more important to our economy, and not less over time. why? because our Oil Masters would rather make a ton of money pulling it out of the ground to make “oil,” and keep us in our current energy insanity, than invest money in alternative technologies.

i predict that this story will disappear from the national radar in just a few months. like the shootings at VATech have. forgotten, dead americans, whatever, the thing that matters is that No Republicans Were Hurt in the making of this tragedy.

i do love TexasKaos, amanda and her crew do outstanding work.

Tonight on TCM, “Ace In The Hole”, at 9:15pm EDT…Kirk Douglas in this 1951 classic, about a down-and-out newspaper reporter who values his career over the safety of a man trapped in a mine. Director Billy Wilder recognized then and skewered mercilessly what we today call a media circus.

Then rent “Harlan County USA”, the 1976 Academy Award winning documentary (made mostly by women, and clearly giving women a large role in the film’s successful union organizing) that is so searing that after watching it recently my wife went around the house turning off lights (mostly still off) and said she will never again think of electricity and coal mining without shame for our country and our way of life.

And now he’s laying everyone off at the mine. I expect he’ll be blaming the “damn liberal media” in the coming days for wanting to regulate “poor helpless coal mines” into oblivion.

He’ll probably take opportunity to spew more bullshit about how all of our energy costs are going up ’cause he was forced to shut down.

Damn Evil Mountain….I mean, damn evil unsafe mine practices…

Who is the person I think you’re referring to, we at Texas Kaos are a different crew altogether.

I hope you’ll forgive a little home blog pride, but I just want to point out that fine piece of journalism was done by one of our regular community members, Bob Higgins.

Thanks very much for the link. We appreciate y’all.

Unfortunately, there’s a long history of failing to bring corporate fat cats to justice for malfeasance regarding the safety of their workers.

Look up “Union Carbide” if you want a more heinous example.

We all, I trust, saw the story about some mine he owned back East (Ohio I think) where the inspectors from MSHA were on his ass for safety problems? And at a meeting with them he screamed that “Mitch McConnell (R-eptilian KY) calls me one of the ten most important men in America and Mitch McConnell sleeps with your boss???” (McConnell being married to SecLab Elaine Cho)

The incident was reported by a guy from the NPR station in West Virginia. The only result was that (1)the safety problems were never corrected and (2) the MSHA inspectors were reassigned elsewhere, one finally resigning in disgust.

Don’t have the link right to hand, iirc it was the Louisville KY Journal-Courier that picked it up. Never ever once heard it reported on teebee in all the hours of coverage of the Utah mine disaster.

in my tiny, not very efficient or wholly sober, haid.

forgive the nominal confusion. what i said about TK stands.

While tragic and spectacular, mine cave-ins are not the largest source of deaths in the mines. Breathing coal dust over a long period of time has killed more men. Taking coal out of mines needs technology to replace the endangered workers beneath the surface. Developing this technology will probably never be done by the existing corporate evildoers - an enlightened administration would begin encouraging the needed development.

Ruth

my “Boadicea.”
1980 MG-B
rough exterior, but she purrs.

perhaps we’ll find a recently unemployed former AG by the side of the road, and we can blow dust in his face.

That’s some fine company to be blended with. And once again, thanks for the kind words.

Means a lot coming from y’all here at CW.

Also, Woody, is it? Great car name. Like to lay waste to the countryside in it?