Huh?

In a stunning surprise, the Nobel Committee announced Friday that it had awarded its annual peace prize to President Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” NYT

I repeat, "Huh?" Obama is a big improvement over his predecessor in many ways---even though he has tended to continue very similar or the same policies---but the Noble Peace Prize?

As to whether the prize was given too early in Mr. Obama’s presidency, Mr. Jagland [Noble Committee chairman], a former prime minister of Norway, replied: “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future but for what he has done in the previous year. We would hope this will enhance what he is trying to do.”

Gobsmacking. Perhaps it was his Afghanistan policy. Or the withdrawal from Iraq.

I no longer understand anything. Going to buy videos games and sit in the closet and play them all day and night.

9PM: After rereading the article, I get the impression that Obama got the prize in part because he isn't Bush. Had he not followed Boy George---who managed to get nearly the whole planet to revile him---Obama would have had to wait a few years...
　

Telegraph.co.uk reports: Japan Threatens to Kick Out US Troops

and whoever wrote that headline for Julian Ryall's article at Telegraph.co.uk is just a bit truth challenged.

A quick check of Google Japan news at 6AM revealed no mention in the Japanese press of such important news. The major US-Japan related news there concerned Obama's visit to Japan on November 12 and 13 and those articles contained no mention of kicking out US troops or:

...Work to review the agreement [Futemba Air Station] began in the Japanese cabinet on Friday, with no deadline set for a decision, according to Mr Okada.

The urgency of the situation is underlined by the arrival in Japan in November of President Barack Obama, who will arrive with hopes of settling the contentious issue once and for all...Telegraph.co.uk

as reported by Mr Ryall. (If the situation is so urgent, why has no deadline been set for a decision? Bet it won't be settled once and for all before Obama leaves.)

Oddly enough, there is no mention in the body of the above article of any threat to "kick out US troops." Mr. Ryall and the Telegraph.co.uk have been kind enough to keep us informed of the impending US-Japan split beginning with the post-election article: Incoming Tokyo Government Threatens Split with US .

The good news is that reading this sort of thing may make one more intelligent*. In fact, if that theory is correct, reading nearly anything about Japan will make a person a genius---or a conspiracy theorist.

*NYT article: How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect.

Shoichi Nakagawa dies

Apparently found dead at home by his wife just after 8 this morning. I don't know why, but I have always felt somewhat sorry for him. Asahi article (Japanese) here.

Not a good way to return to blogging...

1240: Article in English here. Apparently the whole world already knows about it.