American Made • Try America First

Got a better idea?

May 302010

Please add any ideas that you have to help America.
All ideas are welcome and anyone may comment and/or challenge on these pages.

Gulf of America

The experts don’t have the answers, because they’ve never considered the problem.

I believe the time has come to consider the bounty of the average American brain, i.e. regular people with reasonable ideas. This then is meant to be a place to propose those solutions, or partial solutions, or illusions of solutions that have been fogging around in your brain for at least a few weeks. Anyone can read and separate and mesh ideas however their creative abilities allow. In true grassroots think tank style, some ideas will be great, some will be repeats, others will stink, and a few will be flat out laughable.

So what.

Got a better idea? Well send it this-a-way.

↔

I’ll go first:

I think that BP, TransOcean and Haliburton should announce the joint funding of a 10 year $30 billion “Race to Lead” program. This will be used as support for the research of marine extraction science, and overseen by the National Science Foundation. All new patentable or profitable products or discoveries to be split 50/50 between the inventor and the National Science Foundation.

Think of it like a humbler version of JFK’s call to put a man on the moon by the end of a decade. Think of the almost immediate results of such a plan. America having kids thinking about science or engineering or geology or mining or chemistry or what have you, and realizing that they can find a future for themselves and their country simultaneously; while at the same time, the world benefits from the understandings and innovations that come from intensive study.

“But, but, 30 billion dollars would fill a great gulf’” you say.

Well, yes. It would.

I could remind you of the size of the ruined waters, instead, let’s look at the profits (not revenues) of BP. Last year, they posted a $14 billion profit. Just one billion of that going to the restoration of the world in a positive, desirable and publicly supported and adored manner is not a big price to pay. It isn’t even 1/10 of their profits.

The National Science Foundation’s proposed 2011 budget is about $7.5 billion, so this will be a huge boost for the future of exploration. Nothing is ever certain, but three billion from the parties each year for 10 years – on top of whatever other fees, fines or expenses related to the calamity are assessed – may bring those companies back from the public relations disaster Deepwater is and will remain.

Future Forward

Your thoughts…please ?

S Dakota - A Capitol Look

Dec 102009

Some of America’s most beautiful buildings are in its capital cities.
Try America First will look at all these buildings, and today we focus on South Dakota.

Why S. Dakota?
Why the heck not?

sd dome

Here we have a beautiful and history-filled building of interest to all – not just locals.

Sure, you probably go to SD to see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, or maybe Jewel Cave

or Badlands National Park. But when in the area, stop in to see their capitol building.

It is really a thing of beauty.

sd at Christmas

Mount Rushmore tidbit:
Did you know that the figure of Thomas Jefferson was started on Washington’s right? After 18 months of carving the figure of Jefferson had to be dynamited off the mountain and restarted on the left of Washington.

My Stars!

Nov 132009

When a foreign nation salutes America, we “dip” our flag in response, there is no other time that this is permitted.

In 1911, the US Army Infantry Drill Regulations began to require that the American flag never be “dipped” to any foreign power.

Although it is forbidden to deface the country’s symbol, gold fringe was first used on the American flag in 1835. The Air Force and Army use it for parades and display, while the Coast Guard, Marines and Navy do not.

Extended and informative flag postings and links can be found here, here, here and here.

The United States Flag Code unambiguously states that using the flag for advertising purposes is a violation, but the Supreme Court has ruled that such acts are protected by free speech.

So.

Here we show America’s previous flags. And under Our Little Store, we offer it for sale with the Supreme Court’s blessing.

This is the best book we’ve found on the subject:

The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord & Conflict

American Made - Weldon Pump

Nov 062009

Best Products in the World – and American Made

Weldon Pump

During the explosion of innovation fostered by WW II, a Cleveland company named Weldon Tool devised its first fuel pump.

Back then, Weldon Pump began with a brilliant pump design known as a cammed vane. The cammed vane is so clever, it has remained the unsurpassed high-pressure, low-volume pump for the worldwide Aerospace, Racing and Marine industries ever since.

Going on seven decades, Weldon Pumps are still made in America’s heartland by a company proud of its traditions and equal to its reputation, and Weldon Pumps and Weldon Racing Pumps are still considered the standard in the industries they serve.

Carl Bergstrom founded the Weldon Tool Company, his son Walter began the Weldon Pump division in 1942, and Walter’s children and grandchildren now keep to the quality of their heritage.