The Woodchuck started studying Daoism in Vietnam in 1964. I continue to this day. I’ve learned much. I’ve much more to learn.
A basic Daoist principle: The farther you go, the less you know.

Most people truly don’t understand this religion/philosophy. They only think they do.

This post isn’t about Daoism.
It is necessary to open with this however to explain just what is coming to the U.S., Europe and other countries that are “out of balance.”

If you are a Socialist, you cannot be a Daoist. If you are a Conservative, especially what passes for that in this country, you cannot be a Daoist. One who is a true Libertarian could be, but it would be difficult, almost but not quite impossible. Daoists are anti-authoritarian, anarchists, and egalitarian whose “wu wei” or to let nature take its course is their dao or way in the search for the Three Jewels: compassion, moderation and humility.

Our political systems are anathema to this belief, so they constantly rub against other systems and produce disharmony, a nice word for war.

The gap between the religious and philosophical versions of the political attitudes can be partially closed if it treats the content of the transcendent dao as egalitarian, empty or anarchist—hence available equally to all with no need of hierarchy or training.

There are several symbols of Ying Yang representing balance; this is the Dao symbol. Man upsets this balance as we have by meddling in natural orders.

Both pluralist and primitivist Daoism would reject the Confucian-Mohist conclusion that political authority should be used to bring about a harmony of daos — making everyone follow a single dao. The social world survives as well (or better) when people follow different ways of life.

Enough of philosophy, let us move to the disruptions in today’s world. The manifestation of all political correctness has caused a disharmony, exacerbated by mandated diversity and multiculturalism in America. Media’s failure is to equitably report the news. Hate crimes are one sided. Our laws are enforced depending upon whom you know and how much you donated. Think not, try being poor and pleading not guilty to a crime you didn’t commit. Try standing up against an approved minority especially when you are right, or worse if you are a Christian.I need not name all the disparities; you know them.

A push back is coming; it started over the financial spending. It will take time to spread to the rest of the imbalances in America but it will swell and surge over the political walls. It may not be peaceful.

Britain is enjoying the fruits of their imbalance for quite some time too.

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: ‘If you go back to the studio, we’ll break your legs.’

This is less than uncommon in England.

The Metropolitan Police are treating it as a ‘faith hate’ assault and are hunting three Asian men.
[snip]
‘They were having an argument with me,’ he said. ‘They were very aggressive in saying they did not agree with me. I said those are your views and these are my views.’
He said that he, his wife Louisa, 48, and his son Naveed, 19, now fear for their safety, and police have given them panic alarms. ‘I am frightened and depressed,’ he said. ‘My show is not confrontational.’

Obviously, they think it is!
There are many more news items one may find supporting my premise. Find them or not, that will not change what is happening.

Europe hasn’t escaped this malady, Malmö, Sweden, is a hotspot, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany are having problems. Italy is awakening, starting to change some of their laws.

One country is moving in a direction to put an end to all these problems. Their solution is beginning to catch the ears of others in bordering states with similar troubles.

After the FPO’s election victory, Nick Griffin, leader of the British Nationalist Party (BNP), sent a personal message to Strache.
‘We in Britain are impressed to see that you have been able to combine principled nationalism with electoral success. We are sure that this gives you a good springboard for the European elections and we hope very much that we will be able to join you in a successful nationalist block in Brussels next year.’
The message followed on from a secret meeting last May in which a high-ranking FPO politician paid a visit to London for a meeting with Griffin.
The relationship between the FPO and the BNP becomes more worrying as I learn of the strong links between Austria’s political party and hard-line Nazis.

The Legislature of Austria is quickly electing members that will enact the necessary regulations and laws to fix the nation’s predicament.

The opening of this post concerned harmony. When the Yang is far out of balance, it takes a great amount of Ying to counter the centrifugal force and pull both back into harmony. Seriously, I suggest one goes to this link and views their means of bringing balance to the universe.

The Wright Screw Co. Inc.

To our loyal employees;

As the CEO of this business, I have accepted the fact that Barack Obama is our new President and changes are here. Due to governmental intervention in health care, taxes, environmental mandates and all sorts of fees, our operational costs will rise in a BIG way.

