No Nobel Peace Prize Nomination Yet
I am disappointed that no reader has yet volunteered to nominate me for the Nobel Peace Prize. What’s the holdup? I haven’t committed enough murders?
Let’s get to work, people. If you are 1) a judge, a legislator, or a social science, history, philosophy, law, or theology professor, and 2) incensed by the nomination of murderer Tookie Williams and by the prize awarded to murderer Yasser Arafat, make your statement now. Leave me a comment or e-mail me at patterico AT patterico DOT com.
UPDATE: There is a possibility in the works, but a vomiting cat has delayed the discussion. No kidding.
UPDATE x2: The cat vomit is cleaned up (it wasn’t my cat) and things are looking positive. No guarantees, but I have a promising lead.
UPDATE x3: Eugene Volokh opines that a professor should not nominate someone he or she thinks is undeserving, because making light of the seriousness of the nomination process does not justify dishonesty to the Committee. He has an interesting point; however, his concerns could easily be addressed by simply being completely honest with the Committee that this is a parody nomination.
OK, Patterico, if you insist upon whoring for it. . .
According to the website, here are the folks who can nominate people for the prize:
1. Members of national assemblies and governments of states;
2. Members of international courts;
3. University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes;
4. Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
5. Board members of organizations who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;
6. Active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (proposals by members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after February 1) and
7. Former advisers appointed by the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
I guess that under (1) you would have to hope for Barbara Boxer or Diane Feinstein to come through for you, or maybe Jane Harman (you live in PV now, right?). I don’t think a nomination from W would carry much weight with those folks.
Perhaps if we pursue option (4) below, we can get Jimmy Carter to put in a good word for you. Or Henry Kissinger, at the very least.
Any other suggestions?
JVW (54c318) — 11/27/2005 @ 1:22 pmIf you follow my link, you’ll see that Volokh interprets these rules as saying that any judge or legislator, as well as any professor falling within 3), counts. I know that judges, legislators, and professors read this blog. How hard could it be to get a nomination from one?
As for the nomination carrying any weight, I don’t care. I don’t want to win. I just want to get nominated, to show that it’s not a great distinction.
Patterico (4e4b70) — 11/27/2005 @ 1:30 pmPatterico, Patience, I am afraid you must wait until the current US Senatorial delegation from Massachusetts is recognized for their outstanding actions (or inaction as the case may be) and achievements.
Gbear (bbb176) — 11/27/2005 @ 3:36 pmI somehow doubt that the Nobel committee will take a loose intrepretation of the rules where nominating an American is concerned. I could easily see them saying something like, “Oh, so sorry, you need a judge from a country that recognizes the primacy of International Law to nominate you in order for us to consider it.”
On that count, though, maybe they would let a nomination from Stephen Breyer pass muster.
JVW (54c318) — 11/27/2005 @ 3:56 pmI once judged a chili cook-off. Your nomination papers are in the mail.
The Pathetic Earthling (08c01e) — 11/27/2005 @ 4:03 pmOh, man, talk about setting yourself up for a fall!
If you are saying that the nomination is no great distinction, and you still can’t get nominated . . . .
Alas, I’m only a lowly concrete plant manager, so I have no nominating vote. But if did, I was going to nominate XRLQ.
Or is that XLRQ?
Never could keep that straight!
Dana R. Pico (a9eb8b) — 11/27/2005 @ 4:06 pmPatterico, what category did you have in mind for your solicited proposed nomination? Peace? If so, can you tell us why you think you would attract the attention of possible proposers to nominate you? In other words, what would you think would their perception be of your contribution to peace , and I assume they mean world peace or peace in a state or region that has implications for world peace . If it is other category, please also explain similarly why proposers would consider you for your nomination in those other categories? Thnks.
Yi Ling (745aa9) — 11/27/2005 @ 4:50 pmhttp://nobelprize.org/search/all_laureates_c.html
Do you mean there is no Nobel Blogging prize? The crew that blew Rather out of the box deserve it.
Walter E. Wallis (b2dd68) — 11/27/2005 @ 6:55 pmI was watching that noght – it would even make a presentable balet.
If you are saying that the nomination is no great distinction, and you still can’t get nominated . . . .
Yeah, but I think I will be.
Patterico (4e4b70) — 11/27/2005 @ 8:40 pmIt’s Xrlq. XLRQ is a web design company, I think. Thanks for the hypothetical nomination – maybe Patterico can talk his contact into nominating me, too?
Xrlq (428dfd) — 11/27/2005 @ 10:33 pmI think you’ve done too much to deserve it. Your peace talks with Richard Bennett have truly made the world a better place, making you overqualified for the nomination.
Patterico (4e4b70) — 11/27/2005 @ 10:51 pmIsn’t Hugh Hewitt a law professor? He could nominate you! Or if he isn’t, we should be able to round up at least one in the fields listed.
Patterico, you deserve a nomination! I’ll get to work on it.
Diana Magrann (5b73ea) — 11/27/2005 @ 11:11 pmPatterico, you deserve a nomination!
Actually, I don’t . . . which is why I want one.
Patterico (4e4b70) — 11/27/2005 @ 11:17 pmSince Judge Len Wapner (of “The People’s Court” fame) has made a re-entry into the public arena here in California, perhaps we can pay him to nominate Patterico.
JVW (54c318) — 11/28/2005 @ 12:15 amYou might consider refocusing your efforts on winning a Nobel Prize in Economics. After all, if the drivel produced by Paul Krugman (of NYT fame) can be considered Nobel Prize material, then 2+2 is a equal to a Nobel Prize! Plus, after Times Select, you are probably getting more page views than Paul!
perfectsense (024110) — 11/28/2005 @ 12:18 amPatterico:
Brad Linaweaver and I won the coveted Green Slime Award from some sci-fi convention for worst SF book of the year. I suppose that’s not the same thing, though.
