Turn Off Your Fucking Lights!

The whole Sago Mine tragedy really gets my goat. In a few ways, really. First of all, the media should leave these folks alone. It's been four days now & I'll admit, I can't get enough of the story, but if there is no more coverage of it, then my addiction must end. Instead, I sit on the couch & flip from one channel to the next whenever the story changes from Sago to Ariel Sharon's stroke or Alito's ABA butt-kissing.

The other thing about constantly interviewing a miner's brother-in-law's second cousin (or some other such relation): these flashy reporters know that these folk are not the most well-spoken folk around. And the complete lack of subject-verb agreement that goes along with their dialect is underlined as they pour their hearts out on national network news. Simply put, they end up sounding quite uneducated. Do not misunderstand me; I do not think that they are dumb. I think that they are rural. I am familiar with rural. I like rural. But, I am afraid that the rest of the country might think that they are bumpkins.

Secondly, in my position at the Enviro Law Clinic this summer, I helped out on a longwall mining permit appeal-type thing. Of course, we dealt with the PA DEP...and the DEP has a special office in "Coal Center, PA." Actually, it's close to California, PA, where my mom went to Cal U (aka "Harvard on the Mon"). Reviewing the safety records of a certain mine that was to be expanded (and not mentioning my most hated coal company in the country, which coincidentally has its headquarters in the township in which I graduated from high school), I realized that having hundreds & even thousands of DEP safety violations does not prevent a company from receiving permission from the Commonwealth to expand mining operations. And make millions of dollars.

No matter that this type of mining fucks everything up: subsidence causes homes to crumble & crack, streams disappear underground, loss of habitat for wildlife & aquatic organisms, acid mine drainage turns waterways neon orange, millions of tons of waste coal are piled on the surface, which in turn causes more AMD, noise from drilling, heavy vehicle traffic, etc.

So, what I'm saying is, not only do these folk place their lives in danger by mining coal, their lives are adversely impacted by all of the secondary effects of mining. It truly sucks. And the DEP is rather (in my humble opinion) lenient about issuing permits for mining. Jesus.
The WV version of the DEP can't be much different, as WV leads the nation in coal production. Fuck. At least the Sago mine was block-and-pillar mining.

Next on the list: Tuesday evening, I was watching one of the many press conferences held by ICG's President, Ben Hatfield, as he described progress on the rescue mission. And after about five minutes of rather somber news, a cell phone went off. Really, really loudly.

At first, I just thought that the cell phone was ringing on one channel. But, as I flipped around, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, CNN Headline, WPXI, KDKA, etc...the ring continued to blare over the speech. What ring was it you ask? What ring could be more inappropriate at this particular moment? Ahem, the theme from G-D Sex in the City. God, it was so fucking loud. And the reporter who owned it did not even try to shut it off! A-mah-zing!

Inappropriado.

More on Sago: Last night I was watching my hero, Nancy Grace, take on the mining story. She did it with class, as usual. Then, she brought up the Quecreek Mine rescue from the summer of 2002 and its legal fallout. She called upon the miners' lawyer to answer a few quick questions about similarities & differences between the two incidents. It took me about 20 seconds to recoginize this man. I picked up the Pittsbughese immediately, but had to rack my brain to figure out how I knew him.

It was Howard Messer, my Trial Ad professor from last Spring! On Nancy Grace! Fuck yeah!
I felt so close to Nancy at that moment...

Onto something a little less tragic: The Stees! Wildcard weekend. I hope to be nuzzled on my couch & ready to watch four, yes, four complete playoff games this weekend. I love playoff football! It is so nerve-wracking to watch, though. The Stees v. Bungles. 4:30pm Sunday, January 8th, 2006. Do not miss it. We are ready for some serious payback. The Bungles always sucked. Since they won our division, they think they're hot shit. Rude awakening, here you come!

Lastly, I had a great time Tuesday night at a new Soufside bar, The Locker Room. This bar has gained popularity due to Hines Ward's bartending and general presence. He was not there on Tuesday, though. Nonetheless, Stanley & I (Penn Staters, both), enjoyed the five-hour, FSU-tromping, Penn State victory at the Orange Bowl there. One drawback was that our cute little blonde bartender went to FSU & I kept yelling out "Florida State Criminals!", which she did not appreciate. But, aside from one Pitt fan who rooted for FSU, the bar was packed with Staters. Cheers of "We are" - "Penn State" rang out lahd & prahd. It was a blast. Then, I got home & realized that I pulled a muscle in my back from giving too many drunken & ecstatic high-fives. Oh well, at least I didn't bust my ACL.

Go Steelers!!