You're never to young to learn to stop terrorists

Don't just encourage kids to be first responders like Firemen and Police Officers. Now they can learn to stop crime before it happens with the Playmobile Security Checkpoint.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002CYTL2/ref%3Dnosim/eschaton-20/104-0037008-0756710

From the refernced page:which is quite the quandry for a parent of a 2.8 year old who views choking and terrorism with equal likelihood.

For the statistically minded, the FDA cites 17_000 choking injuries (not deaths) in US children for 1991 compared with a total of under 3000 deaths due to terrorism in 2001 of all of the US (the year of the 9/11 attack). Those who want to grovel the CDC data in great detail are welcome but be aware that this second report does not distinguish between choking and other suffocations. In short, played by the numbers you should be almost infinitely more concerned about your child choking than being a victim of terrorism.

Agreed, Playmobil has yet to come out with a choking remediation playset yet. But it should only be a matter of time.

And on an un-related note: if you aren't getting laid for a few weeks as a result of accident of geography, is that also your fault? (cf. my signature).

and an 'omg', to boot - back after 'iraq pt.II - attack of the clones' came out in spring '03, and just in time for the xmas season, i was browsing the toy aisles at the local 'big lots' (my substitute in lieu of my strict walmart avoidance - and there was a new, cheapie 'action figure' set called something like 'WORLD PEACE ENFORCEMENT TROOPS', just -loaded- with little guns, toy hummers and jeeps with attached weaponry... 'world peace enforcement', indeed!! (and ironically, -all- these 'action figures' had protection/bodyarmor on!! nyak - now -that's- make-believe, huh??)

and i do believe there was only -one- 'medic' guy with one little first-aid kit box that i don't even think opened up (maybe there wasn't even one; been awhile and i can't remember). looking at the whole set, you could just see the toy co's prod.dev team going, 'oh, hell, only the pansy kids are gonna play with -that- figurine'...



yes yes yes... too, too true... last night i had cnn on with the sound turned down, and looked up to see in big, bold letters underneath the talking head above, "NEW THREAT ALERT" - almost seemed to conoctate that newer, more innovative ways to die were being invented at such a rapid pace... (hummmm, and gee, i thought 'sanctioned military interrogation techniques' were the only place that happened...)

i'm beginning to think - no, wait, lol, i started thinking it a looong time ago - that 24-hr news channels are a baaad idea. they're just so desperate to fill the air with something to 'grab attention', but instead, they act like passive-aggressive bullies, with all this 'find me a new threat' kinda b.s.



nyak!! i like it - i say, go ahead and use it!!

Geez you guys love making something out of nothing.


I used to fly all the time time, sometimes twice a day each week day for weeks on end. I know that a lot of parents who travel buy planes etc for their children so they can play airport at home. Also before you take a child on a trip it might be nice to let them play with something like this so they don't freak out when Mommy forgets to take her Blackberry off and gets pulled out of line.


Everything isn't so sinister.


Also I can name 5 schools of the top of my head in the US that have bag scanners and metal detectors with Cops at the front door everyday. One persons airport experience is some inner city kids daily reality.

In the same vein,

I have tons of Playmobile stuff at my house (suitcases full!) and this is just the latest in a long line of police and emergency figures that is very popular with kids (and me!).

You can buy the station house, the cars, the ambulance workers etc. It's a large line of toys that this is just one small example of. Maybe it's an example of an unhealthy facination with authority figures today, but it's hardly new or unusual.

I agree. I guess some are forgetting that there were security checkpoints long before 9/11. *shrug*

... like the way my daughter and I --- often at my instigation --- talk about the possibility of the avian flu (or something similar) (or worse: airborne Ebola Marburg, anyone?) wiping out so many millions of us. Or even the earth being hit by an asteroid the size of Norway. Or, for more likely possibility-mongering, how either or both of us could die (or be horribly disfigured and/or incapacitated) in a motorcrash.

As the old tale goes:

Death sits ever on my shoulder and says "Live, for I am coming."






Aw, Mal! Hon, of COURSE it's not your fault. We can't always arrange the world in ways that would best --- ook! Pardon me? My sweetheart's at the door ...

Part of it points to the imagination. There used to be Lego bits I called "rare tads" that were translucent and used as lights on police cars. Well, I turned them into a long, focused, supercannon. I forget the name but it had me going at the time. I had one of those YUGE gray baseplates and I modelled myself after Ben from Short Circuit.

While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?

You ROCK.

Behind, actually, not on- And it's the left one.

I *know* where my Death resideth, shoulderwise.

Your Death May Vary.

Perhaps there can be a leggo version of the Heimlisch Maneuver--"My First Red Cross First Aid Class" with tiny recus-a-Annies. "Annie, are you, OK?"

http://www.metrokc.gov/health/foodsfty/images/choking2.gif

(On a side note, why do I find this graphic oddly alluring?)

This thread reminds me of a year ago, April, when I was walking from with my friend to Rite Aid. Easter shopping season (Easter is the FUGLIEST holiday there is, btw). There was this peacenik standing out front holding a couple of the shrink-wrapped Easter baskets that they sell in the store, and he's holding them up to each passerby and motioning wildly. My friend and I exchanged the apropos glance of the contemporary cynic which can be translated as silent sarcastic comments like "Great," "I love crazy people," or "She is teh sexxay; dibs on licking the lesion covered fat rolls."

"Look what they're selling in there!" He exclaims to us, wild-eyed.

Inside the pastel wicker baskets, nestled in beds of easter-colored curls snipped from the pubic mound of the great plastic rabbit in the sky, were plastic guns, toy soldiers, and fake plastic handcuffs.

"So?" I reply, casually disaffected.

That was the worst thing I could have possibly said to the guy.

"So? What do you mean 'SO'?!"

Later, upon exiting the store he glowered at us but waited until we were about 50 feet away before gathering the courage to bellow, "Hey guys, there's an army recruitment center down the block!"

"So?" I replied, tiredly.

"If you guys think this is okay, then I thought maybe you'd wanna enlist."

"That's silly, why would we want to go to war?"

:hakes head::

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Just where do you find this stuff, Neehai? Or better yet, where do you find the time to find this stuff?

*blush*

I didn't think it was sinister. Just funny and interesting. Perhaps a natural progression from the toys i played with as a child.


If you only knew. That little secret is quite sinister.

That Playmobil set is missing a few things. The dude with the wand is packing heat (a nice touch), but I don't see a thick rubber hose anywhere. Having just a gun is not enough. How are the younguns gonna sweat info from suspects without a melee tool? Whacking a suspect is also a good workout for a sedentary checkpoint guard.

The other obivious omissions are surgical mittens (they don't have fingers) and lube for cavity searches. With those hands, any sort of search is gonna hurt like hell.