Follow-Up: Japanese Whalers, Greenpeace, and Mayhem on the High Seas
Here's more follow-up on an already prolonged conflict between Japanese whalers and Greenpeace.
Blogger Riding Sun has a link-filled post on dirty tactics by extreme environmentalists, which have included ramming their ships into the Japanese vessels. I should note here that Greenpeace is not the only group involved.
Protesting the Japanese whaling is perfectly acceptable if done peacefully. But ramming ships? This sort of behavior is stupid, dangerous, criminal, and ultimately self-defeating and counterproductive. I am reminded again of the concerns expressed last month by the clear-eyed Australian Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, who opposes whaling but also opposes what he called "deranged" tactics by radical conservationists.
Personally, I'm not for whaling as a rule, but neither am I for life-endangering mayhem at the hands of Greenpeace and its ilk. OK, whaling opponents, do what you like, but I would watch out for harpoons if I were you.
(Meanwhile, other people are behaving badly --if less violently and destructively -- about the whole affair. Have a look at this cartoon from an Australian newspaper. Looks rather . . . er, racist to me, right down to the inability to pronounce the letter "L." What do you think? I guess multicultural sensitivity goes out the window if it conflicts with the Green Secular Religion.)