Set aside the fact that the body frequently tries to impose international restrictions on rights protected by the US Constitution – rights like freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms.

Set aside the regular anti-Semitism of the organization in its approach to peace in the Middle East and Islamic terrorism.

No, now the UN is investigating housing prices and mortgage foreclosures in the US.

[The UN Human Rights Council] sent its "special rapporteur on adequate housing," Raquel Rolnik, on a whirlwind tour to sniff out these "violations" -- not to say, crimes -- against humanity.

Rolnik launched her US visit last week in the city and is also traveling to places like Chicago, New Orleans and South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
At issue: whether adequate housing is too hard to come by amid the economic downturn.

Set aside the fact that this issue is entirely an internal matter of the US (something the UN supposedly cannot meddle with, according to its charter), this is a body filled with nations ruled by tin-pot dictatorships and others that are impoverished hell-holes. Where do they get off coming here over this? It would be laughable if it were not so offensive.

But then there is this utterly insane perversion of the laws of war and customary international law that is now being directed at the US.

US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said.

"The problem with the United States is that it is making an increased use of drones/Predators (which are) particularly prominently used now in relation to Pakistan and Afghanistan," UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston told a press conference.

"My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law," he said.

It is a long-established part of warfare to target civilian and military leaders. Is this moron really arguing that doing so constitutes an execution, and that the near-surgical precision of American methods constitutes a violation of international law? Perhaps he would prefer, and have his conscience salved by, having the US resort to WWII-style bombing raids like those carried out at Dresden. Or maybe the use of more less precise weapons, perhaps of the variety unleashed against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While my moral sense finds our current methods preferable, I won’t lose any sleep if we return to the days of “kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out” in order to please the UN weenies – after all, we are finding that way too many folks in certain parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan are in sympathy with al-Qaeda and the Taliban to the point of lending them aid and comfort, so I consider them to be legitimate targets (a principle that also applies to Hollywood as well).

As an American, I’m offended by the UN’s involvement in both of these matters, and I think it is high time to spend the money that pays for 25% of the UN’s annual budget and apply it here at home – and give the organization 72 hours to vacate the country.

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After all, he is joining this list of allegedly worthy recipients whose contributions to world peace appear to be fraudulent or non-existent -- or who support causes that make the Birthers and Truthers look legitimate. Scott at Powerline notes these recipients over the last four decades -- some of whom were obviously unworthy when they received their awards, though others did not prove their unworthiness until years later.

2007
AL GORE The award to Al Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change" fits in with a subset of cosmopolitan frauds, fakers, murderers, thieves, and no-accounts going back about twenty years.

2005
MOHAMED ELBARADEI (joint winner). He's done such a nice job with Iran.

2004
WANGARI MAATHAI The Kenyan ecologist peacefully teaches that the AIDS virus is a biological agent deliberately created by the Man.

2002
JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America. A true cosmopolitan, he has undermined the foreign policy of his own country and vouched for the bona fides of tyrants and murderers all over the world. Commenting on the award, Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge emphasized that the award was meant as a denunciation of American policy toward Iraq. "It should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the [Bush] administration has taken," Berge said. "It's a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States."

2001
UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA.
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General. Among other things, they respectively served as the vehicle for, and presided over, one of the biggest scams in history.

1994
YASSER ARAFAT (joint winner), Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, President of the Palestinian National Authority. He was a cold-blooded murderer both before and after receiving the award.

1992
RIGOBERTA MENCHU TUM, Guatemala. She is the notorious Guatemalan faker and author, sort of, of I, Rigoberta Menchu. Like President Obama, she is a memoirist of distinction.

1988
THE UNITED NATIONS PEACE-KEEPING FORCES New York, NY, U.S.A. Notwithstanding rapes and sex abuse committed by the team in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the Congo, still doing fine work all over the world.

1976
BETTY WILLIAMS, United Kingdom, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People), who in later years repeatedly called for the assassination of President George Bush. How peaceful can you get?

1973
LE DUC THO (with Henry Kissinger) for the 1973 peace with honor bequeathed to the fortunate people of Vietnam.

Of course, there have been many worthy recipients during that time as well -- Andrei Sakharov, Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama (recently snubbed by this year's recipient in an effort to curry favor with the not-so-peaceful Red Chinese dictators), Aung San Suu Kyi, and Doctors Without Borders. Indeed, in 1972 there was no award made -- an option that would have been preferable in my eyes to debasing the award even further by giving it to someone whose only qualification is that he isn't George W. Bush.

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This should be engraved into the walls of the room where the committee meets to select the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Prize Committee should be in the business of conferring celebrity on unknown human-rights and peace activists toiling in the most god-forsaken parts of the world; the people who really need the attention (and even the money). It should be in the business of angering powerful tyrants by giving their victims a moment in the sun. Choosing Barack Obama, who practically orbits the sun already, accomplishes the exact opposite of that. LetÂ’s hope Obama eventually deserves this award. And letÂ’s hope the Nobel CommitteeÂ’s decision meets with such a deafening chorus of chortles and jeers that it never does something this stupid again.

Bravo to Peter Beinart for so clearly illuminating the reason that people with moral decency are outraged by the decision to give the award to this president at this time.

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But apparently Barack Obama is – so the selection committee passed them over and gave the award to an accomplishment-free novice who gives nice speeches as long as the teleprompter is working.

Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."

Ingrid Betancourt: French-Colombian ex-hostage held for six years.

"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."

Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."

"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'"



"Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."

Seems appropriate that two of the individuals kicked to the curb are human rights activists in China – I guess the committee was just following Obama’s lead in appeasing the Red Chinese dictators by ignoring the gross violations of human rights in that communist dictatorship. And since Obama seems prepared to ignore the ugly human rights record of the Taliban, the selection committee decided to overlook those who have actually worked for human rights in Afghanistan.

All around, IÂ’d say this is a pretty sick situation. Obama gets the Nobel Peace Prize while these much more deserving nominees with remarkable records of accomplishment receive the Nobel Piss-Off Prize.

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Could be -- which would certainly help to explain his intense anti-Semitism.

The evidence is here.

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Yeah, that's right -- if the official document he is holding is correct, the Iranian leader was born a Jew and became a Muslim only later wehnhis fatehr converted to Islam. And much like at least one American neo-Nazi leader, that would seem to explain his need to disassociate himself from his own beople throught the expression of violent hatred -- especially since Islam itself is thoroughly infused with anti-Semitism.

UPDATE: Guess not.

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