Dafydd
Dafydd abHugh (f8a7be) — 11/28/2005 @ 2:26 amIf XRLQ gets more Nobel Peace Prize nominations than Patterico, does that mean our esteemed host will have to start paying him for his contributions to this wonderful website?
Dana R. Pico (3e4784) — 11/28/2005 @ 3:45 amI read this morning that Stanley “Tookie” Williams HAS BEEN
nominated for the Big prize.
He is to be executed in CA 12/13/05 as long a Arnold keeps quiet.
rab (c79661) — 11/28/2005 @ 8:12 amPatrick,
If this campaign doesn’t work, there’s always the International Ghadafi Prize for Human Rights, where you could join such luminaries as this year’s award winner, Dr. Mahathir “the Jews rule the world by proxy” Mohammed.
Then, of course, you have the past winners such as Louis “Judaism is a gutter religion” Farrakhan, and Fidel Castro – a “human rights”
abuserlegend.And, of course, Nelson Mandela – who does deserve many awards but the company he keeps leaves a lot to be desired.
SoCalJustice (99cf7b) — 11/28/2005 @ 10:57 amHmmm … you could, with a straight face, be nominated for a Pulitzer….
Which brings up a question: how long before a blogger gets a Pulitzer? The 60 Minutes documents thing comes to mind.
Kevin Murphy (9982dd) — 11/28/2005 @ 11:28 amPatterico has a better chance of winning the Heisman Trophy.
Justice Frankfurter (2dcd84) — 11/28/2005 @ 12:56 pmBut I don’t expect (or even want) to win, as I thought the post made clear.
Patterico (a38ccb) — 11/28/2005 @ 1:09 pmYou know, there’s gotta be some community college professor reading this blog. C’mon, be a team player and nominate Patterico!
Nick @ HBR (49150d) — 11/28/2005 @ 1:57 pmI’m waiting for Tony Kushner to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Zhombre (ae2ee4) — 11/28/2005 @ 2:42 pmI would, Patterico, but I’m only an engineering professor….
BarbO (a86dec) — 11/28/2005 @ 3:15 pmIn the different categories at http://nobelprize.org/search/all_laureates_c.html , one would assume that a nominee for a chemistry nobel prize would be a chemistry professor. So the thinking might go for medicine, physics, economics, literature, but what of peace?
Are proposers for peace different from proposers for the other fields?
Yi Ling (3c9484) — 11/28/2005 @ 4:18 pmIn the different categories at http://nobelprize.org/search/all_laureates_c.html , one would assume that a proposer for a nominee for a chemistry nobel prize would be a chemistry professor. So the thinking might go for medicine, physics, economics, literature, but what of peace?
Yi Ling (3c9484) — 11/28/2005 @ 4:22 pmThe peacemaker of Palos Verdes
So why should Patterico (yes, really, Patterico) be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize? Certainly he has advantages over previous winners and nominees:Unlike Kofi Annan (winner 2001), he has never had…
dustbury.com (5a1bcd) — 11/28/2005 @ 8:15 pmThe flaw in Eugene’s reasoning is in taking the Nobel Peace Prize seriously. The Nobel committee surely hasn’t in the past decade for sure, and at least since 1994. I sincerely believe that Patterico has done more to foster peace than Tookie or Arafat or Jimmy Carter. If these people can be nominated or actually win, then by the Nobel committee’s standards Patterico is worthy of a nomination.
How has Patterico furthered the cause of peace? By relaying the truth. Truth prevents lies. Lies, left unchecked, foster irrationality. Irrationality leads to foolish decisions that ultimately endanger life. Reality doesn’t care who wins the academic debate. For example, if you are a moral relativist and you travel to New Guinea and act upon your moral relativism, you will get eaten.
Thus, Patterico is more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than many of the recent recipients. Why not nominate him? Were I able to I would.
Ben Pugh (1527b3) — 11/29/2005 @ 6:13 pmOK, since you didn’t ake my advice to cheat, shoot or kill someone to get the nomination here’s more suggestions. Appear in public wearing gaudy indigenous clothing, preferable from Latin America. Or start wearing nun’s clothing and cashing checks from Charles Keating. My favorite is wearing fatigues, a keffiyeh and a weeks growth of beard. This visual cues will help anyone interested in nominating you pick you out of the list of usual suspects. Good Luck!
Pat Patterson (5b3946) — 11/29/2005 @ 11:30 pmhello all. i just want to say that i appreciate your insight in this matter. a lot of people in fact havent done their research on this issue but maybe all of you have. still, regardless of how informed you are, i dont think its respectable, or even peaceable to poke fun at this man who was just condemned to death by other human beings. he was condemned to death, not by our creator (if in fact there is one), but other human beings living on this earth. i personally think that it is no man’s right to deal death and isnt it quite (un)godly of you to judge? and your implications that murder=nomination: im sure the Nobel Founders would love to judge you. the you may think you’re being humorous in making a mockery of this man’s life and death, but i think its just ignorant. shame on you.
furthermore, the issue of concern shouldnt be the credibility of his nominations, but the implications of subjecting a man to the death penalty. its perpetuating the message that violence is the answer to our problems, that vindication and revenge are synonymous with justice. you speak of peace, patterico, and the rest of you even, but do you know what it means? perhaps your endeavors for that nobel prize would be better focused in a category other than peace, P.
PEACE O; )
bayangel (d791a7) — 12/13/2005 @ 1:55 pmthe bayangel
you must have been one those people who voted for bush becuase you are the only one who doesn’t know you lack talent as does he.
Dani (18e0e1) — 6/24/2008 @ 9:09 am