Brain dead television

[Dr. Righteous]

Over the holiday I was at my parents place in rural KY. This year my brother is in Iraq so it was pretty boring there with just the old folks and the women and kids. (no spur of the moment wheeling trips)
So I decided to watch a bit of TV which I normally don't do much of.
The show "Whale Wars" was came on. I have seen the previews for it. It sounded interesting, so I settled in to watch.

After watching I found the premise the show was advertised on was turned on it's head. The crew of the "Sea Shepard" are patrolling the south arctic reasons in search of whaling ships.
BUT what they were actually doing was ILLEGAL according to maritime law.
They found a Japanese ship Whaling and they began to harass the crew of the ship by throwing stink bomb from a zodiac boat and buzzing the ship with a chopper. The Japanese ship went full throttle to get away from them. They then send another boat along side and 2 men board the ship to deliver a letter to the captain. The Japanese crew immediately took them captive as pirates.
Why? Because boarding a ship without permission is a act of piracy according to maritime law! Also the Sea Shepard flew a PIRATE FLAG. A Jolly Roger.
The crew of the Sea Shepard was outraged of course, and called them on the radio and accusing them of illegally taking hostages. Then the real agenda.
NOW that people are in danger, they contacted the news media for liberal biased new coverage.
Heroes? Breaking the law is what they are doing.

[bjoehandley]

Haven't watched it yet, don't plan on doing so either. There was a good sized thread on it at NAXJA a week of so ago.
Here's the painting on the side of the boat and the flag they fly
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...SC_0564_sm.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...d_small_pt.jpg

There were also some suggestions of preventitive tools as well
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ng_harpoon.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...SC_0564_sm.jpg
http://tonova.typepad.com/photos/unc...ed/madeuce.jpg
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l1...h/P6140046.jpg
http://www.lanevictory.org/images/ar...sea_cadets.jpg

Would work for the pirate problems too

[Walkercolt]

If it had been a Chinese whaler, some of those people could have been tried and exicuted on the spot. "Green Peace" and such don't seem to want to "confront" Chinese fishing and whaling vessels for some reason....
I find it very strange that criminals acts seem to be "OK" now if it's for a "good cause", and those criminal acts get free publicty and noterity from our tax-funded media outlets. What if I hi-jacked a private jet for it being energy inefficent? If I took a PBS camera crew with me, would that make it all alright? I don't think so. And I don't think the PBS camera crew would show my bullet-riddled body after the FBI, NSA, FAA, Home Land Security Agency got through with me.