"I fear I am not in my perfect mind." (King Lear)

.....I'm confused. Probably because I'm ancient--an antique, a dinosaur, and possibly pre-alzheimerish and, consequently, have no idea about what I'm talking. (Don't catch me ending a sentence with a preposition). I shared my belief on this blog that since the Norwegians on the Nobel Prize committee know more about the reasons for their choice of winners than I do, I was pleased as a patriotic American that one of ours won the Nobel Peace prize. But following the ubiquitous conflagrations fired by critics of their choice of Obama, my belief was shaken, rattled, and rolled. I couldn't figure out whom these pundits were criticizing--Obama or the Nobel committee. If the President--well, he didn't ask for it; if the committee, then if I were Norwegian, I'd be "ungablusin"--which in Yiddish means pissed off; and I doubt they would feel differently in any other language. And today in OSLO — Members of the Norwegian committee that gave Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for the U.S. president. "We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done." Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe.

....."All these things have contributed to — I wouldn't say a safer world — but a world with less tension." He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals. "I take note of it. My response is only the judgment of the committee, which was unanimous," he said, adding that the award to Obama followed the guidelines set forth by Alfred Nobel. "Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year," Jagland said. "Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?"

.....The same right wing No Gang were critics of the President's visit to Denmark, another Scandinavian country where he and Michelle were hoping to have them vote for Chicago's bid to hold the 2012 Olympics there. I don't understand what the negative hoopla was all about; just because he and the first family occupy the White House, what is wrong for them to give their home town a boost by confronting the Olympic Committee in person? What harm is there for a couple of days in Copenhagen? That's a nice town. The beer is great, and the residents speak Danish. But, of course, what do I know? Like Socrates, all I know is that I know nothing. However, we are fortunate to have some people who know it all.

.....Now, carrying on with the commentary on yesterday's posting, an additional comment by Mr. (or Mrs.) Anonymous has been published. I'm really getting to like that person who seems to be very well informed, an intellectual of the highest order--who has authored more than Shakespeare, and, incidentally, an ally of my political persuasion. It's always good to have someone on your side; and particularly on my side. And speaking about someone on my side, we are going out to dinner tonite with Mike and Helen which the Baroness and I have not had the pleasure of their company for a long time since Mike went into the hospital for open heart surgery. I am sure that was considerably more of an ordeal than the one I had with my melanoma surgery. But now Mike is back and hopefully getting rich day trading on his computer. Mike couldn't wait to get home from the rehab center so he could catch up on my blogs, and to join us for a 7 oz. filet and a Texas Tonion.