Posted by Andrew (in Amsterdam):

The New York Times ran a thoughtful editorial today on whaling. Here's the start of it:

Humans should be careful when criticizing other humans about the industrial slaughter of animal species. It is hard to find moral ground.

There was one small, bright spot of global consensus: whales. It took a very long time, but most of the world agreed that these wonderful, sociable mammals, at least, should be granted a stay of extinction. Most of the world, but not all. A few outlying countries continue commercial or dubiously scientific whale hunts, notably Japan, which clings to its whaling ways long past the expiration of any defensible reasons for doing so.

This follows a NYT article by Norimitsu Onishi titled, "A Japanese Obsession With American Roots". Both are worth while reads. My take on the Onishi article is here.