To compensate for this additional overhead, our clients would normally receive an increase in our prices of about 15%; the dismal state of our economy doesn’t allow for those increases at this time, Instead, we will have to lay off some of our 255 employees. This unfortunate economic reality caused much distress in the boardroom and with me in particular, as we believe we are family here. For many days I wrestled with this quandary; how to choose who will have to go.

After considerable thought, this is what I did. I sauntered through our parking lot, found 46 Obama bumper stickers on our employees’ cars. I decided the first laid off are these folks. There is no fairer way to approach this problem.

They wanted change; I gave it to them.

If you have a different idea, take it up with the union.

Sincerely,
The Owner

The un-PC definitions of entitlement have the ring of truth to them while the PC versions bestow goodness on the recipients for accepting the largess.

I don’t make this stuff up; I just drag it out to cause the liberals pain. It’s a rotten job but somebody has to do it.

Entitlement

Urban dictionary definition

1) Someone who thinks something is owed to them by life in general; or because they are who they are.
I had a friend who would never work on her birthday, and throw hissy fits when things didn’t go her way- what a brat- had a huge sense of entitlement

2) A freebie promised to women, poofters, Mexicans, and guys of color to get them to vote for you. If you win, you tax the pants off all honest, hard working decent people to pay for these entitlements.
Ah wants me some o dem entitlement! Ah’s gwine to vote fo Hillary! Yassuh!

3) Entitlement: something of which all North American females have a massive sense.
“If I sleep with a banana, it is empowering, if I sleep with you it is empowering, if I sleep with a woman it is empowering, if I dump you it is empowering, if I am mean to you it is empowering…oh, and if I am nice to you and stay with you it is not empowering.”

4) When someone thinks they are owed something by life; they should get things just because they are who (sic) they are.
I still can’t get over the hissy fit she threw over having to drive herself to the party- what a sense of entitlement- her ego is hunormous (sic).

5) Believing you are automatically owed something by society thanks to lies from Democrats, Socialists and Liberals. Usually comes in the form of handouts: universal healthcare, the redistribution of wealth, reparations for blacks, reverse discrimination against whites to benefit blacks, politicans (sic) voting themselves a payraise in the middle of the night, athletes getting paid $200 million for their “talent”, affirmative action, welfare, social security, etc.

Entitlement has taght (sic) Generation-X and Generation-Y that they can have a lavish lifestyle of materialism that it took their parents YEARS to achieve. Young people (under 30) now have record debt as a result, and are buying homes they can’t afford, cars they can’t pay for and credit cards they can’t pay off. Entitlement has led them to having to live with mommy and daddy ‘til things improve financially.

Entitlement is the biggest problem with America today and is the soul (sic) cause of materialism. Entitlement has taght (sic) Generation-X and Generation-Y that they can have a lavish lifestyle of materialism that it took their parentst (sic) YEARS to achieve. Young people (under 30) now have record debt as a result, and are buying homes they can’t afford, cars they can’t pay for and credit cards they can’t pay off. Entitlement has led them to having to live with mommy and daddy ‘til (sic) things improve financially.

Entitlement

Dictionary definition

The right to guaranteed benefits under a government program, as Social Security or unemployment compensation.
In clinical psychology and psychiatry, an unrealistic, exaggerated, or rigidly held sense of entitlement may be considered a symptom of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

This is for a particular commenter who has made another appearance here once more.

MIT scientists baffled by global warming theory, contradicts scientific data

Boston (MA) - Scientists at MIT have recorded a nearly simultaneous world-wide increase in methane levels. This is the first increase in ten years, and what baffles science is that this data contradicts theories stating man is the primary source of increase for this greenhouse gas. It takes about one full year for gases generated in the highly industrial northern hemisphere to cycle through and reach the southern hemisphere. However, since all worldwide levels rose simultaneously throughout the same year, it is now believed this may be part of a natural cycle in mother nature - and not the direct result of man’s contributions.

Oh dear, that nasty old sow, Mother Nature, is screwing with man again. Nothing like a poke in the eye with a sharp bit of manmade hubris, is there now.

Methane - powerful greenhouse gas

The two lead authors of a paper published in this week’s Geophysical Review Letters, Matthew Rigby and Ronald Prinn, the TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, state that as a result of the increase, several million tons of new methane is present in the atmosphere. [snip]

Ohmigod! No cow can poot that much, must be Gore running that gianormous houseboat and the Hollyweird swells jetting off to Europe. All those big mouths belching CO2 and farting at those parties did it.

