Annals of hypocrisy

You really can't make this stuff up. As my friend Ken Ward reported in yesterday's Gazette-Mail, WV's Republican representatives in the US House, who rode to power in part by pretending to give a ____ (fill in the blank) about coal miners, voted to cut funding on the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration.  Fortunately, the measure failed to pass the entire House.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts had this to say about that: "I am gratified that a majority of the House agreed with our position that we should not be cutting coal mine safety at a time when we are experiencing rising fatalities and serious injuries in America’s mines."

I guess you get what you vote for.

Speaking of abominations, then there's this.

A reality check

The Upper Big Branch mine disaster and related issues have weighed heavily on my mind for the last few weeks and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

In the wake of the disaster, many people, rightly, have wondered why agencies like MSHA aren't more aggressive about shutting down production at dangerous mines.

The reality, at least until this disaster, was that the coal industry and its supporters have pretty much perfected the art of the hissy fit and they have been really good at getting political leaders to fall in line.

My guess is that the reaction to a preventive shutdown by MSHA would have been about the same as what happens when a mining permit is delayed or denied: an all-hands-on-deck order would be sent out to denounce the Obama administration's "war on coal." Everybody who was anybody (or who wanted to be anybody) would have joined in.

WHILE WE'RE AT IT, here's an interesting take on the history of the Upper Big Branch mine from Vanity Fair.

YOU DON'T NEED A WEATHERIZATION MAN to know which way the wind blows. You can just read this op-ed by Paul Miller and yours truly instead.

UNEMPLOYMENT for African-American men is at 20.2 percent, more than double that for whites.

MONKEY LOVE. In the event you've ever wondered whether male chimps use tools to attract females, click here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

One to watch

El Cabrero's ears picked up Friday when I heard NPR report on a federal criminal investigation of Massey Energy. Apparently the FBI has been talking both to Massey workers and to MSHA employees.

It does seem rather unusual for something like this to happen so soon after the disaster, although the investigation could well have begun with company activities prior to the Upper Big Branch disaster.

Here are takes on it from The Charleston Gazette, the New York Times and the LA Times.

The NPR report also suggests that the investigation also includes the possible bribery of mine safety officials, although other sources have not emphasized that angle.

I don't know where that will go, but I don't think it's unusual for people from the agency to retire and go to work for much higher pay in the industry, which may compromise the toughness of enforcement.

GOSPEL TRUTH and more (or less)

Caption: Jesus had some harsh words for goats in the gospels. Far be it from me to disagree.

El Cabrero has been slogging slowly through the New Testament gospels in Greek, thanks mostly to the English translation underneath each line. I think I'm on chapter 4 of Mark now.

I've probably spent more time reading and thinking about the gospels than all the other parts of the Bible combined. I think they're interesting both for their subject matter and for trying to figure out how they came to be written.

Scholars often view New Testament sources to be like layers of rock, with some belonging to older strata than others. Most believe that Mark was the earliest and date it to around 70, 40 years after the death of Jesus. It's the shortest and least theologically developed. It has no birth narrative and the earliest copies of it don't even include the resurrection.

Matthew and Luke, whoever they were, composed their gospels within 20 or so years of Mark and used it as a source, incorporating it pretty much whole into their own. Still, they had no qualms about making changes in the Markan version to suit their purposes. Because Matthew, Mark, and Luke are so similar, they are often called the "synoptic" gospels, which kind of means "the same eye" in Greek.

Matthew and Luke contain a lot more of Jesus' sayings than Mark, many of which appear in both. It is widely believed that they relied on a lost collection of Jesus' sayings called Q from "quelle," the German word for source. They each had unique material of their own as well.

The Fourth Gospel, commonly known as John, is totally different and probably of later origin than the others. In the earlier synoptic gospels, Jesus doesn't talk about himself and refuses to give signs. In John, that's about all he does.

Although these four were the only ones to make it into the canon of the New Testament when it was finally settled by the Church in the 4th century, there were plenty of other contenders, many of which have been lost.

Most of the gospels that didn't make it to the varsity team were cut for obvious reasons. Some were pretty loopy. But I have a special soft spot for one that didn't make it: the Gospel of Thomas, which I think at least deserves another look.

It oughta fill up a week's worth of blogging anyhow. Now, on to some sordid contemporary matters.

