West Virginia | A View from the Nest

A View from the Nest

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

Insight from the Journey across the Sky

Your rulers are rebels, friends with thieves. They all love bribes and run after gifts. They never defend orphans. They don’t notice the widows’ pleas. Isaiah 1:23 (GW)

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All the talk coming out of Washington DC lately is about regulation. The refrain is to regulate Wall Street to avoid future melt downs of the market. Well this week we find out that the regulators who were supposed to be watching over the financial markets were too busy watching PORN to be paying attention to their regulatory responsibilities. They were looking at peep shows rather than looking over financial reports. Granted financial statements can be rather dull but according to one report some of these SEC officials were getting paid quite handsomely to do this job. And you know what I did not hear one peep out of OBAMA or his clan to cap these top officials salaries. I wonder if they still have their jobs?

Seventeen of the employees were “at a senior level,” earning salaries of up to $222,418.

What did the White House propose instead? You guessed it more regulation and more responsibility for the SEC. I wonder who they are going to hire to see that the work gets done? Who is going to be watching the regulators? The truth of the matter is had Goldman Sachs been allowed to fail we would not even be having this discussion. We the people said “no to bailouts”, but the government decided to bail them out anyway, and from the sounds of the new regulatory bill they plan to do so into the far distant future.

A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away. So the wolf drags the sheep away and scatters the flock. The hired hand is concerned about what he’s going to get paid and not about the sheep. John 10:12-13 (GW)

The sound of the word REGULATION gives a sense of safety. It makes people think there are people paid to keep an eye on certain industries and practices to make sure they operate within the law. But it turns out that those who are paid to keep watch are watching something else. These are hired hands, employees paid to be there, they have no vested interest in the people nor the families they are supposed to be looking out for. They are merely getting paid to do a job and when something bad happens they are quick to push the blame elsewhere. They have no concern over the well being of someone living hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles away. The halls of the government are cold and hollow.

Take for example the recent WV mining accident to see how well Government Regulation worked out.

On April 5, 2010, the community of Montcoal, West Virginia was devastated when an explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine took the lives of 29 men. Not only does the tragedy of Upper Big Branch demonstrate the inadequacy of regulations alone to protect vulnerable workers and their families, it highlights the vital importance of our nation’s civil justice system as a means of compensating victims and punishing those whose reckless conduct harms others.

According to the New York Times, “the mine had been cited for hundreds of violations over the last year, including many serious ones.”

Why then, did the mine continue to operate?

In order to avoid steep fines and delay the need for compliance, the Massey Energy Company fostered bureaucratic gridlock by contesting most of the Upper Big Branch mine’s safety violations. While regulatory officials at the Mine Safety and Health Administration

(MSHA) waded through stacks of appeal documents, hamstrung by weaknesses in the 1977 Mine Safety Act, the mine continued to operate unimpeded.

The very nature of bureaucracy is to generate paperwork. Remember a government large enough to regulate even the very air we breath is too large to operate efficiently and timely in any matter. The best you can hope for from any government agency is they will get around to it eventually. Eventually was too late for 29 miners in West Virginia.

What’s more, the mining industry (as with many other regulated industries) has long had a revolving door between the regulators and the regulated. The ranks of the regulators are often filled with folks who come out of the mining industry. Likewise, the industry provides opportunities for advancement for regulators who decide to leave government service. This calls into question the zeal with which some regulators carry out their duties. Does a regulator really want to get tough on the company that might provide him with his next job?

In other words we have the fox watching the hen house, and to make matters worse, the companies hire back these “foxes” so they have an insider on the payroll. This is actually a good idea if you want to scam the system, which is exactly what happens where there is too much government regulation. Companies find ways around the regulations which then renders the regulations mute.

Of course, regulatory regimes do nothing to compensate the victims or their families for the damages they suffer in such catastrophes. The fines that errant corporations pay for violating government regulations go to government, not the victims of those violations.

This perhaps is the biggest reason the government loves regulation, they are the ones benefiting by enforcement of the regulations. But as you can see the regulations do not hinder the operations of those who are being regulated, regulation therefore becomes nothing more than another tax. It is a “pay to play” program set up by the government, with the pretense of actually being watchdogs. In reality all they are doing is designing rules by which the companies can operate legally, thereby putting a stamp of legitimacy upon an otherwise illegitimate operation. And to justify their existence they pass more and more regulations, which require more oversight, and the perpetual motion machine never stops.

Why then was there a financial crisis on Wall Street? Was it due to Goldman Sachs and others not being properly regulated? No it was because they “paid to play” and the regulators looked the other way. Through massive lobbying efforts and large campaign contributions, lawmakers can be bought and paid for. Companies find it is cheaper to pay off the regulators than to actually comply with the regulations. Therefore the regulators and the companies form an unholy alliance, whereby the government agrees that they meet all regulatory standards, and the company operates with the governments approval, until someone dies. Or the markets crash, or an airplane falls out of the sky, or you fill in the blank.

Therefore the fault lies right at the feet of the government regulatory system. The next time you hear another politician say there is not enough regulation remember the families of the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, government regulation did absolutely nothing for them. Nor will it. You can not sue the federal government even though that is exactly where the buck should stop. If the Mine Safety and Health administration was doing their job then Upper Big Branch mine would have been shut down until they were in compliance. Government regulation cost 29 men their lives. How safe do you feel now?

