Potential Hope for Miners

Breaking news via CNN: Some sort of noise has been heard in the Utah mine where six men are trapped.

See here for more.

Your correspondent is offering prayers for their successful rescue at this point in time.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Another Mine Incident

There has been an incident claiming two lives in the coal mines of West Virginia. I am dissatisified with the fact that the owning corporation was a Virginia-based concern. Other reports indicate that there may have been some history of citation for safety violations.

That is infuriating. Allow me a variation on the usual slogan I see around railroad yards: "No profit is so important that safety should be compromised."

See the CBC for more details.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Sago Mine Accident

At this point in time, it is necessary to compartmentalize the events in Upshur County, West Virginia. Twelve men are dead, and nothing can be done to bring them back. It is likely that these men were of the Christian faith, and as such, stand an excellent chance of being reunited with their families in the indeterminate future.

I am grateful for the careers and lives of these men, because it is entirely possible that coal dug by them went to power plants which keep my lights on. This is somewhat simplistic, but I do believe that it's important to note. Like others have said, the coal miner is a forgotten man in the complex culture & economy that we have in 2006.

I await with interest the reports of the relevant Federal and State agencies.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Praise the Lord

I'm not entirely returned from Christmas hiatus, but I do want to offer public thanks to the Almighty for the preservation of the lives of 12 coal miners in West Virginia. Neither I nor anyone in my family have been employed by a coal company, but I know a fair amount of coal men and of course know a tad about it due to my interest in railroad transportation.

Any man willing to go into the bowels of the earth in search of black diamonds gets my hat tipped to him. Prayers have been answered, and thanks will be offered. I hope that the family of the deceased supervisor will be able to pull through this obviously very difficult time.

UPDATE/EDIT, 1353: It is of course known by now that initial reports of twelve survivors were wrenchingly inaccurate. Well, that's that. The families of the lost men will be in the evening prayer. I am yet grateful that one man has managed to survive.

OTHER ADDITIONAL DATA: Although it has no bearing on the current situation, it appears that the mine in question is served by CSX Transportation. I suspect, without any basis, that it is former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway trackage.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Supporting the War Economy

Buy Liberty bonds! Buy something, anything! Keep the consumer confidence index soaring, or else the terrorists will win!

Ahem.

Line item addendum to the FY2005 non-discretionary spending package:
One Bewitched - The Complete First Season (Black and White)

Expected date of expenditure: 21st June 2005

Funds allocated and earmarked. That is all.

UPDATE: Oh, crumbs. Four other season sets are out for programs that I enjoyed, and I'm going to have to sell someone's kidneys to finance them all:

-Danger Mouse
-The Lone Gunmen
-The Job
-Airwolf

Such a 1980s focus, but darn it, television was watchable back then! And I still have yet to find and buy the Buck Rogers season set. Colonel Deering'll never forgive me. JohnL, you be quiet.

UPDATE, 06 JUNE 2005: Scratch The Job off the list. Add multiple seasons of The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider. 1980s machine-centric network TV lives. The more this DVD thing runs along, the more I think that it's an example of the maxim that "God loves us and wants us to be happy".

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Supporting the War Economy

I have recently acquired one of these little gems, namely a Darth Tater. Never had a Mr. Potato Head in my life, but now I do, and it's tied into my longest-standing favorite franchise. Now, if I could scrounge up the additional funds to buy myself one of those $100 lightsabers sold at GameStop. A guy had one at the premiere yesterday, and it was nifty.

Meanwhile, I've finally fired Knights of the Old Republic II back up for a little bit. There is an eternal truth I've discovered: Killing things with Force lightning can be done for fun and profit. However, it doesn't seem to have the same effect upon my character in that game as it does on Darth Sidious. Heh heh heh.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 05:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kerry and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

As heard today on Sean Hannity's execrable radio program, Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) believes that the role of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is to be used as some sort of energy slush fund, tapped whenever the American consumer balks at fueling the sport-utility vehicle. Or at least, that's the implication I got from today's broadcast.

However, it doesn't appear that Kerry's on board with that notion, according to Hannity's own evening cable affiliate, the Fox News Channel. FNC says that, "[Democrats], like Kerry, urged increased pressure on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which cut production in March and April, to boost its output to meet demand. Others called for tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an idea Kerry has not backed."

My initial impression was to remark in a nasty tone that, "The reserve exists for the use of the DOD, not an SUV." I imagined that the SPR (and the similar Naval Petroleum Reserves) existed for, at the worst, the last-ditch use of the armed forces of the United States in a disaster scenario. An SPR/NPR establishment is a good idea, inasmuch as World War II clearly demonstrated the value of fuel in modern warfighting.¹ Of course, I'd been irked when President Clinton ordered the release of petroleum from the SPR in order to ameliorate high gasoline prices back during the 1990s.

