Coal Miners’ Slaughter

one of my first private sector jobs outside of being a merchant marine (that is after I finished art school) was for Peabody Coal Company. which is the largest coal company in the world. Massey is like the 5th largest.
it was quite an experience. my primary job while I was there was to doctor an environmental statement about a project they wanted to do.

you could literally see the sleaze running down the walls in the ritzy corporate headquarters in St Louis.

I was eventually fired for having pornographic photos I was doing as a sideline developed and printed on the company tab.

two related things:

was just reading this alarmist article

The next Obamacare target: Your bacon sandwich

Barring the success of lawsuits or huge gains by Republicans this fall, the president’s health program will be imposed in pieces over the next four years. By the end, the government will have a fiduciary interest in the waistlines and cholesterol counts of every American.

on the other hand I was just reading this the other day

Freak Show Fat

Pictured is Chauncy Morlan, who once made a living as a side show fat man. People paid money to look at him, because he was so unusually obese. A hundred years later, you can walk into any buffet restaurant and see a dozen people bigger than Morlan.

the point being a man considered a freak 100 years ago because he was so fat would now be simply another walmart shopper.
there are at least a dozen people in my company that big or bigger.
this is not a good thing. IMO.

One can only hope that Don Blankenship ends up shoveling coal for eternity to fuel the flames of the Hell that animal abusers, rapists, and child molesters go to when they die.

(I’m not religious but I believe in Dog Heaven and Abuser Hell).

@Capt Howdy:
My 11 year old self would have bought a ticket to that.

On my first trip to Fla, I did my best “slack jawed” yokel gawker impersonation at a Howard Johnson’s rest stop in Ky. We just finished dinner and I waited outside for my parents to take my little sister to the bathroom (she was stubborn.) I saw this Impala low rider show up in the parking lot. At least I thought it was.

I thought the car windows were tinted, I was wrong when it parked and the doors open.

Out steps the dad, all 270+ lb (est) of him. The mom. All 300+lb of her. The son. 200+ lb (maybe 15 and 5’6″) and finally the daughter. 200+ lb and around 12.

I think it was all you can eat fried clam day. I just remember staring with my jaw on the ground never ever seen a family that large before. I guess it was “Welcome to US America, you ignorant Canada City dumbass twerp.”

Oops.

NRA holding convention in Charlotte NC facility that bans carrying of firearms. “All individuals entering the Arena will be subject to a magnetometer security check.”

Heh.

@SanFranLefty: Hell, and the conveyances of assignment thereto, remain useful tools for atheists of all religions.

@SanFranLefty: Manslaughter against that asshole? Some sort of criminal charge? He has skirted regulations for years – there must be a way to fucking jail him … if only I remembered my criminal law.

@redmanlaw: You’d think something like that would be on the selection committee’s checklist.

Come to think of it, it probably is but a few people were paid extra to “forget” it.

@redmanlaw: I can hear the wailing, gnashing of teeth and hissy-fits from here.

The next time one of my toolbag conservative FB friends starts hating on unions, I’ll have to send them this as a retort to the “unions don’t do anything for workers” schtick.

@al2o3cr: I’m just surprised Massey Coal hasn’t imported desperately poor Mexican, Guatemalan, Chinese, and Filipinos to work in the coal mines for 50 cents an hour at jobs “no American would take.”

Mark my words – if they re-unionize these pits, you’ll be reading about the poor Messican and Chinese dudes dying in the mines in 10 years.

What, Massey didn’t order those lazy miners to get busy with their pick-axes and dig their colleagues’ graves?

Jeebus, back when I was young they really knew how to do capitalizm right.

@Capt Howdy: I’ve been wondering for a long time now whether the Peabodys of Peabody Coal Company are the Boston Brahmin Peabodys or some collateral branch thereof. Can you tell me?

@lynnlightfoot:
no idea. but it seems logical

@Capt Howdy: Thanks for replying. I did a Peabody search on Ixquick and discovered a treasure trove in Wikipedia under Boston Brahmins. It lists all the Brahmin families by surname with individual accounts for prominent members of each family. Haven’t tracked down Peabody Coal Company yet but may come across it after wandering down innumerable byways in WikiLand.

@ManchuCandidate:
excellent movie: The Triplets of Belleville.
hilarious and dead on take on americans.

Link

Link