Who's next?

The latest development in the criminal investigation of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine disaster is the sentencing of a former mine superintendent. Here's hoping there's more to come.

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC. El Cabrero has always considered it unsportsmanlike to boil such creatures as lobsters and crabs alive. While I remain in the omnivore camp, and have been known to dispatch a creature or two to what I devoutly hope will be a pleasant rebirth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, I consider it but common decency to refrain from either cooking or eating a live creature.
I have been told by several people that these animals don't feel pain, to which I always want to reply, "How the hell do you know?" Anyhow, according to this NPR story, it would appear that they do feel pain after all. So there.

FROM THE SAME PLACE, but on a more pleasant topic than that of boiling sentinient beings alive, here's a look at how music can bliss out your brain.

BRIEFLY PUT. Bliss yes, boil no.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

I guess he wasn't just happy to be there

El Cabrero scrupulously combs the web daily in order to come up with hard hitting relevant information for you, Gentle Reader. Today I hit the jackpot.

According to this AP article, a gentleman from D'Iberville Mississippi was arrested at a grocery store after leaving the store with several items in his shorts which were unpaid for, including two bags of jumbo shrimp and a pork loin.

That in itself isn't particularly noteworthy. However, also included amongst these in-shorted items (I just made that word up) were two live lobsters.

Now, I'm no legal scholar but it seems to me that the shoplifting charge should not include the lobsters. There should be some kind of general understanding that would prevent people who put live lobsters with intact claws in their undergarments from being charged with a criminal offense. Rather, it should be assumed in such cases that such people had a pretty compelling reason to do so.

WHAT HE SAID. Here's Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz on what it would take to put Americans back to work.

SPEAKING OF WORK, here's a look at green jobs in the coalfields from Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo. Short version: there are some, but there could be lots more.

JOBS OR AUSTERITY? In times like these, you can't have both.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED