A Spork in the Drawer

Fun For Children Of All Ages

This is a two-fer: Instill fear into children and teach them to obey unquestioningly obey authority with the Playmobil Security Check Point!

As Threat Level mentions, the fun is in the customer reviews:

Missing an important item By Alexander E. Paulsen "AlexP" (Jacksonville, Fl United States)

This is great learning too for young brownshirts.
I am waiting for a few accessories though, kids size jackboots and a toy Taser. Think how much fun that will be for your young Martin Bormann types. I envision a low voltage say 5KV instead of 50kv to give a realistic but non-hazardous jolt.
Next we can have a nice Nerf Nightstick and little Heinrich can have great start getting ready for his future job with the TSA, local police force or the new STASI ( Secure Transportation And Safety Inititive)
Be the first on your block.
I also look forward to the upcoming Halliburton Play detention center real simulated barbed wire.

Needed the upgrade pack
By R. Dobson (UK)

At first it looked as though my Playmobil terrorist cell was going have trouble getting through this security system - no naked flames, sharp objects, guns or bombs. Then I bought the Tobacco Lobbyist upgrade pack which allowed cigarette lighters to be carried through so they simply torched the plane instead. Hours of fun for all the family.

I have other ideas!
By Shabazz Friendly "katoshabazz" (Portland, OR)

I think Playmobil is already working on this...an Abu Graib version that allows tykes to sodomize naked prisoners with blunt objects and stack them in human pyramids. Educational-icious!

And my favorite:

The traveler looks French By Sue Generous "reader_in_cahoots" (Seattle, WA)

The French are why we need security checkpoints in the first place.

Heckuva country we live in.

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On Learning From Experience

Or not:

"The President has made the right decisions for the right reasons and he always reflected the values of the American people," Cheney declared, "Would I support those same decisions today? You're damn right I would."

The crowd was adoring. There was a standing ovation as Cheney entered, and a woman shouting: "We Love You!" Attendees clamored for a good "Cheney shot," with one young conservative pumping his fist after catching an unobstructed wide lens take of the Vice President on his camera.

Here's an exclusive picture of Cheney addressing the CPAC rally:

Another nugget of wisdom from Dick:

"The freedoms we enjoy, the rights we exercise, all the privileges we have in this country - none of them can be taken for granted."

Do you detect a not-so-subtle threat in there?

[Via Think Progress.]

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ADDED: They're flippin' delusional:

Bush spoke to a boisterous crowd shortly after 7 a.m. EST. The ballroom erupted in cheers when someone shouted "Are there conservatives in the house?" When the president walked on stage, they clapped and chanted "Four more years! Four more years!" They cheered his comments on tax relief, the military buildup in Iraq, the Reagan years and his opposition to abortion. They booed when Bush said his critics want to expand the size and scope of the federal government.

Talk about a cult of personality.

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Distant Outposts

The face of America, remote and forbidding:

U.S. embassies are increasingly becoming like medieval fortresses -- remote, foreboding, impenetrable. Perched on suburban hilltops safely distant from more dangerous urban centers, they sit behind layers of high-security fences, reinforced concrete walls, thick glass windows and squads of armed guards.

Even our public face abroad is coming to resemble the BushCheney administration: Bunker-like and not to be questioned. We need only to look to Baghdad to see our attitude:

Three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.

The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

[...]

The 104-acre complex — the size of about 80 football fields — will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants. The average Baghdad home has electricity only four hours a day, according to Bowen's office.

Returning to the op-ed, this has real effects on how we're perceived:

Embassies have a second vital function: to disseminate American ideas and values. But what impressions of the American sense of self are created by garrison embassies? Far from suggesting confidence, good will, tolerance and democracy, high walls and wide moats suggest fear, discrimination and militarism.

This is exactly what the administration (and an unfortunately large number of Americans) want to project: Fear. Both domestically and internationally.

And this state of affairs will take years, probably decades, to fix. We will be dealing with the effects of the current administration long after they've been consigned to the dustbin of history.

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