It is better to depend on the Lord than to trust mortals. It is better to depend on the Lord than to trust influential people. Psalms 118:8-9 (GW)

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Along for the journey

Negligence found at mine months before deadly blast; Inspectors noted ’reckless disregard’ for safety (bendbulletin.com)
INSIDE WASHINGTON: Safety Officials Ignore Backlog (abcnews.go.com)
A Tale of Two Coal Mines: How One Followed The Rules, And The Other One Didn’t. (crooksandliars.com)
Obama’s TARP Fund Benefits Deadbeats and Punishes Responsible Business (eagleviews.org)
Statutes of Liberty (eagleviews.org)
The Real Fat Cats Are Not on Wall Street (eagleviews.org)
No Boundaries (journeyacrossthesky.com)

A View from the Nest
Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor
Insight from the Journey across the Sky

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5,6

My work requires me to travel throughout Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. It is important that I get to my destinations on time every time. Therefore I invested in a GPS navigation system that I can take with me each day to make sure that I arrive on time. It has been over two years since I purchased this unit and it has pointed me in the right direction every time I called upon it. That was until this past Saturday.

Now to be fair I can not blame the unit for failing because it was working fine until the battery went dead. Even though I had the unit plugged into the cigarette lighter of the truck I was driving, I failed to notice that there was no power coming from that cigarette lighter outlet to keep the battery of the GPS unit charged. I am thankful that the battery lasted long enough to get me to my first destination at which time the CHARGE light came on and the unit shut down.

What was I going to do? How was I going to navigate from the first stop to the next stop? I had a general idea how to get to where I needed to go but I was not sure of the direction I was traveling and how to get from the first stop to the proper highway to head to the second. I had never been to the second location before so I was not sure I was going to be able to find the location without help from a map or the GPS unit which I have totally relied upon for two years.

It is amazing how dependent we become upon technology. The convenience these gadgets bring to our lives are both a blessing and a curse. I have never been known to be one who can not find my way around and it is difficult to get me lost but I have been lost on more than one occasion. It is not a problem if I am not pressed for time or being relied upon to be somewhere at a particular time and others are waiting on me. If I have all day to get somewhere then it is not as imperative that I stay on course.

Well I had to come up with a solution to my DEAD battery dilemma. It just so happened that I had another piece of technology with me on that trip, my cell phone. Being a SPRINT subscriber I had access to SPRINT NAVIGATION and I was happy to find out it worked. In fact it worked great. I was not sure it was going to work because I had all data and extra services deactivated on the phone because I only wanted it for making and receiving calls. My first thought was to call customer service and have the SPRINT navigation service activated so that I could use it to get to my second location. I called the customer service center only to find out it did not open until an hour past the time I needed to arrive at my next destination.

I simply prayed and tried the Sprint Navigation application that I had downloaded onto the phone 2 years prior and was pleasantly surprised to find it still worked. I programmed the unit for the address I needed to get to and it took me right to the location with little or no problems.

I was relieved to have had this back-up option. I really did not know what I would have done had I not had this option. This got me to thinking about other electronic devices that I own. Most I can live without’ but some I use regularly and would find life a little less convenient if they quit working. One of those devices is my computer. The computer has become such a huge part of my life and my work that it would be difficult to function without it. I use it to keep a journal, I use it for daily devotional work and study, I use it to compose letters and articles as well as maintaining this blog and others. I use it heavily for church work. And because I have used it so much I am always mindful of the need to back up often. It is only a matter of time before the computer will crash and data will be lost. If you do not maintain a backup of your work you are going to loose it.

When it comes to electronics it is wise to have a backup because all these gadgets will fail at one time or another as my GPS adventure demonstrated. Because I have been through computer crashes and dead cell phones I have learned how to deal with the eventuality of a malfunction. I have several copies of my most important files backed up and stored in several places. So far I have been able to recover from all major computer crashes without much difficulty. Although everyone who has ever had to undergo a restore knows it is not painless.

Having a backup plan for my GPS problem and having backup files for computer malfunctions is wise especially if those electronic devices are important in your day to day activities.

But what about your day to day life? Do you have an alternate plan for the times when things just do not go as you hoped or planned? I mean what do you do when you are faced with a loss? What do you do when you find yourself in a situation that you do not know how to handle? What do you do when you find yourself in a place that is uncomfortable and unfamiliar? What do you do when you find yourself at a loss for an answer to a problem, or faced with a life threatening circumstance? Do you have an emergency back up plan? What would you do? Who would you call? Where would you go for assistance?

In the world of electronics having a backup is not difficult. It certainly does require some forethought and will probably cost you some out of pocket expense but in the long run the little it costs is priceless to the piece of mind a back up plan provides.

When it comes to the matters of life however I fear that many people fail to plan for the eventuality of an unexpected disaster. They do not have a backup plan. They have no alternative to whatever life throws at them. Many live lives of quiet desperation, toughening it out without much hope of a solid solution. Apart from faith in God the world can be a heartless, cruel place. There are not many DO OVERS permitted in real life. IN fact most of us only get one chance to get it right.

There is hope however, there is a backup plan. There is a restore button you can press to get back up and running when life throws you a curve ball. There is a place you can go to get direction and navigational tips to get you back on course. That place is found in the LORD JESUS CHRIST. His word can provide comfort, hope, solace, joy, direction, instruction for daily living and even a do over when you find yourself gone astray. God’s love and forgiveness can restore a life that has crashed. His Holy Spirit can restore the broken hearted. God’s goodness can make up for life’s cruelties. He is life’s reset button.

However it is wise to not abuse God’s mercy by continuing to live recklessly. But if life throws you a curve ball and things seems to be spinning out of control, remember that He is as close as the whisper of His name.

Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord (Jesus) shall be saved, restored, and set on the right path once again. Thank God for back-ups! Thank God for a navigational tool that never fails however it does require to be recharged from time to time. By praying and reading God’s word you keep God’s internal guidance system running at full power. Failing to plug into the power source daily weakens the navigational power of God’s Holy spirit.

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)

Along for the journey