Mining is inherently dangerous, possibly one of the most dangerous jobs around.  As a mining engineer, it always hits me fairly close to home when a disaster occurs.  Maybe ventilation could have been improved, safeguards bolstered, layouts improved, etc.  All disasters really are preventable and, unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20.

Back in my college days, I wasn’t nearly as political as I am today.  In 2006, my junior year of college, the Sago mining distaster occurred.  We spent the days in class after that event poring over possible safety improvements and probable legislative impacts.  I really wasn’t aware of what the outside world felt about it.  Today is a different story.

Since becoming an active reader of conservative blogs, I’ve noticed that conservatives tend to outpour with sympathy when it’s due.  The left on the other hand, tends to be less humane, especially in the case of the deaths of prominent conservatives (Buckley, Reagen, etc.).  Even more disgusting in my view is their frequent politicizing of catastrophic events (Katrina), which is where I enter my rant on the left and this recent coal disaster.

Over at the Daily Kos, a boldened front page spread by diarist Meteor Blades reads Want a Safer Mine?  Unionize Them.  (I’d link to it, but I really stink at HTML)

Seriously, just the title bothers me.  The bodies aren’t even out of the ground, the missing aren’t even accounted for, and your pushing your little agenda.  Disgusting.  As Girard Butler says in the awful movie Gamer, “These are real people, *******.”  Next he moves on to his statistics.

A report from the March 28, 2007, hearing on Protecting the Health and Safety of America’s Mine Workers released by the House Committee on Education and Labor contains the following statistics for the five-year period of 2002-2006:

Underground coal injuries: 19,282

In union mines: 5,362 (or 27.8% of total)

Underground coal fatalities: 109

In union mines: 22 (or 20.2%)

According to the United Mine Workers of America, in 2007-2009, there were 45 underground coal-mining fatalities. Six of these were in union mines. Thus, for the 15-year period, less than one-fifth of the fatalities occurred in union mines.

Most of those numbers are relevant.  I hold the UMW numbers suspect, mainly because he doesn’t link to a source and not all mines are represented by the UMW.  I’ll come back to these statistics in a minute.  After citing what is no doubt a lefty professor, Meteor Blade then states proudly that:

In fact, union mines may have a higher number of citations for safety violations than non-union mines. That is because union inspectors accompany Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors when they check out a mine.

More citations doesn’t necessarily make mines safer.  Again, I’ll return to this momentarily.

Five years ago, companies contested only 6 percent of citations and fines. Last year, they contested 27 percent. [...] The biggest fines were imposed in January for the company’s failure to develop and follow a proper ventilation system. Although it is early days yet, the lack of such a system may be what caused the explosion that killed the miners there.

You know what happened between 5 years ago and last year?  Sago.  After Sago, the government went on an orgy of legislation, some good, some bad.  Air standards were a sore spot in particular, requiring an impossible standard of clean air, even in abandoned areas of mines (many mines are so gassy that such standards are impossible).  Another awesome provision that came out of Sago was requiring each mine to have an emergency wireless communication system between the face and the surface, which is technology that doesn’t exist yet.

By the way, did you know that the Sago mine disaster was brought about by a lightning strike.  Seriously, google it.  One of my professors testified before Congress to this fact.  It says something that one of the few large disasters of the decade is an act of God.  Anyway, moving on:

For workers in non-union mines like Upper Big Branch, Sago, Aracoma and Crandall Canyon, to name just a few where miners have died in the past decade, workers are afraid to speak up on safety issues. That’s for a very good reason. Anyone who talks too much about them not only gets fired, they also can be blackballed by the whole industry.

Most companies hold a high standard for safety.  The consequences of not being as safe as possible are simply too great for companies to ignore.  In my chosen profession, oilfield services, we are reprimanded if we don’t take note of safety hazards and report them to our superiors.  Further, every employee has the right to stop work if necessary, and receives the full support of the company.  If it’s true in the oilfield, I’m sure that it’s true for my mining brethren.  The argument that workers are blacklisted for standing up for safety is at least 20 years past it’s prime.  Meteor Blade conveniently forgets to cite any sources for this cheesy narrative.  Next comes my favorite, an update that self implodes Meteor Blades ridiculous article.

[Update]: As noted by several commenters, the statistics do not include union vs. non-union underground mines: The number of underground union miners, according to the Energy Information Administration, is around 27%.

