Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for January 09, 2010

  1. Bill
    Brer_Rabbit10  almost 15 years ago

    And the life vest locker is .. locked!

     •  Reply
  2. D and d bed 03sc
    Ray_C  almost 15 years ago

    History repeats. Wasn’t there an incident with some whale hunting protesters just a few days ago? A collision, I believe.

     •  Reply
  3. Exploding human fat bombs hedge 060110
    Charles Brobst Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    A fragile little sailboat ‘rammed’ a big metal ship.

     •  Reply
  4. Missing large
    jrbj  almost 15 years ago

    Yes, Ray C. Some protesters were blocking a Japanese whaler in a fancy, space age speedboat and the Japanese intentionally sheared off the speedboat’s bow, leaving it to sink. Rather then rescue the people in the sinking speed boat, Japanese crewmen were spraying the people in the speedboat with fire hoses. I believe that both cutting off the speed boat’s bow and failing to rescue crewmen from the sinking speed boat are serious breeches of international law. It actually does get dangerous out there.

    My own take is that whales are not just big fish. They are mammals and very intelligent, sentient creatures. We no longer need whale oil or baleen for ladies corsets and we have other sources for meat. Therefore, there there is no reason to go out an murder them. The Japanese say that they are only doing scientific study, but the whales seem to go directly into Japanese meat markets. Not a whole lot of scientific study going on there.

     •  Reply
  5. D and d bed 03sc
    Ray_C  almost 15 years ago

    I’m with you on that, jrbj, we should leave the whales alone. I just read a couple of articles this morning, this being the more thorough: http://tinyurl.com/ya35b26 I doubt that the Japanese vessel would be cited for not picking up the crew, since Sea Shepherd had another boat standing by which picked them up. Also, the SS boat was apparently threatening the Japanese vessel. Whaling should be stopped, but I don’t agree with how these people are trying to do it, if the report is accurate.

     •  Reply
  6. Missing large
    MrDangerous  almost 15 years ago

    I see no reason or purpose behind whaling in this day and age, but when the protester’s tactics make me cheer for the whaler, there’s something very wrong going on.

     •  Reply
  7. Mustang 65
    Lani14  almost 15 years ago

    Totally agree MrDangerous

     •  Reply
  8. 1937
    billdi Premium Member almost 15 years ago

    what’s wrong is that those tactics seem to be the only way to get anyone’s attention

     •  Reply
  9. Missing large
    jrbj  almost 15 years ago

    Even though the speed boat was harassing the Japanese whaler, it is against international law for the whaler, or any vessel, to intentionally harm another vessel in international waters. It is also international law that, in international waters, the offending vessel stop and ask if they can assist. If there were other rescuers in the area so be it. But the offending vessel still has to stop and ask. Further, it is not lawful for the offending vessel to spray the stricken vessel with fire hoses once it has struck the other vessel. I know this from years at sea and it is not simply my opinion. I agree that harassing the Japanese whaler, which may also break international law, is not an appropriate thing to do, but who the heck else is there to go out and stop the whalers. We have these international laws of the sea and we have international laws against whaling. What good are any of these laws if the people charged with upholding them are not doing what they were charged to so?

     •  Reply
  10. Ico wile coyote
    Kerovan  almost 15 years ago

    Actually when whaling was banned 2 loopholes were left in the law. Traditional purposes for cultural reasons, Like the Inuit who relied heavily on whaling for their food sources. Japan tried to claim that exemption but their whaling practices were too modern for that to fly. The second is research purposes. Japan’s excuse here is that we can’t discover the “safe” level of harvesting whales without whaling. So it isn’t research on the whale itself, they are “researching” how quickly re-population occurs trying to determine a safe level for whaling to preserve the species. Apparently everyone but a politician can see the hypocrisy there. Still it is being opposed through legitimate means too so there is hope.

     •  Reply
  11. Right here
    Sherlock Watson  almost 15 years ago

    If mooning is out, how about “the finger”?

     •  Reply
Sign in to comment

More From Bloom County