Open Thread
By bluegal Wednesday Aug 22, 2007 10:30pm
Time to get the kids ready for back-to-school with a bulletproof backpack. These are selling out. From Canada.com:
Just in time for the new academic year, Massachusetts-based MJ Safety Solutions has unveiled My Child's Pack, described on the company's website as the first "full size, lightweight ballistic protection backpack that is affordable and practical."
(h/t Threading Water)
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Wow, a sad statement about our society.
Atlanta tries to ban baggy pants. Iraq's government is a mess. The ADL flip-flops on the "question" of the Armenian Genocide.
Bullet proof nerds?
oooo- ooo I wanna Hello Kitty one of THOSE!
what if they get shot in the front?
I wonder if medical marijuana users ever got as little jail-time as Richie and Lohan.
Perhaps we should be sending those to Iraq.
I can envision the School Mottos of our future schools:
"Live in fear. Die on your knees."
Terrorism is no longer a good enough weapon. We need to raise a generation of frightened mallable people.
It looks large enough for a couple MRE's, a handgun, and a box or two of ammo....
Great for lunchroom shootouts!
...an excellent follow-up to the nucular drills we did in grade school... kinda anticlimactic, but niftier accessories...
Damn. Less nutty than those bulletproof textbooks, I suppose, but damn. That's some serious parental anxiety.
175 is not affordable.
I always got by with a thick book and zigzagging really fast.
plus the bullies will steal it from the weenie kid anyways.
"Why can't Johnny duck?"
My pack of zigzags in my shirt pocket saved me from a bullet in high school.
The "duck and cover" for the 2000's.
The majority of the time the kids are in school he/she will not be wearing the backpack as they will be sitting in class, at lunch or on the playground. Even if they happen to wearing the back pack what is the likelihood the shooter would aim for the back if the kid was wearing ANY backpack?
Does this manufacturer have close ties to the Bush/Cheney regime? Such are the sign of the times in the age of profiting from fear in the Bush era.
That's nothing, check out http://www.bulletproofbaby.net/home%20page.html.
AmeriKa the insane.
Ruthless People @ 18:
"My Child's Pack has been years the making, says Pelonzi, who came up with the concept along with co-founder Joe Curran. Both are firearms instructors and have children they intend to keep safe.
"'In 1999, after the Columbine incident, myself and my friend Joe wondered if there was anything out there to protect our kids in a school environment.'"
"...a school environment."
Military lingo at it's worst.
baby jesus thinks the silly humans might want to give those to the soldiers
that are led to slaughter and let natural selection protect the young
Guns don't kill kids. Kids kill kids.
You can have my gun when you pry it from my kid's cold dead hands.
Looks like the NRA will be lobbying congress to require armor-piercing bullets in the middle school cafeteria vending machines.
New! Flac Huggies. Keep your toddler safe from the gun-toting, dark-skinned toddlers with these new, form-fitting diapers. They have an elastic band around the legs for comfort, and to keep the pee from leaking out after they've been shot. But worry not. With new Flac Huggies ... the pee will be the worst of it. If you love America and Jesus and hate terrorists, you can't afford not to protect your little ones with new Flac Huggies!
Kyle @ 19:
thanks you Kyle. Wonderful!
Kyle @ 19:
"Doctor, my mother repeatedly put me in a stroller and let off a cartrige of ammo at me."
Hahaha! I just read this again....
"Just in time for the new academic year, Massachusetts-based MJ Safety Solutions has unveiled My Child’s Pack, described on the company’s website as the first “full size, lightweight ballistic protection backpack that is affordable and practical.”
Ballistic protection? Am I to take this to believe if Russia or China launched a nuclear ballistic missile at the US and it struck little Johnny in the backpack everything with 100 miles of impact would be destroyed but little Johnny will live another day to give teacher an apple?.....Even though teacher would now be a fried skeleton.
I think we really need a third party in this country!
BaScOmBe @ 27:
There already is one. It's called the Looney Left party. It will hand us our next republican president in 2008.
PurplePatriot @ 28:
Well, at least you're purple.
I just ordered my son one with a matching holster.
Awesome!
Ah, fearmongering. What better way to make saps part with $175 apiece inadequately protecting their children against becoming a 1-in-10,000,000+ statistic!
