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Jun 2011 16

by Keith Daniels

“The Religious Right will continue to wage this war against women until we as secularists stand up with the feminists and say, ‘No more.’”
– Rebecca Watson

I first heard of Rebecca Watson in her role as the lone female host on The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast, on which she appears as one of a quartet of co-hosts led by Dr. Steven Novella, but she first gained notice within the skeptic community because of her work with the collaborative blog she founded, Skepchick.org.

Skepchick advocates for the interrelationship between critical thinking, science, secularism, and feminism. One of the most passionate, articulate, and fearless secularists in the public eye, Rebecca divides her time between Skepchick, the SGU podcast, and frequent speaking engagements at atheist and skeptic-oriented conferences and conventions. In 2009 Skepchick started its own convention, SkepchickCon, which occurs annually as part of the larger CONvergence at the end of June in Minneapolis.

We spoke recently about Skepchick, the Religious Right’s war against women in the United States, and the difficulties women face even within the secular community.

Read our exclusive interview with Rebecca Watson on SuicideGirls.com.

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Jun 2011 15

by Nicole Powers

“It’s not democracy anymore.”
– Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

On the surface, The Last Mountain is a documentary about the dirty business of coal, the highly destructive and toxic practice of mountaintop removal mining, and one community’s fight to preserve their homes, their livelihoods, their health, and the last great mountain in the region. However, the story of Coal River Mountain in West Virginia is allegorical of much that is wrong with America, which is why during our roundtable conversation with the film’s champion, renowned environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., he barely mentions the four-letter word that is coal. Instead, Kennedy focuses on the underlying history and climate that has allowed corporations to rape and pillage our environment, and poison and kill our citizenry with impunity.

In The Last Mountain, Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy (he retired at the end of December 2010), is typecast in the role of modern day robber baron. As the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, his company is only able to function on the scale it does by subjugating democracy. Mountaintop removal mining is cheaper and less labor intensive than traditional underground coal extraction methods, but it causes such an affront to the landscape, water and air, that it can only be done when the authorities charged with protecting the public interest are willing and able to look the other way.

Between 2000 and 2006 Massey chalked up a staggering 60,000 EPA infractions, but has suffered little in consequences beyond much belated and pitifully low fines that serve the government’s need to be seen to be doing something while maintaining the status quo. Of course, Massey is not the only corporation and coal is far from the only industry that is using and abusing our severely compromised shell of a democracy. In light of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling allowing corporate campaign donations (and a subsequent one that makes direct-to-candidate payments permissible), our government couldn’t be for more up for sale if it were posted on eBay.

Though there will inevitably be dark days ahead for our democracy, it’s not all doom and gloom thanks to a groundswell of grassroots activism as witnessed in Coal River Valley and documented in The Last Mountain. As for the environment, Kennedy points out towards the end of this interview that there’s an (LED) light at the end of the tunnel, and ironically it’s capitalism in its cleanest and purest form that may end up saving the day.

Read our interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on SuicideGirls.com.

The Last Mountain opens in Los Angeles* on Wednesday, June 15, and in Irvine, Pasadena, Philadelphia, San Francisco*, and Berkeley on Friday, June 17.

*Bill Haney and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear in person at the Landmark opening night screenings in Los Angeles and San Francisco – visit the Landmark website for more details.

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Jun 2011 13

by Nicole Powers

“I think that the tide against mountaintop mining’s free ride is turning.”
– Bill Haney

There’s nothing pretty about coal mining at the best of times, but mountaintop removal mining is downright obscene. The process is ugly in every sense of the word, but is less labor intensive, and therefore cheaper and more desirable for the big energy corporations who do it. However the hidden expense in terms of the environment, public health, employment, and subsidies mean that it’s something that the American public is paying dearly for. The cost of mountaintop removal mining is something that is literally and metaphorically killing us.

The sordid details involve deforestation to prepare the site. The ‘overburden’ – in this case a euphemism for the top 250 to 500 feet of a mountain – is then removed using dynamite to reveal the underlying coal seam. The rubble created as the mountaintop is blown away is generally pushed down the mountainside, covering flora and fauna, rivers and streams, and anything else in its wake. Once the coal has been removed the mining companies are supposed to restore the site, but this requirement is at best broadly interpreted, and at worse blatantly flouted with few repercussions.

Fifty percent of the electricity produced in the US comes from coal-powered plants, and thirty percent of the coal used comes from Appalachia. As a result, 500 majestic Appalachian mountains have been destroyed. The biggest perpetrator of this destruction is Massey Energy, who proudly proclaim on their website that their ‘vision’ is ‘to be the premier supplier of quality coal from Central Appalachia to worldwide markets.’

