Coal keeps WV poor

This weekend, West Virginia University played Marshall in the first annual "Friends of Coal" Bowl in Morgantown. WVU predictibly whooped Marshall, but for me, the game was marred by the near-constant pro-coal industry sales pitch by the announcers, commercials, and "special guests" in the booth. Former Marshall coach Bob Pruett and former WVU coach Don Nehlen, both on the pro-industry lobby group's payroll as spokespeople, told about all the glories of the coal industry and the massive force of good it is for our humble state.

Let me say that my family have been heavily involved in coal mining going back several generations. Coal miners are not the problem. In fact, my grandfathers on both sides and my great-grandfather on my dad's side were all miners. My dad was a federal mine inspector for 35+ years. My dad and mom do not share my views on mining, and point out, rightly, that money from mining and, in my case, inspecting mines, put me through college and gave us a nice place to live. This is true.

Several thousand people in WV make a damn good living by being coal miners, with salaries averaging around $65,000, well above the norm in the state. The "Friends of Coal" group makes much hay about how many jobs in WV mining produces. They act as if the whole state would collapse should mining go away, or god forbid, be regulated and properly taxed. But just how many miners are actually working in WV?

16,455 miners. That's it. That means that coal mining employs 0.9% of the state's population. (My numbers come from the 2002 Census, if you're wondering.)

Do you know what Don Blankenship, CEO of WV's biggest coal company, Massey Energy, made in 2003? $6,105,714 (according to salary.com). That's per year.

McDowell county, which has produced more coal than any other county in the state, has a per capita income of $17,622 (as of 2005). That means it would take the average citizen of McDowell county 347 years to make what Dandy Don makes in a single year. In fact, Don makes in a single day about what our average Joe in Welch takes a whole year to earn. If he has a job, that is. The unemployment rate in McDowell county is 8.6%. Ouch. Seen in that light, coal doesn't look so good for McDowell county, after all.

Coal (and more recently, timber) have made up the lion's share of West Virginia's industrial base since the state broke away from VA during the Civil War. Through all those years, coal has been the engine that drove West Virginia's economy. It's given thousands upon thousands of workers jobs throughout those years (and it gave a lot of them black lung, too, but we'll ignore that for now). I won't dispute that. So what has been the end result of all those great years of mining? Surely, such a fantastic industry would have turned West Virginia into one of the richest, most progressive places in the nation, right? Wrong.

After 150 years of coal mining, WV is

50th in Median Income: $24,880
Number 8 in amount of persons below poverty level: 16.7%
3rd in unemployment: 7.5%
50th in persons 25 or older with a bachelor's degree: 15.3%
40th in teacher's salaries: $38,461
5th in infant mortality: 9.1/1000 births

No matter how you slice it, that sucks. My point is that for all the snowjobs put forth by ex-football coaches and bass pros, the hard facts are that WV has never done all that well under the coal regime, even in the best of times--the '50s--when coal companies still actually employed people to mine coal instead of giant mechanical draglines.

And speaking of giant, mechanical draglines, those monstrosities gouge out huge chunks of the Appalachian skyline day after day, enriching guys like Blankenship and other out-of-state corporations (Massey, for example, is located in Richmond, VA--well away from the horrors it inflicts on our mountainsides.)

On Saturday, FOC spokesman Nehlen said to the announcer "Some people don't like us because we sometimes make a little bit of a mess." Count me as some people Don. WV is a great place. I just hope that the people living there wake up to the fact that "coal = jobs" is a myth before it's too late and they are living on a landscape that looks more like the moon than the lush paradise they grew up with.

Japanese TV is truly weird...and hilarious!

This is apparently an instructional video for young women on vacation to the U.S. who are expecting to be robbed by a dude with a bandana tied upside down on his bald head. The looks on the dancers' faces don't quite seem to match the phrases they chant... "spare me my life...spare me my life..."

Very bizarre.

Almost like a sick joke on all of us

According to this article in today's Washington Post, a plane from Britain to Dulles was diverted to Logan Intl. in Boston due to a claustrophobic woman going a tad nutso in the cabin.

According to the story (bold added by me for emphasis), "Her behavior was reported to the pilot, who diverted the plane to Boston. The woman did not have a screwdriver, the officials said, but she did have matches of a type that are allowed on flights. She also had hand cream, which should not have made it through security at Heathrow under the new rules formulated last week."

Come again? Certainly it did not just say that you could bring FREAKING MATCHES onto a plane, but hand cream was verboten?

Certainly the Post made an error here, right? Nope. According to the Transportation Security Administration Web site, "You may not bring matches in your checked baggage because of safety regulations. You may, however, bring up to four books of safety (non-strike anywhere) matches in your carry-on baggage or on your person. For safety reasons, you may not bring “strike anywhere” matches at all."

Oh, and incidentally, my swiss army knife with a 2 1/2" blade? Not allowed. Metal, sharp-pointed scissors with a 4" blade? Allowed. Does this make sense to anyone???

This just goes to show how much of a farce this whole airline security show really is. Unreal.

The terrorists have already won

Some would argue that we scored a major victory in the battle against terrorism yesterday when British authorities arrested a score of home-grown religious wackos bend on blowing up airplanes. And in the short term, we did. Undoubtedly, lives have been saved by good police work and diplomatic work between UK and Pakistani government intelligence agencies. My kudos go out to all officers involved in breaking up this admittedly nefarious plot.

Still, I can't help shaking my head at the reaction to this somber news. Instead of taking a logical, methodical approach to this new threat (which isn't really new, btw, it's been done by al Queda before), we, in typical fashion for the Bush regime, throw the baby out with the bathwater and ban all liquids, pastes, gels (even Speed Stick-type deodorants), and electronics from flights. Passengers are made to dump all of these potentially dangerous items into common trash receptacles at airport security posts. Soon, presumably, we will all be forced to fly naked.

Meanwhile, the terrorists have gotten what they wanted all along. The object of terrorism is, logically, to instill terror in a population. You would be hard-pressed to show that this objective has not been achieved here in the U.S. We are a nation engulfed in irrational fear, which is propagated at all turns by the media and, especially, our own government. The latter, in despicable fashion, uses it to further their own political gains, The former uses it to sell papers, laundry detergent, and cars.

You have a MUCH higher likelihood of being killed in a car wreck on your way home tonight than of being killed in a terror attack. In fact the likelihood is so small as to be almost nonexistent. So people, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, QUIT BEING SO AFRAID!

Vacationing in West Virginia

Sorry for not posting in a while, we were away for a few days on vacation in WV, and I'm still catching up on work and stuff.

Like I said, we took 5 days to go have some well-deserved r and r down on the Greenbrier River with my folks. The weather cooperated nicely and fun was had by all, especially Sylvia, who was the happy recipient of a new, under-porch swing from Grandma and Granpa (see photo).

I fished a lot, and caught more bass in three days than I've caught in three years. It was amazing! A fish per cast, basically.

I was sad to have to come home and go back to work.

12 Galaxies Protestor

If you've ever been to downtown San Francisco, you might have noticed a Chinese-American man in sunglasses and a suit ambling down the sidewalk with a protest sign reading "Impeach Clinton 12 Galaxies Conspiracy Mind Altering" or some other seemingly random statement.

An Internet filmmaker, James Dirschberger, has produced an excellent 15 minute documentary about the protester, whose name is Frank Chu, that includes a lunchtime interview in which Frank explains the sign and his reason for protesting.

Frank lives across the Bay in Oakland and makes his way into The City each day to walk up and down Market Street, trying to inform the world of his plight. He believes that the Clinton administration, in league with the CIA and the mysterious "12 Galaxies," used hi-tech invisible cameras to make a movie about him and his family that was subsequently aired in the 12 Galaxies, generating considerable income. Frank's daily protests aim to get his fair share of those movie profits: $12 billion or so.

While we may be tempted to laugh at Frank and his crazy theories, there is an underlying sadness to the film. It's obvious that Frank needs psychiatric help, but his paranoia and fears of government control keep him from taking his medication.

Good luck Frank, I hope you get satisfaction someday.

