More sadness...

The recent coal mine explosion has shed light on a recent trend.

So, it's not that I am really surprised--more like appalled--that industry insiders (think health care, agi-biz, the financial world) have repeatedly been put in government positions of "oversight". I have mistakenly thought, on occasion, that one of the downsides to living in Korea is the lack of adherence to a set of logical principles.

--from Brad Johnson:

Before yesterday’s tragic explosion, there have been three fatalities at Massey’s Upper Big Branch-South Mine in the last twelve years — one each in 1998, 2001, and 2003. Massey’scorrupt CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce board member Don Blankenship, has previously told employees that it was more important to “run coal” than follow safety regulations.In 2002, President George W. Bush “named former Massey Energy official Stanley Suboleskito the MSHA review commission that decides all legal matters under the Federal Mine Act,” and cut 170 positions from MSHA. Bush’s MSHA chief, Dick Stickler, was a former manager of Beth Energy mines, which “incurred injury rates double the national average.” On October 21, 2009, the Senate confirmed President Barack Obama’s choice to replace Stickler, Joe Main, a “career union official and mine safety expert.” Massey’s Suboleski is still an active review commissioner.