Regarding the West, TX industrial incident (+): Texas Republicans are getting the society they voted for. All we hear about when it comes to any kind of regulation or enforcement of existing laws on businesses is "job-killing regulations". How about "life-saving regulations"? Or do they seriously prefer people-killing explosions to job-killing regulations?
(+) I am having a hard time calling it an accident, when it is so easily preventable.
There's a rant over the fold.
Warning, rant ahead: may not be coherent.
It boggles my mind that it is possible, in the United States of America, in the 21st century, to operate an industrial building without a sprinkler system. Maybe that's to be expected in the third world, but we can do better. There's a reason why the death toll in an earthquake in the US is much lower than in, say, Iran -- we have building codes, which are generally pretty well enforced (thank goodness there aren't any big earthquakes in Texas).
Yes, it is expensive to retrofit a hundred-year-old building to include sprinklers, but maybe the owner shouldn't be using that building for industrial purposes. "Oh noes, it's too expensive" say the business owners. How much were the lives of those volunteer firefighters worth? How much will it be to rebuild their kids' lives?
Heard on NPR last week: Construction Booming In Texas, But Many Workers Pay Dearly
Last month, Rick Perry told us why Texas is the best place to do business. Suck it, Rick Perry. You've created a third world state, right here in the USA.
Rant over. Please see this diary by DRo for a much less ranty version of what I'm trying to say.