Wow.  So according to the more reliable House Committee numbers, your unionized mines represent a slightly more disproportionate share of injuries, and a negligibly lower share of fatalities.  Congrats, Meteor Blade, you’ve debunked your entire article.  If union mines are negligibly safer, yet push far more MSHA violations on their host companies, doesn’t that cost jobs and profits and salaries?  I thought the libs were for the working man?  So, this Kos diarist succeeds in both being a total jerkface for capitalizing on the deaths to push a (now irrelevant) agenda AND a moron for destroying the basis of his entire article.  Disgusting.

Mining jobs and oilfield jobs are both hazardous occupations.  There will always be a chance that the worst will happen and we workers face that everyday we go down in a mine or out to a location.  That these wussy liberals feel some need to capitalize on our loss astounds me.  That they try to use our memories to push their anti-corporate, environmental, hippie feel-good whatever nauseates me.  I for one join the rest of the RedState army in saying rest in peace, brave miners.  The world is better for having had you.  I ask my fellow RedStaters to pray for the miners and their families.

I had heard from a source that income taxes are going to be killer this year, with most people getting less or even owing money on their taxes this year (I’ll explain in a moment).  Normally I look forward to tax season as I generally get a nice fat check back from the government which I generally use to purchase a firearm.  Background on me: single with no house and I withold about $50 extra every pay period for taxes.

Anyhow I do my taxes on Turbo Tax and it says I owe $667 on taxes.  Damn.  Just . . . damn.  I was laid off for two months and found work at a (believe it or not) higher salary.  But still, holy cow.

The political slant here is that I’m told Obama’s craptastic stimulus that ‘gave’ you $20-$40 more per paycheck wasn’t actually a tax break, it was a manipulation of your withholding that would come back to bite you right about, say, now.  Anyway, I was wondering if any of you were having this problem?  None of my friends or family have filed yet.  I’ve never owed on my taxes before.

Howdy, folks!  This is my first diary here on RedState, I hope you like it.

Moe Lane this morning posted a belief that Obama is getting bored as shown through his record in office and through his statements.  I agree that this might be the case, but I wish to offer up another possible explanation.  I think that the malignantly awful public school system here in the United States is responsible for the thin-skinned man-child that we have in the White House.

As a 24 year old man, I think it’s safe to say that the quality of schooling before I was born was in a steady decline.  Since I was born, the pace seems to have accelerated.  Schools no longer have the capacity to tell children and teenagers that they are failures.  Indeed, some schools, I’ve heard, don’t even give out F’s anymore.  And that’s a big part of the problem.  School’s are one of the only places, if not the only place, where people can learn the lessons that come with failure.  Failure teaches you how to endure and remain steadfast; it teaches you persistence, endurance, and patience.  Instead of doing this, schools only kick children further down the line, hoping that some system or some talented (read: real) educator can really challenge us to the point that we learn something about this thing called failure.  I fear that many of my generation, if not myself, are incapable with dealing with failure.  This will inevitably lead to some hard lessons learned once we hit the real world (I already have and the impact was awful).

Obama seems to be a product of this terrible educational method.  How would you imagine an adult would react to failure when he has have never tasted failure before?  He would play the blame game.  He would point to his situation and remark upon how unfair it is.  He would direct attention to the forces of opposition and call them ignorant obstructionists.  He would sweep away embarrassing facts and figures that don’t support his platform.  He would lie.  All the while, he would never indicate his own culpability for failure.  To do so, he might have to rethink his own positions, compromise, come at them from different angles.  He’d have to maybe even look at things from other perspectives and apply critical thinking to his ideas and approaches.  This describes who Obama is.  It was painfully put on display in his SOTU speech.  Before the nation was an 8 year old all grown up who was frustrated, thin skinned, paranoid, and divisive.  It was on display when he taunted the Justices of our highest court and when he ribbed Republicans for opposition while calling for bipartisanship.

His ‘metoric’ rise, as Mr. Lane correctly calls it, is also the product of failed education policies.  Schools teach that anyone can achieve anything.  To not do so would lead to hurt feelings.  Holding someone back or telling them that it’s impossible is a big liberal no-no.  So Obama gets elected to state senator.  Vote present?  Gold Star!  Obama gets elected to the US Senate.  Campaign for higher office and hardly vote?  Good Job!  Elected POTUS and things aren’t going your way?  Oh, well . . . it’s not your fault.

I fear that as time progresses, inevitably, more people from my generation will be elected to office.  Obama is the first representative of my generation to get arrive.  I pray we can survive when more of my counterparts get there.