[Cross-posted at In a Blog's Stead]

A lot of people were outraged when Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 – a choice which people are still protesting.

I'm no fan of Arafat, but look at the list of folks he shares that dubious honour with. There are certainly some good people on that list (including, I believe, the only libertarian: French economist Frédéric Passy, recipient of the very first prize in 1901, and perhaps the only person ever to accuse Gustave de Molinari of not being sufficiently libertarian!), but it also includes such pestilent warmongers as:

Theodore Roosevelt – 1906
Woodrow Wilson – 1919
Henry Kissinger – 1973
Mikhail Gorbachev – 1990

As far as I'm concerned, the Nobel Peace Prize became meaningless as of 1906. Arafat is welcome to it.