BAD DAY FOR MASSEY. Here's a (non) shocker from the AP this weekend:

Federal prosecutors allege that Massey Energy Co. and its subsidiaries have illegally poured pollutants into West Virginia and Kentucky waterways about 4,633 times within the past six years — roughly 69,071 days’ worth of violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act.

Actually, it kind of is a shocker that the industry-friendly Bush administration is actually doing anything about it.

MSHA TO REVIEW ITSELF. And that's not all. As Ken Ward reports in today's Gazette, MSHA is starting to take a harder look at itself and is preparing to release reviews of its own actions. To be fair, it looks like MSHA head Richard Stickler is taking mine safety very seriously. This is a welcome contrast to earlier Bush appointees.

EXTENDED DUTY. Time Magazine has an interesting item about what it really means to the people involved when military tours of duty are extended.

ETYMOLOGICAL TIDBIT: in the ancient language of Proto Indo-European, which was the parent of many languages from Europe to India, the word "daughter" originally meant "little milker," presumably of cows and goats. They probably knew a thing or two about goat ropes. El Cabrero is learning to milk goats, but his grown daughter isn't much help...

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

CALL NO ONE HAPPY UNTIL...

Caption: This kid looks pretty happy now, but it's too soon to tell.

El Cabrero just finished a second slow slog through The Histories of Herodotus, which is a long, rambling account of the conflict between ancient Greece and the Persian empire, complete with any number of random digressions.

Herodotus has been called "the father of history." The book jacket notes that he's also been called "the father of lies."

(I would suggest "the father of BS" as a reasonable compromise, but I have a feeling that BS was already pretty old by the time of the battle of Marathon.)

For my money, such as it is, one of the best parts is the story of a conversation and its aftermath between Croesus, the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia (in what is now Turkey), and the Athenian sage and statesman Solon on the perennially interesting subject of happiness.

Both of their names have since become proverbial, as in to be "rich as Croesus" or a Solon or wise lawgiver.

That story will be the thread that holds this week's Goat Rope together.

Sneak preview: Croesus, fishing for a compliment, asks Solon who is the happiest of mortals and gets a wise answer he never expected. Solon answers in effect that the wisest course is to call no one happy until he or she has died and you know the whole course of the life in question. Things change and happiness or virtue can often be mistaken for luck.

TOUGH DAYS FOR MASSEY ENERGY. Speaking of which, Massey Energy has had a run of bad luck lately. Gee, I'm really torn up about that. Please wait while I try to compose myself. OK, I'm back. Here's why:

FIRST, as mentioned last week, Massey received the biggest fine in U.S. history for its "reckless disregard" for safety at the Aracoma fire that killed two miners in Jan. 2006. The fine was $1.5 million, the maximum allowed by law.

Here's the link to the MSHA report and here's a sample from their press release:

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today announced that it has fined the operator of the Aracoma Alma Mine No. 1 in Logan County, W.Va., where two miners perished in a fire on Jan. 19, 2006, $1.5 million for contributory safety violations. The fine is the largest ever assessed by MSHA in a coal mine accident. MSHA's investigation team determined that 25 violations of mandatory health and safety laws contributed to the accident.

"The number and severity of safety violations at the mine at the time of the fire demonstrated reckless disregard for safety, warranting the highest fine MSHA has levied for a fatal coal mining accident," said Richard E. Stickler, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "MSHA has referred this case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for possible criminal charges."

Stickler added: "We at MSHA extend our thoughts and prayers to the families for their losses, and we thank them for their patience as we worked to complete our investigation. We appreciate the cooperative working relationship we have had with the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training and the West Virginia Governor's Office, as represented by Davitt McAteer."

In March 2006, MSHA referred the Aracoma case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for possible criminal charges (assuming any of them still have their jobs).


SECOND, Ken Ward reported Sunday in the Charleston Gazette-Mail that

More than a year after two miners died in a conveyor belt fire, federal inspectors continue to find serious safety violations at Massey Energy’s Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine.

In the last six months, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors have cited the Logan County operation for more than 170 violations, agency records show.

Actually, Ward also shows that mine inspectors before the fire "missed or ignored major violations that agency officials say were key factors in the deaths."

FINALLY, a March 23 decision by U.S. District Judge Robert C. "Chuck" Chambers, former speaker of the WV House of Delegates rescinded the valley fill permits of four large surface mines, all of which were, according to The State Journal, subsidiaries of Massey Energy.

Maybe if Solon were with us today, he'd urge us to call no corporation happy until we see how it all shakes out.

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