thar she blows

Members of the Makah tribe are to be prosecuted in tribal court for their roles in an illegal whale-hunting expedition. The Native American group, based in Northwest Washington, grew tired of waiting for federal approval to carry out the hunt under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. So they just went ahead and did it. What's worse, the hunters didn't even bring home the bacon, er...blubber. They stuck the great beast with a few harpoons, shot it up with a high-powered rifle, cut the buoy lines keeping it at the surface and watched it sink. Aren't they suppposed to take it home and eat it or use it? I understand that whale-hunting is a proud and time-honored tradition for their people, but what gets me is the fact that they just killed the poor creature. The hunters, who live on a reservation and are likely poor, are each facing $25,000 fines. Maybe I'm missing something, but it just seems like a total waste and a foolish thing to do.

In other news, a McDonald's employee was arrested for making a burger too salty for a police officer's taste. From the Associated Press:

UNION CITY, Ga. - A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick. Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail. Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off." On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. "It didn't make me sick," Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But then Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned later and told the manager it made him sick. Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said. "If it was too salty, why did (Adams) not take one bite and throw it away?" said Bull, who has worked at the restaurant for five months. She said she didn't know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn't see the drive-through window from her work area. Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests. City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."

They sent it to the crime lab! Tax dollars at work!