Post by Ryan Maue:
The British media continues to mock and criticize the President, which has been petty and unfair in some respects. But how do we reconcile this? From the UK Telegraph
Barack Obama snubs British scientists by refusing to receive Royal Society medal
Barack Obama has snubbed Britain’s most eminent scientists by refusing to attend a Royal Society banquet in his honour at which he was to be awarded with a prestigious medal.
Quoting from the UK Telegraph (fair use for discussion and future reference disclaimer):
But Mr Obama’s aides responded to the invitation with a “very short” note in which they said the president would rather spend time at a south London state school. Mr Obama visited The Globe Academy in Southwark with David Cameron, the Prime Minister, on Tuesday. The two leaders swapped a number of high-fives with pupils before rolling up their sleeves for a game of table tennis against two schoolboys.
And the cherry on top of this sundae:
Had Mr Obama accepted the invitation, he would have been greeted by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, who won a Nobel prize in 2001 for advances in genetics and cell biology.
Instead he met pupils at the Globe Academy who had won an award for designing a lunchbox which folds out into a plate.
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I can’t blame Obama for avoiding the Royal Society. I wouldn’t want my picture taken with those fraudulent global warming con men either.
Well Duh!
The whole purpose of this visit is a last ditch effort to revive a lame duck Presidency.
The Europeans who are honored by the attention they are receiving are mere fools or pawns.
This is about photo opportunities and winning back the adoration of teh American public – so of course he wants to be seen with a culturally diverse group of kids!!!! After all many voters have kids and this behavior is much more likely to gain votes.
I mean who do Kate and William think they are kidding and why was JK Rowling invited!!
This visit is all about a lame duck President and absolutely naught to do with special relationships or honoring democracy…bla di blah!
Latimer Alder: Unless its to climatologists….
OK, Steve, where are you when we need you?
And you keep out of this, Anything Is Possible. : > )
As for the Royal Society, didn’t they change the motto to “Respect the truth”?
DaveE.
What Motivates Climate Change Deniers?
Anyone want to comment over at NPR?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/storyComments.php?storyId=136676621&pageNum=1
Smartest move Obama has made since he was elected President of Maine. Meet Paul Nurse? Or play pingpong? Get a piece of tin from a bunch of ineffectuals that call themselves the “Royal” Society? Or get to see that “lunch-box folding out into a plate?” Hot dang! No contest! Between his recent statesmanship and personally shooting Osama bin Laden, his stock has now gone up 100%!
The Royal Society was simply touting for support or recognition – that they were snubbed (allegedly) is brilliant! Not really an Obama fan – but am pleased if this means what I hope it means!
He’s a dumb jock. All he wants to do is play ball games. He’s most at home with children playing childrens ball games. How did this joke become president?
this type of discussion lowers the tone of wuwt so far that it is disturbing. I viewed Obama in Ireland, a superb diplomat, an excellent speaker, a credit to the country we expect to champion democracy. To the PEOPLE WHO PEDDLE negative pathetic rhetoric here as opinions, GROW UP.
Once again Obama puts one of his delusions on display. He believes that he is a well coordinated multi-skilled athlete.
However, numerous videos show otherwise. He is the master of the gutter ball when bowling; he is a total klutz on the golf course; twice on national TV he proved that he cannot throw a baseball as well as a girl: (http://www1.thetvnet.com/watch-EJBlwUfIoDk/obama-s-first-pitch-d-oh.aspx); and Charles Barkely describes his basketball skills as one-dimensional.
I guess he did not want to put his “stuck on stupid” personality on display before the Royal Academy.
Smokey says:
May 26, 2011 at 1:17 pm
“Something tells me that BCC is an Obama voter.”
