Needlenose

Truth is stranger than fiction! None other than Bob Barker of 70s and 80s TV game show fame has come to the rescue of Sea Shepherd, through a $5 million gift to go buy a boat that won’t get crushed in the ice in Antarctic waters.  And believe it or not, the new ship, the ‘Bob Barker’ has already proven it’s worth – it came to the rescue of several crew members of their little ‘attack’ vessel the Ady Gil after said boat was deliberately rammed by a whaler.

While I like and support Sea Shepherd’s work, I’m no big fan of their founder, Paul Watson.  Case in point, he’s equating the potential end of Japanese Antarctic whaling with the end of commercial whaling:

“Whaling was shut down today,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said via satellite phone from aboard a nearby ship. “There’s no whaling now and hopefully no whaling after this.”

Well…what about Iceland?  What about Norway?  What about so-called Russian & U.S. “traditional” indigenous whaling?  I think his organization would have a much easier time putting pressure on those countries and shutting down whaling faster than playing faux pirate in the Antarctic waters with the Japanese cast as the only villains.

Anyway, hopefully Bob Barker’s courageous donations will be a clarion call that will inspire other game show hosts to donate additional money and tools to pro-environmental groups…how about a 16 inch/50 caliber Mark 7 naval gun for the new ship?

It’s gonna cost us about a $1 million per year for every soldier we send to Afghanistan.  Seems like a crappy investment for a war we are going to lose.

Update on that Pakistan thing (from the link) – their push against the Taliban strongholds appears to have limits, and they are concerned that our escalation will break those limits.

*Update 11/25/09* Juan Cole believes Afghanistan ‘escalation’ will be the albatross around the neck of the Democratic Party in 2012