Senator Andrew Moore, aka Grandpa

I'm in the midst of reading Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick (very gripping, btw), and it's gotten me interested in my own colonial family history.

Many of us have colonial ancestory stories, to be sure, although most are not historically proven. One of forebearers that is pretty well documented is my great-great-great-great-grandfather, General Andrew Moore (1752 - 1821). He was my maternal grandmother's grandfather's grandfather, and was one of the first House reps for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He went on to serve as a U.S. Senator from Virginia between 1799-1804 (though not concurrently), and finally served as the U.S. marshall for Virginia until his death in 1821.

He was a captain in the American Revolution, and served alongside George Washington, who subsequently granted Moore a bunch of land in southwestern Virginia (and what later became West Virginia). Unfortunately, that land is not mine now. Not that I'm bitter. Grrr....

Anywho, as a young man he went on an expedition to the West Indies and was shipwrecked. He and his companions survived on a diet of lizard until their rescue. (This is documented in some history books, and really, could I make something that bizarre up?)

His gravestone, in Lexington, Virginia, reads: "A soldier of the Revolution. A member of the first U. S. Congress. The first senator west of the Blue Ridge. A member of the convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States, and a marshall of Virginia for twenty years."

You can check out his Congressional biography here.

Pretty cool stuff. Do you have any famous (or infamous) relatives?

Blech news/good weekend

Well it looks like the world is seriously going to hell in a handbasket these days. There seems to be no end to the ways that people can find to kill other people, mostly in the name of religion. Bah.

Well, in spite of the depressing news from the Middle East, we had a great, if warm, weekend. Sylvie, Jenny, and I putzed around the house most of the time trying to stay cool, and we also made a trip to the pool yesterday for some much-deserved cooling off.

My band let go of our singer, so we're back to being a trio. I'm singing most of the songs, and the drummer, Stuart, is picking up a couple, Phil Collins style. Honestly, I think we'll be able to move much faster now. I've joked with the guys that our first CD has to be called "Glacial Speed." That or we change the name of the band from My Life On Hold to My Band On Hold. :-)

What the hell? Zidane loses his mind.

Whoa. I DID NOT see that one coming. I don't think anyone did. Honestly, I was actually holding my nose and rooting for France in the final (the lesser of two evils, I guess, and I didn't want another Euro team to have more than three Cup titles). I thought the game was well played with substantially less Italiodiving than previous matches, and Zidane looked particularly good for the French side.

The French were starting to really take control of the game and the Italians were looking like they were dreading another disasterous PK scenario. Then, out of nowhere, Zidane BLASTS Materazzi with the most vicious head butt I've ever seen. He literally took the unawares defender off his feet, and Materazzi didn't look to be faking the ensuing pain. Look at it this way: Zidane makes his living using his head to strike a soccer ball at speeds approaching 30mph. That is some serious force, and when that type of force is applied directly to someone's sternum, that has got to hurt.

Of course France went on to blow the game on Trez's botched PK and the rest is history. I'm still dying to know what was said that could make such an experienced, normally calm player fly so completely off the handle in the middle of the biggest game of his career. It's gotta be better than "yo mamma wears combat boots," certainly. (Early press reports were along the lines of "your sister is a whore.") Time, and one hopes, Zidane, will tell.

Birthday Girl + Cake

I have finally uploaded some birthday photos...more to come via email later!
Sylvia also had her first bday doc appt this past week...she did great!
She's a petite chick in terms of height, which is no suprise considering how TALL Joe and I are! She weighs 24 pounds, 9 ounces.

She now HAS to eat food herself at the beginning of every meal. So I chop up bananas, cooked broccoli, cheese, O's etc. and give her those first and then she'll have some pureed food...She's also transitioning from formula to whole milk.
We're introducing new foods every three days. So this week will be tomatoes, wheat,garlic, olive oil...Hoping she can have some pasta with us soon.

