Posted on 07/30/2012 9:35:08 PM PDT by RedCell
Buckyballs, the three-year-old innovative toy company that makes magnetic desk toys for adults, is in the fight of its life. The Obama administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission has filed a lawsuit to stop the firm from selling its products and to issue a recall of its toys. Several retailers have yanked the magnets, despite the company’s clear warning that Buckyballs and Buckycubes are for adults — not children.
Buckyballs executives have taken to social media and radio airwaves to save the company.
It is up to is parents to ban small magnets from our homes when we have under threes loving there. This is what I did. I tell the older guys they can’t have magnets in the house for at least 2 years.
The entire obsession of this country with safety has become completely childish and foolish.
Life is inherently dangerous and can not be made safe.
If a company puts a clearly unsafe and hazardous product on the market there will be a army of lawyers standing line and wrestling each other to sue the company in to oblivion. .
The CPSC has outlived its usefulness. But then hasn’t most of the Federal Government.
Disappointingly, Amazon reaches the heights of hypocrisy by dropping Bucky Balls while continuing to carry similar small, sharp, easily swallowed magnetic thingies that look like glazier’s points as well as a number of other very similar items that would probably drive the CPSC Nazis to apoplexy. FIE on Amazon! Actually, double FIE on them! Those of you with access to Rush 24/7m be sure to listen to his July 30 interview with the Company’s founder and CEO
I forget to add “FU Bezos”
Well said. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING can be a choking hazard if it’s small enough. Thankfully, my kids weren’t obsessed with jamming things in their mouth other than food (although my son used to get a kick out of knocking my soda can over and watching me jump for the paper towels).
You gotta watch your kids like a hawk. Comes with the territory. I’m pretty sure that’s in the “How to be a Parent” handbook. I wonder if Amazon sells that?
So the Obama admin is just trying to keep us and our children safe?
What a laugh when this stupid ****** is the most dangerous thing America has ever seen.
Impeach him or vote him out but one way or another he has to go!
I actually found some of these bucky balls a while back when I was out cycling. I didn’t know what they were besides little magnetic balls. but they were kinda cool so I saved them in my toolbox, being a tool and die machinist I can sometimes find uses for such things. Now that I know they were meant for a desktoy I’m going to get them out and play around with them a little.
I give this the Simple Profundity Award of the day.
MM
We need a fundamental change in the way that the federal government operates. The consumer product safety commission was charged with going after companies that marketed products which had inherit dangers that were undisclosed. Wooden toys inset with shards of glass, plastic parts painted with lead paint, and axle screws that were incredibly sharp with wheels that fell off in seconds.
But like ANY government program, they quickly ran out of the obvious targets and HAVE to continue to find threats to justify their continued existence.
It's like the air quality management - you've improved the air! You've succeeded! Therefore you must move the goal post so you still have a job!
The thing is, the founding fathers knew this inherit difficulty. What was one of the biggest reasons for the constant and never ending rises in tax stamps in pre-revolutionary times? The rising costs of MANAGING the issuing of the tax stamps themselves. England wasn't picking up that much revenue compared to the lavish (for the times) lifestyle that colonial tax collectors were enjoying.
And let's be honest here - Buckyballs is a great target for the CPSC - you've got documented cases where 'children' have ingested the magnets, where the company KNOWS of the issue, and ALL CAPS WARNINGS are on products pages. There's GOTTA be some parents who are all ready to get teary eyed over paying medical bills for their children's STUPIDITY made even worse when they went online and saw that BIG LOUD WARNING not to stick them in their mouths, yet they STILL DID!
Forget about saving Buckyballs. Let's save the country and disband the CPSC, and every other government commission and board, fire every government drone who is just itching for the next company to destroy to justify their paycheck.
I hate to tell you, but these things do represent a frightening and insidious hazard. The magnets are extremely strong, and if two or more are ingested, they will inevitably clamp together across who knows what organic boundaries, and wreck havoc which can only be remedied by surgical intervention, if it’s detected in time. Spoken as a grandfather, maybe, but these are not your grandfather’s magnets.
Misuse of a product is not a reason to have it banned.
More kids die from choking on jawbreakers, popcorn and hot dog pieces every year, I’d bet.
Let’s ban them.
[I nearly choked on a Crunchberry when I was 5...ban cereal!]
My nephew had some of these, and it put me on edge just handling them. I kept saying, “Make sure you count them!” because you know, God forbid you should lose a couple of them. There’s like a hundred or so of them in a set. Whether they ban them or not, you’re out of your mind to let them into a household which ever entertains young children.
This govt under Obama’s “leadership” has turned into the biggest bunch of asshats we’ve ever seen. They all need to be shown the door and the American idiots who voted Obama in need to grow up.... A lot!!
I hope the Obama nightmare will educate a lot of people on how bad a terrible govt and a lousy, stupid president can be to freedom.
I hate to tell you, but these things do represent a frightening and insidious hazard.
* * *
I try not to be a nanny-stater ... but these small, powerful magnets are indeed a level above your average choking hazard because of the danger they pose. The problem, as Dr. Lew noted, is that if kids swallow two or more of these things, the magnets can clamp together inside the child, pinching various things together that should not be pinched, creating ruptures, tears, and places where gangrene can begin. The REAL problem is that unless you as a parent, grandparent, or caretaker have specifically been TOLD that this can happen, you might not know, and might not realize the danger even after some magnets have been ingested. I only found out about the danger myself when our kids were toddlers. I had no idea at all, until I read about it in a parenting magazine. The child does not have to choke — just swallow a couple of magnets. The danger is worse than many things categorized as poison.
Tell that to all the retarded engineers and tech nerds who love Obama
Thank you. Thank you.
I would most like to thank my parents who raised me in a simple frugal life style necessitated by a single income earned by my self educated father and my penny pinching mother.
Secondly I would thank my 7 sisters and brothers showered me with love and harassment. This toughened me up and taught me independence.
One thing that big families learn quickly is that you don’t need government you need family.
Started with Gibson Guitars.
I respect your opinion, but Life is an insidious hazard. I bet that nobody lives through it!
The fact is that children under three, and even some older children and adults, put things in their mouths. The way to combat this is to be a responsible person and child proof your house as much as you can.
What about Lego's. They are extremely hazardous and pose an extreme choking hazard. They are marketed to children ages four to adulthood. Many of these children have infant and toddler siblings. Should they be banned? Or should their parents train the older children to only play with the toys AWAY from the toddlers? They are certainly worse since a child dead from choking on LEGOS has NO surgical solution beyond embalming. At least with the consumption of these balls a potential life saving surgery can be performed.
Electricity is incredibly dangerous. Children, like pets are known to gnaw on wires with their little bitey teeth. Should people who procreate be banned from the grid as protection against the evil extension cord?
Cars may be the most dangerous mass marketed product of all. Tens of thousands of people including thousands of infants and toddlers are killed every years by these monsters, Perhaps they should be banned as well? These are part and parcel of the insanity of the all intrusive government. The toy is manufactured, marketed and intended FOR OLDER CHILDREN AND ADULTS. They are the ones responsible for the children, NOT the government.
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