So, how long before someone decides to shoot one of these kids (or dares someone to shoot them) just to see if it works?
[...] H/T: bluegal of Crooks and Liars [...]
Has anyone else seen Death of a President? I watched it tonight and was a little disappointed. Gutsy, provocative premise ... but not as powerful as it could have been.
"Bullet proof baby bomb blankets are effective against most pipe bombs, hand grenade fragments and most fragmentation caused by pressure or electrical explosion. The underside of the blanket is lined with a soft fleece ensuring that your baby stays warm even whilst under heavy bombardment."
Best thing is your baby will survive you! If this were going on in my neighborhood i would contemplate moving.
xoites defends Constitution @ 29:
I think the Dems are trying to lose the election even after the repugs have chosen "none of these guys" as their candidate.
PurplePatriot @ 33:
Saw it and forgot it.
jxn @ 31:
Remember all the stories about how kids are getting whacked for their sneakers? How long before a story comes out that a kid was whacked for his bullet-proof backpack?
Or how long before a kid steals about 10 of them, tears them up and creates his own full-body super suit, then walks into his school and ... well, you know.
Maybe every child could have a minor barrier if our schools had enough money to fill those backpacks with textbooks. And you know...when someone shoots a child, he always goes for the backpack... People are messed up.
"Oh wait, crazed killer on a rampage - just let me get my backpack from behind my chair and get behind it. Make sure you shoot only at the backpack. Don't bother going for my head or anything. Or.. just let me know where you're going to aim and I'll be sure and hold the backpack there..."
What the fuck ELSE can dumbass rich people buy for their kids...
It just occured to me that the same people who would actually advocate buying these for kids, then giving them classes on how to use them to defend themselves are the same types of people who recoil in horror at the thought of giving teens condoms and educating them on safe sex.
xoites defends Constitution @ 36:
It was a crock of schitt, but a decent warning of the price of martyring boosh. imagine cheney as prez. scary!
A better british fantasy, IMHO, is Confederate States of America, also a british fantasy of america after the civil war. you can guess from the title who won.
[Deleted. Conspiracy theory. Knock it off or take it elsewhere. This will be your only warning.]
I guess it really depends on your school district, Ramadi, Mosul or Baghdad.
Scratch that, this is to protect your spawn from the evil "illegals" that Newt was talking about, all those non-existent massacres from machine gun wielding Mes-cans.
Oh, never mind, this is for 'Mur-kan wingnuts. By the many arms of Vishnu,this is depressing.
PurplePatriot @ 40:
BINGO!
PurplePatriot @ 28:
I'm a proud, card-carrying member of the looney left. You know, the looney left who thinks every American should have health care, and who thinks we should never have gotten into Iraq, and who thinks that "equality" means... you know.. like "equal" as in the constitution. And you know, I'm one of those moonbats who thinks that the constitution and the bill of rights should be obeyed, and that we're a country of laws, not of men. And forgodsakes, I'm one of those looney lefties who thinks that forced childbirth really sucks. God. I'm *really* out there....
Hype-Jersey @ 45:
Nothing you mentioned suggests looney left to me. The looney left are the ones who turn their noses up at the democratic nominee and vote third party over a singular principle, while the looney right wingers just hold their noses and vote republican anyway.
The looney right will not give us our next republican president. It will be the looney left who insist on exercising their right to waste their vote ... imho
All I can think of right now is David Bowie's song 'I'm afraid of Americans'
=my2c
BC
My kid's dad can kick your kid's dad's arse.
This is worse. WAY worse. Be sure to watch the video, which at least two people should 1) lose their kid, and 2) lose their freedom, for.
http://www.bulletproofbaby.net/
QuakerDave @ 49:
Beat you to it dude.
baby jesus likes the riot sheild
Bullet proof backpacks...this has to be one of the most
depressing things I've seen in awhile.
[Deleted. Good bye]
PurplePatriot @ 37:
Maybe we can get the federal government to buy the lot of them and send them off to Iraq.
Holmes suspects that the sudden ex rectum invocation pf Vietnam is purely based on numbers.
Goalpast shift. How can we possibly claim this war, so like
World War IIVietnam to take outOsama bin LadenSaddam HusseinThe Latest Number Two or Three in al Qaeda is a failure before thefive yearten year period is up?Kyle @ 19:
This was disturbing on any number of levels.