We think she's on the verge of walking as she loves to stand and let go and she's able to go between Joe and I, taking a mini-step or too. Mostly though she loves to stand at the toy bin (aka a Sterilite plastic box) and yank and throw all the toys out of it, then crawl at a rapid pace around the room then chuck the soccer ball at Joe, then bang on the gate, then stand and bang on the door and then try to climb on the couch and get the remote and then try to pull all the kleenex out of the box, then try to bang the TV, then try to drop her mini piano on her own toes, then "read"
and then play with her mega legos, then dance when jazz music comes on...and point at her belly button whenever you start a sentence with "where is your..." - everything is the belly button and then do down dog and laugh, then grab mamas face and then bite mama's nose, zerbert mamas shoulder, hug and kiss dadas fuzzy head....
PHEW. This is all in 15 min. HAHA!
Can I go to bed now?

More birthday stuff

I had grand visions of the birthday cake that I was going to bake and decorate for Sylvia. Well, the planning ideas vs. the reality of the party were very different.
So, my mom (who had flown in from California w. my dad), baked the cake, made the frosting and helped me decorate it.

I now understand the power of delegation!

Here's a photo of the cake and my attempt of a volcano:

Sylvie's birthday/4th of July recap

Well, we had a fantastic party for Sylvie's 1st birthday on Saturday. Both sets of grandparents came in, and we had about 25 guests to help us celebrate. I simply cannot believe it's already been a year since Sylvia came into our lives. She has grown into such a wonderful, friendly, super fun kid, and I'm the proudest daddy out there, let me tell you!

My folks hung around for the 4th, and we cooked out, watched the Italy/Germany game, and had a great time together. It was hard to go back to work today, that's for sure!

Ahhh Painkillers...

It's 11p EDT, July 2, 2006.

One year ago today, at this exact time, I received my epidural.

Epidural: it's a good thing.

After an emergency C-section, Sylvia was born at 355a, July 3, 2005.
Where has this past year gone?

Today has been a teary and sentimental day for me.

Happy Almost Birthday to my sweet girl.
I love you,
Mama

A casa como siempre ¡Coño!

Well, both my teams are now officially out of the World Cup. The U.S. I kind of figured would bow out early, but the Spaniards, well, I had high hopes this time. They always choke in the WC, though, so my hopes weren't all that high.

The worst part of it is that we got served by the Frogs. That really hurts. Here are my picks for the rest of the tourney:

England 2 - Portugal 1 The Portuguese are such whiney biotches. I hope the Engerlanders can destroy them.

Brazil 3 - France 2 The Frogs will put up a good fight on this one, but the Brazilians keep doing just enough to win, which is what they'll do here, too.

Germany 3 - Argentina 1 This is going to be the surprise of the tournament. Germany looks damn good. So do Argentina, but they'll be overconfident. Don't underestimate the home field advantage, either.

Italy 2 - Ukraine 0 An easy win for the pasta-eaters.

Then for the semis:

Germany 2 - Italy 2 (Germany on PKs)

Brazil 2 - England 0

FINAL
Brazil 3 - Germany 1

If you're betting on the Cup, bet against all the picks above. I suck at this.

Water water everywhere

Quite a storm this has been.
Sunday we lost power for over 6 hours in the middle of a very muggy day.
We've had lots of road closures, flooding and mudslides in the area:
See map --
We've been OK (knock wood) but we are constantly checking the basement for water and Joe's been outside pushing water off the tent a million times...
Another set of storms is supposed to hit this afternoon.
UGH.
Sylvia and I will go run to the library today after her nap and before her lunch, in order to get a second of fresh air and get out of the house!!!!
We spend most afternoons with Sylvia napping or playing with her toys.
I am going a bit stir crazy.

Zinfandel tasting party

In May (yes I am a bit behind in the blogging) we had a Zinfandel tasting party.
Our friends, Bill and Kim, Michele and Beck and his parents came by.
The winner was by Rancho Zabago and the second place wine was by Gnarly Head.
I discovered that I actually like Zin. Never knew it.
I think our next party will either be for Pino Grigio or Rioja.

U.S. Blood and Guts!

For the last week and a half, I have been all-soccer, all the time. The World Cup is in full swing, and for the Italian team that means swinging elbows, as U.S. forward Brian McBride's face can attest.

