ya have to admit, when bush hires someone they sure do stay loyal’

I am supposing obama shows them the door

((((((KIRK!))))))

Do you have any doubt President Obama will step in, sooner then later?

Evening, Doctor!

He better. Those two deserve to be fired. Insubordination. They’d be shown the door already in any other line of work.

For all of Japan’s success in winning support from other countries for its campaign to ease the restrictions on whaling – especially smaller countries which receive Japanese aid – the Japanese people are losing interest.

Whale meat is only served in a few specialist restaurants, and occasionally appears on supermarket shelves. Younger people almost never eat it.

Rahm Emanuel needs to do a much better, Cheney-like job of putting the brakes on these fucking killer holdovers. I thought he was such a shark — why are these Bushites allowed to continue to make policy?

Make it stop, Rahm.

if this weren’t some kind of alternate universe, rove and meirs would have been hauled into jail for defying subpeona and contempt of congress, abu torture would have been tried for war crimes, cheney would have been tried for treason and war crimes, bush would have been impeached, hauled in jail for treason, grand theft, war crimes and the entire bush’s assets would have been federalized

but this IS some kind of alternate universe and nobody knows where reason has gone

Seems the Japanese want to continue to slaughter whales because other countries are telling them not to. They resent being told what to do.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wor…..106688.stm

Perhaps Cass Sunstein can “Nudge” the Japanese into compliance.

bush should run for office there, he’ll fit right in

Before I start, I am not for whaling. I would love if Obama actually did something to curtail it.
BUT just because he said that would be part of his policy doesn’t mean it is yet. They are not defying him because he made a campaign promise. Until he actually signs an executive order they’re doing nothing against his administration.

I would never think of justifying this – it is a heinous practice. But the day we get to tell other nations what to do is also the day we stop allowing the slaughter of wolves from the air, supporting rogue regimes, making war on civilians, propping up corrupt narco-states, etc.

I can hear the Japanese laughing up their sleeves at America’s insistence that they behave themselves. And we have a lot to atone for before we can rely on our standing as a civil society to bludgeon other nations slaughter of mammals.

Just sayin…

Make it stop, Rahm.

Or, as you told Citi re: the plane, “Fix it.”

I’ve really come to love that line.

So “mob like” in its brevity, yet effectiveness.

Oh, smack!!!!

First off, I oppose Japanese whaling. I live in Japan, and have for over a decade, and I do think people should leave the whales alone. That being said, though, at least the Japanese eat the whales.

Maybe they do go on “killing sprees” now, but they do have a long tradition of eating whales. I live near some of the coastal towns whose residents used to be whalers in the waters just off their shores. Where the Japanese really went wrong was the step up to industrial whaling with huge boats roaming the oceans and wiping out huge numbers of whales. But, like I said, at least the Japanese do eat the whales.

We Americans, on the other hand, seem to have our killing sprees on various species for little or no reason

Sucks to be a coyote in America
http://www.casperstartribune.n…..030485.txt

just one recent example.

We’ve been killing coyotes en masse forever.

I realize that people can focus on more than one outrageous attack on nature at once. And I’m not acusing the writer here of anything. But I would like to remind everyone that in America, we Americans should me mindful of some of our own killing sprees before we get too high and mighty about other cultures. And if New England whalers had set up whale burger shops in Boston instead of discarding the meat after extracting the oil, does anyone really believe that as many Americans would be opposed to whaling? More like we’d be telling the world to fuck off as we munched down another McWhaler, but with a whole ‘nother layer of meaning to the name. We don’t have a culture of eating whales, but we eat deer. Ask a Japanese person if they ever eat deer and they will be puzzled. How could anyone eat such a mild and adorable creature as a deer? Perhaps if these cultural consideration were factored in there might be greater success in finding an agreement. I don’t know.

But like I said, I do support the efforts to stop whaling.

Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania are pressing Japan to stop the whale killing. Japan says stop killing Kangaroos.

I can’t figure out if these Bushies are doing this for the usual bribes or because they’re homicidally jealous of sentient beings.

It’s an arrogant taunt, their last big opportunity to stick a fork in Obama’s eye. “Hey Hawaii-guy, snorkle THIS!”

They should be sentenced to spend the rest of their lives on Japanese whaling vessels.

Bob in HI

Whales are an endangered species. Deer, Coyotes and kangaroos are not. This is the real crux of the issue.

The key deer of the Florida keys is endangered. It is illegal to hunt.

Cheney would make a good Ahab.

Eli is upstairs..

Precisely, the Kangaroo population is massive and presents an environmental hazard if they are not culled. However, having said that, I applaud the approaches to making Kangaroo meat a larger part of the meat consumption so we can reduce the sheep and cattle numbers as they are bad for Australian topsoil conditions, and it will also make use of the Kangaroos which are culled. Currently they are mostly used for petmeat.

I think that should be the crux of the issue, but I don’t think it in fact is. The Japanese contend that the whale populations have sufficiently recovered. Now, I have no knowledge of the truth or falsity of such a claim. But it seems to me that most objections to whaling is on an absolute basis. That is somehow morally wrong to kill whales and not only on the basis of the fact that it is an endangered species. People who don’t have a culture of eating whales react viscerally against the idea. I know I do at least. And this is also a recent state of mind, because the New England whaling industry in the 19th century had no problem bringing Atlantic whale populations to the brink of extinction.

