I always thought winning the Nobel Peace Prize was a big deal. After all, this is a prize that even Gandhi wasn’t good enough to win.

Barack Obama was nominated for it less than two weeks after his inauguration. The committee voted for him while he presided over two wars that have lasted longer than World War II. And he actually won the award on the day we bombed the moon. I don’t know where to start with what’s wrong with this.

The problem with handing out Nobel Peace Prizes like tic tacs is that it cheapens the award for the people who really earn it. You know, the people who actually do something for peace, like Martin Luther King, or Mother Teresa, or Nelson Mandela, or the 14th Dalai Lama.

It’s entirely possible that Obama will earn it in time (ending these two wars would be a nice start). But even so, wouldn’t it have been better for everyone, Obama himself included, to at least wait until the end of his presidency, instead of hoping he’ll earn it someday?

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In other news, the price of How To Be Rich And Happy has been dropped from $97 to $47. For people who have already bought it, don’t worry – Tim will be in contact with an offer to make it right.

Do childhood cartoons set expectations that kids carry with them into adulthood?

On the 1980s series ThunderCats, Lion-O was only 12 years old when he got on the spaceship that took the ThunderCats to their new home. But because his suspended animation capsule failed to prevent him from aging on the long journey, he literally became a child in a man’s body. Perhaps this was done to let kids relate to him better.

Anyway, while Lion-O’s heritage made him Lord of the ThunderCats, he lacked the wisdom and maturity he needed to stay out of trouble. But no problem, because he always took the Sword of Omens with him. Whenever he got into more trouble than he could handle, he’d use his sword to emit the ThunderCats signal. Bright beams of light would shoot up into the sky and form the ThunderCats logo, calling all his friends to his rescue.

The signal always worked. If he was in an underground cave, the signal would penetrate solid rock to reach the surface. If he was in outer space, the signal would still reach his planet. If he was in a location that seemed impossible to get to in time, the ThunderCats would have just finished making a modification to one of their vehicles that would let them get to him.

The audience was assured that anytime Lion-O got into trouble, all he had to do was call for help. As long as he did that, nothing could possibly go wrong.

And so, the kids who watched this show learned that help always arrives when you need it. The thing is, in real life, it doesn’t. Sometimes bad things will happen, and no one will come to the rescue. Were these kids set up for disappointment, led to believe that the world is much safer than it really is?

Or was it harmless entertainment, because these kids learned the truth as they grew up? You could say everyone knows that we can’t count on a savior always being ready and able to fix any problem. And yet, some people seem to think that all we have to do is call Barack Obama, I mean the other ThunderCats, and everything will be OK.

What do you think?

Tomorrow, the U.S. will trade in its white, right-handed, ESTJ, Republican president for a black, left-handed, INFP, Democratic president. This will be interesting.