Penned Thoughts

goobimama:

John Gruber, the ever patriotic American has this to say about Obama’s Nobel victory:

To any American who isn’t happy about our president having won the Nobel Peace Prize: There is something wrong with you.

Thankfully, Kyle Baxter put him in his place:

Don’t you just love how simple that is? Forget black and white, Gruber’s made it even more clear: there’s just something wrong with you if you disagree. […]

See, this isn’t how discussion works. There isn’t discussion when one side decides that, simply, the other side is absolutely wrong and not worth listening to. […] When you impugn the intentions of those you disagree with, the only thing that can happen is a breakdown in discussion. And when there’s no discussion, no one learns a damned thing other than how they can yell their dumb slogans louder. That’s how we breakdown as a nation. [Read full post]

Lost a little respect for Gruber when I read that.

As much as I think Obama did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize just for having noble intentions, I do think that every American should be proud of it nevertheless. I don’t think there is anything wrong with Gruber’s statement. If it had been Manmohan Singh who had won the prize, I would have cheered him as loud as anyone and been damned proud of the accomplishment.

I think that when the president of your country wins one of the most significant honours in the world, you stand up, thump your chest with pride, and cheer him on; you leave the discussions about whether or not it was deserved to the people of all the other countries in the world.