The most disturbing thing about this Pedophile/Nobel Peace Prize nonsense?

[cab67]

11. This reminds me of a medical loudmouth in the mid-oughts.

Last edited Fri Oct 10, 2025, 10:24 AM - Edit history (1)

This was during the tragic case of Terri Schiavo, a young woman who fell into a persistent vegetative state after suffering brain damage. Her husband wanted to remove life support, but her parents and siblings did not. It became the center of a political battle when Republicans decided to get involved on the side of the parents, only to realize that the majority of Americans wanted the government to stay out of it. But by then, it was too late for the Republicans to reverse course without losing a lot of face.

There's a lot more to it than this, and there's a chapter in Charles Pierce's Idiot America that does an excellent job of describing what happened. It really was a tragedy.

I bring it up here because an MD named Hammesfahr kept showing up on right-wing news outlets claiming he could cure Ms Schiavo. This was a highly dubious claim, to put it mildly. But when he was being introduced by such luminaries as Hannity, someone would point out that his congressional representative had nominated him for a "Nobel peace prize in medicine."

This was silly for multiple reasons. First, there's no such thing as a "Nobel peace prize in medicine." It's like winning an Olympic decathlon gold medal in the 100 m backstroke.

But more importantly, the Nobel committees don't normally take outside nominations. That this quack's congressional rep "nominated" him meant nothing.

I don't know if the Peace Prize committee operates differently from other Nobel committees - they're awarded in Norway rather than Sweden, so maybe they take outside suggestions - but I'm willing to bet they get many thousands of such suggestions, and they most likely treat them with equal disinterest.