Following on from his bang up job of rooting NZAID and his diplomatic coup in resolving the Fiji crisis, maybe Murray can write the Japanese a letter telling them just how angry we are.
Sheesh that axe needs to swing.
from none other than Brian “Where’s My Theatre” Rudman.
It’s time Prime Minister John Key popped the dummy back in Murray McCully’s mouth and sent him off to the Chris Carter home for over-stressed politicians.
Isn’t time for Murray McCully to become part of National’s Caucus renewal programme? I mean look at all his stunning successes of late:
Murray should lay off the visits to the piss fairy and sort his life out. Retirement is always an option. I’m placing him on my Deadwood list.
Arse! I was really hoping he would have been cooling his heels in a Japanese prison.
“The defendant is sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, suspended for five years from the day of this verdict,” chief judge Takashi Tawada said of Bethune, 45, a former activist of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
He is expected to be deported tonight.
Sharyn Bethune, his wife, said the decision was “awesome”
She did not know when he would be coming home.
“We are letting it all sink in, we’re about to open the bottle of bubbles to celebrate.”
Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd admitted they had “done a deal” with Japan to get Bethune out of jail.
“We are quite relieved to get him out of prison,” he told TV3.
Watson said they had spent US$500,000 on Bethune’s defence.
Uhmmmm, I thought his missus had left him?
Pete Bethune is fast running out of mates. Now even militant Sea Shepherd, pirates of the Southern Ocean, don’t want his sorry ass. He is now a pariah everywhere.
New Zealander Pete Bethune, on trial in Japan and facing up to 15 years’ jail for boarding a Japanese whaling ship, has been banned from future protests by anti-whaling group the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The group alleges that Bethune broke Sea Shepherd policy by bringing a bow and arrows on to the Ady Gil, which later sunk after colliding with a Japanese ship in the Southern Ocean this year.
The decision to bring weapons aboard the ship broke the group’s policy of “aggressive but nonviolent action”, Sea Shepherd chief executive Chuck Swift, said in a media release.
“His decision to bring them on a Sea Shepherd campaign is unacceptable,” he said.
“He will no longer be formally associated with, or be a representative of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.”
What! Why? Was he too successful? Or not successful enough?
Normally these pirates of the Southern ocean like to paint silhouettes of the ships they have sunk on the funnels of their ships, but painting the Ady Gil on must have hurt just a bit too much.
So now they abandon him. Good job.
Chris Carter has a post about a small protest at parliament today. I would just like to thank Greenpeace, Project Jonah and Koru Club for their support. I’m not sure but I think that is Shane Bradbrook, Maori Stop-Smoking trougher standing beside Koru Club.
Save the Whale
Pete “The Alleged Pirate” Bethune is using the New Zealand media to cry him a river of tears.
Prosecutors in the trial of New Zealand anti-whaling protester Pete Bethune will request a long sentence if he is found guilty, his lawyer says.
The father of two teenage daughters, Danielle, 15, and Alycia, 13, may be facing up to 15 years imprisonment if he is convicted on some of the five charges he is facing in the wake of his aborted Southern Ocean protest voyage earlier this year.
His trial begins in the Tokyo District Court today.
Boo-fucking-hoo. He must have known that illegally and dangerously boarding a vessel in the Southern Ocean, that has a legal right to be there, that trying to disable ships in the Southern Ocean, would result in criminal charges. That is called consequences.
Just as the consequences for me continually breaching name suppression is $1000 fine or potential 3 months in jail for contempt of court, so too for Pete the Pirate. He should stop his whining and take his licks, just like I will if I finally get convicted.
The world’s meddlers gnash their teeth over whaling whether it is for scientific purposes or for commercial. Right now the moratorium on commercial whaling isn’t working and just over 1500 whales were harvested last year in whaling activities and 31,084 in total since the moratorium began in 1986. Those figures sound horrendous. I am of course using the WWF figures and we all know how accurate and peer reviewed their information is. An independent assessment done by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (they must be good, they have the word conservation in their title) says that “Iceland, Norway, and Japan – have brutally slaughtered over 25,000 whales under the guise of scientific research and for commercial purposes”. Note their overly emotive language. They were harvested, as we know, not brutally slaughtered. To use that terminology I would hate to think how they consider the Beef industry. Somewhere between those numbers lies the truth.
