagan Democratic working class folk. The
> Nobel may help him win some
> >>> of that vote back. He needs more support not
> less. Otherwise, it's
> >>> back to Bush & Co. full tilt boogey.
> >>> 
> >> 
> 
>