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When President Obama says we will “avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism” I hear “We are not going to encourage the creation of any new American manufacturing or jobs”.

Maybe he *has* to say such things to keep the world economies stable. But the unhealthy thinness, the one-dimensionality of American economic infrastructure reserves, is one of the reasons we have proven so vulnerable to economic fluctuations. And there are other issues as well, as noted by H. Ross Perot:

Manufacturing is vitally important for this reason: without the ability to manufacture, the US cannot defend itself. Manufacturing is important because it provides the greatest number of high-paying US jobs. These are the types of jobs that US workers need if they are to buy a house, build a retirement nest egg, and create a better future for themselves.

Manufacturing is our history, it is in our very soul. Our country did not really begin to grow until we started manufacturing machines that made manufacturing machines. “Protectionist” or not, we need to bring manufacturing back to our country. To quote Perot again:

“We cannot defend this great country unless we can manufacture,” he said. “Can you imagine what would happen if we had to go to the rest of the world and ask for materials?”

Apparently it was circulated via email about a week ago; Ian forwarded me a copy and I parsed it into the database and updated the query page.

It’s messy data from a programmer’s standpoint, but I’d written an interface some time ago that not only eliminates most of the typing but enforces some consistency among things such as telephone numbers and bodybuilding class orders.

The smart thing to do to make this all a lot easier would be to have the promoters _themselves_ update their show information through a similar interface, as well as keeping their contact information and the list of venues current.

Once the data is clean, publishing via print/Web/PDF/whatever becomes cake.

So while my version is a little cleaner and, as mentioned before, *searchable*, it still must not be mistaken for the officially published schedule available on the NPC Florida Web site.

Yes, it’s an actual factual site update! Real new photos and everything!

The 2008 Armed Forces show is now up on the site.

Well you know how busy I’ve been, with the wedding coming up, the job situation, and everything else seemingly falling more and more behind.

But there’s hope yet. I’ve been sneaking in work on the site whenever I can fit it, and happy that I managed to finish a section that can be published. I’m not delighted with the quality of my work in this show– the auditorium has excellent lighting, but the banners tended to muck up the white balance, and as I recall the show was paced far faster than one that size needed to be. But there are a few nice shots in there.

Speaking of, word on the street is that the 2009 Florida NPC schedule is just days away from release. Afterward of course it’ll take me a bit to incorporate it into the LP database (thereby making it searchable).

All South is the last show I have for 2008, and no promises as to when it’ll be ready but it hopefully won’t take as long as this last one. I’ve also got updates for Toni‘s page, some new stock photos, a new page (shh! a secret for now), an update to Adrienne Ann Smith‘s page, and probably a half dozen more I don’t remember right now.

In addition, I’ve got a *ton* of cool stuff waiting to update the Six Flags Atlantis Memorial, so sometime very soon I’ve got to get that done.

So stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.

For the moment, I would assert that the appropriate response to anything House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposes is,

“But wait, isn’t your home state of California currently $42 billion dollars in debt?”

From the Heritage Foundation’s Web site:

The American economy does not rise and fall with the level of aggregate demand or deficit spending. Further, government cannot simply pump up total demand through deficit spending. The deficit for 2009 is already projected to exceed $1 trillion, so if deficit spending were effective, the economy

In short, deficit-financed government spending goes up and private spending goes down, changing the composition of demand but not the total.

should already be poised to take off.

Yet the economy is contracting despite these unprecedented deficits because government spending in excess of tax revenues will be financed by borrowing from the private sector, which deprives the private sector of a like amount of purchasing power. In short, deficit-financed government spending goes up and private spending goes down, changing the composition of demand but not the total.

Focusing on demand in this way is like focusing on the sound of one hand clapping. The other hand is supply, and that is where the economic action really is. There are normal processes that launch a recovery and drive an economy. These processes involve individuals and businesses responding to opportunities and incentives. When they respond, these individuals and businesses produce more goods and services valued in the marketplace, simultaneously increasing production, demand, and income. An effective stimulus policy recognizes these economic processes and seeks to accelerate them. Lower marginal tax rates stimulate the economy because they improve the incentives facing individuals and businesses to work, invest, take risks, and seize opportunities.

More…

Hmmm… Can I get *my* stimulus payment in Euros?

(p.s.: if you don’t get the title, say it out loud.)

After three good workouts in the gym, it seems (touch wood) that I am finally over this crud that has plagued me the last six weeks or so.

Hopefully I have reinforced the difference in my mind between “feeling better” and “feeling good”.

Also, the term “bitch slap” is fun to say but, really, the concept is ghastly.

Just because I was in a mood, I skimmed some of the recent (and not-so-recent) shots I’d been meaning to add to the Stock page and picked a few nice ones.

It also entailed making the navigation button smart enough to handle two digits– which took less that a minute to figure out and implement. Sometimes I think I’m getting the hang of this programming thing– though of course now I would (hopefully) never presume the single-digit restriction of scale in the first place. :)