After the first U.S. game vs. the Czech Republic, where our boys were shellac'ed 3-0 and looked to be on the way to an early exit, most everybody predicted that the Italians (who, let's face it, are pretty damn good at soccer) would crush us like Chianti grapes. Italian midfielder and resident pretty boy Totti was quoted as saying he was too busy getting his hair done to watch the U. S. Czech game. Well, since he was totally ineffectual and got subbed around minute 30, maybe next time he'll watch.

I've never seen the U.S. team show so much grit and determination, and the 1-1 tie with the pasta eaters leaves us in good shape to advance to the round of 16. If we can beat Ghana (we should) and Italy can beat the Czechs (they should) on Thursday, we're golden.

It hurts me to say it, but Go Italy!

Happy Satan Day!

June 6, '06, otherwise known as 6.6.6.

Suggested listening:
AC/DC: Highway to Hell
AC/DC: Hell's Bells
AC/DC: Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
AC/DC: C.O.D. (Care of the Devil)
Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast
Slayer: Anything they've ever put out

D.C. not as big a terror target as South Dakota

According the new grant budget put out by the Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C. is in the lowest 25% of "states" in a likely-to-be-attacked ranking that was the basis of how much security grant money each area receive this year. Who's at more risk of being attacked (and getting more money to prevent it), according to the DHS? Witness the insanity:

West Virginia $7.5 million homeland security grant (Okay, everyone knows I love W.V. best of all, but c'mon. The terrorists aren't coming for the strip mines, people.)

Idaho $6.7 million (The terrorists hate taters!)

Oregon $4.7 million (They will try to cripple our pot-growing abilities.)

Montana $4.5 million (We must kill all them cowboys, Abdul!)

Utah $4.5 million (Attack the holy-underwear wearing infidels!)

Rhode Island: $4.5 million (Do they even get "Providence" re-runs in Pakistan?)

Wyoming: $4.4 million (I guess Buffalo are a bigger symbol of America than the Washington Monument.)

South Dakota: $4.4 million (Okay, there aren't even a majority of U.S. Citizens that could pick out S.D. on a map, but Al Queda can? Riiiight.)

Puerto Rico: $4.3 million (Uh, is this a joke?)

D.C.: $4.3 million homeland security grant

Also on the list for increased funding: Kansas City, MO and St. Louis, MO; Louisville, KY; Omaha, NE (Yes, folks, Nebraska, #1 on Al Queda target lists worldwide, I'm sure); five cities in Jeb Bush's Florida (Actually, Orlando is one of them and I agree that Disney would be a legitimate target. But Ft. Lauderdale? Sorry Muslim extremists, not even close to 100 virgins at Spring Break.)

But that's not all! New York City is also on the not-likely-to-get-the-shit-bombed-out-of-it list.

NEW YORK CITY? D.C.? WTF?! These are the only two places in the nation THAT GOT ATTACKED!!!!!

What a colossal waste of taxpayers' money. Someone please wake me from this Orwellian nightmare.

Gardening Vigilantes!

These are our neighbors from down the street, Mr. & Mrs. S.
They are the traveling gardening vigilantes!

They cruise around in their SUV fixing up gardens that look shabby in our neighborhood.
I see Mrs. S often as she walks alot. She is always complimentary of our yard, which is sweet. She also always comments on our neighbor's yard as it's very overgrown. She mentioned to me one day that she was going to come by and fix up his yard. I thought, "no way." Today was the day I was proven wrong.

I was sitting feeding Sylvia and I heard a weed-whacker and thought, "how odd, my neighbor B. is never home at 2p what's going on?" Of course being the nosy mama that I am, Sylvia and I went to investigate and lo and behold, it was not B. but Mr. and Mrs. S!

She: sporting a fine looking, 1980's-era terrycloth headband, shorty shorts and a tank top, was hand-clipping the edges of B.'s grass near the stairs. I KID YOU NOT.

He: dressed in all white from head to toe (he must have recently attended P.Diddy's White Party in the Hamptons), in his fabu kneesocks, was weed-whacking at an amazing pace.

Please note: it was 90 degrees today and that's not counting the mega humidity!

Mr. and Mrs. S, you ROCK.