However, it seems that the President was right, and I was wrong. A quick visit to the Department of Energy's website taught me that the SPR was designed with a strong emphasis and focus upon oil as the facilitator of the American economy, not as some super fuel dump for the DOD. While the President could probably authorize release of fuel from the SPR to the DOD for warfighting or other military-related applications, such purpose does not appear to be the primary intent of the legislation as quoted in the site.

Therefore, it seems that the notion of tapping the reserve for fuel prices is, at least facially, a viable idea and the one envisioned by the drafters of the original llegislation. At this point, I suppose that the question is one of "do we need it", not "can we do it". Even so, I am not certain that the situation calls for a tapping of the reserve.

The economic problem, as I see it, is this: A growing economy depends upon transport of goods. The transport of goods requires fuel, and that's a fixed cost whose actual number will be variable on a regular basis. (Please excuse any sort of terminology errors. I'm not an economist.) If fuel prices go up, then the price increase will be passed along to the customer in order for the manufacturer to maintain or increase earnings.² With increases in the the price of goods, people can't buy as much. As consumption of goods decreases, the economy falters and jobs are lost in order to match costs with declining revenues. Economic recovery no more, eh.

With regards to the Reserve, the President's decision to fill the reserves (salt caverns somewhere on the Gulf Coast) has been cited as a reason for the increase in fuel prices.

Thus, my problem: more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Positive News for Norfolk Southern

I pulled this off of my Sprint PCS phone last night while sitting in a boring gathering that I didn't want to be at. I'd link the article on the regular World Wide Web, but darned if I'll register with those guys for this information. What is typed below is excerpted---can't spell that today---from my little color LCD phone screen. It also dates from 24 March 2004, but that's OK.

Morgan Stanley analyst James Valentine upgraded two of the four major American railroads and downgraded the other two, ostensibly in earnings potential. However, Valentine also stated that he maintains his opinion that the North American railroad industry remains challenged as an asset-intensive, heavily unionized, semi-regulated industry.¹ His actions are taken, he said, in response to divergence in prospects for the sector. His research note stated the likelihood of seeing a "more clear divergence in each carrier's growth trajectory" in the remainder of 2004.

As a result, Valentine now considers Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC) and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNI) as "overweight", up from "equal-weight". Conversely, Union Pacific Corporation (UNP) and CSX Corporation (CSX) have been downgraded from "equal-weight" to "underweight".²

That was part of a good week for Norfolk Southern's financial picture; earlier the Bear Stearns brokerage house had raised its evaluation of NSC to "outperform" its industry peers (i.e. UNP, CSX, and BNI). Bear Stearns says that NSC is positioned for "greater earnings leverage" in 2004, whatever that means.

Inasmuch as I'm a ruthless booster of Virginia's remaining railway, this is a good thing. Greater earnings won't necessarily lead to me being hired by the Norfolk Southern as a lobbyist or anything, but it might fatten the portfolio when I get around to buying fistfuls of NSC stock.³ More money for NSC is a good thing all around, and I'm glad to hear that the folks at 3 Commercial Place in Norfolk are being rewarded for efforts in business.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to the management and labor of the Norfolk Southern Corporation. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Big Beer Is Watching You

While scanning the pages of CNN.com, I found this: 66,207,896 bottles of beer on the wall.

It seems that Anheuser-Busch (proud sponsor of the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series) has been doing its homework in order to increase its market share and understand its customer base.

What they're doing is pretty impressive: If I were to buy a six-pack of Budweiser, the BudNet (stop laughing) would know what I paid, when it was brewed (i.e. 'Born-on Dating'), and whether it was warm or cold. The article points out that Anheuser quickly knows when it loses shelf space (a key component of grocery marketing) and can react accordingly. They also keep track of their competitors in terms of display location, type, and overall number of displays.

This is all well and good and aren't we Mr. McNamara with our numbers; hooray for PERT and TQM and all that, but here's why I (or someone who was a stockholder) care: Anheuser has posted double-digit profit gains for 20 straight quarters since the inception of this effor back in 1997. CNN notes that Coors and Miller have not matched this, so if you're a stockholder of them, either sell and buy Anheuser or figure out a way to get the boards of the two other retailers to intervene and pick management that will do something like this.

As an amateur interested in marketing techniques and management, I'm impressed at the technical prowess demonstrated in creating the BudNet. Likewise, I'm quite impressed with the ability of Anheuser to actually collate the raw data into a useful statistical product. Ain't technology grand?

There's just one thing that bugs me: Today it's the only major brewer to rely heavily on data from Information Resources Inc. -- which tracks every bar-coded product swiped at checkout and performs Nielsen-style consumer surveys -- and to conduct its own monthly surveys to see what beer drinkers buy and why.

I am distinctly concerned about there being a firm which exists to keep track of everything that's bought at a store and scanned on bar code scanners. I don't know why I'm concerned, but I'm rather leery of databases like that being about. Enh. Perhaps I'm paranoid, or else the creepy lotion smell emanating from the next carrel over is affecting my thought process.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:25 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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