Tequila @ 7:
Don't get me started on those idiots. As a working class black male, if I had done the same things as those two, I'm sure I would get the same treatment as they did. Wouldn't I?? :-(
As for the backpacks, it's a sad sad day in our society. Especially since these things are selling out. I remember they tried this about 10-15 years ago with jackets.
The company selling them is in Worcester, Mass. Hope they didn't sub the production to China.
Check out the police plans to disrupt a peaceful protest in Quebec (Stop the SPP Summit)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7S1nHvvkzvA
and the police force admitting it
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname...
I remember when the most important thing you could bring to school was a Star Wars lunchbox.. with the matching thermos, of course.
Bush DID stay at a Holiday Inn Express!
http://pabloonpolitics.com/holidayinn.htm
Top 10 good things about marrying into the Bush family:
http://www.agweb.com/get_article.aspx?pageid=137637&src=agcmt
The GOP hypocrites of the week:
http://gophypocrites.com/2007/08/hyp07033.html
http://www.gunblast.com/Greg_FredThompson.htm
This is almost comical yet probably a huge number of dolts think exactly like the nutjob who wrote this.
Land of the free speech zones, and home of the 'fraid.
I'm betting the number of upper-back-shot killed students in the past 20 years is under 5.
Somebody knowledgeable please post a stat!
Zenrage @ 60:
I had a He-Man one.
Being a grade schooler in the 80s was so much better than today. All the kids nowadays get are these stupid bulletproof backpacks, I got to play with LOGO on an Apple ][.
RTLM @ 58:
You won't have to worry about your kid getting shot, because he'll die of lead poisoning long before the one in twelve gazillion chance of getting shot at school rolls around!
What are the chances of getting shot in school? What are the chances of getting hit by a car, shot at home, dying in an airplane accident, struck by lighting etc. etc.
With dumbf*ck parents like these, and with the right marketing, I see a booming market for uhm.. just about anything!
xoites defends Constitution @ 9:
Is this what all our "progress" has come to?
Overheard in a frightwinger household
" You ready for school Dumbya Jr ? Dont forget your kevlar backpack,AK 47,Tazer,mace,Life Alert necklace and Bible. Oh ya, dont forget your lunch too."
Aon213 @ 68:
My mind immediately thought of inventing new products. Not because I think they are needed, or a good idea, but I realized a long time ago, our only revenge is to get rich (a pet saying of mine when I feel a brat-- feel free to quote me). Selling this stuff to wingnuts is an honest route there. Then I'll spend my time and money helping people (instead of selling my labour); starting with the homeless.
Better suited for college maybe. VT could'a used them.
Wow,
Even our grade-schoolers will end up having better armor than our troops in Iraq.
That's nice.
...has taken a swan dive off the DoJ roof...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR200708...
Dahgrostab'ph-r-i @ 2:
Yah. All I can really do is let out a heavy sigh. What can I honestly say about it? The fact that anyone would consider it necessary, let alone to have them sell out so fast, says everything that needs said.
How sad.
As if kids don't naturally have some anxiety about going back to school, let's tell them they might have to avoid bullets too. Used to, it was just bullies you had to worry about.
PurplePatriot @ 46:
people have a right to vote their conscience. fuck any and ALL parties. they were Tories and Whigs once.
Tim in Japan @ 73:
THAT'S what pisses me off! and it's cheaper too!
pissed off patricia @ 76:
I'm only 24 (just turned on the 21st) and even I can say "Back in my day..." on this one.
Seriously, it wasn't until I was almost entirely through HS that we had Columbine. After that everything started to change. After I got out of HS, it seemed almost like there was a shooting every week.
I dunno, its scary stuff, and it makes me question "why" a great deal. It's just hard to understand it.
This is how we train our soldiers.
Drill sergeant faces 225 abuse charges
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070824/ap_on_re_us/marines_instructor_abuse
I assume these will be distributed in Iraq as well. Oh I'm sorry. I forgot. They don't count.
yogi-one @ 12:
Yeah, take out that old bag lunchroom cook that made that awful creamed chipped beef on toast, first!
mister mix @ 6:
Maybe they can duck down behind the backpack. If the kid is small enough, climb inside maybe?
