Wednesday, May 03, 2006

And the Nobel Peace Prize in Wankery Goes to...

Richard Cohen.

A stunning new achievement which puts to shame all former recipients of the prize.

Richard Cohen, we salute you.


...we must remember that Richard Cohen was a former winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in Wankery for this from 09/06/00:

My own continuing crisis of faith is beside the point. But the marriage of religion to politics is another matter. I thought it was in bad taste for Lieberman to go on and on about religion. But I thought it downright smug of him to suggest that God somehow favors America above all nations. The United States is a fortunate and exceptional nation, which I love dearly, but it is no more divine than any other.

"Our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world," Lieberman told the annual convention of B'nai B'rith late last month.

Is that so? Did God choose slavery, which persisted in this country long after it was outlawed elsewhere? Did God choose to nearly eradicate the American Indian? Did God choose to incarcerate the Japanese during World War II? Where was God when blacks were being lynched and bigots planted bombs in southern churches, killing innocent little girls? Are these the models God wanted for the rest of the world?

Lieberman's statement is preposterously false and lacks humility. In these and other statements, he and like-minded politicians not only have had God virtually raising a hand at a naturalization ceremony, but they have imbued religion with a power it does not have. They suggest that if only more people were religious and allowed to pray before football games or whatever, we would be a far better nation--and, surely, all games would end in a tie.


Perhaps completely reasonable, except for one thing. The person who made the statement was presidential candidate George W. Bush, and not VP candidate Joe Lieberman.