I’m sure if the topic was the supposed suppression of scientific “evidence” for global warming by the Bush Administration, BCC would be all over it…
I’m actually giving President Obama kudos for not accepting a useless Royal Society medal (BTW given last year to Angela Merkel of Germany). Given the present state of Britain’s economy, I can understand why the Royal Society would want to
bribeconvince a head of state to give more money to foreign CAGW research (after all, didn’t Phil Jones get a bunch of DOE money??).PS: Obama show cased his forehand shot by pounding the ping-pong ball into the table that bounced three times before it reached the net
Bravo, Obama! I doubt that he was thinking about the climate stuff, but he is making a genuinely American point. Favoring Edison over Einstein, practical imagination over academic theorizing.
Lessee…. He could rub shoulders with some old stuffed shirts in a event few would remember a week later. Or he could to a go hang out with some bright kids, and leave a good impression with them that’ll last a lifetime.
I didn’t vote for him. But I’ve got to admit that sometimes I like the guy.
Looks like Obummer has started to distance himself from the scientists and their many failed hypotheses. It’s not just about climatology – even the hard sciences, like physics, have made little real progress for the last 30 years and even big expensive projects like the LHC are unlikely to justify their cost because the theoretical underpinnings for the experiments are ill thought out and detached from any sort of mechanical reality.
Aww, c’mon. put yourself in the poor guy’s shoes.
You’re the POTUS, the Big Cheese, the Great Enchilada, etc… you’ve already got a Nobel Prize under your belt… you’re looking for a challenge. Are you really going to imagine for one moment that the Royal Society is that next big photo-opportunity?
He must have forgotten his golf clubs at home
Good for him. I would be delighted if he would also snub the National Academy of Science climate brayers.
Obama clearly didn’t want a repeat of the fiasco over the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe the prez is finally wising up. Since this school visit was scheduled prior to the award event, it would have been a serious breach of protocol, and an insult to his host, to go galavanting off for another trophy for his awards shelf. Obama has developed a reputation for coddling America’s enemies and insulting America’s friends. It’s good to see him making the right choice for once.
moptop says:
May 26, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I don’t think there are seven countries playing in the Seven Nations Rugby tournament, but I could be wrong.
Six Nations old chap. They are (in alphabetical order, not as a statement on sporting prowess) England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Note that Ireland has players from all the provinces of the island of Ireland (i.e. including Ulster), but I don’t think anyone named O’Bama has ever represented them.
@moptop
Six Nations
To the heart man, to the heart. It came three of four paragraphs in and caught me QUITE by surprise … +1000 … LOL
.
Dave Springer says:
May 26, 2011 at 12:08 pm
“Obama’s stock just went up a smidgen in my book.”
That’s what Obama (or his advisers) intended.
@Smokey- Your awesome powers of deduction serve you well. Your taste in comedy… perhaps less so.
@ryanm- The police analogy doesn’t really hold. I’m not trying to run the blog or enforce any rules, I’m just providing some constructive criticism. My comments appear here at the pleasure of Mr. Watts, and that’s fine by me.
The claim that this post isn’t partisan doesn’t really hold very well, either, given the leading paragraph.
Examples: the “criticize” link in this paragraph goes to an article by Nile Gardiner, whose recent work includes: “The Great Liberator: remembering Ronald Reagan at 100,” “The Obama presidency remains in decline, despite the killing of Osama bin Laden,” “Barack Obama’s ‘leading from behind’ foreign policy: No wonder the US president looks weak and confused”, and so forth. Yes, I’m quite sure his commentary is representative of the British media as a whole. Find me a centrist who mocked Obama.
And the “petty and unfair” link goes to an article that is actually quite positive with regard to Michelle Obama. A rather strange choice, there.
Please do keep going with off-topic, ad-hominem posts like this. They are quite revealing.
The Royal Society recently changed its motto.
It used to be “NULLIUS IN VERBA”, loosely translated ‘on the word of no one’ ie take no one’s word for anything – go do the science.
Its new motto is, “Respect the facts”. Leaving aside its banality, it rather describes the current views of Prof. John Mitchell FRS: facts are respected but can then be ignored. At a large party you respect the hosts but don’t spend whole time talking to them, similarly the RS nods at the facts and then gets on with its ‘modelling’ as being more important.