Hi Everyone,
This is off topic:
This guy: bwellman@nacecare.com; from this company: www.nacecare.com / info@nacecare.com; has been forwarding right-wing propaganda emails since I’ve been working for the company I work for.
The final straw for me came when he forwarded this racist, xenophobic and lie-full email.
I wrote to him and his company about this filth and have received no reply.
Anybody got some time to tell them what you think?
Thanks,
Lynn
http://inciweb.org/incident/maps/full/770/0/
Awesome map of the (human-caused) Zaca fire destruction in California.
In this image, Santa Barbara and Ojai are below, and Mt. Piños ('Pine Mountain') is just to the right of the black semicircle. With 'moderate containment' at the Piños side, it looks like the mountain will be spared.
232,449 acres, the 2nd largest fire in CA history. The only thing one can hope is that the incense from so much pine and oak and sage will help purify the benighted cities to our east.
Off topic: Amanpour's documentaries were very eloquent in exposing the extremism of religion in all three major religions. The frenzied schizophrenia of the Israeli settlers is just the same as the suicide bombers of the Palestinians, who are defending their homes and land torn and plundered from them.The similarity between a Christian theocracy and the Taliban is scary and real. I'm sick of religion in this country; In Europe, secularism cohabits with prosperity; Here in this country religious fantaticism accompanies the loss of all our civil rights and our democracy, and the religious supreme court has hardly finished its agenda. The rabid zeal to ban gay marriage has also dragged the country down to the gutter, along with the implosion of our constitution. That's the self-destructive matter with Kansas. Determined to put religion over science, we have retreated back to the middle ages.
I already see kids in camo outfits, now they have these backpacks. When are we going to issue them little guns?
Maybe, just maybe, if guns weren't so easy for kids to get, we wouldn't have these problems. Maybe if dad's and mom's didn't have so many guns at home that would help too. And also maybe if kids lived in a different atmosphere, they wouldn't have the desire to kill each other. These are all just thoughts floating around in my mind as I wonder why bullet proof backpacks are a consideration for children.
Jeez, the worse that could happen to me when I went to school was a tittie-twister. Ahh, the good ol’ days.
You forgot the Anthrax-resistant Trapper Keeper...
Most students today are not allowed to bring their back packs to class with them, they must keep them in their lockers. How could this help you in class if it is in your locker?
When your computer screen is white, being it an empty Word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes, on average, 74 watts. When it is black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views. According to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.
In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called Blackle, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with lower energy consumption, check it out.
http://www.blackle.com/
Great idea. They should be ILLEGAL in states where the NRA has majority opinion.
I imagine these must be a huge hit with gangs members and drug dealers.
PurplePatriot @ 23:
Your snark is good. But be honest, have you ever heard of a black kid going into school and shooting everyone up? I haven't. I went to one of the worst schools in Chicago and I think I saw two fist-fights in the 3 years I was there.
Columbine and the rest were all done by disturbed white teens; VA of course was a disturbed Korean. My suggestion is to send the kids to safer inner city schools.
Just jumping in here.
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, this is the process of pursuing contempt charges of Gonzales (I'm not so mad at Leahy now):
the full Senate would have to approve. If it were approved, it would be referred to the U.S. attorney's office in the District of Columbia for possible criminal proceedings.
If a special prosecutor were requested, the decision would fall to U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, a Bush appointee and former law clerk to ultra-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Clement can delay a decision, reject the request, or pick a special counsel he can control.
The last tactic would be impeachment, but the DC establishment has already decided that it's too expensive, takes up too much time, is too divisive, blah, blah, blah.
This made news on North Carolina's TV news two weekends ago. I'm a bit surprised that this is an idea hatched in my native state of Massachusetts. But nutty ideas can come from anywhere. The inventor actually believes that kids have the time to put this backpack in front of their faces as an improbable double-fisted shooter enters their classroom.
A blogger needs a little moral support- >
oops- http://oldhacks.blogspot.com/2007/08/save-old-hack-extremely-personal-po...
fruit from the NRA tree
That's it!! I wanna move to Australia!
me_over_here @ 93:
When I brought that very point up to our marketing director he said, "What do the facts have to do with marketing fear to stupid white people?"
I have to admit, I couldn't argue with him.
I was informed by a friend poster that Karl Rove's citation of Napoleon is false.
