MYOB, Congress

Apparently, the US House of Representatives thinks we should ban the seal hunt, and has unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Canadian government to do just that, "now and forever."

Now I confess to being ambivalent about about this issue. While I'm uncomfortable about the idea of baby animals being clubbed to death for their skins, my maritime friends tell me that the animal rights folks have been perpetuating an image of the hunt that doesn't reflect the reality of what goes on. Furthermore, as an unapologetic meat eater and leather wearer, I'm not hypocritical enough to get uppity about the killing of certain animals over other, just because they're cuter. I have no interest in hunting myself, but I can't condemn those who do it as part of their livelihood.

That said, there are those who could possibly convince me that we should in fact ban the seal hunt. But a branch of the government in a country that executes minors isn't one of them. If the US House of Representatives is genuinely interested in addressing rights issues, rather than pandering, there are a lot of issues much closer to home that they can set their sights on.

UPDATE: It seems the US Supreme Court banned capital punishment in 2005 for those who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. So yay for the Supreme Court, but Congress should still stick to its knitting.