More study
[snip]
…Where does one even begin? And how relevant are any of the data findings at this late date? Looking back over 2007 data as it was captured may prove as ineffective if the data does not support the high resolution details such a study requires.

One thing does seem very clear, however; science is only beginning to get a handle on the big picture of global warming. Findings like these tell us it’s too early to know for sure if man’s impact is affecting things at the political cry of “alarming rates.” We may simply be going through another natural cycle of warmer and colder times - one that’s been observed through a scientific analysis of the Earth to be naturally occurring for hundreds of thousands of years. [snip]

So, that was only an acorn falling from the tree and not the sky.
Global warming BUNGHOLES.

RBSH

Awarded only to Knights of the Un-PC Word

Wear this proudly; steal their thunder with the “Right Might” lighting bolt!

Teenager among four fatal stabbings in London in 24 hours

• A teenager is among four victims of separate fatal stabbings which took place in London over the past day, as a fifth man fights for life.

• His death brings the number of teenagers killed in the capital this year to 20 and comes just days after the Metropolitan police announced that knife crime had usurped terrorism to become their top priority.

• In Walthamstow, north east London, a man in his 20s was fatally stabbed in an attack in St David’s Court yesterday evening.

• In Tottenham, north London, a murder inquiry was launched after a man was found stabbed to death at the rear of a disused pub in Tottenham High Road.

• Four people remain in custody today after a 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed in Leyton, east London.
  The man, named locally as Adnan Patel, died from a stab wound to the chest after crashing his Ford Focus in Downsell Road, Leyton.
  Detectives are investigating whether he was fleeing from the occupants of a van who stabbed him in an apparent road rage attack moments earlier.
  Paramedics were called as passers-by gave emergency first aid and tried to stem the bleeding but Mr Patel died at the scene.

• A fifth man is in a life-threatening condition after a knife attack in London Willesden, north west London at 4.20am this morning.

All of these individuals are were upstanding citizens, who avoided fighting back which breaks the law. Instead, they calmly left all this unpleasantness up to the police.

Police officer dies of heart attack after being diagnosed with indigestion

From NHS, we get news of this money saving treatment. Brits better hope this doesn’t become the new medical rage.

A policeman with a family history of coronary disease was sent home and told to take indigestion remedy when a hospital failed to recognise he was having a heart attack.

PC Brian Burnett, 49, a dog handler, was three months away from retiring when he was taken ill with severe chest pains.

He went to Lincoln County Hospital’s accident and emergency unit where he was examined by a doctor and given an electrocardiogram (ECG) test to check his heart.

But he was told to go home and take Gaviscon, over-the-counter treatment for heartburn and indigestion.

PC Burnett collapsed and died 34 hours later from an atherothrombosis, a condition which leads to arteries becoming blocked.

His widow Christine has now been awarded a six figure sum in compensation three years after his death, with United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust accepting negligence.

Of course, a tidy sum to be sure at first glance. Think of the tidy sums saved by not having the surgical costs on the NHS and savings on his pension.

National health care does save the system money.

Anna Temple, of United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, said: “We offer our condolences to the family of Mr Burnett.

How wonderful and sensitive of them to care.

What do Syria, Myanmar, Darfur, Hell, Afghanistan, Iran and Britain have in common? God-awful places to live is the answer.
However none except Britain are so uncivilized as to keep you from protecting life and property. The U.S. under the Donks and libs strive mightily to get us to that place particularly with the “progressive education” so enjoyed.

For more than two years, Sydney Davis’ house has been under siege from stone-throwing youths. And more than two hours into the latest attack on his family home, the police had yet to respond.

So after a particularly large missile landed in his kitchen, the 65-year-old grabbed a plank of wood and ran towards the gang to scare them away. But his desperate act came just as the police finally arrived on the scene - where they promptly arrested him for possession of an offensive weapon.

He now faces up to six months in prison. [snip]

In Britain, protecting oneself by means of a weapon, from assault with intent to maim or kill, is punishable with time in prison, not short either.

How did they get they get to this position. By the liberal method of constantly moving the goal posts back to get a bit more correctness in the law.

When the Donks took over congress in the ‘70’s here, they got their ideas from across the pond. We are about 10 years behind Britain in rampant stupidity, only because of luck and some members of SCOTUS. No problem seeing why the left vilifies the conservative side of the bench, is there?

