Having An Ideological Axe To Grind Doesn't Mean You Have To Be An Idiot

Winds of Change noted the following:

I saw the news today about the deaths of three rescuers in the Utah coal mine, and after the initial burst of sorrow for them and their families I thought about the incredible sense of commitment miners must have to each other - much like soldiers, firefighters and LEO's. It's something that's there within our society, but is too often buried - our commitment to protect and rescue each other. I'd read about the instability in the mine - either seismic or due to roof failure, I certainly don't know - and I'd thought about the risks those teams of workers were taking for their colleagues who they may not have even known personally. I wish I'd been wrong about the risks they were taking...

My next thought was to wonder when the first article or blog post blaming this on Bush would come out...and I wish I'd been wrong about that as well...

At 10:50 this morning, let me bring you the Liberal Avenger:

Let’s keep in mind that this accident was completely preventable, but efforts to regulate mine safety in the wake of several mine tragedies in 2006 were derailed by corruption and an anti-regulatory mindset within the Republican party. President Bush signaled his unwillingness to regulate the coal mining industry when he appointed Richard Stickler as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety...

So in the wake of series of fatal mining disasters, the Bush administration decided to circumvent the nomination process in order to put a former mining executive in charge of enforcing mining regulations. Is anyone surprised by the result?

To which Winds of Change responded with the following graph:



Now, the point is pretty simple here. Whatever you do, never try to shoehorn every single situation that arises into your prejudices. The only people for whom the world works that way are crazy people or folks that have been lobotomized, and that isn't because they have reality nailed.

This doesn't mean you cannot have your own personal dispositions on matters, but you should always look at the available evidence before making a sweeping claim that is so demonstrably false that you cannot help but look like a fool. When it comes to the Bush administration it isn't as if there was some sort of dearth of things to castigate them for legitimately. However, supposedly rational people are so wedded to the "It's All Bush's Fault" storyline that they don't care what kind of moron it makes them out to be.