"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy"
That is in fact a statement by a Prussian general, Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke.
Even Karl Rove's speech writers can get their shit together.
Would the bullet proofing make the backpacks X-ray proof?
I went to school with a Peanuts pencil box and Batman lunchbox.
In any schools where I've taught, it's now official policy that all backpacks and handbags must be left in the students' lockers. So, um, I guess if you come under fire, you better be fast with your combination.
Strangefate @ 103:
LOL! Reminds me of the clip on The Daily Show in which Jason Jones interviewed two politicians; one who wanted to provide every school teacher with a gun, and the other who thought that this was insane and instead wanted to give each student bullet-proof covers for their textbooks. It is just a matter of time.....
if this innovation is an indication of life in America maybe the best solution is to not bring anymore children into this fucked up world. how cruel and selfish to force a new person onto a toxic overheated planet where he has to wear Kevlar to survive going to school where he learns how to be a obedient little wage slaving consumer of useless crap.
shill @ 90:
Thanks shill. Google was my home page becasue it is calm and serene; nothing flashes, no ads, and I use it daily anyway. Now that you've turned me on to Blackle, it's my new home page. Great idea. Every bit helps. (How's the heat where you live? NO global warming you say..... ????)
me_over_here @ 93:
That's because black kids don't play *drumroll* video games!
the Iraqi National Oil Co. USE to run their own oil industry for their own country , however the criminal vultures determined another Council was needed , controlled by the US. and British Corporations . Tally Ho Blair when is the next BP board meeting, where you racist criminal pigs pretend Iraq is better off, when it's BP, & Blair, the racist capitalist pigs who are nothing more than criminals, stealing Iraq's resources , are BETTER off.
Here we go, ( all u have to do is Goggle Iraq, Oil laws ) to find out the New Federal Oil and Gas Council , created by bush's criminal regime, will consist of Chevron, Exxon Mobile and British Petroleum , on the Board of Directors , and oh a couple of Iraqis (well vetted) thrown on for show. The audacity of these criminals is astounding, because the New Hydro-Carbon Laws in Iraq, was originally WRITTEN IN ENGLISH , we'll I guess it's obvious, nobody in the Admn. speaks Arabic .
The Newly created by the U.S. council will is designed to have the final say , on contracts, prices, and will not guarantee IRAQIS will have preferential treatment for employment, which means , you can bet the farm, BP & others will bring in cheap Filipino Labor (which is already done in large numbers, working on the Embassy) to work in the oil industry.
Connect the dots - Iraqis layed off by thousands, creating more resistance, more anger, more outrage, more attacks.
According to Alternet.org. the current Iraqi Oil Council will have to compete with the new bush designed Council, head by rich powerful corporations from the U.S. & the UK.
ANY republican OR dem that supports this outrages criminal oil law drawn up by Cheney & the oil cartels , supports the occupation and the robbery of the Iraqi People .
mystic @ 85:
Nonsense, and check out what actually happened in Kansas -- the superstition-mongers lost out big.
When you speak of 'religion,' it is invalid to pretend that the majority of religious people are 'fanatics.' Most religious people are HUMBLE, so-called 'Salt of the Earth.' They are not the problem.
The Bible-thumpers have long been with us, and the racism and intolerance of the CULTURE is used by them to sell their books, and gather their political contributions. That has very little to do with the Christianity of Martin Luther King Jr., or Jimmy Carter.
And VOTE-FRAUD, not Christianity, is what foisted this illegal gov't on us.
bernarda @ 101:
And it wouldn't be Napoleon's watchwords, since he made his biggest successes by SURPRISING THE ENEMY with multiple lines of attack. It was the enemy's battle plan that didn't survive Napoleon's superior ability to hide his lines of attack. Once other commanders understood how Napoleon fought, his success rate went down precipitously.
Rove knows all this. They got a kick out of comparing Bush to Napoleon.
Kahoneez @ 108:
“The United States has no legitimate longterm policy of staying in Iraq.” — Presidential candidate John Kerry, first debate.
Bush has signed that language three times now, not that it matters. Democrats do not support the stealing of Iraq's resources, nor do we support the illegal invasion and its would-be permanent airbases.
These backpacks are another For Republicans Only product. They only protect you if you're running away.
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