Whaling - No, no whale jokes this time.
 

Interesting article on whaling (mostly in respect to Japan). Not sure how there's much justification in blatently side-stepping international law via legal loopholes (or in Norway's case, simply ignoring them altogether) but it's obviously in demand for it this 'industry' to still flourish.

It's a bloody mess though. Just be aware; The pictures are pretty graphic.

Tiny chuckle from this one though - even protesters in Japan like to cosplay.

I dislike the use of 'disgusting' and 'graphic' images to make their point about how terrible whaling is.

One could show the same images of cow slaughter, or chicken slaughter. Indeed, vegetarian/vegan proponent groups often do.

If you're going to talk about how they're ignoring international laws, how about, you know, talking about that? Or showing justification for those laws instead of pictures of whale innards?

Nah. That'd be informative news. We'd rather just pull out the shock troops over at Foreign Policy.

The sad thing is that Japanese whalemeat is plummeting in price, they have far too much and demand is dropping.
Edit: Yeah I've just looked at the article and I agree with Krylo. There's really no meat to this article.

But there sure is some blubber to it!

Boom!

No, seriously, something being gross doesn't make it wrong. Risking driving species to extinction for non-vital commercial needs do make something wrong.

Least they're having a whalin good time!

I agree with Arch, Krylo and SMB about the images. There is also the fact that shock images are becoming so common in place of real journalism that they are losing their effect as well. It doesn't even phase me anymore to see the images.

Why can't they do a really good investigative reporting bit showing how what the whalers are doing is wrong instead of trying to shock and puke people?

I think what they are driving at is that the facts have been out there for a long time but haven't gripped the public so they are trying to do so.

Yeah, but most people growing up into it now don't know all the facts or are only getting bits and pieces of it and have to rummage through old news articles to find it.

I said no whale jokes! >: |

Yeah I have to agree. It is a photo-essay but it does seem very slanted.

There really isn't any justification for hunting species declared endangered, especially for the bogus properties of the things they hunt (I'm not sure if whales are considered an aphrodisiac, but that is the reason they kill sharks, anyway). "Cultural" reasons would best be applied to minorities like the Inuit, not entire countries of first-world individuals who otherwise live very modern lives.

I'm commenting on the Japanese, not the Norwegians, but it could very well be applied there, especially for the "cultural" reasons.

The Japanese also kill dolphins. I mean, seriously, whales are sort of lovable, but killing dolphins is just evil. Is it hypocritical to defend dolphins when other animals are slaughtered and I don't blink? Perhaps, but then again, like the writer of that article (admittedly biased by the author), if we can't even feel sorry for personable animals, where are we as human beings?

Apparently we're racist xenophobic pretentious jingoists with no cultural empathy whatsoever if we CAN... sooooooooo.... yeah.

Edit: Also misogynistic. I almost forgot the part where he feels worse about people who are physically attractive getting hurt/killed--and I'm assuming he's not gay.