or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 17, 2010
It's Nothing Personal
By: Aaron Datesman
When I read this In These Times article, I assumed that this part had to be an error:
Every day, 3 million pounds of explosives are used to blow the tops off ancient mountain ridges in southern West Virginia to access thin seams of coal underneath.
After checking around, now I believe the statistic. It’s a big number, of course, and everybody knows that mountaintop removal mining is a tremendous crime against the environment. Let’s use more meaningful units to place the statistic in its proper perspective.
Assuming that the explosives used are TNT (apparently dynamite is more energetic), this comes out to 1.36 ktonnes (kilotons) of explosive energy per day. This still does not provide much illumination. A comparison is better: the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima had an explosive force of 15 ktonnes.
So: we are dropping THREE. ATOM. BOMBS. ON. WEST VIRGINIA. EVERY. MONTH.
I feel that the US Congress should maybe send a registered letter to Japan next August saying, “See? Really, it wasn’t anything personal.”
— Aaron Datesman
If we invaded the West Virginian mainland, the entire West Virginian military and civilian population would fight to the death! You can see that we have to use the bombs!
Posted by: Murfyn at January 18, 2010 01:24 AMI often wonder if the American people are going to survive being this stupid.
Posted by: Susan at January 18, 2010 03:50 AMNo.
Posted by: NomadUK at January 18, 2010 04:01 AMAnd, actually, that wouldn't be so bad, except they're going to take everyone else with them.
Posted by: NomadUK at January 18, 2010 07:10 AMGiven the apparent, obdurate intransigence of the USer Congress on matters of attempting to ameliorate the impending/imminent/already-gathering global climate crisis, and the relation of that intransigence to the extent and effects of the eventual catastrophe on them aand their citizens, the rest of the world would have ample reason--as well as plenty of moral justification-- to turn on, attack, invade, and overthrow the US, if only to remove the worst roadblock to climate protection, by eliminating the USer Congress.;.;.
Posted by: woody at January 18, 2010 07:57 AMI believe they're working on the theory that there's a new, better state underneath the current one.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at January 18, 2010 01:36 PMIf we invaded the West Virginian mainland, the entire West Virginian military and civilian population would fight to the death! You can see that we have to use the bombs!
I thought the West Virginians would greet us as liberators?
Posted by: Malaclypse at January 18, 2010 03:18 PMMy West Virginia wife really hates mountaintop removal with a passion. The process is heavily mechanized, so it doesn't create many jobs, but they are relatively high-paying jobs, and virtually the only ones, so the issue divides the mining communities.
The environmental destruction is severe and permanent.
Posted by: N E at January 18, 2010 05:45 PMMy guess is they use ANFO,fertilizer and kerosene, just like Timmy McVeigh. It's the cheapest if I remember correctly.
Posted by: par4 at January 18, 2010 06:01 PMHow could we give up such discourse with nature? The scintillations reach us, here, staring under our lamps at this brilliance!
Posted by: Woodyeofalb at January 18, 2010 09:10 PM"My guess is they use ANFO,fertilizer and kerosene, just like Timmy McVeigh. It's the cheapest if I remember correctly."
- par4
ANFO and fertilizer take up too much space and bombs like that are hard to physically handle. Either they're drilling holes in key points and sticking C4 or dynamite into the holes, or they're using shaped charges specially built for the task. Either way it's as idiotic as how the USSR used atomb bombs (!) to dig canals in Siberia. Hilltop removal is just the cheap, nasty way to get at the coal in a fly by night operation, and the people living in the area will pay the cost for generations.
Posted by: mr. mike at January 20, 2010 04:47 AMMost mining opperations out west use blasting slurry, ammonia nitrate and oil, mixed at the hole for safety, and using microsecond timers in the ignition proccess for maximum effect. Cheap and effective for that bottom line.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 20, 2010 06:38 PMMike Meyer
Welcome back! You were missed..........
for your comments and I thought my "usa constitution" guru had gone awol!
ps I am presuming, you are the same Mike Meyer!
Posted by: Rupa Shah at January 20, 2010 09:29 PMAnd here is Colbert report on mountain top mining......
"Colbert Report Takes Down Big Coal: Save the Endangered Hillbilly"
here
http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/01/20
