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Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

theguardian.com

121–130 of 199 posts

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#121
post #114
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the aggressiveness of the current administration, you think there is a chance the next administration might come along and say "nope, they need to serve the full 35 years". The sentence is 35 years. They could legally be forced to serve the full 35 for any reason. As far as I am concerned that is the weight being hung around their neck, not the imaginary eight. And eight years in prison is an insanely long time…

He was given 3.5 years for time served. He'll really be eligible for parole after a full decade in jail.

Yeah what's a decade in prison anyway.

Go spend 10 days in your bathroom. I bet you cannot do it.

Now realize how incredibly comfortable you are compared to prison.

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#122
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck the world. He's action is true to himself. For that, I respect the guy.

If you respect Manning, please stop saying "he" and "guy".

I have no problem if someone wants to identity with a different gender but it can get confusing for others as some people don't limit their pronoun choices to "he" or "she" to identify themselves.

How about this for an idea... Pvt. Manning? Easy and no disrespect.

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#123
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe Bush was nominated repeatedly. Ha even bizzaring, Adolf Hitler was once nominated. [1] [1] http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/peace/

Hitler was TIME magazine man of year, and for a decent while in America Fascism was mildly popular (circa 1930's). Its strange looking back on a that time (Post Holocaust and WW2). American Newspapers applauded the works of fascists claiming, "They got the trains to run on time."

See this huge American Nazi Party gathering at Madison Square Gardens: http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xmb/viewthread.php?tid=7735 [1939]

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#124
post #97
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they contradictory? There are plenty of criminals I like personally who deserve to serve time for breaking the law. EDIT: I wouldn't conflate ignorance of her gender and disrespect, it's not anything I've ever heard.

You miss the point. Pfc. Manning now identifies as Chelsea Manning. She is transgendered, and since her military career is toast she has come out of the closet on the subject. I'm going to be generous and assume that duaneb poster was not closely following the story and is unaware of the above. Transpersons are always the subject of massive flamewars online, so some folks get really strong kneejerk reactions to misge…

I was not aware of Manning's being transgendered, and I don't mean any disrespect—consider it an editorial he given my assumption of gender from sex (I can't edit).

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being Man of the Year isn't necessarily an honor. From Wikipedia: Person of the Year (formerly Man of the Year) is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, group, idea or object that "for better or for worse...has done the most to influence the events of the year."

2001 title should have gone to OBL then.

Yes, it should have. Time Magazine didn't have the audacity to, and settled for Giuliani.

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#126
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is clearly something that we as a society are going to have to wrestle with. It seems reasonable to me that this person, having XY chromosomes and all the hardware that go with them, may be correctly referred to using masculine pronouns. There's something to be said for respecting the wishes of the individual in how they'd like to be addressed. But there's definitely a point at which that drifts off into absurdi…

There's a time and a place to be pedantic, and this really isn't it. Transgendered people go through a heap of terrible, terrible crap and the least we can all do is give them the dignity of using their identified pronoun. If anybody has earned that respect, it's ms. Manning. I mean really, how the heck does it hurt anybody to say "She" instead of "He" after you've been informed that's not how she identifies? Does it…

My personal value system (and perhaps milord grandparent's) rates the accurate use of words (aka, truth-telling) rather high on the scale of values. Clear thought is impossible without it.

When we, as a society, take words such as "war" and "gender" that previously referred to physical realities and make them highly metaphorical or even completely arbitrary, we dilute our vocabulary. We make it harder to think and communicate clearly.

I find it especially objectionable when the only argument in favor of blurring the definition of a word is "because someone wants me to" or "someone would be offended if I didn't". Our mere preferences don't change reality; why should they change words, which are meant to convey an accurate representation of reality?

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#127
post #40
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not. I'm sorry, what ? You aren't sure if Rabin and Arafat "intended to create peace"? What exactly do you think they were intending?

People on both sides of the Israel vs Palestine discourse tend to accuse the other side of acting in bad faith. And the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region.

>the various "Peace Processes" have generally been a result of pressure from outside the region.

What makes you say this? You don't think the Israelis and the Palestinians actually want peace (albeit on their own terms)?

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#128
post #96
post #17

Some may find the list of people who can nominate someone for the Nobel peace prize interesting. From their website: Members of national assemblies and governments of states; Members of international courts; University rectors; professors of social sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology; directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes; Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize;…

> I believe Bush was nominated repeatedly. Ha even bizzaring, Adolf Hitler was once nominated. [1] [1] http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/peace/

Godwin's Law!

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#129
post #50
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yasser Arafat & Yitzhak Rabin were awarded it, its not clear if they intended to create a peace, but they did not. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded it. Henry Kissinger meanwhile embarked on a major bombing campaign and Le Duc Tho declined the honour. They've made premature or outright bad calls before.

I don't think that the Peace Prize is only meant for people who have made tangible changes in the amount of violence in the world. It's also a carrot that you can dangle in front of people to reward them for taking risks in the interest of reducing violence. Rabin and Arafat (and Peres) tried, with the Oslo accords, to move toward a settlement of a long-standing, violent dispute. They didn't completely succeed. And i…

..assuming they were acting in good faith, which they have always accused eachother of doing. Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were certainly not acting in good faith. In any case, the official criteria is:

"done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.*

IMO it should be like the other Nobel Prizes, awarded later when the things have settled. The Science prizes were changed to include a lag allowing for discoveries to face scientific rigor for a while. I think they should adopt the same policy. Wait until a war ends before handing out a prize to those who end it.

Re: Edward Snowden nominated for Nobel peace prize

#130
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe Bush was nominated repeatedly. Ha even bizzaring, Adolf Hitler was once nominated. [1] [1] http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/peace/

Hitler was TIME magazine man of year, and for a decent while in America Fascism was mildly popular (circa 1930's). Its strange looking back on a that time (Post Holocaust and WW2). American Newspapers applauded the works of fascists claiming, "They got the trains to run on time."

> for a decent while in America Fascism was mildly popular

Where now politics standing in staunch opposition to liberals, communists and socialists with an emphasis on a ultra nationalism and military power, is thankfully a thing of the distant past.

Oh.

;-)

(I am joking, I'm aware that there are significant differences, particularly regarding the role of the state).

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