A number of people recently died in the city of West, Texas when a fertilizer plant exploded. Most of the dead and injured were firefighters and other first responders. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has somewhat sanctimoniously asked for an apology from the newspaper the Sacramento Bee for publishing the cartoon shown below which he characterizes as tasteless:


My complaint with Gov. Perry is that he has been actively recruiting businesses and manufacturing to his state by trumpeting its lack of industrial and safety regulations. The fertilizer plant that exploded in West hadn't been inspected by the Texas agency charged with that responsibility since 2006. Had they bothered to make an inspection in the time leading up to the deadly explosion, they would have discovered the plant had failed to notify the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, as required, whenever they stored over 400 lbs of ammonium nitrate (that's the chemical in fertilizer that Tim McVeigh used in '95 to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City). The West plant had 270 TONS!!
Texas also lacks adequate zoning laws, which is why the explosion of the fertilizer plant also destroyed a nearby apartment complex, a middle school, and a nursing home.
So I question the validity of Gov. Perry's trying to make the cartoonist out to be a villain. Perry is the villain.

I got my information about this incident, by the way from a cite that I just discovered and that I recommend to you: it is the Pulitzer Prize winning cite ProPublica.org. Check it out when you get a chance. It is billed as journalism in the public interest.