Here's two big middle fingers, Tokyo...

[flvegan]

Nothing against the people, mind you...

Japan scrambles for support to overturn whaling ban at IWC

TOKYO: The fate of the 21-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling is a numbers' game, played at the annual International Whaling Commission meeting. This year Japan is still short of votes in its drive to overturn the ban.

Tokyo, which has fought for years to undo the 1986 moratorium, worried opponents of whaling last year when it rallied a one-vote majority at the commission for a resolution saying the ban was no longer needed.

<snip> But wait, here's the good shit

The opposition party in Australia has vowed that if it takes power this year, it will order the navy to patrol Antarctic waters to gather evidence to prosecute Japanese whaling ships, Reuters reported from Canberra.

The plan, announced by the Labor Party leader, Kevin Rudd, would see warships sent beyond Australian waters into the country's self-proclaimed Antarctic territory, which is not recognized by other countries and which includes a whale sanctuary.

Link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/22/africa/whales.php

This is big, folks. As much as I'd love, love, love to see the Japanese whaling fleet scuttled and sent to Mr. Jones' locker, I'd rather see it banned and have the Robert Hunter and the Farley Mowat playing can-opener with Iceland.

[LeftyMom]

1. The tide of history is against them.

Humankind's attitude toward animals is changing. 200 years ago almost nobody'd even heard of a vegetarian, let alone met one. The very idea was preposterous. 100 years ago several popular movements had embraced vegetarian diets. A hundred years ago the president was an avid hunter of rare big game, and nobody batted an eyelash. Less than a hundred years ago an escaped elephant was tried and executed by hanging in Tennessee. Fifty years ago the most common method of birth control for companion animals was drowning most of the litter. The first books connecting diet and the environment are only thirty years old. The term animal rights is younger still.

We have a long way to go, and there are backward pockets whose progress is slower than most, but they can no more undo the progress of human understanding and social change than the backward pockets of racism, sexism and homophobia can stop social movement toward equality.

[flvegan]

2. Damnit.

I friggin KNEW there was a reason I dug you so much.

[LeftyMom]

3. I thought it was the headlights.

:D