The physical removal of coal however, is only the first stage in a highly toxic chain of events. The coal then has to be prepared, a procedure that uses vast amounts of water to wash off the soil and rock. The byproduct of this is a filthy sludge, which contains all manner of heavy metals and other such carcinogens, that is stored in vast impoundments. These sludge ponds are generally lazily constructed using dirt that is blasted off the mountaintop to damn a valley below. For the most part, there’s no concrete or steel reinforcement as would befit dams built on such a scale. Because of this, many of these impoundments are leaking, and, furthermore, because these structures are not lined, the pollutants even in the sound dams leak into the surrounding water table.

The environmental impact of such mining practices is supposed to be mitigated by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, which in turn are supposed to be enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and, to some extent, the Army Corps of Engineers. But a Bush-era single word change to the Clean Water Act arrested its ability to control pollution, much to the delight of the polluters. Known as the Fill Rule, the definition of allowable fill material that could be dumped into lakes, rivers, and streams was essentially broadened to include all manner of waste. Thus, the Clean Water Act now serves as a license for big business to pollute.

Because of the intrinsically dirty nature of coal mining and the cozy relationship the industrialists have with those in power (George Bush famously called his election to office ‘a coal-fired victory’ because of the extent of the industry’s contributions to his cause), pollution is an inevitable part of the process and polluters are rarely brought to task. For example, according to Environmental Protection Agency records, Massey Energy committed over 60,000 violations between 2000 and 2006, but has paid a pittance in fines, which when compared to the company’s profits barely even register as a tickle on the wrist, never mind the slap they’re supposed to be.

In the lieu of the government acting in the interests of the people it’s supposed to represent, the battle for clean air and water, and sustainable energy and jobs is being fought on the ground by those Big Coal directly adversely effects. The struggle of one such community in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley, whose homes, land, health, and employment prospects have been blighted by Massey’s mountaintop removal mining operations, is documented in a new film, The Last Mountain.

A collaboration between filmmaker Bill Haney (whose previous credits include the Academy Award-shortlisted Price of Sugar) and renowned environmental lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., The Last Mountain should be mandatory viewing for anyone who’s ever switched on a light. The film not only tells the inspiring story of the grassroots fight against the Goliath that is Massey, but also underlines our implicit culpability, which can be summed up by one simple yet staggering statistic: sixteen pounds of coal is burned each day for every man woman and child in the US.

SuicideGirls participated in roundtables with Haney and Kennedy. The following is excerpted from the interview with Haney (our conversation with Kennedy is posted here).

Read our interview with Bill Haney on SuicideGirls.com.

The Last Mountain opens in Los Angeles* on Wednesday, June 15, and in Irvine, Pasadena, Philadelphia, San Francisco*, and Berkeley on Friday, June 17.

*Bill Haney and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will appear in person at the Landmark opening night screenings in Los Angeles and San Francisco – visit the Landmark website for more details.

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May 2011 16

by Aaron Colter

Don’t read this blog post. It’s not very good, and by the time you’re done, you’ll only wish you had spent that time looking up just about anything else on the internet. I heard this site has pictures of nice looking ladies without clothes on, maybe you should look at those instead.

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May 2011 09

by Damon Martin

Ever since taking over the House of Representatives with the last elections in 2010, the Republican party has been screaming to the proverbial heavens about reducing the national budget by cutting spending and unnecessary programs.

However the GOP seems hell bent on side-stepping issues like cutting the national defense budget or dealing with Social Security, and instead are concentrating on finding new ways to erode and destroy women’s rights – especially when it comes to abortion.

Seeking to advance their social agenda since taking over the House, Republicans have been targeting programs like Planned Parenthood for termination. Their latest such atrocity, is the passing of HR-3, also known as the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which was passed on May 4 by a vote of 251-175 (all Republicans and 16 Democrats voted for the bill).

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May 2011 04

by Shotgun Suicide

For nearly ten years, the citizens of America have been waiting to hear one short phrase: “Bin Laden is dead.” Americans have wanted this revenge since that awful September day that we’ll never forget. We may all have our differences, but one thing every American could agree on was that we needed to kill the man responsible for taking so many American lives that day.

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May 2011 02

By Blogbot

Since most of the wired world heard last night’s big news long before the President announced it – or the news networks reported it – it seems only fitting to recap in the words of those who encapsulated events as they unfolded in 140 characters or less….

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