A sampling of cases illustrates the impact of these measures:

In 1973 a young man running on a road at night was stopped by the police and found to be carrying a length of steel, a cycle chain, and a metal clock weight. He explained that a gang of youths had been after him. At his hearing it was found he had been threatened and had previously notified the police. The justices agreed he had a valid reason to carry the weapons. Indeed, 16 days later he was attacked and beaten so badly he was hospitalized. But the prosecutor appealed the ruling, and the appellate judges insisted that carrying a weapon must be related to an imminent and immediate threat. They sent the case back to the lower court with directions to convict.

A proper and PC verdict, would you say?
Now if the jogger said he was carrying the metal to help him lose weight and build up stamina, what could the prosecutor have said?
The lesson to be learned in this PC world is do not tell the truth!

In 1987 two men assaulted Eric Butler, a 56-year-old British Petroleum executive, in a London subway car, trying to strangle him and smashing his head against the door. No one came to his aid. He later testified, “My air supply was being cut off, my eyes became blurred, and I feared for my life.” In desperation he unsheathed an ornamental sword blade in his walking stick and slashed at one of his attackers, stabbing the man in the stomach. The assailants were charged with wounding. Butler was tried and convicted of carrying an offensive weapon.

NYC has a law that allows prosecution for assault if one defends themselves with their cane. A prosecutor can bring the case to the grand jury, which as you know, will indict a ham sandwich for not having mustard. I presume using your crutch would make matters ever worse.

In 1994 an English homeowner, armed with a toy gun, managed to detain two burglars who had broken into his house while he called the police. When the officers arrived, they arrested the homeowner for using an imitation gun to threaten or intimidate. In a similar incident the following year, when an elderly woman fired a toy cap pistol to drive off a group of youths who were threatening her, she was arrested for putting someone in fear. Now the police are pressing Parliament to make imitation guns illegal.

Absolutely right! We cannot have these young malefactors wetting their pants, can we.

In 1999 Tony Martin, a 55-year-old Norfolk farmer living alone in a shabby farmhouse, awakened to the sound of breaking glass as two burglars, both with long criminal records, burst into his home. He had been robbed six times before, and his village, like 70 percent of rural English communities, had no police presence. He sneaked downstairs with a shotgun and shot at the intruders. Martin received life in prison for killing one burglar, 10 years for wounding the second, and a year for having an unregistered shotgun. The wounded burglar, having served 18 months of a three-year sentence, is now free and has been granted $5,000 of legal assistance to sue Martin.

Comparison
Bernard Hugo Goetz, known as Bernhard or Bernie (born November 7, 1947) was dubbed the “Subway Vigilante” by the New York press. How the BBC views this.

One-year-old racists are the scourge of civilization.

Claim: Kids who say ‘yuck’ may be racist

Toddlers who say “yuck” when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children’s Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

[snip]

The bureau says to be aware of children who “react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying ‘yuck’.”

[snip]

Staff members are advised not to ignore racist actions and to condemn them when they occur.

Kind of hard to respond to this level of moronic thought, isn’t it. The planet is in more danger from the oxygen use by this bunch than any global threat.

Childhood is was a time of testing one’s abilities and limits. Today, being a kid is banned as aggressive, antisocial and overtly masculine, Oh the shame, the shame of being Ritalin free.

At McLean School, Playing Tag Turns Into Hot Potato

Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School, has told students they may no longer play tag during recess after determining that the game of chasing, dodging and yelling “You’re it!” had gotten out of hand. Hooker explained to parents in a letter this month that tag had become a game “of intense aggression.”The principal said that her goal is to keep students safe and that she hopes to restore tag (as well as touch football, also now on hold) after teachers and administrators review recess policies.

After her review, tag will be acceptable provided there is no running and being “it” is abolished. New touch football rules stipulate walking for a touchdown and saying in a modulated voice “you’re touched.”

Students will be gratified to know the:

The Fairfax County schools’ office of risk management maintains a list of activities that are prohibited at any school-sponsored events. In addition to bungee-jumping and scuba diving, students are not permitted to break dance or play dodge ball or tug-of-war.

