General Chat Topic #9

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

Haha....no, not a priest. I guess the best way to describe it is it means you're doing all the hard work for someone in charge and not getting enough credit!

Yeah, the US is crazy how vastly different it can be. I suppose Australia can be the same way? Do you travel much within Australia?

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

I've been to various places around NSW, and interstate a few times, the only states I haven't been to are NT and SA. And I'm going to Tasmania (or Van Diemens Land) next Monday.

Australia is similar, but the differences are nowhere as big as you get in the US, mainly minor differences in accent, the biggest differences are between city folk and country folk here, but I guess that's pretty much the same in every country.

Originally posted by vanquish:Speaking of Van Diemen's Land, I was just watching that recent performance you linked to (thanks btw), and it truly is underwhelming, to say the least.

Them singing in unison just shows up Bono's faulty memory, and they aren't even able to harmonize properly. A great song ruined.

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

Sounds like a cool trip. What are you doing there?

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Not much, it's Tasmania, the song 'Van Diemen's Land' captures it's sleepy quaintness perfectly.

It's like the Australian equivalent of Maine, you visit it for the scenery, my mum's organised the trip.
So we'll be going to chocolate factory tours, visiting model villages and doing the usual nature walks, cruises to see penguins/whales etc., you get the picture.

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

That sounds cool. Speaking of whales and Australia....have you ever heard of The Sea Shepherds? They're this organization that takes direct action against the Japanese whaling ships down in the Antarctic. There's a TV show about them here in the US, and I think a lot of them are Australians. Didn't know if you'd heard of them before.

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Oh, there's always Australian ships protesting against the Japanese whalers it's common news down here, I don't know how they do it exactly, I think once they tried to board them and that caused a big hoo ha as you can imagine.

I don't know whether the Sea Shepherds are an organization, or an anti-whaling ship though, Greenpeace seems to run some of it as well.

Are you a greenie?

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

Not in the sense that those people are. In fact, it was the people from the Sea Shepherds that boarded the Japanese ship, and were held for a few days. (it was all chronicled in the TV show). I mean, I think we need to do a lot to actually care for the environment and make sure it's gonna still exist in 50 years, but throwing vials of acid on the decks of Japanese ships so they can't pull the whale carcasses up there doesn't seem like the answer either.

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Yeah, some people are nuts, they would rather see animals protected than humans.

I personally think that if the Japanese want to kill whales, they should do so in their waters, and not poach them in Australian waters.

BTW you might be interested in this article I posted in the 'General Politics Discussion' thread today
http://www.counterpunch.org/eno01022009.html

Originally posted by haytrain:[..]

Well, I think the problem is that the whales aren't in their waters. They wait until the time of year when they go down off the coast of Antarctica (Int'l waters) and say they're doing research....and part of international law says that no part of the whale can go to waste if you're doing research, so they just happen to put that on menus in Tokyo. Tough situation, that's for sure.

I skimmed the article you posted. I'll read it again more closely. Israel/Palestine is a messy situation if there ever was one.

Originally posted by vanquish:[..]

Did you see who it was by?