[Vision2020] What I learned (aka thinking v. self-deceipt)

[Jim Meyer]

Are you a thinking person? You know, the kind of person that is 
introspective enough to test his/her own thoughts and prejudices when 
confronted with a differing truth. Can you really THINK?

"Emory University psychologist Drew Weston has found that our brains 
have a convenient way of processing facts that challenge our political 
convictions. Using MRI scanners, Weston found that when committed 
Republicans and Democrats were confronted with negative information 
about politicians they supported, the parts of the brain responsible for 
reasoning essentially shut down--and "emotion circuits" lit up. As the 
subjects dealt with their inner conflict by discounting the new 
information, the brains "reward centers" lit up--a response similar to 
what addicts experience when they get a fix. Biases can be overcome, 
Weston tells The New York Times, but only if people are willing to 
engage in "ruthless self-reflection"--a quality , he notes, that's 
"rarely talked about in politics." Nor is it likely to be. It's so much 
more rewarding to close our minds"  The Week, Feb 3rd 2006.

What I learned recently is that two die-hard Republicans on V2020 
believe Molly Ivins is an idiot--as is anyone who would even consider 
her thoughts is an idiot, as evidenced by both their initial 
comments--"Are you kidding?" and then by their avoidance of addressing 
the questions Molly asks, and one of them even  going so far as to put 
words in her mouth she didn't say and then discounting them.

Well, here here are the facts about mine safety as I can discern them.
--Under the Bush Administration, since 2001, fines have been routinely 
dismissed or diminished--one example is $450,000 being reduced to $3000.

--Under the Bush Administration, the requirement to have two shafts, one 
for the miners ventilation and one for the coal conveyor has been 
unenforced.

--That it is considerably cheaper to pay for a dead miner than pay for 
all miner's safety. It costs $20 each for a personal pager sized device 
that can locate a miner in the mine. It is made in Australia, by the 
way. It costs about $800 for a text messaging device that can allow 
those outside the mine to communicate with trapped miners. These items 
were not in use at the Sago mine. The company owning the Sago Mine paid 
for the equivalent of pine box funeral and made Cobra insurance payments 
for, I believe 1 & 1/2 years for the family members of killed miners. 
The family members also receive $150,000 or $300,000 in life insurance 
payments. That is it. If you do the math, you can see that it is less 
costly to pay for killed miners than it is to pay for their safety.

--Although mine deaths have gone down over 30 years, it needs to be 
taken into account that the numbers of underground miners has gone done 
dramatically also, probably by more than 1/2.

--That since 2001, federal mine safety regulators emphasized getting 
along with the company--not miner safety.

--That like Katrina, some questionable people, closely related to 
industry, were in positions affecting mine safety, one of those being an 
OSHA head..

In other words, Molly Ivins asked perfectly reasonable questions and 
these were entirely dismissed by some of you on V2020. I guess your 
reward center must be just glowing.

By the way, the CSPAN website has the Senate Appropriations Mine Safety 
subcommittee hearings on it. Do what I did, listen to that and then do a 
little research on your own. And then think (without the usual emotion).

Jim Meyer