Atten: Jefferson County tourism officials - BUY KLEENEX! July 16, 2008
The people at the old Jefferson Co. Courthouse have no idea what’s coming. The Kathy Mattea ‘Cry Me a River’ tour is coming.
This week, Mattea plans to continue her tour of coal mining history.
Oh, boy.
If you remember, her last stop was a flyover tour of some mountaintop removal sites. Remember the clips?
Mattea had to be strapped into her seat to stop her from hurling herself from the plane in anguish.
Mattea openly wept as she was provided golden nuggets of truth from someone who knew as much about mountaintop mining as my dog Domino.
Ol’ Kate was told that there was absolutely no regulation of mountaintop mining, that you could fly for five straight hours (that’s right, the flight time from New York to Los Angeles) and never see anything BUT mountaintop mining sites, and that coal miners who mistakenly caused an accident were summarily shot on site. OK no one told her the last tidbit, but you get my drift.
Can you imagine if the same Sierra Club chick takes Mattea on this tour of an old jail site where Bill Buzzard of Battle of Blair Mountain fame was held and subsequently acquitted of treason charges?
Holy smokes. Jefferson Co. officials should make a quick run to Sam’s and get a couple dozen boxes of tissues.
If Mattea sobbed like a baby when she flew over the mountaintop site, they better have EMT waiting for when she hears the story of Bill Buzzard.
I’m sure she will be told that Don Blankenship himself and a group of Massey miners broke into the jail in the middle of the night and beat ol’ Bill with whips, waterboarded him with valley fill runoff and stuck plastic bags over his head and tried to suffocate him. Non-biodegradable bags…. Purchased at Walmart to boot…
Mattea may have an aneurysm right on the spot.
Nevermind that Bill Buzzard WAS held at the jail… in 1922. Facts never got in the way of a good cry for Mattea.
So, watch out Jefferson Co., prepare the hospital…. Or maybe just let the people tell the story who actually know something about Bill Buzzard.
Or you could bring back the Sierra club who knows as much about mountaintop removal as they do Bill Buzzard.
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9 Responses to “Atten: Jefferson County tourism officials - BUY KLEENEX!”
Vic you are missing your calling. This was hysterical.
YES, Coal
Clean, Carbon Neutral
I agree with JAC. This is one of your funniest posts.
Good humor is always rooted in truth.
Why is she even going to Jefferson County? THERE IS NO COAL THERE!!!
Laura Ingraham said it best…”Shut Up and Sing”.
Another washed-up has-been trying to get some promotion to keep her career alive.
Hey Vic, How does one nominate someone for “Best Actress doing a SOB STORY” in a melodrama for daytime news crews. The sponsor would of course have to the one of the tissue companys. Please girl stick to singing or whatever but no more sobbing on daytime TV.
Hey,
Here are a few facts:
The five hour time enroute from New York to LA is in a jet at very high altitude at 500 knots. The five hour tour of mountain top removal sites is in a single engine prop at speeds around 100 knots, so five hours is about right.
There is regulation of these mines, however, the DEP does not enforce all regulations. If anyone wants specifics, I can supply them.
Out-of-state tourists have asked me why we are leveling the moutains in the mountain state.
Our country needs our coal, but it must be mined safely and responsibily. Mountain top removal is not smart nor is it responsible.
D Wright, you continue to do the double-talk of the enviro-wackos when you claim that you are for coal but against mountaintop mining. The only other alternative to surface mining is deep mining…inherently more dangerous (much more accidents) as well as a producer of black lung disease. So much for safety and responsibility. MT mining allows for the efficient extraction of coal with a high degree of safety and avoidance of occupational pneumoconiosis compared to deep mining. Your logic is similar to “supporting the troops but being against the war”.
If MT mining is banned, coal production in this state drops 50%. I want you to think of the economic and human devastation that would bring in the form of job losses, foreclosures, small business failures, the destruction of families on a scale not seen since Jay Rockefeller was governor 25 years ago. These are all local businesses…not BIG COAL, who will simply move on elsewhere where they can invest and do business and make a profit. Oh, and don’t let me forget the amount of taxes coming in to the state…which has kept us in a budget surplus the past four years…all we would have left is gambling. How liberal and kind are these results? Would you feel right in obtaining your objective with that type of collateral damage and blood on your hands? This is exactly what would happen if the enviro-kooks had their way. The coal industry in West Virginia is the economic engine of this state and represents the bridge to the future of a more diversified, high-tech economy. To shut it down is morally and ethically reprehensible and would certainly turn our state into a third-world nation. I direct you to the anti-coal sites of OVEC, CRMW as well as the blogs calling for an end to all coal mining using banning MT mining as a ruse to do so. Our national security depends on uninterrupted sources of energy. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal and to shut it down is absolute folly and would place this nation in peril. Oh, and don’t talk to me about “renewables”…particularly when environmental groups in this state have opposed every wind project in the last 10 years. The blatant hypocrisy is disgusting. Fact is, coal keeps the lights on in West Virginia and across the nation and will for the foreseeable future.
Here endeth the lesson.
rtw,
Your response to a few facts was name-calling and exaggerated claims.
Responding to this name-calling is not productive, however being called an enviro-wacko and an enviro-kook did put a warm feeling in this 63 year old man’s heart. Thanks.
Name calling? Exaggerated claims? Please specify which claims you are referring to as well as wher I specifically called you names.
Read carefully…I did not call you an enviro-wacko or an enviro-kook. However, if you are comfortable including yourself in their sorry bunch, then you likewise will have blood on your hands if the elimination of coal mining is accomplished. Hope you feel comfortable with that and can sleep well at night knowing that your work has the end goal of eliminating thousands of West Virginia jobs and the destruction of families in our beloved state.