"Scientists say dolphins should be treated as non-human persons" - Times Online - Page 7

Oh yeah. I'm back now. The USA rocks, England's stupid. Woo-hoo.

(I was being sarcastic about that calling England stupid thing, you guys rock too).

But seriously, lets talk about dolphins (I need to cover up my derailing habits).

Maybe it will unite the dolphin vs cow parties!

For my part I'm, sorry about the massive derail in this fine thread.

You know who else ate Dolphin though? Hilter.

Dear Princess Kate-

Your posts are to no ones liking, everyone either considers you a troll or a high functioning retarted person. We all think your a nuisance.

No if you'll excuse me I'm SUPER tired and and I don't wanna argue anymore cause chud is supposed to be fun....... TTYLz!!

And sorry to everyone, Werewolf Girl in particular, for even responding to her nonsense. I try to ignore her but sometimes I can't stop myself.

Dont be sorry, people; the temptation of trying to slay the dragon is very strong.

An interesting question. Hitler was a veggi-saur, but many vegetarians do not count fish as meat...... but.... a dolphin is a marine mammal.

WWHE? What would Hitler eat?

And we know how good those guys are at the old bomb dropping do we not?

I cant believe it took this long for someone to brought that up; congratulations, you magnificent basterd.

I can't make that out, what is that inside the plane?

EDIT: It looks like Joe Camel in a turban?

WTF. Reading through this thread is like peering into the mind of a schizophrenic suffering from massive head trauma. Somehow, we went from discussing personhood and its relation to the idea that dolphins are non-human person, to eating dolphins, to the ethical implications of factory farming, to a discussion of the settling of the American West, and finally arrived at bashing the UK. This is like a master course in derailment.

At least I learned something. I had no idea that Brits resented the idea that America is what turned the tide of WWII. So, there's that.

I'm going to quote my own post in order to ask: Is that a real dolphin head?

EDIT Actually I think that's photoshop. The sprig of leafy greens in it's mouth appears to just hover in space

It's a good idea but then you need to get recipe books and other forms of education to the under privileged. You can't just snap your fingers and hope that suddenly the poor in NA understand that there are other sources of protein that are better for them and that they know how to cook them.

And honestly if you'd like to explain to the working class poor why they should suddenly be craving legumes after a 12 hour work day rather than a steak, be my guest. It's easy to be self righteous about the eating habits of others when you don't live in their world.

You really need to jump in front of oncoming traffic or something.

Most poor people don't buy steak (poor example on my part, it should read hamburger). Ground chuck is way less expensive and much more versatile.

And, in reality, it's likely not even ground chuck, more than likely it's some processed, pre-packaged meal that you can buy for dirt cheap.

Education is the key. If you want to start a webpage or an education system I think that would be awesome. I'm all for people finding other ways of making their money go farther and eating healthier.

I thought that's what happened when they decided to trust Santa Claus.

All I've gotten out of this is that Princess Kate doesn't file taxes.

I officially want dolphins on our money - that'd be quaint AND awesome.

I love dolphins.

Orca's are very fucking smart too while we're at it - but then they're in the dolphin family so that stands to reason.

I would rather discuss these ideas with a dolphin, orca or a chimp than some others in this thread for what it's worth.

Eitherway tho - can we maybe - just maybe - get back to a discussion of 'personhood' and what it means that dolphins have been seemingly granted this status to a degree?

Again, obviously we can't give them the bote or expect them to wear cute little suits and ties (which would be adorable I might add),m but what about granting them certain rights? What about not locking them up in aquariuam or the like? What do people think of that - would you support such a move?

This thread need to tie into Soylent Green to be complete.

Until we can establish that dolphins make moral choices calling them "persons" is a misnomer. I doubt we can define personhood without including a criteria of moral responsibility, and no one is about to hold dolphins morally culpable for their misdeeds. Frankly, it's not the place of scientists to say what is and isn't a person. Defining personhood is just not their field of expertise. Now, empirical evidence might establish that dolphins fulfill the requisite criteria for personhood but that's not what we have here. Theirs' is lazy logic, and even a philosopher who agreed with them could rip their reasoning apart. Besides it misses the point. The fact that dolphins aren't persons would say little about how we ought to treat them. I don't think they're persons, and I'm no tree hugger and I think keeping them (and elephants and apes) in captivity is wrong.

Personhood is a high threshold, and while I was called a piece of shit on these boards for saying it years ago, I would argue that some humans don't even qualify (infants, and some mentally handicapped individuals). Mind you, it's an intellectual and not necessarily moral distinction.

JuddL advocates eating retards.

Less gristle.

You're still a piece of shit, by the way.

I'll take mine with...




Seriously, I'd be totally ok with what Rain Dog is saying...I can see a need for some endngered species to be in captivity, and I can see that it is impossible for some animals to be put back into the wild; but the Dolphin issue concerning their captivity seems to be almost purely about entertainment for our pleasure.

am not.

This turned out to be a bad idea. This thread beat me every day and told me to keep my fucking mouth shut or I'll "fall down some stairs" again. We're getting a divorce.

Hush, keep it down, now, voices carry.

Somewhere around the time the epic Canada versus the USA debate began, I came to a realization about this thread:

Are sea lions people?
They can write in Chinese!

PS I came up with a movie idea (sci fi) partially inspired by discussion on this thread. I wrote the plot outline on my blog if anyone is ineterested