Opinion Polls on Whaling within Japan and why Anti-Whalers Lie About It

A recent twitter by David in Tokyo brought a poll to my attention.
Another common theme in the anti-whaling movement is pretending, sometimes even manufacturing, that there is support for their cause within Japan. This recent poll provides an opportunity to review what Japanese really think about the issue and how anti-whaling propagandists have tried to spin this.

For starters, the most recent poll.


This poll, conducted by an independent institute at behest of the Associated Press, covers a very wide range of topics ranging from social to political. However, we'll stick to the whaling questions.

Favor/Oppose whale hunting (COMMERCIAL)
Favor: 52%
Don't Care: 35%
Opposed: 13%

Interested in eating whale meat:
Very: 12%
Moderately: 21%
A Little: 26%
Not at all: 41%

Countries' Eating Habits

A staple topic amongst anti-whaling hate mongers is to criticize the eating habits of other cultures.


Now, unfortunately in this instance, the perpetrator is from America. Another fine instance of why people don't like rude entitled Americans that think everyone should speak English and bow down to crypto-racist ideologies like Manifest Destiny (which runs through the American Environmentalist crowd).

So let's do a quick review here. I've included some other common countries in the Cultural Imperialist movement just to demonstrate that this trend is hardly restricted to the Land of the Free.

October 27 addition:
     Convicted felon, Pete Bethune, provides another fine example, as he promotes a racist slogan of "Save a Whale, Harpoon a fat JAP". This is an interesting modification of another common racist slogan in the ANZAC lowlands, adding the word "fat". Amazingly, not only are they racist, but completely unaware of eating habits in their own country and Japan.[ /end addition]

Obesity Rates as per Nation Master
# 1          United States:      30.6%     
# 2         Mexico:     24.2%    
# 3         United Kingdom:     23%      
# 4         Slovakia:     22.4%    
# 5         Greece:     21.9%      
# 6         Australia:     21.7%    
# 7         New Zealand:     20.9%      
# 8         Hungary:     18.8%    
# 9         Luxembourg:     18.4%    
# 10         Czech Republic:     14.8%    
# 11         Canada:     14.3%    
# 12         Spain:     13.1%    
# 13         Ireland:     13%    
# 14         Germany:     12.9%    
= 15         Portugal:     12.8%    
= 15         Finland:     12.8%    
# 17         Iceland:     12.4%    
# 18         Turkey:     12%    
# 19         Belgium:     11.7%    
# 20         Netherlands:     10%    
# 21         Sweden:     9.7%    
# 22         Denmark:     9.5%    
# 23         France:     9.4%    
# 24         Austria:     9.1%    
# 25         Italy:     8.5%    
# 26         Norway:     8.3%    
# 27         Switzerland:     7.7%    
 = 28         Korea    3.2%
= 28         Japan:     3.2%     

Paulrus or Paulba?

It's time to solve this age-old debate.
Is he more like a walrus or Jabba the Hutt?

Tragedy, Disaster, and Unrelenting Hatred

I had originally intended to write a long detailed post on Butyric Acid this week, but current events have taken over.
While most people's thoughts are with everyone in Japan, the deceased, the homeless, people who've just witnessed their entire life erode away before them... while most people can empathize on some level, even if it's just through CNN or BBC... there are some who think this is some sort of "karma".
Anti-whalers never cease to amaze me in how low they will sink. How utterly and completely their hate engulfs them. But even this is a new and terrible low.



What follows are a few screenshots taken in about 5 minutes from Facebook.
Japanese posters have already made an even more comprehensive compilation from twitter.

If you're wondering how I got some of these, try searching yourself.

The Legality of Whaling, Part II: Research

When you get down to it, the idea that "Research is Illegal" is based on
1. Opinion and bias. People want to believe it is illegal, so they assume there is no research.
However, documentation with the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) Scientific Committee puts that to rest.

IWC's Scientific Committee has reviewed both of ICR's research programs, JARPA and JARPN, several times. Never has the scientific validity of their research been brought into question by this group of scientists from around the world.
IWC Scientific Committee Review of JARPA 1997
IWC Scientific Committee Review of JARPA 2006
IWC Scientific Committee Review of JARPN 2007
IWC Scientific Committee Review of JARPN 2009

Racism, Bigotry, and Prejudice within the Anti-Whaling and Animal Rights movements

The truth is, so-called "environmental" NGOs encourage this behavior. Hatred like this can be very contagious and there's a market for creating a black and white world where people pay to feel like they are on the "white" side. By perpetuating racism like this, NGOs can bring in a lot of donations and volunteers. 

Especially the kind of groups that believe Violence is an appropriate solution, such as Sea Shepherd.

I call this the Cycle of Hate.

Foment Racism --> Get $$$ --> Use $$$ to assault your target --> get in the media --> use media to foment racism --> rinse, wash, repeat.

It's very sad that many English-speaking media sources are willing to play along with this. 

Particularly those media in Australia should be ashamed of themselves. By now they should know that Paul Watson is a compulsive liar who uses Australian Nationalism and WWII rhetoric to incite racism, yet they continue to publish his statements entirely unchecked.

The Legality of Whaling, Part I: Australia's Imperialist and Illegitimate Territorial Claims

The Antarctic Treaty (ATS), which governs Nation State's claims in Antarctica, was originally signed in 1959 by 12 countries including United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia among others. It has since been adopted by 47 different countries including most major players in International Politics, such as China.

The treaty allows member nations to enter or reserve claims to land in Antarctica. However, many of these claims are overlapping and the treaty effectively acts as a gentleman's agreement to not pursue these claims. It has been quipped in the past that the Antarctic Treaty effectively puts territorial claims "on ice".
Key to this concept is Article IV of the original treaty:

Article IV
[territorial claims]
1. Nothing contained in the present Treaty shall be interpreted as:
(a) a renunciation by any Contracting Party of previously asserted rights of or claims to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica;
(b) a renunciation or diminution by any Contracting Party of any basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica which it may have whether as a result of its activities or those of its nationals in Antarctica, or otherwise;
(c) prejudicing the position of any Contracting Party as regards its recognition or nonrecognition of any other State's right of or claim or basis of claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
2. No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim, to territorial sovereignty shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in force.

Translating Stupid

Recently, I've been having a hard time figuring out some of the comments made by Animal Rights proponents.
While they often insult anyone who speaks English as a second language, usually as a way of intimidating them into shutting up, their own statements are utter nonsense.

Take this example.

What in the world is Shelly Pardy attempting to say here? God only knows. But the next time somebody complains about the education system in America, I know what I'll be thinking about in the back of my mind.

Thankfully, I had the brilliant idea to try Google Translate. After all, I hear it works wonders for writing protest letters to Japanese embassies. I wasn't let down. These are my results.

In The Beginning, there were trolls...

This first post is reserved as a permanently public record for those comments which are excessively abusive, obviously trolling, and generally irrelevant without contributing anything to the discussion.

February 27th additions

Andy Worrell