I've been following ABC's on-going pieces on the subject with David Muir.

They have done things like going into "nice" neighborhoods and asking homeowners if they could have moving guys take everything out of their houses that was not made in America.

Most rooms are laid bare--sofas, wooden furniture, anything that uses a wall outlet, gone. Sometimes there's a carpet remaining, or an antique lamp.

They focused last night on the building trades. A company they interviewed is building houses with ALL American materials. Nails, screws, drywall, wiring, plumbing, fixtures, every scrap made in the US. The total extra cost is marginal. Some doemstic products are a bit cheaper (and still better) than their foreign (mostly Chinese) counterparts.

They couldn't find domestic J-bars (a pre-made J-shaped piece of re-bar), so they bought straight pieces and had a neighborhood metal shop bend them.

The main point is, if the trades increased their purchases of US-made products by 5%, it could create 225,000 jobs, now--right now!

Of course, I did notice that not one power hand-tool being used on-site was American---'cause there aren't any. They were using all Japanese brands (Makita, Hitachi), made in ...???? Bingo Chiner!

So, I'll try to be more mindful when I buy my supplies, but that means staying away from any and all home centers, Ace, Tru Value--any national chain. Their prices are Chinese- dependent in such a huge way. I guess making the time to discover the US mfgrs., then hunting down local reatilers is the issue.

No mention was made about from how far away in the US the products were trucked, so 'carbon footprint' didn't enter their equation. But, hey, ya gotta start somewhere.

Bob, I've been watching that as well since my evening news of choice is ABC.

It's been very eye-opening, but there have been times when I've fast-forwarded through it because of the reiteration. When they first started doing the series, they would have a feature each night. But on Tuesday, they re-showed much of Monday...to bring you up to speed. On Wednesday, they showed much of Monday and Tuesday's spot. On Thursday...well, you get the picture.

Informative, but they way they presented it just kept pissing me off!

Remind me to add that to the Pet Peeve posts. Even worse is a show where after every commercial break, they spend 4 out of the next 7 minutes or so replaying everything again. It's nothing more than a dirty, sneaky, cheap way to make a show. It's a lot cheaper to fill a show with old content than to pay a crew to get enough footage for a full program.

I'll mention it to both David AND Diane at our next pow wow lunch.

I agree, like, totally. It's that way with all news/entertainment news/trash news shows. Same with Discovery, Science, et al. Yeah, stretch that conent, baby! I especially like when I've just seen a dinosaur eating a tree, then, 4 minutes later, I see him again, eating what appears to be the same tree, only with the image reversed. They do that with talking heads, too. How stupid do they thimk we is?

Drives me nuts. They wouldn't be able to get away with it if they didn't have commercial breaks. Now they can easily make 20 minutes of content into a one hour "show".

And those commercials? Yup, made right here in the USA.

so that's why they advertise a show as being "all new"; I've always thought it was so stupid to say that, but now i know better. i've seen those "part new" shows only once or twice, and it bothered me so much i stopped watching after 30 mins or so. Big loss of time and frustrating.
but that doesn't bother the producers, as long as so many people watch the show, they're happy ($$$).

re. reversing images, what i see the most often is when you see the moon, whether in the movies or even on nature documentaries on tv, lit from the wrong direction.
like, a couple of days ago, during a night scene, we could see the moon lit from the top by the sun, when the sun should light the moon from the bottom.
or, what we see quite often is the moon rising from the west instead of from the east; same for the sun itself; they just run a piece of film backwards...
"no one will see it".

If somebody showed up at my door and asked me if movers could remove everything from my house that wasn't made in America, I'd shut the door, lock it, and call 911.

Haha, I would too, Brian! But I would get to keep my Axioms because I am a Proud Canadian!

They would have to remove the drivers though.