Unregulated activities such as

A 14-year-old Arizona girl was arrested on suspicion of hitting another teen over the head with a folding chair…[snip]

are not part of written school policy. This seems to be of a more serious nature than tag. I guess proscribing this behavior might sully the student’s self-esteem. Better to raise girlymen.

Contrary to law, truth isn’t a defense against the PC idiots.

Brigitte Bardot on trial for Muslim slur

PARIS (Reuters) - French former film star Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday for insulting Muslims, the fifth time she has faced the charge of “inciting racial hatred” over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers. [snip]
She has been fined four times for inciting racial hatred since 1997, at first 1,500 euros and most recently 5,000. [snip]

One needs the awareness that the Constitution is silent on education. Since most schools at the time were church run with some private, the need for public education did not exist. Looking at what passes for education today, proves all those white men had smarts.
Catholic schools demand scholarship, ethics, parental involvement and student disipline, or else. The greatest lack in the Catholic schools is the lack of victimhood and the PC ethos.
Which is why they work.
Incidently, non-catholics are not required to take religious instruction.
Viewed this way, the demise of Parochial education is desired by the Left.

‘Crisis’ with loss of Catholic schools

[snip]
Since 1999, a total of 1,267 Catholic schools have closed and 374 have opened, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. The number of Catholic elementary and high schools fell from 8,719 in the 1989-1990 school year to 7,378 in the current year, according to NCEA data.

According to Fordham researchers, the NCEA data translates into about 300,000 students who have been displaced from Catholic schools, at a cost to taxpayers of about $20 billion as public schools absorb the students. In an interview last month with The Washington Times, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington predicted that this trend would continue without government vouchers, saying the church faced continued challenges to “sustain all of these schools, particularly in the poorest, urban areas.”

As Catholic families increasingly moved to suburbs in the 1960s and ’70s, urban Catholic schools increasingly began educating poor, non-Catholic students, the report noted. There were solid academic results, it argued, citing evidence like Andrew Greeley’s 1982 findings, which showed achievement of minority students was higher in Catholic schools than in public schools. [snip](emphasis added)

The report authors also argued that private-school vouchers “are no panacea” — noting that programs in Milwaukee and the District have not really helped the Catholic urban schools there and the Archdiocese of Washington is turning seven of its schools into public charter schools. [snip]

Private school vouchers cannot be used at Catholic schools; that is forbidden by law thanks to the ACLU and the Donks.

As part of the study, Fordham also commissioned a survey of 800 adults. The majority of adults surveyed chose Catholic schools as the best to offer a disciplined learning environment and instill moral values, and public schools as the best to work with economically disadvantaged students. [snip] (emphasis added)

Here are two delightfully incorrect photos. Both are from Canada, circa 1942.

I’m posting these for no other reason than to upset some fascist.

I wonder if Vermont teachers went to NY to help? The scores look like they did. After one gets by the dazzling footwork in Vermont, the scores are very close to one another.

Understand, the teachers of today went through the same educational system. This goes far to explain the problems in and with our schools.

Writing Mastery Eludes Majority In Eighth Grade

Three-quarters of eighth-graders in New York City’s public schools cannot write proficiently, a problem demonstrated by more than two-thirds of students statewide, according to results from a federally administered test released yesterday.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, found that 55% of city eighth-graders scored at the basic level, meaning they had a partial mastery of skills, and 20% scored below basic. The national average was 57% scoring at basic and 13% scoring below. The New York State scores represent no significant progress since the last time the test was administered, in 2002. Nationally, eighth-graders made modest but significant gains, with the average score rising three points since 2002, though the percentage of students scoring proficient, 33%, did not change significantly.

There is no way to record change over time for New York City, because 2007 was the first year the test results were separated out from state scores.

The city’s scores can be compared with other large central cities. By that metric, New York City’s scores were statistically neither better nor worse than the average; they were lower than three cities that topped the average: Charlotte, N.C.; San Diego, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

The director of research at the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability, Jason Brooks, released a statement comparing the NAEP results to results produced by New York State tests, which last year showed eighth-graders posting large improvements on a reading test, with 42% meeting state standards versus 37% the year before.

Mr. Brooks said the discrepancies prove state exams are “dumbed-down.”

A spokesman for the city Department of Education, David Cantor, pointed out that the writing scores are higher than the levels the city’s eighth-graders posted on national reading and math tests last year. On the 2007 reading exam, 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient, and 16% did so on the math. [snip]

I need an explanation. 42% score proficient in writing; 19% score proficient in reading. How can some one score higher on a writing test that the reading test? How would they know what they wrote?

