The Whaling Wall

Hooray for awful puns. Anyway, the International Whaling Commission is meeting in Anchorage this summer, and it appears that the Japanese government is going to try to use its considerable sway over that body to try to put a stop to Alaska Native subsistence whaling if it doesn't get similar rights for its coastal villages to hunt minke whales. Which is pretty much a front for resuming commercial whaling.

This may be one of the few things on which Ted Stevens and I see eye to eye.

Oh, and Japan has also threatened to leave the IWC if it doesn't get its way. It's frustrating. But it goes to show you that no country has a monopoly on buying votes in international bodies, or using threats and coercion to get its way diplomatically.