Belated congratulations

to Paul Krugman for winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. I can't think of a man more deserving than Krugman. He's incredibly intelligent and probably the best progressive economist there is. I can only pray that Krugman gets a high level job in an Obama administration but I realize that is probably too much to ask. Heaven forbid a progressive actually work his way into government.

Anyway, I find it cool too because Krugman got his Ph.D from MIT and also taught here for some time.

Congrats Paul!

A dangerous perception and more on the Nobel Peace Prize

So I was thinking more about Martti Ahtisaari winning the Nobel Peace Prize and noting that, in addition to being president of Finland, Ahtisaari was a diplomat and peacemaker before and after being president.

That got me thinking...being a diplomat is some pretty freaking important foreign policy experience and would seem to stress the peaceful/negotiation side. What is it with our country that "general" or "war hero" are taken to be foreign policy experience. It is to some extent but it is a very confrontational form of foreign policy experience and seems to speak volumes of our view of how we deal with other nations.

Why can't we have a president like this guy?

Former Finnish president and peace mediating "go-to guy" Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize today. Congrats to him and it makes you wish that leaders of America were viewed as impartial and good peace mediators.

Wouldn't that be a cool place to be in the world?