Maybe it is morally wrong to kill whales. They are pretty damn smart. But pigs are pretty damn smart too. And studies have shown that cows actually display deep emotion when seperated and reunited with siblings, parents and “friends.” Hell, maybe I should go veg again…

But, I still think part of the problem with the whaling issue is that the Japanese feel this moral outrage and don’t understand it. And this outrage probably stands in the way of some sort of agreement.

Then again, I’m also pretty sure that some of the Japanese whaling interest are merely greedy coporations who aren’t really concerned with maintaining some sort of sustainable whale hunting practice. And I also think that part of the problem is that the general public in Japan actually has very little knowledge of the reality of whaling. Information is not as open as one might assume in such a technologically advanced nation as Japan. One sided images clearly exist here concerning the topic. I have seen misleading and false information presented on television here.

I don’t want to defend the practice. But I do want people to look at their reasons for their support of the ban. You are right, the fact that whaling threatens the very existence of the species should be the crux of the issue. I’m just not sure that it is. Emotional and visceral responses based on adversion to whale hunting probably won’t help to lead to a workable solution.

Just so you know, Doug DeMaster is a rather prominent scientist who has spent his career studying marine mammals; he isn’t simply a Bush hack, and I don’t think it’s a fair characterization.

Moby Dick

folks, tonight I just have a few minutes to visit comments, so i hope being brief doesn’t seem rude.

i’m just in awe of your thoughful comments and questions. i’ can’t wait to revisit saturday and learn more. magurakurin – thank you so much. and thanks to all for making all views welcome.

(thanks also to momma kitty for sleeping on one arm….)

Please explain to us the reports of whale meat surpluses in Japan.

This is not just because of the influx of Ronald McDonald – the Washington Post reported in 2005 that “last year, the [whaling] industry put 20 percent of its 4000-ton haul into frozen surplus.” The whale meat surplus has led to desperate attempts to find new markets, including school lunches and dog food. Nevertheless, in 2007 more than 4,000 tonnes of whale meat sat frozen, unsold, and unwanted in Japanese warehouses.

Thanks for the story. I just went to the WH site and left an email that calls for firing these guys and pressuring the Japanese Govt. to get their criminal fleet(s) out of the Sanctuary. Disgusting.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

then click on “contact”

Kids definitely get served whale here at school. My students get it about once every two months. I have never seen it though in the store, but I did see whale sashimi once in a small fish store. In the days before the whaling ban, whale was a very common meal of school lunches, and my wife tells me she ate it at school a couple times a month. She doesn’t eat whale anymore, but not really for any particular reason. The whaling industry was very large in Japan and I’m sure there are lots of people who have lost lots of money since it has stopped. Greed is a common human trait not restricted to anyone culture. So, like I said before, I’m pretty sure greed is behind a lot of it and not just a tradition of eating whale.

But I also think that groups like Greenpeace that make violent attacks on Japanese whaling ships don’t help their case here. All that makes it through to mass media here are tv and newspaper reports of Greenpeace “terrorist” attacks. It really, really doesn’t help that Japanese sailors have been injured in these attacks. What is really needed here is education. People just don’t know much about it. All they hear is protest around the world villifying Japanese, and as someone suggested above that forces them to dig in their heels. And believe me, when a Japanese person digs in their heels, that ain’t movin’ any time soon.

I think the recent protest in Taji by the surfer Rasta and a small group of others might be a better way to go about it. That protest was against the dolphin kill that is entirely unique to that one small town. Outside of that town, nobody, but nobody willingly eats dolphin in Japan. And because of the lack of media openess on the issue nobody even knows that this one isolated town in Wakayama yearly slaughters thousands of dolphins. Unfortunately, the only coverage of that I ever saw was in regards to whaling, even though the protest was over the dolphin kill.

One bit of convential wisdom that gets passed around in Japan these days is the idea that the whale population have grown back signifigantly and as a result the whales are eating a lot of fish and reducing the amount of fish in the sea. In many Japanese people’s minds, they view the whales in a manner similar to how coyote’s in America and kangaroos in Australia are viewed. Now, I’m not trying to present this as a defense, just merely to state what people believe here.

I really think a lot of the problem is people not having accurate information about what is going on. And I suspect the the Japanese people are subjected to more propaganda on the issue than those outside who oppose the ban, but not entirely so. One has to remember as well, that even if a person in Japan were opposed to the whaling, and of course some are, they wouldn’t be inclined to think there was anything they could do about it. The political activism which is somewhat second nature to say and American or an Australian is not second nature to people here at all. Japan was a feudal state only a century and a half ago. Democracy and what it portends is only beginning to dawn on the political consciouness of the Japanese people. The elites still largely maintain an absolute stranglehold on power here.

Like most problems in our world, it probably really comes down greedy powers that be using the ignorance of the masses to their advantage. But I don’t have any real facts or evidence other than my own personal experience and suspicions.