But there is a problem, apart from Sea Shepherd being pirates. You see, the total number of Whales harvested in Whaling activities is somewhat less than the total number killed through other means. “Bullshit” I hear you say, but it is true. In fact the total number of whales harvested in commercial or scientific causes over the time of the whole moratorium is only 10% of the number of whale slaughtered each year by other means.“Bullshit” I hear you scream again, I also hear you screaming “Save the Whales”.
Unfortunately I am right and you are wrong. Much and all that you can’t stand that, I have evidence that conveniently the pirates and other groups forget to tell you. The WWF, note endorsed by the IWC, again notes;
“Almost 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die every day in nets and fishing gear. Some species are being pushed to the brink of extinction,” said Karen Baragona of WWF’s species conservation program. “We developed this ranking to help governments and aid agencies target their investments for the best return.”
The report will be submitted to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at its annual meeting next week in South Korea. The scientific committee of the IWC includes many of the world’s leading marine scientists, who last year endorsed the methodology of the WWF report.
The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy last year noted that by-catch is the greatest threat globally to whales, dolphins and porpoises, known scientifically as cetaceans. Bycatch is the accidental capture in fishing gear of species — including cetaceans — that fishermen do not intend to catch. Because cetaceans need to come to the surface to breathe, if they are trapped underwater in fishing nets, they die. In 2003, researchers estimated that more than 300,000 cetaceans are killed in fishing gear each year in the worlds oceans.
So, I ask you, why are we complaining about commercial whaling when the IWC will reduce the number harvested from that at present, when far more cetaceans are brutally slaughtered by other means. Far, more in fact, 31,984 harvested, 7,200,000 slaughtered in non-whaling activities since the moratorium began. Sea Shepherd (the pirates) and WWF would be far better to see a reduction by half in the non-whaling slaughter, allow 10,000 whales per annum to be harvested and that really will save the whales.
Now can we please stop the nonsense that Labour, the Greens, the Pirates and others are going on about and please address the real issue with saving the whales, because it sure isn’t whaling that is causing their alleged decline.
First up: Key: WhaleOil not outside the law – Let’s see what happens now.
Then: Key plan to end Southern Ocean whaling – Bugger I was looking forward to eating Whales
Followed by: Whale left to rot on beach – So what.
By the way the image is of The Whale Breaching 
I was in the middle of the Kaimanawas when the latest Whaling debacle hit the news. Some people have emailed me to ask my opinion. So here it is plain and simple. But first a little bit of wisdom from the Book of Genesis.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Right, got that. Whales are fair game as far as I am concerned with the proviso that we harvest them in a sustainable way. Crikey some species are so numerous they keep hurling themselves onto the beaches around the country. Homer J. Simpson had it right when he said “If god didn’t want us to eat animals why did he make them out of meat.”
On the issue of Sea Shepherd. They are pirates, plain and simple, no different from the Somali pirates that has many nations warships hunting. They are armed, they fired projectiles at the Japanese ships and shone laser lights in peoples faces and tried to disable ships in the most unforgiving of waters. Those are acts of piracy and the Japanese vessels are within their rights to protect themselves. They should be treated as common pirates on the open seas. As you can see from the Wikipedia article on piracy Sea Shepherd engages in almost all of the traits that makes a pirate. The Japanese should start deploying the following methods to deter piracy:
While the non-wartime 20th century tradition has been for merchant vessels not to be armed, the U.S. Government has recently changed the rules so that it is now “best practice” for vessels to embark a team of armed private security guards. In addition, the crew themselves can be given a weapons training, and warning shots, less-lethal ammunition, … can be fired legally in international waters and/or when sailing under Israeli or Russian flag. Finally, similar to weapons training, remote weapon systems can be implemented to a vessel.
Other measures vessels can take to protect themselves against piracy are implementing a high wall and vessel boarding protection systems (eg. hot water wall, electricity-charged water wall, automated fire monitor, slippery foam, …).
When I get myself a ship I’m going to make sure it is registered in Israel. Now, does anyone know how I can get my self a nice big Whale Steak Burger?
hat tip Snowflakes in Hell
There is an Antique Whaling harpoon cannon for sale.
You too can now own your own whaling harpoon. I’m not even sure what the legalities are. I would imagine it’s a destructive device. It’s also in Norway. It’s not impossible to get a destructive device imported, but I can’t imagine how much paperwork you’d have to do to get this into the country, and in your legal possession.
Taking collection now….must have, must get.