On the writing test, 19% of New York City eighth-graders were tested with accommodations, the highest percentage of any city included in the study and above the national average, 9%.

Meanwhile, 2% of eighth-graders were excluded from the test, a lower number than several cities, such as Cleveland, where 11% were excluded.

Sample questions from the writing test can be viewed at http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/. One question asked students to write a letter describing what a backpack is.

The education historian Diane Ravitch, who has served on the governing board of NAEP, said, “The conclusion we draw is we have some serious issues having to do with reading, writing, and math by the time kids are in eighth grade.” [snip]

School vouchers are the only answer.

They’re humane, no waterboarding here.

This site has links to the videos

Purported Al Qaeda Video Shows Prisoners Burned Alive

Al Qaeda’s latest display of terror has made its way onto the Internet, showing horrifying images of what appear to be prisoners in Iraq being doused with an inflammatory liquid and then burned alive.

The video, which appears to have been posted first on Google last December in an alleged anti-Al Qaeda Web film, shows five insurgents standing behind three blindfolded prisoners kneeling at the edge of a burning pit. [snip]

According to the summary — in Arabic and German — included in the nearly 15-minute video posted on Google, many of the clips were found in Diyala, Iraq. The makers of the film say that the originals were “passed to us by others.”

These are the nice people we won’t waterboard because it’s unfriendly. You don’t wish them to be upset and change into nasty persons, do you?

With all the arm waving over multiculturalism, why is it not valid here. Like I mean, you know dude everything is soooo equal!
The unhinged left believes diversity is righteous, except when it conflicts with their beliefs. Forget not too, that this “animal lover” abused and tortured five “Flippers” for money!

Dolphin slaughter brings charges from both sides

TAIJI, Japan (CNN) — Ric O’Barry sometimes dresses as a woman or wears a large surgical mask to disguise his Western identity on trips to spots overlooking the ocean.

He prowls the cliffs near Taiji, Japan, with a video camera, hoping to catch fishermen doing something that appalls him: catching dolphins.

“This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth,” says O’Barry, who trained five dolphins to play “Flipper” on the TV series of that name. “It’s absolutely barbaric, and it needs to stop.”

Offending this clown and all the diversity dummies is the best reason to persevere with “doing the dolphin.”

Fishermen hunt dolphins almost every day in Taiji, a town of about 3,000 in southwestern Japan that juts into the Pacific Ocean. Watch fishermen catch dolphins »

Locals know that they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it’s a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows.

“I know there are many different ways of thinking in different societies, but for us who’ve been eating this for a long time … it’s an awkward thing to be criticized for,” says Kayoko Tanaka, a retired middle school teacher. “I either fry dolphin meat or turn it into a stew.”

O’Barry says the dolphins face a cruel fate.

“It takes a very long time to die. They bleed to death. And some of them are dragged in the boats with hooks while they’re still alive,” he says. “Many of them are gutted while they’re still alive.”

OK, so what’s your point?

To some puzzled people in rural Japan, the question comes down to this: What’s the difference between killing and eating a dolphin, and killing and eating a fish? Or a chicken? Or a cow? [snip]

Many Japanese consider the deer a sacred messenger from the gods, he says, but they would never suggest that people in other parts of the world stop venturing into the woods on a quest for venison.

“We don’t like to play God to say, ‘This animal is just for food, and this is not,’ ” he says. “Because we know, nation to nation, we have totally different ideas.” [snip]

Representatives of the Taiji Fishermen’s Union declined requests for an on-camera interview. So did the town’s mayor and several others. And O’Barry says he’s gotten into a few shouting matches with fishermen, who resent him and his camera.

So what does O’Barry say to their claim that he has no right to tell them to abandon a tradition that has flourished in their corner of the world for more than 400 years?

“If someone came to my hometown and told me what to do, what to eat, I’d be outraged,” he says. “But that’s not going to stop me from doing it. I mean, tradition? It used to be traditional for women not to vote. So do we keep that going because it’s traditional and cultural? Of course not.” [snip]

Answer this, If the dolphin are so smart, why do they there, producing excellent tempura?

This guy spent too much time underwater without oxygen.