Open Threads

A friend from the finance world wrote in about the various comments on the death of US manufacturing:

Remarkably, US manufacturing dwarfs everyone (and this doesn’t include things like agriculture, movies, utilities, etc.., where we dwarf the world).

Non manufacturing = real estate (yes, non-manufacturing), arts and entertainment, retail trade, finance and insurance, utilities (these are in order of their size).

Basically, manufacturing we make what the next two combined make (the next two = china and japan). Check out this link, granted the data is from 2004 (it shows that the US manufacturing sector is about 60% larger than any other country’s — Japan is second).

Honestly, US manufacturing is a f-ing beast. It’s how we won WWII. Our non-manufacturing, with movies/tv/entertainment, finance, and agriculture is huge.

Also, our percentage of gdp that is manufacturing is about 14%. That’s the same as (drumroll please), India. Yes, India.

Now, could the US do more? Of course, but American mentality is not just to be “first”, but it’s to be so freakishly in first place that everyone else is in awe.

Reports of its death are greatly exaggeratedPost + Comments (85)

So we are having one of those great summer thunderstorms- the kind with the hot, damp wind and the rustling tree tops, complete with the strobe light lightning and rumbling thunder, and I decided to try and take some pictures and try to catch some lightning strikes. It turns out that I am a terribad photographer, and should probably stick to taking pictures of stationary obese cats. Every picture I took turned out like something out of Van Gogh’s Starry Night sans stars. Here is a sample:

It appears some camera basics are in order. I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-H10. What setting should I be using for this kind of shot?

Any tips or hints?

Camera Help, Ur Doin’ It Rong EditionPost + Comments (117)

Commenter deekaa6 on his experiences with Dr. George Tiller:

In 1994 my wife and I found out that she was pregnant. The pregnancy was difficult and unusually uncomfortable but her doctor repeatedly told her things were fine. Sometime early in the 8th month my wife, an RN who at the time was working in an infertility clinic asked the Dr. she was working for what he thought of her discomfort. He examined her and said that he couldn’t be certain but thought that she might be having twins. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to get a new sonogram that hopefully would confirm his thoughts. Two days later our joy was turned to unspeakable sadness when the new sonogram showed conjoined twins. Conjoined twins alone is not what was so difficult but the way they were joined meant that at best only one child would survive the surgery to separate them and the survivor would more than likely live a brief and painful life filled with surgery and organ transplants. We were advised that our options were to deliver into the world a child who’s life would be filled with horrible pain and suffering or fly out to Wichita Kansas and to terminate the pregnancy under the direction of Dr. George Tiller.

We made an informed decision to go to Kansas. One can only imagine the pain borne by a woman who happily carries a child for 8 months only to find out near the end of term that the children were not to be and that she had to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy and go against everything she had been taught to believe was right. This was what my wife had to do. Dr. Tiller is a true American hero. The nightmare of our decision and the aftermath was only made bearable by the warmth and compassion of Dr. Tiller and his remarkable staff. Dr. Tiller understood that this decision was the most difficult thing that a woman could ever decide and he took the time to educate us and guide us along with the other two couples who at the time were being forced to make the same decision after discovering that they too were carrying children impacted by horrible fetal anomalies. I could describe in great detail the procedures and the pain and suffering that everyone is subjected to in these situations. However, that is not the point of the post. We can all imagine that this is not something that we would wish on anyone. The point is that the pain and suffering were only mitigated by the compassion and competence of Dr. George Tiller and his staff. We are all diminished today for a host of reasons but most of all because a man of great compassion and courage has been lost to the world.

From the commentsPost + Comments (140)

I just got Chaplain Klingenschmitt’s Top Ten list of reasons Sotomayor won’t be confirmed via the Human Events mailing list. Here’s the number one reason:

1) SOTOMAYOR: BASEBALL BIAS FOR NEW YORK YANKEES!

As a native of South Bronx, Sotomayor’s hidden home-town bias became manifest in her love for the New York Yankees, judicially favoring her “Bronx Bombers” over teams from all other cities. No kidding! When ruling to end the 1995 baseball strike, she sided with the player’s union against team owners (who sought parity among all teams with an talent-sharing salary cap). Instead Sotomayor created bias in favor of rich teams who can afford to buy up all the good free agents. So when the New York Yankees hogged 4 titles and 6 pennants in the 8 years after her ruling, with payrolls averaging three times most other team salaries, you can blame Sotomayor for creating that competitive imbalance. I understand why Yankees fans might celebrate her promotion to the Supreme Court, but baseball fans from all other cities should complain loudly against her confirmation!

But George Will told me that revenue sharing was a communist plot.

(You can see the whole list here on some Paultard forum.)

Damn YankeesPost + Comments (55)

By request, an open thread for people to share book choices (and other things).

Another Open ThreadPost + Comments (263)